Possible Triggers:
Death | Torture

Summary:
This is the first book in a new series; ‘The Book of the Holt’.

Characters:
This book is written from multiple character perspectives.

Positives:
+ Multiple awesome magic systems. All of them seem to revolve around the dragons in the book, usually in regards to using ground bits of them to activate magic. There was also this cool.. emotional/musical sort of magic that was also discussed that was fascinating as well. Epic things being done with the magic, especially in the later half of the book.
+ Lots of political maneuvering!
+ DRAGONS! I always love reading about dragons in my fantasy books. These ones had awesome abilities between the different species.

Negatives:
- Quite a slow pace. There was a lot of set up in this book in regards to history, world building, new knowledge of multiple magics, and politics. Sprinkled in amongst the mountains of information you were absorbing there were small spurts of action, but they were sparse and left me wanting more.
- I did not connect with any of the characters. Rylan and Lorelei are supposed to be characters we care about and I still care nothing for their fates. Honestly, I cared most about the dragons.

Final Thoughts:
This was such an interesting book. On the one hand, it was chock full of magic, politics, heists, magical beasties, and interesting world-building. But on the other hand, I'm not sure I can summon up enough enthusiasm to recommend it to everyone else that loves fantasy like I do. I was underwhelmed by the book. Here I was going in expecting so many impressive awesome things; all the elements were there, but it never came to fruition. I will say that I felt the book was absolutely setting the stage for some truly epic things to happen, but the sheer amount of world building and stage setting left little in the way of room for that in the first book. The last fourth of the book had a lot of action going on but all the rest was a really slow slog through mountains of information with characters that didn’t quite spark my sympathy or interest.

The writing was beautiful and the world was interesting enough for me to want to continue the series. I look forward to reading the next book in the hopes that all the info I have now absorbed will result in a faster pace and big things happening.

OH BOY I'm so happy I for to review this one! This is brand new fantasy entry by Bradley p Beaulieu, the author of the bestselling Song of Shattered sands series which consisted of 7 books (I’m including the novella collection as well) He has dipped his toes into some dragon fantasy, the way to my heart, it’s has multiple povs, dragons that can be bonded with, adventure, an empire in danger, demigods, truly it has it all. I LOVED IT.
Review to come very soon on YouTube

It took me over a month to read this book, wow. At less than 500 pages it shouldn’t have normally taken me this long as in the end I really loved it. However the first 30% nearly made me DNF it. The first part suffered a lot from slow pacing. Yes it was epic fantasy world building but done in a way that wasn’t that engaging. Also there were so many different characters to remember! Add that to random POVs that pop up now and again you have a very slow and confusing start.

If it wasn’t for a review that said it picks up I would not have continued. So this is my encouragement to you to keep reading if you are in the same boat I was.

After the 30% mark things pick up considerably when Rylan and Lorelei start investigating together. The story ended up being really good. The complexity of what was going on was clever. The rebellion of a small group of people, the magic that governs, the belief of the history that happened, the dragons.
I especially love the dragons of this world and how the different types have their own unique abilities and traits. I loved the vernon and Bethamaus dynamic. I also really loved Rylans character too in the end.
This world has a lot of history still to uncover. Now that the initial hump is over, I’m looking forward to the next book.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

The Dragons of Deepwood Fen was slow plot wise, and it has a lot of characters and threads to keep track of. I believe it’s a book you read twice to fully take everything in. There were about 7 POVs introduced in the first 8 chapters! It’s not as big as Malazan but I would still recommend getting a pen and notebook to make notes. I thought of that a little too late.

The fantasy was interesting, and it’s obvious from the first chapter there’s more to come. The politics were in the forefront of the novel. There’s the religious group that want to elevate themselves and control the people. There’s the gang that make everyone’s life more difficult then necessary. And of course others caught between the two with their own agendas, secrets and problems.

This book requires patience and concentration. I didn’t find it as easy or action packed as The Song of the Shattered Sands but it’s only the beginning.

DNF at Chapter 52 of 96 at 56%

If you enjoy 'traditional' European High Fantasies written by men you'd probably enjoy this.

