REVIEW + Book Tour: “The Dragon Eater” by J. Scott Coatsworth || + #Giveaway & Excerpt!

 
J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer YA/crossover Sci-Fantasy (with romance subplot!) book out: The Dragon Eater, Tharassas Cycle book #1. There’s also a giveaway, an excerpt, a *free* book with purchase, and I’ve got a 5-star review for this fantastic book!! Check it all out below.

 

 

Title: The Dragon Eater
Author: J. Scott Coatsworth
Series: The Tharassas Cycle (Book #1)

Release date: Thursday, March 16, 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Sci-Fantasy, YA Crossover
LGBTQA+ characters: Gay, Bi
Length: 92,500 words
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink
Cover Artist: Kelley York, Sleepy Fox Studios
 
 
Raven’s a thief who just swallowed a dragon. A small one, sure, but now his arms are growing scales, the local wildlife is acting up, and his snarky AI familiar is no help whatsoever.

Raven’s best friend Aik is a guardsman carrying a torch for the thief. A pickpocket and a guard? Never going to happen. And Aik’s ex-fiancé Silya, an initiate priestess in the midst of a magical crisis, hates Raven with the heat of a thousand suns.

This unlikely team must work together to face strange beasts, alien artifacts, and a world-altering threat. If they don’t figure out what to do soon, it might just be the end of everything.

Things are about to get messy.

 

Series Blurb:

The Tharassas Cycle is a four book sci-fantasy series set on the recently colonized world of Tharassas. When humans first arrived on planet, they thought they were alone until the hencha mind made itself known. But now a new threat has arisen to challenge both humankind and their new allies on this alien world.

 

Preorder and Get the Prequel Free:

I’m giving away the prequel, Tales From Tharassas, with all orders – it contains The Last Run, The Emp Test, and a brand new short story the Fallen Angel. Just order the book and email me a proof of purchase at scott@jscottcoatsworth.com, and I’ll send you the eBook.

 
 

The Dragon Eater is available at these retailers!

Amazon US | Amazon AUS | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN

Universal Buy Link | Kobo | Google Play | Barnes & Noble

Apple Books | Smashwords | Publisher

 
 

You can also add it to your shelf on Goodreads.

 
 

 
 

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GIVEAWAY:

 

Scott is giving away a $20 book gift card with this reveal – your choice of Amazon, B&N, Kobo or Smashwords. Enter for a chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

{Or paste this link into your browser: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47276/}

 
 

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Excerpt

 

 
 
SIL’AYA LISTENED.

She knelt among the hencha plants, the cowl of her purple robe pulled back, her knees sunk deep into the rich, loamy soil. Her hands were palms down, fingers resting lightly on the rough, reddish-purple leaves of one of the plants, tremors shaking her arms from holding the position so long.

Golden Tarsis was rising in the east, casting long shadows across the even rows of the hencha field, and a flurry of wisps floated past, bright blue sparks in the growing night.

The plants rustled all around her, restless, their leaves shivering although the night was warm. The sea winds off the Harkness were unusually dry this year, and the sisters had been whispering among themselves for months about the lack of precipitation. Some said prayers to the twins, Fre’Oss and Fri’Oss, for rain and crop fertility. Silya had no time for such nonsense.

She waited for something to happen. For the hencha to open themselves to her, to reach the deep connection her great, great grandmother had made with the semi-sentient plants. Some hint that she wasn’t wasting her time here.

That maybe, just maybe, she really was destined to be the next Hencha Queen — to have that vast, unknowable being form a communion with her, like it had with Queen Jas, and the sisters who had come after. Give me a clue.

The other initiates called her the Hencha Princess.

Silya snorted. Jealous puffer hens. They assumed that she’d be the next Hencha Queen because of her family. Never mind that her great grandmother had been adopted by Jas’Aya and Sera, so there was no blood connection. Or that all that had happened more than a century before.

Concentrate, Silya. What would it feel like, to be filled by a higher power? She took a deep breath, closing her eyes again and trying to center herself. Draw it in, hold it for five seconds, let it out. Repeat.

Something tickled her mind. It was teasing, almost playful.

A thrill ran through her, goose bumps raising on her arms. She focused on the sensation, allowing it room to come in.

Warmth washed over her, an alien presence that made her nose burn with a smell like charcoal. It grew in her mind, as if it was just becoming aware of her. There was a vast strength behind it, a pressure in the back of her skull like a dam about to break.

Her heart beat faster, suffusing her with joy. Her moment had come. The hencha were finally speaking to her —

“Silya!”

She opened her eyes and looked around wildly, startled by the voice out of nowhere, ready to rip the spine out of whomever had interrupted her communion. Gods dammit. So close.

She knew that voice. Aiken Erio.

