Customer Reviews

Dragon Wytch (Sisters of the Moon)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

with the three previous books being: Witchling, Changeling & Darkling; I was afraid that this book would be Dingaling.

Nicely balanced interpersonal, plot and erotic elements. The characters have improved steadily and are now compelling. The plot is a little linear but still excellent. The observation that victories are not unalterable is very good.

Just short of truly outstanding saved by some editorial errors, and some factual errors (an AK47 spews bullets not ammunition and there seems to be some confusion between brands and tattoos (they feel very different) as well as the plot could have been a little stronger (although it was very good)).

The author, publisher and cover artist are to be congratulated as the cover does a good job of depicting the man character.

Dragon Wytch is the fourth book in the Sisters of the Moon series, the follow-up of Darkling(3). In Witchling(1) we meet the D'Artigo sisters- Camille, the eldest who is a witch, Delilah, the middle child who is a werecat, and Menolly, the baby of the family who is a vampire.

The plots of Witchling(1), Changeling(2) & Darkling(3) established the confusing existance of the three realms- Otherworld, Earth and the Subteranean Realms and introduces us to a host of otherwordly species from both those found on Earth and those from without. The three D'Artigo sisters and their friends have been fighting to protect their home, Otherworld, and their new home in Seattle (in the Earth realm) from the demon forces of Shadow Wing. There's civil war going on back home in Otherworld and there are twelve Spirit Seals hidden on earth that could open the portals between all three realms letting loose the demons of the Sub-realms into the others, destroying all life as we know it.

Returning to Camille as narrorator (she narrorated Witchling) we're picking up with the protection of the realms but there's a whole new cast of characters and troubles. A royal prince of the unicorns has come to give Camille a special gift, one that only she can wield, but first they have to find the pixie who was carrying it who was captured. Morgaine, yes *that* Morgaine, is also on the hunt for this mystical hierloom and she's camped out near Smoky's on Mt. Rainier annoying the crud out of the dragon. She's intent on raising the Earthside fae's courts back to life and needs Camille to help her do it. Then there's Benjamin, a human who has seen visions of a stone and demons, his family thinks he's crazy, but Morio thinks there's more to his visions than the ramblings of a nutcase.

Lots of fighting, plenty of sisterly antics and a sprinkle of Camille and her triad of men makes for a very involved but strangely smooth plot. If you've been following the series and are a fan of Morio and Smoky you will probably really enjoy the face time these two get.

I'll be honest... the first two books in the series didn't quite fully sell me on Galenorn as a fiction writer. Conceptually they were good but I needed to see a stronger voice coming through. Darkling it started to show and Dragon Wytch showed how very much she's grown as a fiction writer. I'm really happy with how far along she's come and how well she's crafted not only a really good urban fantasy realm and characters, but at how very well she's kept them. Smoky fans might argue a bit after reading this book, he did seem slightly less dragonly in this one, but I think that was done intentionally because of where Galenorn went with him and Camille.

If you've been reading the series this is a must read! Sexy, action packed and impossible to put down. Enjoy!