To me, this was a whole lot of.... nothing really. The blurb claimed this was fast paced full of intrigue, But honestly the best way I could describe this is... really dull. Told in extreme detail from multiple POVs, with the slowest of slow meandering paces, and a whole lot of pinky hiding, there are dragons, dragon singers, necromancy, a drug trafficking plot, and strange Church vs. Dragon Singers intrigue. To me this read as extremely bland and sterile, as if everything that could make a fantasy interesting was washed away in favor of word count. In addition, it felt all over the place while being so incredibly slow it felt like reading a newspaper featuring dragons. Even the dragons were just..... there.

This book might honestly find its audience somewhere, especially for folk who enjoy these type of slower paced high fantasy books but I think my tastes have evolved to a point that the lack of any diverse representation at all in the entire novel just was cherry on top of an already utterly boring novel . I'm quite surprised I hit the 50% mark. That was many hours of trudging through this incredibly lengthy book.

Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

8 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/12/05/the-dragons-of-deepwood-fen-by-bradley-p-beaulieu-review/

Bradley P. Beaulieu, author of one of my favorite fantasy series of all time—the Shattered Sands—takes his talents to dragons, conspiracy, and revolution. And he mostly pulls it off.

Thing is, I wasn’t blown away by this one quite like I was by Twelve Kings in Sharakai. It wasn’t bad (not by any stretch), but it wasn’t the complete package I’m used to him delivering. Deep characters, magnificent world-building, intricate plots—all seem to take a step back in Deepwood Fen. Now, none of them are bad—I want to stress this—but they’re not as good as I’m used to seeing. All three of them. Rylan and Lorelei were deep and complex as characters, though maybe not as intimately human as Çeda and Ihsan and Nikandr before them. In fact, High Priest Azariah takes the cake for deepest and most interesting character, though he plays a bit part til already deep in the tale. Blythe I found inconsistent, especially when it came to her relationship with Rylan, which seems the only reason she’s included past the opening sections at all. I would’ve liked to see more of her—unless their close-knit friendship was as over-sold as it consistently appeared, something that just grew to annoy me as the story went on. And yet I found most of the other characters believable and complex, immersive and interesting, and well-worth constructing a story around. Rhiannon (and the aforementioned Azariah) was an especially pleasant surprise.

The world-building starts off strong, yet slackens in the novel’s latter half, while the plot was complex, but not explained as well as in previous works. If anything, the story reminds me a bit of the more muddled <i>Lays of Anuskaya</i>. Though while not nearly as bad, neither is the world-building quite as good. At least the plot wasn’t as slow taking off—as there was more than enough action within Deepwood Fen to keep me from ever considering abandoning it.

I found the different breeds of dragons and their status within the world (such as Veridians being outlawed by the empire because they represented Kin bonding practices) fascinating, and—though well-explored—I’d have liked to hear even more about it. Hopefully the author will flesh out additional lore through novellas as he did with his other series’.

As for the future of the story, I’m certainly invested in seeing where it goes from here. Everything I wanted to see come to pass did, and I think the potential for growth from here could even put something like the Shattered Sands to shame. We’ll just have to wait and see if it manages to.

If you wanted to bond a dragon from Fourth Wing, just wait until you meet the dragons of the Deepwood Fen. Though they don’t talk, these dragons have so much personality and so do their riders and the people of this world.

I absolutely loved reading this. It takes a few chapters to meet all of the main characters and to start figuring out who is who, like in most fantasy tales, but once you do, you won’t be able to put the book down. The pacing is perfect and it never feels slow after the first few chapters.

If you love dragons, political and religious machinations and characters that have such interesting and interweaving stories, then you’re going to want to pick this one up

Thank you to DAW Books and the author for an advanced copy to read in exchange for an honest review!

