The third book of the Talon Series, Soldier, has exceeded the previous two books in my eyes. Although smaller than the previous installments, it’s faster paced and full of action. It’s so much more enthralling and I just wanted to rush through it.
The plot of Soldier seemed a lot more like the ‘war’ promised from the first book. Fitting for name of course. There was stealth, fighting, ambushes, trials by combat and so much more. There were so many tense moments where I just couldn’t put the book down. I just had to keep reading. The ending was also such a cliffhanger so I’m so happy I have Legion already.
The plot picked up with added characters. We were introduced to some Wyrms, which are really old, powerful dragons. I love getting to see dragons, so I hope we get some more dragon forms in the next book. One of the big premises is that dragons can turn into humans, and they’re usually in their human forms. In the whole series so far we rarely get to see them in dragon form which is slightly disappointing for a dragon book.
We also met an Asian dragon which was great for some world building outside the USA and UK. These books aren’t set in different worlds/dimensions etc. It’s very much dragons are living in hiding in the human world. A lot of the depth of the world is coming from the factions at war with one another, and the motives of them.
The character’s have all developed so much throughout the series. The actions in this and the previous book have took a toll on them. Especially Ember who is only 16 at the time. Garret is opened up a lot more as this is ‘his’ book of the series. I’m ensure as to whether the next book will be another character or if it will circle round to Ember again.
Ember is still completely conflicted between her human side and dragon side. But now she’s been told there’s a dragon phenomena which draws her towards to Cobalt. The romance aspect (thankfully) wasn’t as prevalent in this book, but I didn’t care for the scenes that focused on it. After three books I expected the love triangle to be resolved and over with. But it’s just getting more complicated.
Overall this was definitely my favourite book in the series so far. Soldier* has set up a faster pace for the continuing books.