All great stories must have great heroes & heroines. With Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld Series, this is no exception. In her books, you enter a world of wonder, danger, whimsy, suspense, sensuality & action. Her stories depend on the strength & individuality of her central characters. Dragon Wytch, the fourth book in the series, continues this tradition of character strength & development through challenge, adversity & sharing.
We go back to Camille D'Artigo for the fourth tale. Camille is an empowered, sexy vixen of a witch. She wears her sensuality & her power like one of her velvet corsets; wrapped tightly, but unavoidable & unmistakable when you meet her. She faces down several truly nasty individuals in this fourth installment in the series. She also must hold to her end of a deal she struck with Smoky in a prior book. And when a Dragon calls in his debt, you don't dare try to renegotiate or walk away. As the saying goes, "do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy & good with ketchup." Or in this case, do not try to turn away an affair with a dragon....Sparks fly literally & figuratively for Camille in Dragon Wytch. We are also given a glimpse into Camille's early days, when she first dedicated herself to the Moon Mother. I must say that the scenes presenting this bit of history are some of the strongest in the book. I felt Camille's joy & desire to face the challenges ahead as I was reading the passages. This is the mark of great character creation.
While this book is driven by Camille, do not fear that we leave behind the other sisters. We still learn bits & pieces about Delilah & Menolly. Iris' presence in the stories continues to grow, too. One of the best parts of this book, though, has to be the opportunity to get to know the other two men in Camille's triad, Morio & Smoky. We learn a lot about Smoky...and that's a chocolate coated, cayenne pepper laced treat. I will refrain from saying anything else, though...I do not want to spoil the fun & games. Just know that Camille's relationships with all of her men progress in new & interesting ways, & it's well worth the ride.
Dragon Wytch starts off with a bang & a bit of pixie dust. Things do not slow down for the women (I say women because Ms. Galenorn's ladies are not mere girls; they are strong, independent women in every sense.) The pace keeps picking up, & complications abound. The first complication walks into Camille's store on four hooves in the form of a Unicorn Prince. The group is put in the position where they must accept not one but multiple herculean tasks, to save not only Otherworld, but the human world, as well. They encounter demon lords, trolls, and some truly unique powers that are making a play for power & a resurgence of the old ways. And just to make things interesting, the third Spirit Seal surfaces.
While you do not have to read the first three books in the series to enjoy Dragon Wytch, I think the experience is deeper for you, as a reader, if you have read the initial trilogy. The history of these characters, & the unmistakable bond between the sisters gives color & depth to this latest story. We are very lucky, too, as readers; Ms. Galenorn has several stories on deck for us in the Otherworld.
At times, I felt a little impatient reading this book. Not for any fault of Ms. Galenorn. In fact, she should probably be applauded or lauded for this situation. I was so eager to see what was going to happen to these characters & their world that I kept feeling that, "are we there yet?" feeling small kids get when they know they're on a trip to someplace fun, but they haven't reached their destination, yet. This book is a great ride, & the destination is well worth the wait.
That said, I can't wait for Delilah's next adventure in Night Huntress....

This is not the first book in this series, and you will enjoy it more if you read the others first. The book just felt like I was watching half a season of "Charmed" in one sitting. Kind of fun, but not enough substance to overcome the stereotypes and predictable plot. If you liked the author's previous books, you will likely enjoy this as well.

In Seattle half-fae half human Camille D'Artigo smells the pixie dust that suddenly floods the air inside her Indigo Crescent bookstore when a unicorn says hello to her; followed by a hostile goblin, Sawberry fae and bugbear who demand that Feddrah Dahns turn over the pixie or else. Camille fires bolts at the goblin and bugbear while Feddrah knocks out the fae. A car runs over the bugbear while the fae escapes and the goblin is tied up. Camille calls the boyfriend of her were-cat sister Delilah police detective Chase to clean up the mess; the goblin escapes.

When Camille's other sister Menolly the vampire joins them as well as Iris the priestess, Feddrah explains that his aide Mistletoe the pixie carried an item to deliver to her, but the three thugs interceded. Mistletoe regained the item, the powerful horn of the rare black unicorn. Meanwhile a Raksasas Persian Demon is apparently in town causing further havoc while Smoky the dragon arrives to remind Camille she owes him a week of sex, but has need for her to talk with Morgaine who has camped in his barrow before he makes the fae his lunch. Camille fears Morgaine might be trying to raise the former Seelie Queen Titania or the former Unseelie Queen Aeval for some purpose. Rounding out the visits is one of Camille's two lovers Trillian, but her other Morio remains missing. However, her ultimate fear is that the demon Shadow Wing will find the seals that keep the portals closed and be able to enter earthside and otherworld destroying both.

The various types of paranormal species seem genuine in the Seattle setting. The action never slows down for a moment and although the story line builds on threads from the previous "sisters of the moon" books, DRAGON WYTCH can stand alone. The climax is quite a shocker making the fascinating tale even more spellbinding even if readers need a scorecard to keep track of the myriad of key players supporting the prime star.

