Adamantine Palace [Import] [Hardcover]

Stephen Deas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2009

The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemicly was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat. And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But uknown to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose, unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its full fury, could spell disaster for the Empire. But because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons ...Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fuelled fantasy laced with irony, a razor sharp way with characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deas's dragon-riding fantasy debut lumbers along as sinister Prince Jehal, called the Viper, connives, seduces, poisons, and murders his way to the throne of the Kingdom of the Endless Sea. The story only leaves well-trodden fictional ground when unique white dragon Snow begins to communicate telepathically with her handler, Kailin. Neither cuddly or companionable, dragons in this world are violent fire-breathers who have been tranquilized by alchemists and forced to serve aristocrats for war and hunting. Snow's dreams of freedom ignite her urge to incinerate humans and all their works, and she brings other dragons into her quest to destroy the alchemists forever. Played off against villainous Jehal and repetitive palace intrigues, Deas's dragons provide fitful shuddery glimpses into alien minds, a few brief fireworks in an otherwise commonplace performance. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Fantasy readers can be a bit, well, snooty about how they take their dragons (fans are rarely ambivalent about the works of George R. R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, and Naomi Novik, for instance), and Stephen Deas takes a chance by making those most misunderstood of fantasy elements the focus of his debut novel. Although Deas gives his imagination free rein in The Adamantine Palace and his short chapters (70 in a relatively brief book) keep things moving, critics call into question his world-building skills, as well as the SF/F penchant these days for trilogies, which only guarantees that nothing much will get resolved in the first installment. Still, there’s enough here to whet a fantasy reader’s appetite (the sequel, King of the Crags, is due in 2010), and we hope that experience will only make Deas stronger.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; UK Edition edition (March 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575083743
• ISBN-13: 978-0575083745
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,482,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy at a breakneck pace, June 16, 2009

By 

J. Shurin "carnivore" (London) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adamantine Palace (Hardcover)

The world of the Palace is one filled with violence and tension. The land is split into huge swathes - the 'Sea of Salt' desert, the 'Sea of Storms' ocean and craggy mountains left, right and center. The people are equally violent and tense. A peculiar sort of armistice has been in place since the Dragons ruled the world - nine kings and queens glare at one another icily with an elected 'Speaker' binding them together.


The Dragons themselves are still flapping about merrily. Once they were terrifying menaces, now they are semi-domesticated beasts of burden for the upper classes. Drugged from birth by a secretive guild of Alchemists, the Dragons are the ultimate in currency - giant fanged status symbols for the privileged few.


. Unfortunately, in fantasy, it is easy for authors to see world building and character development as an either/or relationship - generally ignoring the need for character development in favor of nifty ideas (often with fangs and/or magic swords). In the unique case of The Adamantine Palace, we're spared detailed world-building (or, in fact, any detail at all) - but Deas also, unfortunately, skips out on the character development.

The ensemble cast (still very trendy - thank you, George RR Martin & The Wire), is simply paper-thin. There are a few recognizable stereotypes (the ugly daughter who likes Dragons more than other people is particularly painful) and a half-dozen utterly unformed concepts. The political arena swarms with amorphous characters with shifting, uninteresting motivations.

Does anyone actually have any sort of motivation? Certainly, everyone wants to be Speaker - but that seems to be an entirely meaningless goal as we never actually learn why it is important. People are chasing after a McGuffin because it makes the book progress, but they're not doing so in a way that rewards the reader for coming with them. There are plots within plots, but they seem to exist only as a means to a means - nothing actually develops to an understandable conclusion.

As far as the larger plot, The Adamantine Palace is a version of 'while the humans squabble, the Big Bad Cometh...'. While Prince Viper and the Queen Mother and Speaker Shaky all stab one another in the back (for no discernable reason), the Dragons are making a comeback. Just a single Dragon causes a bit of havoc in The Adamantine Palace - the sequel, invariably, will have armies of engorged, blood-drinking beasties. One can only hope that a hero arises in an unlikely place...

Also looming in the background, there's a group of derty ferrin tradesmen that swap sinister-over-technological-goods and back-alley-drugs with the sneakier nobles, trying to get their paws on a Dragon. That's undoubtedly going to end well.

In the author's favor, this is, without a doubt, the fast-paced book that the reviews say it is. It, in fact, travels at something of a breakneck pace. Stephen Deas' commitment to telling a good story is laudable - it is hard not to appreciate the many individual twists and turns, even if they seem to be for naught. Similarly praiseworthy is the aggressive abandonment of traditional world-building. A strong fantasy story should take place in an environment detailed by the characters and their actions. In this case, unfortunately, we only get the actions. Without understanding (or caring) more about the characters, it is impossible to understand how the pieces fit together - or what value they have.

It is ok to make the book purely about telling a good story -but it needs to be a good story to pull it off. The Adamantine Palace becomes too bogged down in the 'hows' and 'whats' to ever explain the 'whos' and the 'whys'.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent debut, May 16, 2010

By 

C. Bathon (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Adamantine Palace (MEMORY OF FLAMES) (Hardcover)

I started The Adamantine Palace with high expectations, having read several positive reviews. For the most part I enjoyed it, but overall I was disappointed. The book was solid, but didn't blow me away. My biggest gripe was character development. For the most part the characters were a bit hollow. I think Deas painted himself into a corner somewhere between GRR Martin, with many well-developed characters, and a more traditional protagonist-centered novel. I found myself not really caring about any of the characters. The same goes for the dragons.

Overall, solid, enjoyable, but not really memorable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, May 3, 2009

By 

E. Sfetsos "Reviews by Yolanda..." (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adamantine Palace (Hardcover)

This is the first book I've read by Stephen Deas, and it won't be the last.

Firstly, I have to say that I love dragons, so reading a book where dragons are the core of the realms, had me hooked pretty early on. The prologue of this very exciting book shocked me so much that it propelled me deeper into the story right away.

In a world where dragons exist and are bred and looked after by the Scales, and then ridden by dragon-knights, queens, kings, princes, and princesses, they are also used to do the bidding of these riders. No dragon is supposed to do anything on its own accord, not since the alchemists made sure of that by creating a potion. That is, until a white dragon called Snow - intended as a wedding present for Prince Jehal - goes missing and begins to awaken. After that, she's willing to do whatever it takes to find those responsible for keeping her kind under the 'Little Ones' control, as well as free other dragons along the way.

Every scene in this exhilarating book is heightened with tension. The suspense kept me guessing as each character's personal motivation started to shine through, only to be turned on its head as soon as I was sure where the story was going to take me. I loved the unpredictability of each character's next move.

I was enthralled from the first page and couldn't wait to reach what turned out to be a very exciting conclusion to a fantastic book. The world building was tight and amazing! The scenery described so flawlessly that I was swept away to these exotic locations.

The Adamantine Palace is a sharp, fast and well-written tale filled with an intriguing secret, treachery, betrayal, ambition, double crossing, and adventure. There are several POVs in this story - ranging from the wicked Prince Jehal, to the scheming Queen Shezira, to the aging Speaker Hyram, as well as the sell-sword Kemir, amongst others. And I found that the quick chapters and shifts in point of view kept me on my toes, and turning every page with interest.

This book will appeal to fantasy fans, dragon fans, as well as anyone who enjoys a very skillfully weaved story that takes you on a very twisted path that doesn't let up until the very last words. And even those last words are good ones.