Deas, Stephen

This dark and gritty fantasy is recommended for readers wanting the scope of an epic with the grittiness of grimdark urban fantasy. It will be loved by those who are looking for stories that exhibit all the darkness at the heart of “Game of Thrones” set in the mean streets of the grittiest of fantasy cities, and/or those who like antihero protagonists stuck in a morally gray area.

First-time readers can go back and explore Deas's earlier works starting with Adamantine Palace, as well as venture straight on to the next title in this series, The Splintered Gods. The adult characters and brutality make this a better selection for mature readers.

Deas's dragons are spectacularly alien, dangerous, seductive, and beautiful, with their own nonhuman morality. Fans of dragon fiction should appreciate his intriguing interpretation, which places this trilogy in a category with Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern," Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's "Dragonlance," and Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" series.