The Dragons of Deepwood Fen is a complex, multi-POV political fantasy about a group of people trying to free a trapped god while another group is trying to thwart their attempts. You might think that based on the title, the plot would be very dragon-centric but that’s not the case. There are plenty of dragons flying about, but they’re primarily mounts and the source of magical scales rather than a significant plot device at this time. And trust me, this isn’t a bad thing because I love a good political fantasy!
We are first introduced to Rylan Holbrooke, dragonsinger, illegitimate son of the Imperator of the Holt, and secret supporter of the rebel group the Red Knives. Next we meet Lorelei Aurelius, an inquisitor in the capital city Ancris who gets drawn into this political morass simply by investigating a drug dealer. Then there’s Rhiannon, a teen girl training at a druidic monastery in the Holt who also happens to be the niece of the leaders of the Red Knives. The last main POV is that of Azariah, a highly placed church member who’s working to free the trapped god and he gives some rather fascinating insight into the church’s dark secrets and motivations.
I spent the first 20% or so of the book just trying to get situated in this very complex and unique fantasy world and it did get a little info-dumpy for my preference. The world has two suns and one produces deadly radiation and auroras - it’s pointed out several times that people out during that time cover up or they have noticeable sun spots or cancers. The Holt is a vast forest filled with trees so gargantuan that whole cities can be built in their branches and this forest is where the Red Knives hide themselves. The magic of the world flows and can pool in certain areas, causing local anomalies like floating rocks and fens. There are even standing stone circles that you could teleport through if you don’t have a dragon to fly upon. There’s a lot and it was cumbersome to wade through until the story began to really pick up and then the whole flow was much more natural.
This was, overall, a very cool story with a dense plot that does take some investment to get into. I think this series has a ton of potential especially with the rising popularity of dragons in fantasy once again as long as folks realize the dragons aren’t as much characters as they are vehicles. This is a book with dragons rather than about dragons, at least at this juncture. I will definitely pick up the next installment, though I hope I don’t have to wait too long because I can see this requiring a re-read because of how much happened!

The Dragons of Deepwood Fen has a great synopsis that I’m not going to rewrite here. All that matters is dragons. Title says everything you need. Dragons.

This is book 1 of a trilogy, and let me tell you that I cannot wait for book 2. There is just so much to love in this book. We start off with a bang. All sorts of mystery, little bit of murder, hints of the magic to come, and I was sold. Then we jump in with the dragons, and anyways, this book owns my heart now.

This is a typical big ol’ fantasy book, where we’re thrown a lot of characters, different chapters give different points of view, all the usual stuff most readers have seen in these types of books. Beaulieu managed something unusual though, because usually there’s a point of view the reader doesn’t care for. They read the chapters to get to the good chapters, with the characters they like. For myself at least, this book didn’t have that. I liked reading all of the perspectives, I liked reading all of the characters. That’s not to say I liked the character themselves, but I didn’t need to rush to get to my favourites because each point of view was doing something that kept me interested. I definitely still had my favourites, but there was so much political intrigue and different factors in the story that each chapter added a little more to the mystery and solving the mystery of what was going on.

This was my first read by Beaulieu, and it’s definitely made me need to read others. The writing was a great balance of straightforward while still being descriptive and beautiful without being overly flowery. It flowed really nicely, and the writing made the book feel shorter than it was because it was just so easy to fall into the story and fly through it. I also appreciated that the writing managed to have good humour peppered throughout the story and dialogue without feeling forced.

Deepwood Fen really does have a bit of something for everyone. Political intrigue, church and religious intrigue, action, unique magic systems, reincarnation, bonded dragons, dragons in servitude, murder, good banter between characters. It has everything. I can’t recommend it enough, I think all fantasy readers are going to enjoy this.

Whew! What a ride! And what a great book! It took me longer to read this than I anticipated but then again 700+ pages--it's a big one. But it's very much worth it. The characters are dynamic and come to life on the pages. Nothing is rushed but nothing is drawn out unnecessarily. The story is complex and multilayered but isn't confusing. It's a twisty, turny, story of political conflict, religion's place in government, a separatist movement with long-held grudges, and magic. Add to that dragons! Yes really cool dragons--not personified dragons, but dragons that are like destriers, but add a link that allows them to mentally communicate. There's a lot more to that link but it needs to be read as you immerse yourself in this land.

