Rating: 4.5🌈
Luckless, a fantastic fantasy short story from Cari Z, reads like a much longer novel. It’s got a depth of characters, and its world building surpasses its length in exploration and dimension.
A absolute fan of anything dragon or dragon rider related, the tale of Evan Luck, now called Luckless because he survived the unimaginable. The loss of his dragon and their bond.
The author brings Evan grief and shattered memories vividly, painfully to life, including the hate and fear that comes from the people around him.
It’s a dystopian Earth fighting for survival against monsters and humanity’s only major hope is the dragons who came and fought with them.
Told completely from Evan’s perspective, we see the remnants of the city, the creatures they are fighting, the dragon and rider pairs, and Lee Caldwell, a new important arrival.
Lee and his young son are both great characters. They balance out Evan in multiple ways, and while it’s easy for a reader to understand or guess about Lee’s role, nothing takes away from the story and the journey that these characters have to go through.
While, the end is a bit abrupt, it helps to know that there’s 2 more books ready to read in this series.
I highly recommend this excellent book, with its fantastic characters and terrific story.
Great cover too.
Luckless series:
Luckless #1
Dauntless #2
Reckless #3
Buy link
Luckless (The Luckless Series Book 1)
Blurb
Evan Luck is a dragon rider with no dragon. Five years ago, his dragon gave her life defending the monster-ridden remnants of Marble, and ever since, his ability to connect empathically to another dragon had been as broken as his heart. Now he spends his days dodging his disappointed mayor, crafting arrows, fighting off the not-as-legendary-as-they-should-be beasts that’ve overrun America, and just trying to get by in the city of Forge.
But when he meets newcomer Lee Caldwell, Evan thinks his lonely luck might be changing. Lee is the only person in the city who doesn’t blame Evan for his dragon’s death, and he welcomes Evan into his own little family. There’s more to Lee than meets the eye, though, and between his refusal to talk about himself, pressure from the mayor to split them up, and a monster attacking the city’s foundations, Evan isn’t sure he’ll live long enough to learn the truth. But not learning the truth will almost certainly be fatal, both to Evan and Lee’s budding relationship, and to the entire city.
- Publisher: Cari Z. (June 1, 2020)
- Publication date: June 1, 2020
- Language: English
- Print length: 80 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 