A Dragon's Journey

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In the continent of Kradlos, a divine being created four races: humans, dragons, dwarves, and elves. Each race founded their respective countries and lived peacefully for some millennia until Grinus, the human nation, started invading the other territories, conquering one by one.

Despite being the dragon's kingdom, Hagam suffers the same fate as the other nations due to the overwhelming Grinus's technology. When all hope seems lost to the dragon prince, Norik, his luck shifts when an assassin appears to save him. Now, this unlikely duo embarks on a journey to save his country and to discover new sights on a continent filled with adventure, action, comedy, and drama.

->WHAT TO EXPECT:

1. A fast-paced and thrilling adventure about a naive and sheltered prince finding out more about the world and himself;

2. A cold and strong female lead who slowly discovers how to trust again;

3. A diverse cast of characters, each with their quirks, problems, and goals to achieve;

4. An immersive and deep dialogue and interactions between the many characters that enhance the plot.

This is my first novel, so I would appreciate it a lot if you leave a comment, review, or a follow. Last, but not least, have fun reading it!

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Author: MauraRandik

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 17
Views: 4,219

Chapters(18 total)

What readers say about A Dragon's Journey

“Land of Kradlos is shaping up into a heartfelt and expansive fantasy adventure. The tone balances light humor, emotional depth, and high-stakes action in a way that feels natural and engaging. Norik is a likable lead, earnest, overwhelmed, but growing and h…”
Void QuillRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“A really promising fantasy story with clearly a lot of love behind it, fast-paced and unique in its style. Style: The writing style is certainly unique in the way that it is formatted more like the script of a play or TV show rather than a traditional book.…”
AngehlRoyal Road4.5 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(6)

