The Lost Firebreather

By: DM Gilmore

Narrated by: James Scott Spaid

"Your destiny is calling to you. I can hear its song on the wind."

In the secluded swamp of the Shadestalker tribes, Ash always felt like an outcast. To a village of dragons who hide in the shadows, his glittering scales mark him as different. When an accident during his rite of passage leads to him unleashing his dormant powers, he learns a horrifying truth: he's not a Shadestalker at all, but a Firebreather. To make matters worse, the Firebreather kingdom was destroyed by the Ironscale empire thirteen years ago, and its dragons scattered across the continent of Drakona.

Meanwhile, in the beating heart of the empire, Pike yearns to prove himself. As the youngest son of Emperor Bladesteel, everything he does is to differentiate himself from his older siblings. When the chance arises for him to lead a mission to the Shadowglades, he leaps at it. He can't let anything stand in the way of the destiny he desires. There's just one problem: a fugitive Firebreather has thrown all his plans into disarray.

When the two young dragons meet, their worlds change forever. Ash has to flee his childhood home with his brother Albuca to seek out the family he never knew. Pike has to make his way back to a home he hates, guided by the mysterious Hammer, a dragon who knows more than he reveals.

The path ahead is frought with danger, but it is one both must travel if they wish to learn the truth about The Lost Firebreather.

Cover art by Sean McNally. No generative AI was used in the production of this book, in any of its associated art assets, or in production of the audiobook.

©2025 DM Gilmore (P)2026 DM Gilmore

love the book!

THis series has quickly become one of my favorites, I've already read it and The Iron Prince multiple times! I can't wait to see what happens next <3

Dragons but Small World

The world itself and how magic is described is interesting and has plenty to work with if the world is ever expanded on. A bit overly complex in some aeras, and too little explained in others but a good start. This alone would keep me interested but the MCs not so much.

I think DM Gilmore likes writing dragons MCs that either don't have a backbone or are rather boring to watch cause of this and his other series "Lazy Scales" have MCs that are pretty similar. Ash is the main main character of this book but he is very much uninteresting and doesn't change at all from beginning to end, and the only change he experiences are his knowledge and abilities. It feels like he isn't being allowed to give any proper emotional verity outside of sad and optimistic.

He learns about what he is and where he comes from and he doesn't change his ways at all. He doesn't get upset or rage at what could have been his having been taken away from him when he has every right to. He also has a right to grow a spine and take some pride in who he is now that he has an understanding about it. Yes he has a mother and brother still that can be what keeps him from going mad king for too long, but he should still be allowed to not forgive or take out his anger for the spirits he helps later on. Ash very much is the weakest part of this story because of it.

Pike on the other hand needed more time away from the Empire before he went back. This goes into the problem with the size of the world. Yes dragons flying would shorten days into hours with flying (or airships in the case of the Ironscales), but to make up for this the contain needs to be like 10x the size so it still takes days or weeks to go from one capital to another this way we spend more time with characters like Pike and Hammer growing to know each other. And Pike can slowly understand what he learns at the flip of a dime during the last 5-7 chapters.

Pike is far more interesting character as he learns and changes by the end. Even with how rapidly he flips between understanding and going back on his progress. But he dose change and has more interesting relations thanks to characters like Hammer, and even loosing his crew so soon was heartbreaking I would have liked him to grow with his pilots for longer then he had.

Overall this one short has potential but I would love this to be improved upon for Ash and the world size as a whole and then it would be interesting to see fully written out so Ash can rebuild his Kingdom and help tamp down the Ironscale Empire or free the firebreather slaves or something. But Ash will need to change a lot to keep things interesting. And maybe increase the rating up by one level so you can go into more detail on things.

Excellent story with many unexpected twists

I like dragons and books about dragons. If you like dragons or books or both, read this book about dragons.