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Alice (12 KP) rated The Temptation of Dragons (Penny White #1) in Books
Jul 3, 2018
<i>Many thanks to the author Chrys Cymri for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review</i>
Original review can be found on my blog Raptureinbooks <a href="http://wp.me/p5y0lX-1Js">here</a href>
I was kindly offered this book by the author in exchange for an honest review and my initial impressions were "yeah this sounds like my kinda thing. Here there be dragons" ya know? Only to get more fully immersed in the book and find that I was a touch disappointed.
<i>The Temptation of Dragons</i> follows Reverend Penny White as she becomes the Vicar General of an alternate world called Lloegyr - please note that there is a heavy Welsh influence in this book coupled with an enormous religious influence - where dragons, unicorns, gryphons and more reside and coexist in relative peace.
The book starts with Penny White coming home slightly intoxicated and thinking she's going mad when she comes across a dying dragon. In true priestly form Penny gets out of her car and performs the last rites of absolution to what turns out to be a real dragon!
From that moment on Penny's life changes in so many ways - dragons exist, unicorns are real, snail sharks get drunk and gryphons are eating her garden birds. Penny is soon tasked to become the Vicar General to the citizens of Lloegyr and that includes all manner of supernatural beasties. Though expected as the main character is a priest, I didn't expect there to be such a heavy religious influence all throughout with literal verses from the Bible quoted on a regular.
Please understand that this is <b>not</b> anything against the book or against the writer and is merely my thoughts on what I considered an overly religious-toned story set in the wrong time period and the wrong world. I honestly found that the hardest part of reading this book but there were parts that I enjoyed for example: Penny White has what amounts to an obsession with sci-fi/fantasy and occult TV and movies, a lot of which were quite obscure for me (not really a TV and movie person *gasp*) I didn't get several of the references - particularly the Doctor Who ones.
Out of all of the characters my favourite had to be Moriarty - shortened to Morey for some reason - a 47-year-old gryphon with no filter. My favourite quote was from Penny about Morey:
<blockquote>"You've sent me a blue tit murdering creationist with sarcasm management issues."
"Correction. Today he's killing a starling."</blockquote>
The sarcasm and humour was rife throughout this book which was brilliant and gave it a nice light undertone to the ultimate seriousness of the book as a whole.
There was one character I didn't like and that was her brother James- I'm not 100% sure why but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. He's a free loading, insensitive toss pot and possibly a pod person.
However, despite my dislike of the heavy religious overtone and of James, I really, really liked <i>how</i> Chrys wrote the dragons and unicorns and all the other supernatural creatures and they had enough of a description without giving away too much important information; but also, on the flip side, there were away lot of unanswered questions such as how <i>exactly</i> does a unicorn use a telephone?
In all, it was a well written book with an interesting concept and some good characters and prose, dialogue was perfectly modern for Penny and a touch Olde World for a lot of the Lloegyr residents.
Original review can be found on my blog Raptureinbooks <a href="http://wp.me/p5y0lX-1Js">here</a href>
I was kindly offered this book by the author in exchange for an honest review and my initial impressions were "yeah this sounds like my kinda thing. Here there be dragons" ya know? Only to get more fully immersed in the book and find that I was a touch disappointed.
<i>The Temptation of Dragons</i> follows Reverend Penny White as she becomes the Vicar General of an alternate world called Lloegyr - please note that there is a heavy Welsh influence in this book coupled with an enormous religious influence - where dragons, unicorns, gryphons and more reside and coexist in relative peace.
The book starts with Penny White coming home slightly intoxicated and thinking she's going mad when she comes across a dying dragon. In true priestly form Penny gets out of her car and performs the last rites of absolution to what turns out to be a real dragon!
From that moment on Penny's life changes in so many ways - dragons exist, unicorns are real, snail sharks get drunk and gryphons are eating her garden birds. Penny is soon tasked to become the Vicar General to the citizens of Lloegyr and that includes all manner of supernatural beasties. Though expected as the main character is a priest, I didn't expect there to be such a heavy religious influence all throughout with literal verses from the Bible quoted on a regular.
