Book Review: The Dinosaur Princess by Victor Milán
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Dinosaur Princess by Victor Milán
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 3 of The Dinosaur Lords
Publisher: Tor (August 15, 2017)
Length: 448 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
In the first book, The Dinosaur Lords, Victor Milán took my imagination by storm with Paradise, a land populated by dinosaurs and the medieval knights that rode them. While things slowed down a little in its sequel The Dinosaur Knights, I still had faith enough to grab the next book, because surely a premise this cool deserved a second chance. Sadly though, instead of picking up again, the plot has continued to lose its steam in this third installment, and I think maybe it’s time to face the hard truth that the honeymoon period between me and this series might be over.
The Dinosaur Princess begins with a kidnapping. With the confusion of the war and all parties still reeling from the revelation of the Grey Angels, the royal family’s enemies have struck the palace and stolen away Montserrat, the adored little sister of Princess Melodía. Taking it upon himself to rescue the girl, Melodía’s lover and the hero of the realm Prince Jaume dels Flors has gathered a team to go after the kidnappers before they can reach the coast and disappear. Luckily for everyone, Montserrat isn’t as helpless as many think she is. Using her language skills to eavesdrop and spy on her captors, the young teen has left an invaluable trail of clues for the Jaume to follow, and the rescue would have succeeded too, if not for an unexpected twist.
As another faction enters the fray, those already embroiled in the war have no idea what to make of the mystical implications behind this development. Some remain skeptical of Jaume’s account of what happened and as a result, both his and Melodía’s standing are damaged in the eyes of the court. This setback is the last thing the princess needs as she attempts to counsel her hot-tempered father, while those with questionable allegiances whisper dangerous sentiments in his ear and others scream loudly for blood and revenge. Meanwhile, dinosaur master Rob Korrigan and his friend the famed captain Karyl Bogomirskiy have their hands full trying to keep the people of the countryside calm and stave off any dissent. Becoming elevated to noble positions should have helped, but to no one’s surprise, it doesn’t.
This series has been described as Game of Thrones meets Jurassic Park, and while I found this to be a brilliant pitch for the first book, the comparison has become less appropriate for the sequels. We seem to be in a holding pattern right now, with the political intrigue having lost much of its attraction, and the pacing of the overall story arc has slowed to a crawl. Most discouraging of all, there has also been a decrease in the dinosaur action. Considering this is the main selling point of the series, this last issue might have been the most detrimental to my enjoyment.
I also feel we’ve lost sight of the main goal, somewhat. Princess Montserrat’s kidnapping smacked strongly of being a diversion, and sure enough, it served as a precursor to another bigger reveal. When so many other conflicts still in the air though, I wasn’t sure throwing a new bombshell like that into the mix was the right decision. The Dinosaur Knights already had the feel of a “bridge” book, and I was looking forward to some steps towards resolution in this third installment, not more interruptions or distractions to weigh down the storyline. All the exposition required to set up this new plot development only served to slow the pacing down some more, and although the author might have tried to offset this by injecting more shock value into the battle scenes and descriptions of scantily clad female characters, that just put me off even more.
With most books that don’t work for me though, I can still usually find a silver lining, and in this case, I loved the focus on Montserrat. While Melodía may be the star of the series, in my eyes her little sis has already surpassed her in many ways. To be honest, I was actually quite unimpressed by the main characters, their roles remaining in a holding pattern like so much else in this book (e.g. Rob and Karyl), though Melodía did have her moments towards the end, making up for the impotent rage she exhibited for most of the novel. A couple more new faces also join the cast, most notably the mercurial Margrethe and the crafty Rosamaria. I admit to being very curious to see where Milán will take the story with this pair of powerful, clashing personalities at court, and if I pick up the next book, these two women will be a big part of the reason.
At this point, I can’t say I’m as excited about this series as I was before, but there’s still probably time for things to turn around, especially now that we’ve spent two books setting up the groundwork for the eventual showdown between the great houses of Paradise, the Grey Angels, and now the newly introduced faction. The slowness along with the lack of any meaningful development in the story made this book a struggle to get through, but if we get more dinosaur action and plot progress in the next one, I could be tempted to read on.
