#Julius heartstriker

[happyfoxx-art]

I FINISHED THE BOOKS! I cannot get over Bob talking about knowing Julius for so long. I can't imagine how he must have felt when Julius finally came along- so here have something soft, fluffy, and adorable. It's appreciate a dragon day, and I appreciate that dragon :3

[pisstachio-pierrot]

Heartstrikers and DFZ series as text posts

[bookwormfan1495]

Baby Heartstrikers are fluffy?!?

[freckled-words]

Julius: I am staying and doing the thing!

Group of stubborn, exasperated, duty bound relatives (+1): =_="...Goddamnit

Julius: It doesn't mean you have to stay!

Them: Yes...Yes it does.

Julius The Nice Dragon:

[fuckyeahheartstrikers]

I know in the Heartstrikers books there’s a lot of emphasis on how Chelsie (and Felicity) takes after her mother (“reeks of Bethesda,” as per Fenghuang), and i know how they're narrative foils to each other and all, but let’s take a moment to appreciate the similarities between Bethesda and BOB?!

Look at this shit. This makes me insane.

Bethesda being initially underestimated by her father and brothers before she successfully staged her coup, and Bob being fully embraced by Bethesda as her seer only to then ultimately betray her too?

NOT TO MENTION ONLY THEY HAVE RAINBOW FEATHERS?!??

Plus with Amelia being in the “starter clutch” and lacking the green eyes, this means Bob is the first child to truly look like Bethesda.(well, since the rest of his clutch died)

Like mother, like son.

[romancebooksformen]

Nice Dragons Finish Last, book one of Heartstrikers, by Rachel Aaron. Audiobook narrated by Vikas Adam.

--

As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don't cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience. Now, sealed in his human form and banished to the DFZ--a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit--Julius has one month to prove he can be a ruthless dragon or kiss his true shape goodbye forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are considered monsters to be exterminated, he's going to need some serious help to survive this test. He only hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons... (Nice Dragons Finish Last is an urban fantasy set 90 years in the future - featuring a kind protagonist, a kick-ass female mage, and more grumpy dragons than you can shake a stick at.) Winner of the 2015 Audie Audio Book Award in Fantasy! Start the series that won back-to-back RT Magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards!

[knockbutimreading]

I don't think I've ever talked about thus series and that's a shame.

It has dragons and magic and people with flaws.

It also has death and mysterious. Truly a fun read.

A new series is coming out set in the same universe and I'm very excited.

[karcutie]

stay golden dragon boy

[discar]

I’ve got a lot to say after my latest re-read of The Heartstrikers.  Great series, great characters, great plot, GREAT themes.

But one thing that bugged me was that we really don’t know what mages can actually DO.  We mostly see them moving magic in and out of spirits, or sometimes using basic attack spells that are basically throwing magic at people.  Surely they can do more, but WHAT?

Can they shapeshift like dragons?  Can they raise corpses--either binding dead souls to service or just puppeteering a corpse?  Can they transmute one material to another, communicate telepathy, or read the past in the emotions of a stone?

We don’t know, and it feels like a missed opportunity.  I think this is part of why Marci is seen as a weaker character than Julius.  She’s the magic expert, but most of what we see her do is just play with spirits, which is explicitly not her area of expertise, so she’s getting a lot of stuff explained to her.  It’s like describing a character as “a scientist” and then never explaining what their specialization is besides “not chemistry.”

Also, the spirits act like they’re a lot more immortal than I think they should.  The Geirangerfjord isn’t actually that big.  What would happen if a dragon nuked it in the ninth century?

[words-writ-in-starlight]

I'm absolutely positive that whenever Julius' brothers are annoying him (which is always) he tells them that Xian is actually his favorite brother

[happyfoxx-art]

Somewhere in the DFZ these two are being adorable 🥰 making my way Heartstrikers series a second time for good measure (i need to get the next set of DFZ books LOL)

[pisstachio-pierrot]

mother-son relationships be like

original below cut

[treefey]

In which an immortal dragon is still a dumb 20-something guy

Plot: These dragons clutches were born crazy close together. And the mom is mysteriously meaner to the second clutch than her other children

Chelsie: Takes extra care of the F clutch

Julius: She’s so sweet :)

Chelsie: Has a sad egg in her room that will probably never hatch

Julius: That’s totally normal, she just didn’t want a sibling to die

Chelsie: Has a sad love story with Chinese dragon

Chelsie: explains that the love story takes place between the two dragon births that were close together, and how their mom went all the way to China to bring her back

Julius: Trying to figure out how their mom met someone, got pregnant, and traveled in to China and back, which would be hard for a pregnant dragon

Chelsie: Also mom has this secret she’s lording over me and that means the F clutch and I are always going to be her slaves, basically

Julius: still trying to do the math

Chelsie: Can tell he’s thinking and is totally expecting him to piece together everything

Julius: Well, I have no idea how this all happened, and I have literally no ideas what my scary sister’s secret may be.

Chelsie: relieved and exasperated in equal measure

[lyreofsheliak]

Six Fangs

Fandom: The Heartstrikers

Characters: The Quetzalcoatl, Bethesda, Bob, Chelsie, Conrad, Julius, Justin

Summary: The Fangs of the Heartstriker are the teeth of the Quetzalcoatl as well as the treasures of his family, and some fragment of his will lives on in them.

Ao3 link: here.

[dontheckinswear]

So the Heartstriker/DFZ books are my new favorite thing and I was disappointed in their lack of fandom. This is my attempt at Julius the Peacemaker/Dragon of Detroit but I reeeaaally struggle with drawing feathers so I’m not sure if this one will ever make it past the sketch stage unfortunately...

With the lack of color in this sketch, I also wanna note that I imagine all the Heartstrikers as having black scales with only their feathers being different colors. I realized that apparently most other artists who drew Julius don’t have the same opinion.

ALSO people who like this series, please interact 🥺 I’m so lonely