Aranya, princess of the island kingdom of Immadia, is given up as hostage to the invading Sylakian Empire. Chained aboard a Sylakian dragonship (dirigible), she manages to save the commanding officer, a Warhammer, from a windroc. She has a bit of freedom once imprisoned with all the other hostages of subjugated nations but that doesn’t prevent the hostages from forming cliques and taunting one another. Matters get out of hand and Aranya is sentenced to die. She is shackled to a stone and tossed off a high escarpment. That’s when her life changes forever as she shapeshifts into a dragon. This might just be the turning point in the war with Sylakia.

There’s much to be enjoyed in this book. I liked Aranya as a character even though she didn’t wow me. She’s not perfect but she has a good heart. She has her strengths and weaknesses but she also has some good companions to help her along the way. My one quibble would be that she’s a little too good, only having minor flaws. She was rather bland and this made her a little boring.

Meanwhile, her best friend and dragonrider is Zip (short for Zuziana), another princess hostage. They don’t start off as friends but they eventually find merit in each other and bond over shared experiences. Zip has a mouth on her short frame and isn’t afraid to use it, like her archery skills.

The plot was in two pieces for me. In fact, it felt like this was two books pressed into one. First, Aranya must discover who and what she is. That whole bit about being tossed off a cliff that’s mentioned in the book’s description doesn’t happen until several hours into the book. The second half of the book is Aranya and Zip running some guerrilla tactics on the Sylakian air navy and eventually having a really big battle to determine the fate of the island kingdoms.

Let’s talk a little about the male characters. Mostly, they are either there for comfort (like Aranya’s dad) or are of a romantic interest (like Yolathian and the formerly nameless monk). Occasionally they get to do stuff and have a few meaningful lines. That said, most of their plot-related actions happen off the page and the reader only hears about it after the fact. It is both refreshing and odd to have a book that wouldn’t pass a reverse-Bechdel test.

Nak and Odya, an older couple who have experience with both natural dragons and dragon shapeshifters, get to play teachers and stand-in grandparents to Aranya. Sometimes this was very sweet and sometimes Nak was outright creepy with all his lecherous comments to and about Aranya and later Zip. Odya and Nak know something about Aranya’s parentage but are reluctant to give up all their secrets. Aranya’s mom is something of a mystery throughout the book and that’s one of the things I liked.

There’s also warrior pygmies on some of the isles and Zip and Aranya have to trade with them. Then there’s the dragonets, which are small dragons with limited intelligence and speech. This last bit really reminded me of some of Anne McCaffrey’s books. As a biologist, I got a kick out of the info about dragon anatomy – 3 hearts, 7 stomachs, etc. After so many mentions about dragon digestion I did start to wonder about dragon poo. For a good chunk of the book, Aryana in dragon form is being tracked by the Sylakians and spoor is a useful find when tracking anything. Alas, no dragon dung.

As the story goes on, Aryana’s powers grow. At first, this seemed natural and I was interested. Later on though, she has so many powers that she’s getting close to be invincible and I found this a bit boring. I like my heroes to have limited abilities and therefore, they sometimes have to rely either on others or on their wits to get them out of a jam.

All told, it’s a good solid start to an epic dragon fantasy series. The two main characters are pretty interesting and the world they inhabit has a lot left to explore.

I received a free copy of this book via The Audiobook Worm.

The Narration: Shiromi Arserio makes a really good Aranya, both princess and dragon. I enjoyed the quick banter between Aranya and Zip throughout the book. For the most part, she usually had distinct character voices but sometimes there were a few conversations where the distinctions became muddled. The male character voices really needed some masculinity. She was great at imbuing characters with the correct emotions. ( )

My original Aranya audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Aranya is the first novel in a series called Shapeshifter Dragons by Marc Secchia. Aranya is the daughter of the king of Immadia and knows that she has some special powers. When she is sent off to be a hostage due to her kingdoms fall, she quickly makes enemies that push her into realizing her real powers. As she becomes used to her powers, Aranya decides to rescue her fellow hostage, Zip. They decide to take on the tyrannical kingdom that had taken them hostage using Aranya’s powers. As they continue on their adventure, Aranya must try to learn all that she can about her growing powers and how they might shape her destiny and the fate of their island world.

I really wanted to love this novel, but I really struggled with it. It felt too much like a young adult novel that had matured to have appeal for an adult audience as well as a younger audience. I think that the plot has potential, but, for me, the story fell flat. There were definitely many positive aspects: many of the characters did have depth and there are a lot of charming dialogues. The dragonettes and the hidden magic that wasn’t fully revealed in this first novel were interesting. However, ultimately, I couldn’t empathize with Aranya because of the simpleness of her emotions, which made this novel less appealing. There was a lot of flying and a lot of fighting in the air and I just could not pay attention to the action. Unfortunately, this made the novel drag because I had to listen to it over and over again. There was also a lot of archaic language that seemed out of place. Beyond that, the romances irritated me because they had almost no foundation and resulted in a lot of immature and incomplete emotions. I didn’t they they were necessary beyond superficial crushes. While I really like young adult novels, I think this one just didn’t capture my imagination and seemed like it was for a younger audience.

The narration by Shiromi Arserio was acceptable. Her voice was in general was soft and soothing and potentially resulted in my inability to focus on the story. However, she did a fine job with voicing the different characters. The production quality was good. I would recommend this novel to young adult readers who like fantasy, magic, and dragons.

Audiobook provided for review by the author ( )

This book started out slow and almost made me stop reading. Once I hit around the 15% mark on my Kindle, the plot and action picked up and I consumed the book. I'm glad I hung in there because this was a fantastic fantasy novel. I've not read too many of late that have captured my interest but this one certainly did.

The world building, politics, character development and plot were woven together rather well and kept me vested in the story. There were also some twists that I didn't see coming but completely enjoyed when they came about.

The romances (yes there are more than one!) were all believable and paced well. I liked the heroine's spunk as well as her emotional growth as the story progressed.

Would I recommend this book to others? Yes! Yes! Yes! I plan on reading the sequel. ( )

An intriguing new paranormal fantasy, Aranya, by author Marc Secchia is the first book in the Shapeshifter Dragons series and one that may well capture your imagination. It’s a popular genre with a host of new releases readily filling the shelves, but Secchia certainly seems ready to make his mark. With rarely a dull moment, he spins a mythical yarn, achieving a notable balance between luxurious detail and intense action, which fans of the high fantasy genre will certainly applaud, but it’s Secchia’s world building prowess that really sets this tale apart.

With a host of colourful and many original character incarnations, the time honoured theme of good versus evil takes on a refreshingly unfamiliar dimension.

From Stephan J Myers originally posted on http://bookviral.com/aranya/4585525542 ( )