Received from Oxblood books and Netgalley for honest read and review.
The premise looked really good for this, but I got a bit confuedd with going back and forth all the time between world's and different characters.

I could not finish this one,not for me

For me the mix of Fantasy and Science Fiction just did not work.
The characters just did not appeal and I found the story confusing.
Might just be me though.

Joseph Malik takes the reader into a fantasy world where humans, elves, magic, and troll-like creatures exist. Into this medieval-like setting he introduces two modern day Renaissance Faire re-enactors. Malik's writing is engaging, the pace is fast, and the relationships and dialog among the diverse cast of characters is amusing. I found the fight scenes were well written. But although I am a fan of fencing, and swordplay, the perhaps excessive use of swords-vocabulary too often led me to the dictionary (or translator) to more fully grasp the action. I appreciated the complexity of the main "earthling" characters and their motivations. But felt that the story would have greatly benefited from a little less technical exposition with regards to weaponry and martial arts, and more fleshed out characters.

A great fantasy book! I started to read it and I was hooked in this crossworld fantasy novel. I like the characters, the humour and how good the plot is, the pace not too slow or frantic.
The duels and the battles are epic.
I hope to be able to read the following instalments in this saga soon and and strongly advised it to whoever is a fantasy lover.

Dragon's Trail is book 1 of The Outworlders series by Joseph Malik from Oxblood books.

Scratch beneath the surface of any hardcore LARPer/SCAdian/fantasy/dragon bookworm and you'll likely find someone who deep down really wants to believe that it's possible to hop worlds into a dragon/magic/fantasy realm. Frankly most of us would be up for being a peasant in one of those stories and I bet you most of us would allow ourselves a 5 minute freak out and then say 'I KNEW IT!!'

This book is a crossworld fantasy with a world class fencer/martial artist who's working off a bad load of karma after a duel leaves another competitor dead. He's been drifting from job to job, picking up consultant gigs in the movies, training other martial artists and trying to find his long lost self respect.
Written in 3rd person omniscient, it has such a classic vibe that the entire book almost resonates with pure epic fantasy. The background info and worldbuilding is unparalleled in my experience and I have never seen any novel (letalone a first novel) with such exquisite detail.

This book is intelligently written with complex and believable characters. The dialogue is smooth and the pacing and plotting are beautifully paced and well rendered. I honestly can't find one single quibble and in 472 pages there wasn't one negative note from me. That's not easy for an (almost) 500 page book. I was not yanked out of the story even once.

I really really loved this book and impatiently await the next book(s). Write like the wind, Mr. Malik!

5 stars. Classic fantasy, perfectly executed. A true delight to read!