Dragon Vet poses an unique perspective and take on the fantasy genre. Devoid of staples like battle and conquest, it focusses instead on problemsolving with the aim of helping. It is a breath of fresh air that I very much enjoyhed reading, but I still felt like there are points that could be improved. This is a pretty long book, around 400 pages on my ereader, which feels like too much for what is actually happening: The book lacks a strong central narrative to keep you reading and pull the reader along. Instead the book is devided up in these bite size chunks of story that only vaguely overlap, and while the call backs can be very exciting (expecially in the scene with the hydra!), it is making me wonder if this concept would not be better explored in a series of novellas. 

I also want to talk about the characters, most of them are interesting people: I liked how everyone had their own unique backstory and motivation, influencing their personality and actions, but there are some things I think have been handled with little tact. Predominantly with the depiction of different cultural backgrounds felt either offhanded or very on the nose. Thinking of Edith's nomadic background which presumably being a large cultural influence in her life, yet being only briefly discussed. This felt like a missed opportunity to properly represent a different form of peoples. Ellie spoke in Scots the entire book, a trait that got weary pretty quickly and I think could have been handed with more nuance, but we still learnt near nothing of where she was from. Presumably not Scotland, as I doubt that's an existing place in this fictional world. Equally, Madam Sophia's foreign name being made into a point of humour with no elaboration as to her background left me with an uncomfortable feeling. 

I feel that, like the title character, the author might be better with animals than he is with people. All the creatures were written with great care and the science put behind them was intriguing. This is what the book rests on, and as stated before it forms a unique vantage point and a strong foundation. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this, and I think other people that read a lot of fantasy might get a kick out of it as well.