Void QuillRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Land of Kradlos is shaping up into a heartfelt and expansive fantasy adventure. The tone balances light humor, emotional depth, and high-stakes action in a way that feels natural and engaging. Norik is a likable lead, earnest, overwhelmed, but growing and his dynamic with Undying is one of the highlights: full of tension, banter, and trust slowly earned through shared struggle.
The worldbuilding is ambitious but accessible, and the cast is diverse without feeling cluttered. The pacing moves well, with strong emotional beats (Undying’s backstory, Rendell’s promise, Akana’s shift in attitude) that add weight to the battles and politics. There's real care in the writing, and it shows.
Looking forward to more from this world!
AngehlRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
A really promising fantasy story with clearly a lot of love behind it, fast-paced and unique in its style.
Style:
The writing style is certainly unique in the way that it is formatted more like the script of a play or TV show rather than a traditional book. There is a lot of dialog and very little narration. Honestly I am not sure how to rate this point, because in one hand I am a big fan of authors doing unorthodox things in their writing but in the other I think that the lack of descriptions and narration makes the pacing feel too fast and forces the characters to have to explain things in an unnatural way. It does work for the most part, as the story itself is packed with action where the "no filler, only the essential" style works best.
Grammar:
No notes. Style is consistent, grammar is good with no major issues, the text itself is simple and accessible.
Story score:
The story itself is really solid. It has all of the building blocks of a great fantasy epic and is using them well as far as I have read. Kradlos feels like an exciting place to explore and having each character pull in an slightly different direction makes the story feel layered and alive.
Character score:
The characters as they are presented feel real and distinct, with each of them bringing their own vibe to the story in a growing ensemble where you will absolutely find someone you can relate to and root for. The characterization is solid and the interactions feel natural... For the most part. I feel like my investment on the characters suffers a bit from the fast-paced story, which doesn't really leave much time to connect to the characters and due to the minimal narration there is a layer of body language and subtle gestures that is lost. Also, again due to the minimalistic approach to description, it feels like the characters sometimes are forced to say things in an unnatural way just to give the reader some information.
AddictednovelicRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
First, it is a nice twist on dragons. I like it. Most of us think of dragons as omnipotent beings, but here we can see them actually defeated, not invincible which I think fits the story well. It's a unique approach, which isn't bad at all. You done a very good job at executing that. Not that I don't like dragons very quite the opposite lol.
Second, the creation of the four races by the origin wasn't bad. They have their unique distinctive features and background. The elves, dwarves, dragons, etc. It is a very good addition. It gives the reader more reason to continue to read.
Third, the story progression itself isn't bad. I can see how the prince develop as I read. His band of comrades is a nice addition too. It shows how they interact which isn't bad. Everything fits very well.
Third, the grammar isn't bad. I won't say much about as I have no room to talk about it.
All in all, it's not a bad novel to read. If you're into fast paced stories, this is definitely one to read. I will definitely read it to the end. I wish you and your novel well. I am looking forward to seeing what else you can cook up.
Alex MondragonRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Score Breakdown - Rationale
Category
★ Score
Why it lands there
Overall
★★★★☆ (4 / 5)
Seven punchy chapters build clear stakes and an easy-to-root-for core cast. Big reveals (Alder, Balmung, Origin) hit, yet momentum stalls when another village raid plays out or lore arrives in lecture form.
Style
★★★☆☆ (3½ / 5)
Stand-out visuals—white-rain forests, golden firestorms—read like storyboards, but the prose often double-explains feelings, dips into CAPS-lock melodrama, and mixes script with standard dialogue. A focused line-edit would let the strongest images breathe.
Story
★★★★☆ (4 / 5)
A straight quest spine (“reclaim Hagam”) escalates cleanly, and each twist reshapes the stakes. Repeated “bandits-burn-a-village” scenes flatten variety, and late-chapter info-dumps slow the surge.
Grammar
★★★☆☆ (3 / 5)
Core syntax holds, but past-tense drifts, comma splices, and homophones (“mercahndise”, “worser”) pop up every few pages. Dialogue punctuation swings between script and standard quotes. Needs a dedicated proof pass.
Characters
★★★★☆ (4 / 5)
Norik’s mercy, Astrid’s scarred pragmatism, and Rendell’s bridge-building optimism form a lively triangle. Keith–Marin and Otto–Garret land real beats, but newer faces (Corey, Anne) sometimes elbow earlier side players offstage. Rotate the spotlight to keep the ensemble vivid.
Strengths That Kept Me Reading
Atmosphere You Can Taste - scorched cinder fields, clammy mist forest, fire-lit guild halls: sensory detail grounds every locale.
Interlocking Motives - Norik’s compassion, Astrid’s buried rage, Garret’s need for approval, Keith’s vow to protect Marin all collide in tactical choices, not just speeches.
Magitek Meets Myth - anti-dragon crystals, corruption curses, and the multi-generational Origin essence twist classic tropes in fresh directions.
Escalating Reveals - Alder’s corruption, Balmung choosing Keith, Astrid’s lineage each twist genuinely raises the stakes.
Areas Holding It Back From 5-Star Glory
Issue
Reader Impact
Upgrade
J.D. DedalRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This so far is shaping up to look like it has lots of potential and is (and could be even more of) an interesting read. Great fast paced fantasy story.
The style of the story is interesting. It reads a lot more like a playwright script of visual novel draft, which has its pros and cons. A pro is that it is paced very fast and it mostly doesn't feel dull. Further, you really get to see the characters' personalities shine.
However, I feel like it could definitely use prose or description to show the emotions of the characters, or how they are saying things. It feels a lot like: dialogue dialogue dialogue, recalibrating paragraph, dialogue dialogue dialogue.
Something that also wasn't my thing was how the dialogue was laid out -- again, more like a script. It is good as it gives complete clarity to who's speaking, but it can feel clunky and un-immersive at times.
This doesn't detract from the fact that it was very fun the watch the characters interact thought!
The story was epic. Classic "assemble the team" fantasy structure executed very well. There are very good stakes and emotional weight that I won't give away, but know they are done quite well.
Setting variety adds flavour to the world and makes it feel real, which is nice for immersion.
The grammar is the biggest issue in my opinion. It is not terrible, and is serviceable in places, but it made aspects of this story fall through for me. Tense changes (very iffy problem for me), awkward sentence constructions, and occasional punctuation mistakes definitely need to get looked over.
However, the good thing it that this is completely changeable! If the author takes a day to sit down and look over it all, this issue goes away completely and boom! Story isn't affected by a petty issue like this.
And finally, the characters. They are definitely the strong suit here. A very wide and diverse cast who are all layered and fun to explore. Great protagonists in Ren and Undying (a standout for me), awesome emotional arcs (whic
animeball zRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
A great novel, with a notably intricate storyline. There’s a range of characters of different species intertwining, and the novel beautifully highlights their differences and how they act and interact as a result.
The characters aren’t just dull copies of each other but have unique, interesting personalities that makes you want to read on to discern the reasons for their demeanours.
There are a few minor errors from time to time but the story is still more than readable. Im also not a fan of the scriptwriting layout of the novel but it’s each to their own, more like personal preference on my part.
Overall, a great story that throws you right into the action, and would definitely recommend it.