Bitterwood (Bitterwood Trilogy) [Kindle Edition]

James Maxey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In the distant future—year 1070 of the Dragon Age, to be exact—Earth has been commandeered by dragons, who subject their human inferiors to lives of misery and squalor, either as slaves or pets. Human Bant Bitterwood, consumed with thoughts of vengeance against the dragons he believes murdered his family, goes on a dragon-killing spree that makes him a folk hero among the oppressed human populace. When Bitterwood slays the dragons' crown prince, Bodiel, their king vows to exterminate humankind—the only way he can be certain of victory over Bitterwood. To that end, the king enlists his murderous brother Blasphiel to build a city that will serve as humanity's abattoir. Maxey's world is stunningly imaginative, a landscape both familiar and alien, and packed with thoughtful treats for readers. Skillfully examining themes of faith, martyrdom and heroism, Maxey maintains an unflagging believability even while borrowing some of the most generic elements from science fiction and fantasy. The dragons are wonderfully written, as is the tormented hero; it is almost a shame that the story is so self-contained, as many readers will pine for a whole series of Dragon Age titles. (July)
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Product Description

Dragons rule the world, united under the powerful dragon king Albekizan. Humans have been subdued for centuries, existing only as slaves, pets, and prey. Yet one man, the mysterious Bitterwood, strikes at dragons from the shadows, fighting a long, lonely war of resistance. When Bitterwood is blamed for the death of Albekizan’s beloved son, Bodiel, the king launches a full scale campaign to rid the world of the legendary dragon-slayer—even if he must kill all of mankind to do so.

Bitterwood, Kindle Edition, has been revised and updated from the original paperback release.

“For the sake of humanity, join in Bitterwood’s revolt.” – Kirkus Reviews

“A grabber from page one, a smart tale of adventure and revenge sprinkled with echoes of our own dangerous times. James Maxey’s world of dragons and humans at war is so solidly and engagingly rendered that I never wanted to leave.” – John Marco

“Bitterwood is an unlikely hero in a rich world, with a rich history that holds many surprises. James Maxey tells his story with a sure hand. Enjoy the journey!” – Carrie Vaughn

"Fine action and cool world building. Anne McCaffrey through a mirror darkly." – E. E. Knight

“A magnificent hero story.” – Orson Scott Card

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 572 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003XKNWRC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,478 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

I started writing my first novel when I was seven. It was about pirates and ghosts. I got to 100 words before I reached my first case of writer's block.

When I was ten or eleven, I dictated a story called "The Invincibles meet Santa Claus" into a cassette recorder. It was about a group of superheroes called the Invicibles. Members of the group included Monkey-Man, the White Tornado, the Sunshine Kid, and Sonic Boom. They met, and fought, Santa Claus. I think they mistook him for a burgler or something. Motives leading characters into violent confrontations weren't particularly important to me back then.

Something that was particularly important to me back then was discovering that my Mom took the tape to Roses for her coworkers to hear and it wound up getting played over the intercom for the whole store. I was mortified! It brought a swift end to my tinkering with audio books.

I kept writing stories, mainly about superheroes, through high school. In college, however, I tossed aside such foolish pursuits and dedicated myself to a life of pure poetry. Man, after sweating over short stories for days and weeks, poems were great! I could knock out three or four in an hour! Boom! Boom! Boom! I was a poet!

And so I remained until I turned 25. I hated my day job, and my total income from 7 years of cranking out poetry was roughly $25. The plain path forward was to switch to prose. Bang out a novel over the weekend, polish it up in the evenings the following week, and have it in the mail by Friday. The book was to be called "A Distant Invisible Ocean."

Things didn't go as planned. The weekend turned into two long years of sweating blood as I stared at the screen of my word processor trying to figure out what happened next. I'd read that a novel should be 60,000 words long, and my original storyline, about a homeless man who is secretly wise and wonderful and knows all the secrets of existence, kind of fizzled out after about 10,000 words. I was impeded a bit by my lack of knowledge of the secrets of existence. But, the homeless man (his name was Union Whitmore, based off a highway exit sign in South Carolina) had picked up a girlfriend in the course of the story, so I decided that I would throw a serial killer into the plot. He would kidnap the girlfriend, Union would have to elude police who thought he was responsible, find the serial killer, and then, in the plot twist that would prove I was a serious author and not some mass market hack, he would fail, and the killer would succeed. So, I tacked this plot onto the first 10,000 words and wound up with 40,000 words. Hmmm. 20,000 to go. But I'd been working on this for over 18 months. I hated every character in the book. So, for the last 20,000 words, I killed them. Just jumped around in time, and showed some of them dying of heart attacks, others dying quietly in bed in their old age, others going quickly in an auto accident. The serial killer dies when he meets another serial killer who specializes in killing serial killers. When I hit 60k words, I wrote "The End," and that was that! I was a novelist! I showed the manuscript to friends and most confirmed that I had, in fact, written a book. Luckily, I had one bastard among the group, a guy named Ken Ward, who read the book and wrote up a critique that said, "This reads like a novel that was written by someone who's never read a novel."

