This was really more like 2.5 stars but Goodreads has no in-between. This is a horrible mini review to write because the concept of this book is fantastic. The start of the book is fantastic. Like can't put it down great and then it just wasn't. By half way through the book it became apparent to me that reading it had become a chore. I think Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch have ruined me for standard fantasy because I just got bored.

Take away the dinosaurs and there was nothing new here. The book reads like a standard fantasy novel. I didn't really care that much about the story and after awhile I didn't care that much about the characters. The coolest part was the dinosaurs but except for a few scenes they might as well have been horses. This book made me break my 100 page rule where I put a book aside if it doesn't catch me because it did. The writing is good but ultimately it just fell short. Maybe as disappointed about a book as I have been in some time because I really wanted to like it more. ( )

I liked Dinosaur Lords for the compelling Rob and Karyl story-line

Spoiler: The rape scene at the end was so tacked on. Why did his mother's servant prod him to do it? It didn't advance the story-line at all for the rapist. Seemed gratuitous to me. ( )

Author sexualizes things/people randomly for seemingly no reason or purpose

So badly wanted this to be good. Too much overdone drama coming from human characters, and we don't know them well enough to care about their angst, at least not as early in the book as it shows up. Felt like it was written as a medieval battle tale, then the horses were all changed to dinosaurs to make it less boring. Didn't work, still boring. A rare DNF. ( )

On the one hand, the overall plot, themes, and characters are all pretty stock and generic fantasy fare. The countries, names, religions, society were all pretty derivative (although I'm sure that's on purpose, with this being a settled planet).

On the other hand, motherfucking dinosaurs. Everything with them was great - Milán is great at including a truly massive number of diverse creatures. I thought it was going to be all t-rexes, stegs, trikes, and raptors. Instead, we have multiple variations of nearly every dinosaur and near-dinosaur and all are made badass and interesting. Even duck-bills. There's also some bizarre set pieces with the angels.

Would have been 4 buuuuut princess plotline featuring gratuitous rape knocked it back down. Can we not? ( )