Yes, the Dragon Gate series is what I have been reading in the last few weeks. In fact, it was rather riveting, for several reasons.
The Dragon Gate heroes
Lindsay offers up a bunch of good people, starting with Jadora, a scientist, herbalist and archaeologist, and her son Jak. Both are on a quest to find a special artifact – but when they do, their lives are irrevocably changed, along with the entire world. Because they found a dragon gate…
There are also a bunch of mercenaries, mostly women. They are great fun, they are lippy and they don’t take prisoners. Well, mostly. Unfortunately, they find out that they cannot always choose who they work for. Let me name Ferroki, the captain of the mercenary band, and Sorath, who is trying to be an ex-mercenary – and failing.
Next is Vinjo, a creative engineer and minor mage. He’s a genius, and that lands him in hot water. Or cold water, depending. He finds out the hard way that he has little choice who to work for if he wants to stay alive.
And finally, we have the zidarr Malek, the champion of one of the major mage-kings in this world, fighter extraordinaire and accomplished mage himself. Superhuman, basically. Most of the zidarr are cold, arrogant men (there is no female zidarr, although someone we get to meet has tried), but Malek has a different past and turns out to be as honorable as his position allows him to be. Which comes with a price, at times.
Yes, there are some romantic relationships that develop among the good guys, and they are slow burn. In fact, when several finally do end up in bed together in Book 5, it took me by surprise. (Nothing very graphic, but yes, they do get close and personal.)
The Dragon Gate Villains
Most fantasy books have villains, and this series is no exception. The world is ruled by several kings and at least one queen. They are mages who live and rule from flying cities, literally looking down on those puny, terrene humans without magic.
Uthari is one of those mage-kings, and while he can be generous, he tends to be fairly narrow-minded and only interested in his own well-being. He twists and uses everyone he gets his hands on. He’s also very old and one of the strongest mages in the world. It takes quite a while in the series before he actually has reason to fear anyone – and he moves quickly to contain the sources of that fear. No, he is not a good guy.
Tonovan is the commander of King Uthari’s mageship fleet, and he is the stereotypical bad guy. Arrogant, greedy, a rapist and a killer. The guy we all love to hate. He gets his hands on almost all of the good guys and gals at least once…
The Dragon Gate Dragons
Yes, there are dragons in the series, but it takes quite a while for them to show up, and… almost all of the ones who do are in a very bad mood. I won’t say more because you really need to read the series to understand what happened to the dragons and why they are what they are.
The Dragon Gate Series from a Writer Perspective
Now, this is where I will gush and fangirl. Because this series takes epic to another level.
You see, the plot twists and turns worse than a greased snake. And many, many times, Lindsay manages to pit our heroes against each other. Again and again, they end up in situations with impossible choices – and our heroes slip out of death’s clutches by the breadth of several times, often for a price. This is masterful. Seriously. I learned so much just from reading the series.
All heroes are up against impossible odds, too. Most of them have no magic. At the start, actually only Malek has any magical powers, but that changes over the course of the series (for reasons that make a lot of sense). On the other hand, practically all mages are villains who can read minds, throw fireballs and squash people they dislike. Or torture them.
And throughout the series, things get worse. The threats grow bigger. Heroes make mistakes that earn them even more danger. The stakes get higher – in the end, it’s about saving the world, not just their own lives anymore. The way this world unfolds and grows is also very well done, so I took notes on worldbuilding.
Having said all that, I can’t wait for the final book to come out – it’s scheduled for October and it’s in editing already.
Where to get the Dragon Gate Series
Right now, the series is exclusive to Amazon, and it’s in Kindle Unlimited. This will probably change eventually, Lindsay does put her books up on other stores after some time. There will also be audiobooks if you prefer those.
I’ll link you directly to the Series Page on Amazon COM: Dragon Gate Series.
More Dragon Gate Fun
Lindsay has a lovely website, and she wrote a post with some backstory when she was just starting out writing the series. Definitely worth a few chuckles: Dragon Gate: Behind the Scenes
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