The world-building is immaculate. Often you hear criticisms of fantasy works as being too much of telling the reader what the world is like instead of showing them what the world is like. This author does an excellent job of showing you and bringing you into this world's setting. Even now twelve hours after finishing, I still see scenes that were so well written and I really want to go back, but I have to wait for the next book. We get the story from a multitude of POVs all of whom move the story along at a good pace. I'm invested in these characters because I was with them on the journey and I want to know more. And subplots! You will love all the subplots! This is exactly what a book is supposed to do.

As I said it's a long book, it's a dense book, but oh, what an enjoyable book! High fantasy at its best! I highly recommend The Dragons of Deepwood Fen for a fun, adventurous, exciting read with heroes, heroines, villans, and DRAGONS!

A woven web of many POV,s following the poltics and scheming of the native Kin folk and the ruling empire throw in some dragons and druid magic and set it in a forest and you have the plot. This is a slow paced book great for those just getting into the fantasy genre. The magic is fantastic and poltics are very well thought out.The cover is beautiful and that is what drew me in to wanting to read this book a great start to a new series.

I've never had the pleasure of reading Beaulieu's Song of the Shattered Sands series, but I've always heard extremely positive things about it. So, when I had the opportunity to get an ARC of Beaulieu's newest book featuring dragons, I jumped on it!

I think whether or not you're in the reader space, you can agree that dragons are the "IN" thing this year. I did like the difference in how the dragons were featured in this book, but I'm not quite sure it was enough to make up for how slow the pace of this book was.

500 pages felt like 1000. There's an almost overwhelming amount of world building and the writing just felt really dense. While I did like Rylan and Lorelei's POV's, I didn't find myself connecting with any of the others. Thankfully, things did end up picking up in the latter half.

An okay book that probably could have used some additional editing and trimming down.

Thank you Netgalley and DAW for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF.

First off, the dragons are really boring. Different things can be done with the ground-up scales of different coloured dragons, but the dragons themselves are somewhat intelligent animals, not sapient, and at least in the first chunk of the book (I read to the 20% mark) there was nothing magical about them. No sense of wonder attached to them at all, which was really disappointing. I did really like that the different cultures in this world have very different views on how to treat dragons, whether psychically bonding to them is okay or not, and which dragons are acceptable to keep (the dominant, coloniser culture hunts down many of the colours because they’re considered too dangerous/unholy), but the dragons felt very tacked-on to the story – maybe later they become a bigger part of the book, but as far as I could tell, the titular dragons of The Dragons of Deepwood Fen are barely part of the story at all.

Secondly – and honestly, the worse sin – Beaulieu does not. stop. telling. I’ve seen other early readers complain that the book is slow, and it is – but of course it is; this is the opening book in a secondary-world epic fantasy. There’s a lot for us to learn! It’s practically supposed to be slow, as we gradually learn about the world the author’s created and the people and creatures in it.

But Beaulieu doesn’t give us that time – everything is just infodumps, and it drove me up the WALL. Especially when, barely five minutes into the book, we’re casually told via infodump what the bad guys’ Threat To The World-level big plan is! That was just dropped in our lap like it was nothing, and it had no impact at all – how could it? I hadn’t been in the world long enough to even know about yet the evil god they were even talking about, but Beaulieu is already giving away their plans to set said god free??? Wtf?

(Ironically, despite all the infodumps, info I actually needed to understand why everyone cared about the palisade was not forthcoming; I had no clue why it was driving so many different political forces. It was talked around, not talked about, and I get that sometimes you want to have the reveals later, but if your characters are interacting with a thing, and I don’t understand why they care so much about it, there’s a problem.)

There are maybe twice as many POV characters as the story actually needs, the villainous Hissing Man is so capital-e Evil he’s a caricature, and while the dialogue is mostly perfectly fine, whenever someone powerful is trying to be intimidating or whatever, the speech becomes incredibly awkward and fake; it comes across like actors trying to deliver a badly-written script.

And while I am willing to engage with political intrigue – which seemed like it was going to be a big part of the plot, albeit kind of clumsily – I did not sign up for a police procedural story about drug trafficking, which it really looked like Deepwood Fen was turning into.