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of The Dinosaur Lords (Book 1)
Review of The Dinosaur Knights (Book 2)
The BiblioSanctum 
Oh sorry it didn’t improve there… the idea is interesting that’s true… but well…
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Yeah, a pity!
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The covers of these always appeal t me, but the premise didn’t really grab me (in spite of dinosaurs!) Too bad this one seemed to slow down a bit, hopefully the next one will get things back on track! At least there were some good moments with Montserrat and the two new faces. Nice review, good to see more about these books, I’ve been curious.
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Yeah the covers are awesome! At this rate, I might wait for reviews of the next book before I dive in. And it would have be vastly improved for me to give it a try 🙂
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Your reaction mirrors my own of Taylor Anderson’s “Destroyermen” series. That is still on-going with no end in sight and I stopped at book 8.
Maybe Milan is trying for a 10 book series or something?
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I have no idea, lol! This book was pitched as the finale to a trilogy, but considering the way it ended, that’s definitely not the case. Or at least I hope not, I would be pretty miffed if that’s supposed to pass for a conclusion 😀
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I think I would have given up on this series by now. You definitely have more staying power than I do, or should I say you’re more optimistic than I am! There are just too many good books out there to keep reading a series that isn’t getting better.
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I know, I can’t help it, I just always feel like I might be missing out if I quit and the series suddenly gets better, LOL! I know I should stop this thinking, it hardly ever plays out that way 😀
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Guess we felt about the same after reading this one. Can’t understand why the author decided to scale back the dinos. I mean, that is the key to success here, not the GoT-like intrigue. Weird decision. :[
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Yeah, the scaled back dinos was a minus, and quite honestly I didn’t even think the GoT-like intrigue was all that interesting in this book. It only got good near the end, and by then I was already too worn down to really get excited 😛
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It’s always so sad when a promising series (dinosaurs! they are just as fascinating as dragons 🙂 ) does not deliver on the promises of its beginning: still I might try the first book to see what it’s all about… Thanks for sharing!
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I know, it’s a shame! The first book was the best of the series, and I would recommend it wholeheartedly except that I know the next two books are disappointing compared to it 😦
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I fear I would just give up
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I probably should have, but I’m stubborn 🙂
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Awwww, but I love the idea of this series. 😦
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I know, it’s a pity that such an amazing premise fizzled out like this
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Oh no, that’s not good! I was having an eye on the first book for a bit but wasn’t sure. What I read about it so far, makes me not want to pick it up anymore. Probably a good thing 😀
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First book was good, I give it that – but considering the way things go downhill in book two and then book three, it’s harder for me to recommend now
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I made it 3-4 hours into the first book then demanded my money back. Amateurish … everything. Too many good books out there for me to let all these things slide. I hate to be so critical of books, but this was in no way anything like GoT. Dinosaurs? Yes. Political intrigue? No. Just an attempt to create something special (and kudos to the author for trying and putting a work of art together and getting it published). However, I think this book/series was way overhyped because of the premise, and the poor writing was forgiven way too easily. One of my pet peeves, and something that will ruin a story for me every time. Just my 2 cents 🙂 but at least someone got some enjoyment from the series.
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Yeah, now I regret recommending the first book, considering how things have gone downhill in books 2 and 3. I still think The Dinosaur Lords had a lot of potential, too bad all the seeds planted in that novel has thus far gone nowhere, or are just being developed very slowly. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, but I am considering giving the next one a final look before calling it quits. And who knows, maybe book four will be the conclusion too, and if so, it’d better be worth it.
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You’ve definitely given this a very good shot – to be honest, yes, I probably would have given up by now! I only ever read an excerpt from book 1 which was fascinating and made me want to pick up the series but then I kind of sat on the fence after book 2 came out – and now I think I’ll perhaps stay on the fence.
Lynn 😀
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