Of course, I read novels all the time. I had tried to write something completely unlike anything I'd ever read. But, it dawned on me that maybe there was a reason that most books had linear plots and likable characters and didn't pause for fifty page speeches where a character explains their world view. (I'd made the mistake of reading Atlas Shrugged just before starting.)

Sitting "A Distant, Invisible Ocean" aside, I started writing a science fiction novel about a teenage genius who genetically engineers dragons in the lab at college. The novel was called "Dragons." It was fairly dreadful, with implausibility heaped upon implausibility. On the other hand, the book had a recognizable beginning, middle, and end. It was readable, though a long way from publishable.

On to book three. I decided I'd look at the world a thousand years into the future, after the genetically engineered dragons had taken over. This became my novel Bitterwood. When I finished Bitterwood, I was a little surprised. The book was actually, kinda, sorta, maybe pretty good. Maybe worth trying to publish. But, I felt like, before I sent the book to publishers, I needed some other writing credits. Whip out a few short stories, sell them to Asimov's, then include those sales in the cover letter for the novel.

I'll spare you the blow by blow narrative, but when I finished my first draft of Bitterwood, I was barely thirty. When the book finally hit bookstores, I was 43. In the intervening years, I wrote about 75 short stories and wound up with a fair number of them getting published. I'd also reverted to my high school prose roots and written a story about superheroes, which went on to become my first published novel, Nobody Gets the Girl.

I continue to write stories that the kid I was in high school would enjoy. Back then, I loved stories where superpowered men slug it out with other superpowered men with the fate of the whole world at stake. The secret that I hadn't quite figured out when I was 25 was that the magic key to good writing is to write what you'd most want to read.

My four novels to date, Nobody Gets the Girl, Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed are all heavy on adventure and feature larger than life characters struggling to protect the world from dark forces. Unlike the stories I wrote as a teenager, I'm writing as an adult who actually understands a thing or two about life. The world's problems are rarely solved by finding the right person to sock in the jaw.

I have more books coming soon! 2011 is probably going to be a gap year in my US writing biography (though I have translations coming out in France and Germany), but I do have more books written and in the hands of publishers. Contracts are being negotiated, and you'll definitely see new books from me in 2012. Watch this space.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best New Fantasy Novels of the Year, June 25, 2007

By 

SciFiChick "The SciFiChick" (Fishers, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bitterwood (Dragon Age) (Mass Market Paperback)

In a land where dragons rule, and humans are treated merely as slaves and pets, there seems to be little hope. But after his family is taken from him, Bitterwood sets out on a quest for vengeance against the ruthless dragons. And humanity looks to the legendary dragon hunter to set them free.

Bitterwood is one of the most original and exciting fantasy novels that I've read in years. The characters of Bitterwood and the dragon Vendevorex are shrouded in mystery, their stories slowly unfolding through flashbacks over the course of the novel. There are a good number of dragon characters in the story, which are just as well-developed with distinct personalities as the humans. With a large cast of unique characters, the index of characters in the back of the book comes in handy at times.

The imagery and descriptions of this fantasy world is amazingly vivid and creative. And the story of Bitterwood is epic and thought provoking. Full of adventure, mystery, action, this is one story that should appease any fantasy and adventure fan. Maxey is one of the most talented writers that I've come across lately, and I'll definitely be following his progress and looking forward to new releases.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maxey-mum enjoyment, August 17, 2008

By 

ostawookiee "ostawookiee" (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bitterwood (Dragon Age) (Mass Market Paperback)

James Maxey has really impressed me with his first two novels. Bitterwood stands out as one of those rare fantasy novels that you can enjoy in one book. There's a sequel, but Bitterwood can stand on it's own.

The story is really fun - an earth that has returned to a medieval era; a man whose family is lost to dragons; he vows to destroy dragons wherever possible, aided by fortunate trivial assistance from outside observers. Maxey does a good job of anthropomorphizing dragons, and making the dragon-human culture believable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book, August 14, 2008

By 

Rob (Derry, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bitterwood (Dragon Age) (Mass Market Paperback)

I don't usually review products, but after seeing that Bitterwood only has 11 Amazon reviews, I thought I would chime in and give it some support.

Bitterwood is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and offers a great combination of interesting characters, exciting action, and a fascinating world to discover. The book offers new twists on familiar ideas, which I think is what makes it such a great read. Is it literally perfect? Maybe not, but it has a level of creativity that few books can match.

If you like science fiction and/or fantasy, you really should give Bitterwood a try!