The actual prose itself is not bad, and the worldbuilding is great when you scrape away the serious meh of the plot and most of the characters – so two point five stars it is. (Rounded up to three for Netgalley.)

Caveat Empator, I got this book for free from the publisher to review. Also, I'm a fan of the author's other books.

DRAGONS!

Now that I have that out of my system, let's talk about this book. This is a dragon rider fantasy, but not of the usual sort. This is more of a political fantasy novel, with 3+ factions dueling over the fate of an empire (if you've read Beaulieu's other Epic Fantasy books, you know the sort).

The first faction is an oppressed group of druids, who psychically bond with their willing dragon mounts. The second faction is a Roman-inspired empire who enslave dragons to their will. Then there is a religious cult called the Chosen who are integrated into every level of society, who's sole goal is to keep secrets safely hidden. These three groups, as well as a few free agents, fight over whether the Empire will fuse together stronger than ever, or begin breaking up.

The characters are caught in the middle of these factions, pulled hither and thither by divided loyalties. The POV Rylan, as an example, was born to the dragon-riding druids but was adopted into the Roman emperor's household; he feels loyalty to both factions at different points in time. Lorelei is a Roman inquisitor whose task is to solve the mystery at the heart of the book, putting her at odds with the druids and the Chosen at different times. Rhiannon is a morally upstanding druid loyalist, but she's torn whether or not she should break her druidic oaths and use black magic (read: UBER EVIL NECROMANCY) to free her people from slavery to the Romans. Sparks fly when these characters come into conflict with one another—and even better, when they come into conflict within themselves.

The pacing was good, but not great. As is the case for basically all Epic Fantasy books, it has a slow start. It is eminently forgivable.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding, it was a nice fusion of a 'hard magic' and 'soft magic' system. I liked the author's previous books which went in a 'soft magic system' direction, and this book seemed like something similar but more formalized. The magic in this book had a flair for the dramatic.

I think the biggest problem I had was that there were too many POV characters. It had three main protagonists who got a ton of chapters and three minor protagonists who got one or two chapters. All the characters are memorable, well described, and are exciting to 'inhabit' as a reader. But six POVs is a lot for the first book in a series. I think part of the pacing problems I had with this book was because the author had to introduce six different POVs.

Overall, I'm glad I read it. I got a copy for free from the publisher, but I'm still pre-ordering the audiobook. It clocks in at just under 500 pages, so it's a big book but not too big. This book didn't blow my socks off, but I feel happy for having read it. This will be among the top books I read this year.

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The Dragons of Deepwood Fen has one of the most striking covers I've seen in a hot minute (particularly from traditional publishers). It leads one to believe the insides to be focused on dragons and flights, maybe fights and action. That... is a little big, maybe a lot, incorrect. The story follows several point of views, 8 in total at various points in the book as we follow the politics and scheming of two groups and those caught between them.

The Empire has ruled the Holt for quite some time, using it's greater forces and it's radiant dragons and magic. The Holt is inhabited by the Kin, the native folk who bond to the umbral dragons. On and off these groups have warred and sought piece and this follows another one of these fights. We get everyone's point of view on it too. From who I would arguably call our main character and his Robin Hood style ways, to some very powerful folks in the Empire itself.

Unfortunately this means this book moves at a glacial pace. Genuinely one of the slowest books I've picked up in a hot minute. At first I was excited! I love multiple points of views and I can get behind a political read. Except here it just didn't connect. There were simply too many characters who were too widely spread. Perhaps if the chapters for each had been shorter it would have felt quicker but I was left feeling like I was watching the events through a foggy glass.

I can't say I hated the book, I really loved some of the ideas. The magic, the rendering of dragon parts for tonics and dusts to have abilities, and the dragon singing. But I was so very, very bored at times. I can say if you like very slow builds with lots of characters, this is for you. If not, maybe skip.