Please understand that this is <b>not</b> anything against the book or against the writer and is merely my thoughts on what I considered an overly religious-toned story set in the wrong time period and the wrong world. I honestly found that the hardest part of reading this book but there were parts that I enjoyed for example: Penny White has what amounts to an obsession with sci-fi/fantasy and occult TV and movies, a lot of which were quite obscure for me (not really a TV and movie person *gasp*) I didn't get several of the references - particularly the Doctor Who ones.
Out of all of the characters my favourite had to be Moriarty - shortened to Morey for some reason - a 47-year-old gryphon with no filter. My favourite quote was from Penny about Morey:
<blockquote>"You've sent me a blue tit murdering creationist with sarcasm management issues."
"Correction. Today he's killing a starling."</blockquote>
The sarcasm and humour was rife throughout this book which was brilliant and gave it a nice light undertone to the ultimate seriousness of the book as a whole.
There was one character I didn't like and that was her brother James- I'm not 100% sure why but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. He's a free loading, insensitive toss pot and possibly a pod person.
However, despite my dislike of the heavy religious overtone and of James, I really, really liked <i>how</i> Chrys wrote the dragons and unicorns and all the other supernatural creatures and they had enough of a description without giving away too much important information; but also, on the flip side, there were away lot of unanswered questions such as how <i>exactly</i> does a unicorn use a telephone?
In all, it was a well written book with an interesting concept and some good characters and prose, dialogue was perfectly modern for Penny and a touch Olde World for a lot of the Lloegyr residents.
ClareR (5916 KP) rated Preacher: Book 1 in Books
Jan 27, 2018
I'm afraid this beats the TV series hands down....
Absolutely brilliant. This has the same characters as the TV series, but that's about where the similarities end! The storyline is an extravaganza of violence, sex, drugs, alcohol and blasphemy! Cassidy is still one of the best characters in the story though, The TV series definitely kept his quirkiness (thankfully).
This isn't for the faint hearted, and those who are very religious may not like it much either. God has done a bunk and The Preacher, who has been possessed by Genesis, has gone looking for him. We meet corrupt, ineffective cops, gangsters, a Saint of Killers, angels, serial killers, and the most dysfunctional family I've ever had the pleasure to read about!! And all in volume one! What on earth will they have to offer us in volume two? Id better get saving my pennies to buy it!
This isn't for the faint hearted, and those who are very religious may not like it much either. God has done a bunk and The Preacher, who has been possessed by Genesis, has gone looking for him. We meet corrupt, ineffective cops, gangsters, a Saint of Killers, angels, serial killers, and the most dysfunctional family I've ever had the pleasure to read about!! And all in volume one! What on earth will they have to offer us in volume two? Id better get saving my pennies to buy it!
Roxanne (13 KP) rated The God Delusion in Books
Nov 14, 2018
_____ 5 stars
This was an intense and very thought provoking read. It's anything but light and Dawkins certainly likes to pack a punch.
I imagine with this one that Dawkins is perhaps already preaching to the converted though as I think they are the only ones that would consider picking this one up.
I was not raised in a religious family but I did attend a Church of England school, looking back on it now after reading this book I can see the brainwashing in full force.
Dawkins makes numerous fantastic arguments against the existence of God and why religion is ultimately 'evil' and at times truly 'laughable'.
If you are sitting on the fence and not sure which way to go when it comes to your faith then definitely read this book.
<img src="http://www.relativelyinteresting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/atheist-meme-mysterious-ways.jpg"; width="250" height="250"/>
This was an intense and very thought provoking read. It's anything but light and Dawkins certainly likes to pack a punch.
I imagine with this one that Dawkins is perhaps already preaching to the converted though as I think they are the only ones that would consider picking this one up.
I was not raised in a religious family but I did attend a Church of England school, looking back on it now after reading this book I can see the brainwashing in full force.
Dawkins makes numerous fantastic arguments against the existence of God and why religion is ultimately 'evil' and at times truly 'laughable'.
If you are sitting on the fence and not sure which way to go when it comes to your faith then definitely read this book.
<img src="http://www.relativelyinteresting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/atheist-meme-mysterious-ways.jpg"; width="250" height="250"/>
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