Song of Dragons: The Complete Trilogy (World of Requiem)

Song of Dragons Trilogy (Blood of Requiem, Tears of Requiem, Light of Requiem) - Daniel ArensonThe beginning of the description on Amazon states,"Song of Dragons, an epic fantasy trilogy, tells the story of Requiem -- a fallen, ancient land whose people could become dragons... and whose last survivors dream of flying again."Since I read this trilogy as a 'single' book, that is how I shall review it. An entertaining series, this epic tale covers a span of decades, yet is mostly set within just a few consecutive years. Yet these few years are filled with a lifetime's worth of living.There are several protagonists that appear throughout the story, but only one main antagonist. And like any good family, the original protagonist and antagonist are brothers. Not just any brothers, they are royalty. However the elder brother, Dies Irae, becomes the antagonist when he is passed over in favor of his younger brother, Prince Benedictus, to inherit the crown. The King considers Dies Irae to be his shame, simply because he does not have the requisite magic of the Vir Requis to shift and become a dragon - thus he can't possibly be considered as the next in line for king. This one decision eventually leads to patricide and ignites a war. Intended to be genocide of his own people, Dies Irae goes on to be the ultimate cause of the destruction of entire species.The war is considered over as all the Vir Requis, or weredragons as Dies Irae names them, are supposed dead. Yet there is a rumor that King Benedictus the Black (due to his being a black dragon) lives on. And that rumor is what keeps one young Vir Requis from losing all hope, particularly when his home is no longer safe for him and he is on the run from Dies Irae himself.A small band of surviving Vir Requis, including Benedictus, are chased from place to pace by Dies Irae and whatever army he builds. Somehow these four dragons manage to do what over a hundred thousand couldn't - they not only survive the armies of Dies Irea, but they go on to destroy them. Yet Dies Irae's insanity spurs him to continue to creates ever worse armies to throw at these dragons. Clearly much of the story is about battles and fighting, running and hiding - enough that Arenson manages to create a trilogy. One would think that all the warring and running would becoming boring well before the third book, yet he manages to infuse them with enough creativity to keep it from feel to repetitive.He has created completely believable characters that are emotionally relatable. And they grow at the right pace, matching the action of the plot. You want to cheer for the good guys while still being able to see their flaws and, at times, want to hit them over the head with a golf club. And he makes the antagonist so repulsive that it can be difficult to read about him at times, yet you forget that tiny spark buried inside him that is the root of all his cruelty.The world that Arenson has created is similar to others that are found in epic fantasies, yet has added his own distinctive mark. Never was there a time where the story was interrupted by a discrepancy in the world he crafted, or by a character stepping out of their role.I enjoyed this trilogy enough that I was excited to learn that Mr. Arenson has more plans for to continue on in this world - but far enough into the future to hopefully avoid any redundancy in his storyline. On a side note: I find myself compelled to comment on the names of the main characters, as there is a theme that is both intriguing and also slightly entertaining, as if he is testing the reader. For example, there is King Benedictus, Kyrie Eleison, Dies Irae, Gloriae, Agnus Dei, and Lacrimosa. And of course their relation to their homeland, Requiem. It seems clear that Arenson is specifically using the religious aspect of each name to tell another, more basic tale. The simplified version of good versus evil. It would seem that he is testing the reader's knowledge of the Requiem Mass. Either that or he is hugely inspired by it.

