Earlier this year I read a fun book called Dragon Lords: Fools Gold, by Jon Hollins. I thought it was a comedic romp with a little bit of substance that was dragged down slightly by character relatability and depth. While I was a little late to the party with Fool’s Gold, I decided to jump on Jon’s sequel, False Idols, thanks to the lovely people at Orbit sending me a review copy in return for my honest opinion. This year I have seen a multitude of authors improving on their past books and learning from their mistakes; the question is did Jon follow this trend?
What is False Idols about? – In the wake of liberating their small country from dragons, our five person crew from Fool’s Gold all went on their way to live happily ever after. This, unfortunately, didn’t work for everyone. Three of our crew find themselves unsatisfied with their new wealth and life, and the other two soon find themselves forced out of their ever after. On top of this, a new set of dragons have set themselves to conquering, not just the tiny country we visited before – but the entire continent. However, the oversize iguanas have decided for a change of tactics. Instead of brutal oppression, the dragons have decided to oust the gods and ascend to the pantheon in their stead – and then go back to brutal oppression. Unsurprisingly, our crew soon finds themselves united and once again plotting the deaths of dragons.
Did he fix the issues? – In short, yes. I am elated to see so many writers I like getting better and better this year, and am happy to add Jon’s name to that list. My major problems with Fool’s Gold were that some of the characters were unlikable (primarily Quirk) and that the plot of the book was a tad repetitive. First, not only did Jon revamp Quirk into a much more enjoyable character to read about, he also maintained her character identity from book one to have the best of both worlds. Quirk still has a stick up her ass the size of a redwood, but Jon has toned down the condescending tone that drove me insane in the first book and has raised the awareness of her character flaws amongst his cast making her a lot more fun to read. On top of this, Jon has developed and improved every member of the cast to make them more relatable. He still tells the story of deeply flawed, and sometimes unlikable people, but I no longer found that these character elements imposed on my reading experience.
The first book was broken up into three similar arcs of: locate dragon, plan to murder dragon, watch the plan fall apart and wing it. It was a fun idea but it started to feel a little repetitive by the end. In contrast to this, False Idols has a much deeper plot that pulled me in. The humor in these books is enough to carry them by itself, but paired with a plot that got me invested in the story made the entire book feel like it stepped up. In addition, I thought that the prose of book two was simply better than it was in the first book.
Does it still have what made Fool’s Gold good? – As I mentioned above, False Idols is still hilarious. The contextual humor of the situations our cast finds themselves in continued to make me laugh out loud, though I will say that because this book takes on a more serious and dark identity that meant I probably laughed a little less. The chapter titles still made me chuckle every time saw one, and character reactions and dialogue had me in stitches.
In Fool’s Gold we got a nice glimpse of Jon’s worldbuilding and I was excited to see it fleshed out more. False Idols shows us a variety of countries and cultures as the crew travels around trying to stop draconic oppression. I won’t spoil their various quirks, but just know that I don’t think you will be disappointed with Hollins’ imagination.
Is it perfect? – Books rarely are, but I think False Idols is a lot closer than book one. I only had one minor annoyance this time around and that was the relationship between Lette and Will, two of the protagonists. At the beginning of book two they have just broken up, and I felt that the book spent a tad too much time with them thinking of each other. However, this was only a very small bother and I otherwise thought that False Idols was fantastic.
On top of all of this, False Idols ends with a massive cliffhanger that has me on the edge of my seat for the sequel. The book addressed all my issues with its predecessor, is still hilarious, and has developed a plot that has completely pulled me in. Jon Hollins has done wonders to improve his already great series and I highly recommend you check these books out as soon as you can.
Rating: Dragon Lords: False Idols – 9.0/10
-Andrew