Book Review: The Dragon's Den

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Say something about Graeme Rodaughan! Say that he writes kick-ass action!!

I swear his books are getting better and better with each instalment of this series! If you liked A Subtle Agency and A Traitor's War, you are going to LOVE The Dragon's Den!!

Nail-biting, cringe-worthy, heart-wrenching, edge-of-the-seat high-octane action from the beginning to the very end! This part of the Metaframe War Series is the one where ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!

"Damn it. I'm just going to have a go. No one ever won a game without attacking the goal."
Anton Slayne


So hang on to your seats ladies and gents cause Graeme dumps us from frying pan into the fire chapter after chapter, making us forget we're actually reading a book and plunging us straight into an action movie!

IT'S A TRAP! - Anton Slayne knows it's a trap. One laid for him by his most powerful opponent - supervillain Chloe Armitage, rogue general of the Vampire Dominion. Hell, everybody knows it's a trap but the trick will be to steal the cheese without springing it.

And it doesn't help that one of Anton's own is in trouble, that the Raven is a loose card able to doom everyone with a single phone call, or that the Red Empire seems to have allied with the Vampire Dominion against the Order of Toth!

In a race against time, the Mirovar team heads out to rescue the captive Ramin Kain, the Head of the Order of Thoth, abducted by agents of the Red Empire and the Vampire Dominion at the end of the previous book. But will they arrive in time before Ramin will be forced to reveal everything he knows to the Order's sworn enemies? You're gonna have to read this to find out! But I'll give you a few clues of what to expect on the way.

Action, action and more action!

Crashed business jets with the pilot smiling at the escorting fighter jet's pilot with a dopey "love at first sight" grin accompanied by a thumbs up just before he goes down!

Gruesome torture:
"Chloe's open hand flashed out, a resounding crack echoing off the walls. His left cheekbone shattered, his head almost spinning off his shoulders."

Exquisitely descriptive blood and gore:
"Blood, bone and brains splashed in a broad swathe across the clinical whiteness of the right wall. An instant later, he drove a stainless steel spike through the head of the smiling chubby faced, second tech on the left. ...The taller tech's body, now headless, was crumpled on the floor gushing blood in a spreading pool from the open remains of the neck. Of his head there was no sign except the dripping residue over one corner of the room."

Raw field surgeries done on the run, with the patient clenching the teeth on a rag to stop from screaming.

And insane car chases with ramp masters fighting on top of speeding trucks, Blackwidow gunships, hitting the bitumen of the road at over one hundred miles per hour and even truck hatch-doors ripped open and launched at incoming enemy forces with a heart-felt: "Dodge this, mother-..."

"What tha' hell!!" will be your only possible reaction to scenes that bring in mind Fast and Furious, Blade and Underworld!


All the above is told in a first-rate cinematic style that manages to draw the reader in to the point of not wanting to stop reading!

The description of guns and technology Graeme offers, blurs the line between fantasy and reality in such a subtle manner that you will have to wonder where reality ends and fantasy begins. The level of research on this particular subject, that the author has obviously done, is staggering.

And all of it combines with a natural dialogue and easy flowing writing style that practically makes the tale jump off the page.
It is so easy to picture a frustrated commander muttering:
"What the hell am I supposed to say, we just got our asses kicked by one man with a fucking flying frisbee?!"
or a young policeman fresh out of cadet school "clutching his cap tight to his head to stop the wash from two vehicles blowing it off."

And no! Graeme is not one of those writers who give you a happy ever after perfect ending. He doesn't hold back from wounding his own people, and doesn't shy away from killing them either. So be careful who you get attached to, cause you may get a lot of heartache at the end of this book!

The bottom-line is this: there's only so many ways to say A-W-E-S-O-M-E when talking about The Dragon's Den. I've read it with the cool action-loving guys from Fantasy Buddy Reads and all of us, in that BR agreed on the same. This book packs a hell of a punch and it is simply:



You Have Got To Read This People!!
You may just love quite as much as I did!
Happy reading! :)

Check out this book and more of Graeme Rodaughan here!