Harriet Klausner

Dragon Wytch / 978-0-425-22239-3

The fourth in the Sisters of the Moon series, "Dragon Wytch" continues the alternating narrative viewpoint by cycling around to the eldest sister again, Camille. I always felt that Camille's first novel, "Witchling", was arguably the weakest of the first three books in the series, and I'm afraid that "Dragon Wytch" does nothing to change my opinion on that front.

In fairness to Camille, she has always been the least easy of the three sisters to take seriously - her narrative focuses heavily on her "boobs" and "butt", as she likes to talk about physical characteristics frequently, along with her "fetish shop" wardrobe. Factor in her willing harem of men, all of whom are completely devoted to her and put up only the most token protests to her every whim, and we have a character that is just a touch too close to wish fulfillment to take seriously.

Where the first three books focused heavily on the search for the spirit seals, with a heavy emphasis on character development along the way, "Dragon Wytch" now focuses almost primarily on Camille's relationship dynamics with Smoky, per the indentured servitude she promised him in "Changeling". This aspect is largely unsatisfying - although Galenorn does a good job setting up Smoky as an extremely undesirable lover via clear and compelling examples of mental abuse and vastly different power dynamics within a relationship, in the last half she abruptly abandons the thread with love magically conquering all and Smoky quickly signing up to be just another member of Camille's growing entourage. Readers will be forgiven if they don't accept this turn of events with the same enthusiasm as Camille.

When a spirit seal is thrown in at the end, it serves largely as a vehicle to compel Camille to do something world-altering and potentially very dangerous in order to set up conflict for the next book. This is especially frustrating, because this is now the second book in a row where the main characters only act as they do because the Hags of Fate have flat-out told them to. In "Darkling", the readers will remember, this was the main reason Menolly uncharacteristically extended an offer to Erin, so to see the same But Thou Must behavior all over again starts to feel like Galenorn can't think of a better way to motivate the characters to do what she needs them to do.

Having said all that, "Dragon Wytch" is a solid addition to the series, and if you've stuck with it this far, I recommend that you keep going. The flaws that come through in the reader are mostly minor, and seem less a failure of the author than your basic "middle-of-the-series" problems - all the characters are in a state of flux and growth, and the series is trying to set up for the big finale, so it makes sense that the narrative would lag at times or feel a little contrived. If I've been hard on the novel here, it is not because it's a bad book, but because the series is otherwise so excellent escapist fantasy.

~ Ana Mardoll

Dragon Wytch is the fourth novel in Yasmine Galenorn's series. The first three helped established her universe, and I expected for the fourth novel to begin exploring the universe in more detail. Instead, it was more of the same.

Dragon Wytch begins with a Crown Prince Unicorn arriving in Seattle to bestow a gift on Camille to help her in her battles against Shadow Wing and his Degath Squads. From there, things spiral out of control when the gift goes missing along with the unicorn's steward Mistletoe. Portals begin to open up thorughout Seattle spitting out all kinds of nasties, and Morgaine returns with her men in tow to complicate the lives of the sisters.

I liked the first three books in this series. I didn't love them. I didn't rank them on my list of novels to buy the very minute that they came out...but they were a nice buy used and I did end up liking the characters...until they grew out of control. None of these books are much over 300 pages in length, so introducing new, recurring characters in each book with the frequency that Ms. Galenorn does can be very confusing for the reader. With months between releases, it's difficult to remember a character that was only present in a modest portion of a previous novel but is mentioned with frequency in all of the subsequent ones. Dragon Wytch alone introduced what I believe to be at least six more characters that will play a recurring role in the series.

One of my other beefs with this series is the formulaic way it is being carried out. They're turning out much like the first season of a lot of science fiction shows with their 'freak of the week' formats. Introduce Shadow Wing's minions and a dozen subplots...spend nearly a quarter of the book on briefings, planning sessions, and roundtable discussions between characters, followed by a conclusions that usually seem rushed and a foreshadowing of the next novel.

Of the three characters, Camille is also my least favorite, which could lie at the root of the reason why I didn't enjoy this particular novel. I think Ms. Galenorn relies a little too heavily on Camille's magical abilities as most authors do when dealing with the magically enabled. Although a lot of her spells do go awry, she also manages to come up with new ones, variations, or a straight shooting spell at just the right moment to save the day. I do give Ms. Galenorn credit for not making her heroines infallible, though, something that I always find greatly annoying.