2.5 Flying Lynxes

This is one of the rare instances where I am DNFing an amazing book about 15 chapters in. I am rating it a 3 star because if it, but I am pretty sure for most people this would be a 4 to 5-star book. The writing is great, the story is intriguing and from what I have read so far very well thought out. Fans of the World of Time series would feel right at home. While most of the story follows Rylan and Lorelei there are chapters following several other characters. Unfortunately, I have short term memory loss and keeping track of 5 or 6 points of view is something I cannot handle. The characters are compelling well thought out and draw you in just as much as the overarching plot. It's incredibly balanced in that regard. If epic fantasy is your thing and you love intricate stories with mystery, intrigue, and dragons tossed in The Dragons of Deepwood Fen is for you.
I received an ARC and am leaving a review of my own volition.

I have read books by this author before, and I knew I would get at least a decent read. I got better than decent and did enjoy reading this book. This was rather good overall and a page turner. The pacing was good, and the characters were likable for the most part for me. I didn't like any character any less or better but thought they were all pretty good and interesting in their own ways. The dragons aren't the type with intelligence but smarter than just an animal. The dragons could have been better described I think in some areas and the different abilities and uses they could have once they are dead. Not sure if they are magic or just creatures with biology that gives them their abilities. The system by which the riders get powers from using the scales is sort of interesting as you don't have to kill them to get them. The power system was discussed throughout the book but only when any specific ability that was given from dragon scales was in use or talked about being used. So basically, no info dumps on how anything works but that isn't to bad as it gets discussed in the story. This also goes for the culture and government that seems to based on Roman names and culture. There are gods and those that serve them. The religion is based on half truths but presented as the total truth to the people who belong to the religion. I did not care for the Red Knives as they just seemed like terrorists or at least that is what the leader of the group is wanting this group to do to achieve his goals. There are quite few thoughts that people may have on this book but one I fill sure will be that this a good book. Knowing the author will only deepen and improve as the story goes on should make most readers just a little excited.
Thanks to the publishers and netgalley but most especially the author for another good book.

Unfortunately at 25% this is a dnf from me. I was very excited for this book and it saddens me that I won't be completing it.
This was way more political with way less dragons than I wanted. In 100 plus pages we really only saw a dragon once and it didn't really show as much as I wanted.
But I do still think people will love this book and world it is very well crafted and if you aren't only looking for a dragon fantasy, or feel you want more than that this will be a wonderful book for you

I had a lot of hope for this book (dragons, magic, etc...), but it just wasn't for me.

This is my first attempt at reading a book by Bradley P. Beaulieu, and I was excited to dive in as I had heard good things about his other books and was happy to get approved for this ARC. However, I had a few issues. This story is told in multiple POV's, and by multiple, I mean like 8+. This is a really cool idea and helps push the narrative along, getting to see the plot unfold from multiple angles. However, at times it just left me plain confused at what was happening. On top of that, this is the start to a series so there is a LOT of worldbuilding, and some of it left me wanting more clear explanations at the time. I'll consent that this is likely due to me not having read a lot of fantasy of this type before, so this might just not have been a good entry point for me.

Overall, I think this could be a great start to a series. Unfortunately, I DNF'd around 40% through the book as I just couldn't keep up at times.

This book and I . . . well, we had issues.

For starters, it's a cold, sterile, matter-of-fact fantasy tale with no sense of wonder or delight. Even the dragons are as about as exciting as a mangy old dog. Maybe I expected too much from the cover blurb, or too much from Beaulieu himself, given that I enjoyed his Song of the Shattered Sands series, but this just didn't engage me.

Next, it's one of those multi-POV books where there's overlap between some narrators, but no immediate connections between others. That means the story jumps around, sacrificing whatever tension or curiosity it's nurtured to a new thread. It's just not a style I generally enjoy.

In addition, this feels like a book that doesn't know what it wants to be. It has epic fantasy roots wrapped up in low fantasy trappings, with something of a grimdark flavor, but the plot is largely centered around a police procedural involving drug trafficking. Ugh, no thank you - I read to escape that mindless drivel on TV, not to explore it in a different setting.

Finally, the pacing of this was atrociously slow, owing in large part to the multiple POVs. You'd expect the events of the cover blurb to come early, to be the tease that launches you into the story, but I DNF'd this at about the halfway mark and we still hadn't encountered those events.

All of that said, Beaulieu is a talented writer and I'm sure this will find an audience, it's just not me.