Her joy dissolved into anger. You shouldn’t be here. Not now. Especially not now, when the hencha had finally touched her mind for the first time.

She let go of the leaves reluctantly and stood, brushing the dirt off her knees angrily, looking around for her unwelcome visitor.

 

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Review

 

It was supposed to be a simple plan: steal the thing and run before anyone caught him. Except now Raven Orn has problems. That thing was an egg, and inside that was another thing—that shoved itself down Raven’s throat and into his stomach. It’s not food, it’s alive, and Raven has no idea what it is, only that it’s doing awful things to him. His truest friend, Aik, tries to help him (while enlisting the help of others, including Aik’s ex, Silya), but when it rains this hard, it pours in the greatest of deluges, and they’re swept up in a stunning adventure—all while their whole world is under the threat of a great and silent danger.

The Dragon Eater is the first book of the The Tharassas Cycle, a new series by prolific author J. Scott Coatsworth. Like many of Coatsworth’s other works, The Dragon Eater is an engaging work of speculative fiction featuring queer characters, this time blending traditional high (and epic) fantasy with the shiny glimmers of science fiction—and there’s a romantic subplot woven throughout, leaving us wondering if Raven will hook up with sweet, caring Aik, who really does love him.

There’s so much to grasp on to in this book, from the premise and characters to the history of what’s really going on. The book is centred on Raven, but his perspective is only one part of the story—the rest is told through multiple POVs, all of them in 3rd-person, each with valuable details. Every member of the ensemble cast plays a part in the story, small as their role may seem at the time. But don’t be fooled: not everything is as it looks on the surface. Time of the essence and Raven’s circumstances are only one newly opened window on a much larger situation to come, one that’ll really put survival to the test.

As a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, I loved this book. The author’s experience with both genres shines through: the writing is tight and clear with everything well thought out and intertwined. There’s no fluff here—everything has a purpose, even if you can’t figure out what it is yet. The worldbuilding is there from the first word, and there’s no holding back. The use of description is fantastic—I could see the characters and scenes moving along in my head, so clear that it would be easy to put this on a movie/TV screen. This could make for a great film! (And having said that: I got so many vibes from this that I loved. Sometimes I got a Dungeons & Dragons vibe, while at other times, Raven reminded me of Autolycus from Xena: Warrior Princess, since Autolycus is also a fun and mischievous thief known for getting himself into ridiculous situations. But there were other moments that reminded me of when I watch things like Stargate and Doctor Who, where I find myself yelling at the characters “NO! PUT IT DOWN! ALIEN TECH DOES STUFF!”)

But those are just flavours I drew from this. This story stands on its own merits, including how well the world and characters are written. Their world is vast, and it feels that way because the author invested time in creating a world that’s fully pulled together. Readers get to learn about the geography and geology of the world, but also pieces of its history, politics, science, and religion (polytheistic at that, which I love). There are societal matters, money, ranks, specific language rules, and a whole culture, right down to the specific conventions around their names, which is honestly one of my favourite details. There are also little hints of how their world connects to ours, which I found both charming and clever. (Extra points for The Proclaimers reference! And the “ae-eye”… I see what you did there.)

Importantly, though, the storytelling has great movement and texture. The dialogue is easy, full of tone and emotion, and carries significant depth. The glimpses into the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings give a full-bodied storytelling that kept drawing me all the way to the end—and it’s absolutely left me wanting more. Notably, the characters are all very different, right down to nuances like nervous habits. They’re not only complex, they’re complicated with strengths, weaknesses, and flaws. I also really loved the LGBTQ+ representation here! Multiple characters fall under that umbrella, including Raven himself (gay) and Aik (bi).

Another really awesome aspect is how easily the genres are blended here. There’s an effortless flow of genres that makes sense, rather than feeling contrived or forced. And even though the main characters don’t understand certain references that the character Spin makes, or the references to alien tech, the reader does understand the references. Because of that, the story encourages readers to bring their own knowledge to the story, knowing things the characters don’t—kind of a flip on knowledge exchange. Usually, as readers, we’re reliant on the characters telling us about their world and their stories. But here, there’s a true exchange going on, where readers are privy to information the main characters don’t have, while those characters have other information that the reader doesn’t have. I also really loved the recurring motifs, particularly the constant draw on the theme of water and fluidity, which really came through with the specific word choices.

Overall, I give the book 5 stars. I can’t wait to see where Book #2 takes this cast. I couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more from this first installment, except for maybe one super tight hug full of TLC for my boy Aik near the end. ♥

Plot = 5
Characters & relationships = 5
Overall = 5

* I received this book as a complimentary ARC, and this is my honest opinion and voluntary review.

 
 

 
 

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Author Bio

Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.

He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com

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