In short, of the series so far, this has been my least favorite installation. I find myself indifferent towards it. I don't long for the week back that I spent reading it, but I will also not be rereading it any time soon. I do fear that the series may have jumped the shark and might be on a decline. I hope not, because I do like the series. I still wouldn't recommend paying full price for this or any of the previous novels in the series, but I'm also not ready to write them off completely either. My recommendation? If you want to read this novel or a novel in this series, look for a good bargain price and pick a week when you need a diversion that won't keep you up nights with anticipation of what comes next but will give you a vacation from day to day dramas for about 300 pages.

This particular book got off to a slightly slow start but once it got moving, it never slowed down. I love the direction the book is taking. I commend the author for thinking outside the box and having such an intersting love triangle, extremely nontradional and very interesting. I love how the book ended and can't wait for the next installment. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the series.

I picked this up hoping for a nice supernatural read. I am a fan of Patricia McKillip's Mercy novels and her new spinoff werewolf series.

However, this book just seems to lack any kind of coherent structure and is bogged down in unresolved issues, too many characters, and a "heroine" who is inconsistant.

The most annoying aspect of the novel is the amount of name dropping of creatures and "people". Even if you have read the previous novels, this gets ridiculous as one character would say "I wish...*insert name here*...was here" and then to follow the name would be a paragraph or two of how the character knows this person (or critter). This goes on and on...

There are so many problems amounting while the characters do little more than talk about how exhausted they are and sip various blends of tea. About a hundred pages in and they are still dawdling around you realize that these world shifting problems are not going to find resolution of any sort before the book concludes, which is frustrating at best. I don't see this series wrapping up for another half dozen books at this pacing, and the characters are not compelling enough to want to carry on.

Alot of it is ridiculous too. I understand the not-of-this-world aspect, and that unicorns are not going to be having lunch in your real world backyard, but supposed the Fae and "fantasy creatures" are new to this modern setting and the humans are just taking it in stride, even though two headed trolls are tearing their parks apart and whatnot. Do you see the human race putting up with this in such a short period of time? I think not. The backlash would be greater than some clueless police force blundering around trying to keep order. This is never explored and just kind of glossed over.

There are much better books on the market in this style. I did like that the author pulled characters from a variety of mythologies instead of just leaning on the typical ones, and I hope in future books she can flesh these out more and make them more interesting aside from having silly catfights and serving tea. The world built here is interesting and has alot of potential. It's just potential that is thus far, unrealized. Sadly.

Each book is narrated from the point of view of each sister. Camille narrates this book.

This book answers some questions but creates more.

Let's not forget that this series does have some "romance", which could be REMOVED as it's not necessarily needed! All the sex scenes are relatively short but I have to fast forward on every one of them as I don't care for them!

This series is a mix of sci-fi/adventure and romance but leans mores towards a ROMANCE NOVEL!

Males will get to like the non-sex portions as this series appears to be geared toward female readers (hence, Romance Novel)!

If I had known that in the beginning, I would never have bothered to read the books. Now, I would like to finish the series, just to see how it ends.

The story pace is uneven as it is slow at times and picks up when there's action involved.

Camille's story makes her sound and appear like a slut, which it does. But the author incorporates it as part of her character who likes the thrill. Camille doesn't like boring men but ones that are the bad boy types which she's states throughout the series.

It's boring and annoying listening to her talk about sex between her and her lovers (Romance Novel)! The author Needs to focus less on sex and more on character development and story line!

So what if the author portrays Camille as independent and free spirited! Too much sex, too much arrogance! Really don't care for or about her! Is the author living her sex fantasies through Camille?

Of the three sisters, Camille is my least favorite. Menolly's my favorite with her kick-butt attitude! Delilah needs to grow up quickly as she's becoming a bother!

There's another six books since each book has to deal with finding and obtaining the remaining crystals. Please let it emphasize less on sex and more on character development and the storyline!

Update:
Received email from Tantor Media that they have no plans to continue with future books in audiobook format.

Rather listen to it than read it!