Iron Dragons: Book 1 – The Saramond Quests
Derek Gilbert joins the ranks of others making freely available serialized audiobooks. His new title is Iron Dragons: Book 1 – The Saramond Quests, and I love how the description starts:
Dragon pee really stinks.
With that bit of cautionary advice, master dragonslayer Davian begins his tale.
Davian is a Third Level Master of The Order, a group of men who alone have the power to battle the most fearsome creatures on all of Saramond. For thousands of years, the brothers of The Order have protected their world.
Now something has upset the balance of power between man and dragon, and Davian must face what appears to be a dragon that cannot be seen.
But Davian is losing his grip on reality — and the fate of the world rests with a stable hand, an underfed priest, and a gardener from beyond the stars.
The default feed has the first five episodes for those who want to follow along with the author. Others (like me) prefer a custom feed where you choose how often you get new episodes.
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October 14th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I’ve read Iron Dragons. It’s excellent! I’m glad it’s out in audio now too!
November 5th, 2008 at 7:44 am
An excellent book. Glad to hear an audio version.
November 12th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Love the audiobook…the author here really has the perfect tone/voice for this book’s narration.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I admit it, since being introduced to podcasts last December, I’ve become an addict. I’ve listened to many podcast. Although this story isn’t finished yet, I’ve become captivated by it. I’m eager to discover what will happen next.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Not for me.
**!!Spolier Warning!!**
Starts strong.
In a fairly standard AD&D fantasy world…
* A magical knight/professional dragon slayer is sent into a region where his fellow slayers and the dragons they hunt are going mad.
* Abducted by rogues he is blackmailed into using his powers for evil.
* Knight’s (comic relief) sidekick adopts a cute dog and assists in freeing them from the rogues.
* Knight begins hallucinating and becomes a threat to his companions.
Pretty good so far! Like I said a strong start. The hallucinations really hooked me.
Then we encounter a silver-suited spaceman who is one red shirt away from being a Starfleet crewman, and tells us that a Medieval villain has captured his space ship and is using it’s technology to take over the world.
Okay… I think the willing suspension of disbelief was stretched into the Golden Gate bridge.
Sorry, you lost me.
November 29th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Baxter: I appreciate your comments. I knew the curve would lose some people, but I had to add some hard(er) sci/fi via the spaceman–I really, really don’t like fantasy novels. Thanks for giving it a try!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:13 am
My thoughts after listening to this one are hmmm, because I don’t really know exactly what to make of it. So I will try to be objective and honest in relaying my opinion.
The good thing is I made it to the end which is always a good sign that a tale is well told. So many of the books you find here really need a lot more work before being posted on this site, and this one is no excpetion.
It suffers from a mild amount of repetition, character rambling and sloppy prose. All this is not too bad and could easily be fixed with a little tightening up. The Characters speak in some kind of semi old English which I think hams the story up a bit, or possibly it just doesn’t work with the orators accent… I’m not sure. I was stumped half way through the tale by the intrusion of Sci-fi on what I originally and completely considered to be a classic fantasy story, but I have to say even though it was a surprise it wasn’t handled badly at all. It really isn’t for me to say the writer should or should not do this, that is soley his choice, but it is a strange combination.
That said, this author really is a good story teller. It is easy for me to say he has a way to go in perfecting this tale, as for all I know this is a hundreth rewrite, but still I think it needs work as it has the potential to be a lot better. The characters are vibrant and realistic, the pace is good, and for the most part the story is engaging. I would like to see more from this author as he definately has a lot of potential.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
This book was a lot of fun and took some surprising turns. Sometimes I finish a podcasted novel and wonder why I even bothered to listen, but this was certainly not the case here. I look forward to more from this author.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I really enjoyed this story – Normally I am a Sci Fi fan but I really got in to this one. To my surprise and pleasure the author has managed to successfully mix fantasy and Sci Fi technology.
I cant wait for the next book to be released on podiobooks.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Loved this book. Great story. Great reading
February 19th, 2009 at 12:00 am
This is a fun book with a simple story that travels in a straight line from beginning to end. But this lack of complexity does not take away from the fact that its fun.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:08 am
One of the few pod-books I’ve finished lately while waiting for others to manifest on the feed. This is a good sign. The narration is excellent. DG’s broadcast background certainly shines through here. For listening enjoyment he got it right: good sound levels, no annoying effects or character voice changes (Sigler I’m looking at you) and good vocal tone.
The story – yes it’s simple. But its not always easy to tell a simple tale. What kept me going was the quality narration and the first person POV. DG’s telling of Davian’s account of these events is comelling – even when the events themselves are not. I was disappointed that we did not get a more robust picture of the world and its people. I was free to put this story into a generic “Neverwinter Nights” kind of environment and that made it less enjoyable. Which gets to my main complaint.
While not a bully pulpit, this story, especially the resolution, becomes an awkward stump for religion. Thankfully DG stopped short of giving us a full sermon, but his intentions are not easily masked.
Overall a good addition to the PB catalog. I look forward to DG pursuing this story and hope his personal faith does not further alienate me. 3.5-4 stars
June 16th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Really enjoyable listen. Extremely well read which is always a plus!
October 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
by far one of the best production recordings Ive heard in a long time. the reading is fast paced the narration is clear and the story is refreshing and had me hooked. the twist with the space man was not a surprise but did not take away from my interest in the story. i hope Mr Gilbert produces more story’s in this series and soon.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:57 am
As with most of the reviews I thought this was an entertaining, interesting and well read story and although the religion was clearly Christian based it wasn’t at all preachy and touched on criticisms of organised religion as well as the good parts. Looking forward to book 2 now
March 7th, 2010 at 3:25 am
Loved the audiobook. I got sucked in after the first two chapters. Is there a release date for the second book? Loved Christian based theme in the end as well. Keep up the good work Derek.