This three-book set tells the story of Dies Irae, the oldest son of the king of Requiem, who did not have the magic of the dragons and was unable to shift into dragon form. Dies Irae stole his father’s griffin amulet, which allowed him to control the griffins (they had previously been enslaved to the dragons), took over the neighboring human kingdom of Osanna, and began a lifelong vendetta against the dragons of Requiem.Blood of Requiem – In this first book, the main battle with Osanna is in the past – a dozen or so years ago. It appears that Benedictus, king of Requiem, his wife, Lacrimosa, and their daughter, Agnus Dei are the only dragons still alive.Another dragon, Kyrie Eleison, turns up and joins them. He develops something of a crush on Agnus Dei.The Requiem dragons call themselves the Vir Requis. They can shift between human and dragon forms. Dies Irae calls them weredragons and has convinced the humans that they are evil because of this.There is another type of dragons. Called the true dragons, they are of the Chinese type, with no wings. They have no human forms. They fly by twisting and curling their long snake-like forms through the air. Agnus Dei is convinced that if they can find the true dragons, maybe they will agree to help the remnant of the Requiem dragons against Dies Irae and his people.Tears of Requiem – This second book is about the battle with the nightshades. The nightshades are creatures of shadow and pure evil. They are some of the most dangerous evil creatures. Gloriae, who believes herself to be Dies Irae’s daughter, but who is really Benedictus and Lacrimosa’s daughter and Agnus Dei’s twin sister, released them after the dragons defeated Dies Irae, thinking she was helping her father and his people.The previous battle between the Vir Requis and Dies Irae’s people of Osanna has left many griffins, Osannans, and true dragons dead. The griffins, released by King Benedictus after he retrieved the griffin amulet from Dies Irae, have flown off to wherever they originally came from, and the same is true of the true dragons. So, the four Vir Requis, still suffering from severe wounds but all still alive so far, are left to battle the nightshades alone.Gloriae eventually realizes that she has done a really bad thing and runs away from home. In this book too, Gloriae discovers that she is a Vir Requis herself, and she and Agnus Dei begin to work toward an understanding that allows Gloriae to fight with the Vir Requis rather than against them.Finally, Lacrimosa gets the idea to ask the griffins for help. Because she and Benedictus are nice to them they agree to try to help out. But by the end of this book, the people of Osanna, the griffins, and the battered Vir Requis themselves have taken so much damage that you don’t see how any of them keep fighting.Light of Requiem – In the last battle, the city of Confutatis was almost completely destroyed, along with most of the people. They should be defeated. But Noooo… Dies Irae’s hate will not let him rest. Since there are almost no people left alive, he finds some magic with which to create an army out of the dead. He calls them ‘mimics,’ but really they are zombies (although they never say so) created from the sewn-together body parts of all the people, animals, etc. that have died.To counter this, Lacrimosa, Kyrie, Gloriae, and Agnus Dei (Benedictus died at the end of the last battle) find the source of his animations and use it to animate the statues of Requiem to come to their defense. It takes more than just their help though to finally defeat Dies Irae, who has made a zombie of himself and refuses to die.

Overall I enjoyed this trilogy. The underlying story was gripping, the characters very likeable; except for the villain of the story of course who is a complete psycho - as a good villain should be. It is very dark and some of the villains exploits are truly shocking and repulsive which some may not find to their taste. Sometimes, leaving some details to the imagination of the reader is a good thing?With regards to the flaws in the trilogy; I agree with a lot of what already has been said. There are inconsistencies in the story and sometimes the action does seem a bit repetitive, albeit with a different foe. Also, on a personal level, I would've ended the story differently, but I'm not going to spoil the story here, and each to their own as they say.If you enjoy a good epic fantasy story though, there's no reason not to enjoy this and for the money there is little to complain about. Buy it, read it and enjoy it.

I enjoyed books one and two, however, book three was less entertaining the Mimics carried a passing resemblance to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and the gore was overdone whenever a lump was chopped off one.The story line is not too predictable and there is potential left for an extension to the series, the main villain Dies Irae is dead?, however, there are survivors to re-establish the race of Vir Requis.I would have scored 3.5 stars but id not think it warranted 4 stars.

Was confused as to what to rate this book, as it had a lot of ups and downs. At certain times, I felt the book was too juvenile and at times, I thought DA had done the needful to redeem the books, and then I feel th bottom drop out of my belly.It is a good book for young adults, but lacks depth to intrigue the adult fantasy readers. Quite a lot of inconsistency in the storyline, but still a good read nevertheless.

This was quite good fun. However, by the third book I was a bit fed-up. I didn’t really expect much character growth or new plot, but the third book of the trilogy was, for me, just a plot line loosely strung together. The line “I’m going to kill you” was repeated many times - I lost count.In spite of this, good value.

An interesting and unusual premise for a fantasy novel; humans shifting to dragons. The writing was rather simplistic in places and there was a lot of repetition with regard to fight descriptions. However Daniel Arenson made his characters ones that you quickly became interested in and he introduced some unusual fantasy creatures. A promising new writer.