The Dinosaur Lords - Reading Update

The Dinosaur Lords
by Victor Milan

What is it about:
A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal planteaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meateaters like Allosaurus and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from batsized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…and the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where we have vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engaged in battle. And during the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac – and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

What do I think of it so far:
I'm a little bit over halfway through this book, and I'm stuck for now.

This books begins really good! There are dinosaurs, battles, and cool characters. I very much enjoyed the battle scenes with all the dinosaurs. Then the battle ended and the dinosaurs disappeared from the story. There's a small mention from time to time, one duel where the knights ride dinosaurs, but that's about it until at least page 323.

Still: at first I didn't have any problems with that. Especially the storyline with Dinosaur Lord Karyl and dinosaur master Rob, who are send on an important mission, was interesting enough to keep reading. It's the other two characters that made my reading slow to a crawl though. I just do not care enough about Champion Jaume and his lady love Princess Melodia to read about the courtly intrigues and petty squabbles.

I contemplated skipping the storyline about Jaume and Melodia, but as I was afraid I wouldn't understand the overall story anymore, I tried to stick with it. Ending in me not being eager to pick up the book to continue reading.

So for now I've put the book aside. With still over 250 pages to go I just don't have the energy to deal with Jaume and Melodia at the moment. I might continue when I get curious enough about how things will turn out for Karyl and Rob.

Why should you read it:
It is a well written Fantasy read with Dinosaurs.