Ancients (Heroes by Necessity Book 1) by Riley S. Keene is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. It is a book with dragons, spells, and lots of violence in battle and torture. 80% of the book takes place in a prison where the main characters are being tortured. That is most of the book...spells to partially heal then continue torture. We finally get to see the Dragon on the last few pages.

This was... Okay! Its a pretty good fantasy *quest* with a barbarian and a wizard and a cleric, with dragons and evil prison guards and a mystical, runic language.
All good things! However, it felt a little stilted in places, mainly as the three main characters (perhaps maybe not quite so the barbarian) felt interchangeable. I had to re read the first few pages to work out who was the main 'voice' (before realising it was meant to switch POVs) and I still felt that Elise and the wizard girl sounded the same; this did not change throughout.
Because of this, a cracking story (which would do with a smidgen more world building) became... an okay story. Hence my star rating.