Dragon’s Trail

The Outworlders, Book 1

"I didn't come here to sell my soul. I came here to buy it back."

Once dubbed "The Deadliest Man Alive", Jarrod Torrealday is a former Olympic saber hopeful and medieval-weapons expert banned from competition for killing another fencer in a duel. Despondent, volatile, alcoholic, yet still one of the greatest swordsmen alive, he now works for third-rate fantasy films as a technical consultant and stuntman.

When Jarrod accepts the gig of a lifetime from a sorcerer looking for a hero, he finds himself facing an invading army in a world inhabited by creatures from Earth's mythical past. He soon learns that the enemy mastermind is also from Earth and has laid the foundations for a new kind of war.

Contains mature themes.

©2016, 2017 Joseph Malik (P)2019 Tantor

wow

could not put the book down. great detail and vision that allowed you to see events

Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA)

I enjoyed Dragon's Trail on two levels.

Level 1 -- Genre: People from Earth get portaled to a magical realm of knights, castles, and wizards. Dragon's Trail is a well executed example of the genre -- if you are comfortable with men's locker room humor.

Level 2 -- Focus: The novel focuses on the technical aspects of both medieval fighting -- Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) -- and unarmed martial arts. I loved this, but others may find it tiresome.

A great first installment... if a touch short.

This story was a refreshing twist on the standard trope about the guy who goes back in time and applies his modern knowledge to affect change in a tumultuous world. It was nice that the whole plot didn’t revolve solely around the MC’s future-based knowledge, which is the more typical move of most authors in this genre.

The scope of the plot in the this book felt a little underdone due to the ending, but that’s certainly not a reason to miss out on this engrossing story.

The editing was seamless and the performance of the narrator was superb. There were minor things that kept me from giving a 5 star review, but in order to hit that mark a book really has to knock me off my feet.

Definitely worth the credit though... I’m looking forward to the next installment.

gripping storytelling

started off abit slow, but with the releam travel, stunt person adventure, then the heros journey, it was so good I couldn't put it down. Narrator is awesome with the different character voices. particularly the elfs and fairyfolk. the Author's attention to steels and sword play are a sword nerds wet dream

Was hard for me to connect

I saw this author at a panel and he was a great speaker. The book was very tactical and strategic. The main character started as the hero and remained the hero. I don’t feel he learned or grew at all. It was definitely written from a man’s perspective. It reminded me of those fighter anime’s that do a lot of fan service and completely avoid any meaningful connections