Author. Engineer. Officer. Overachiever.
PLOT SYNOPSIS
Raised from childhood to serve the people of the town of River Away, Kale has known nothing but the life of a slave. When she discovers a dragon egg in the river, the town council determines she must carry the precious item to the hall of Paladin, the heroic leader of the country. But before she can fulfill her duties, she is waylaid, rescued, and sent by Paladin himself on a quest of the utmost importance. Kale and her companions must confront an evil wizard and prevent him from completing a spell of great malevolence and rescue an innocent life in the process.
Series: DragonKeeper (1 of 5)
Age Recommendation: 8+
Content Notice: Scenes of mild violence
Faith Based: Yes
ISBN: 978-15785-6823-9
Overall
Characters
Story/Plot
Writing
Setting
Consistency
THE BOTTOM LINE
Though a bit rough around the edges, this entertaining story is a solid beginning to a fantasy series.
THOUGHTS…
Dragonspell is a fun, wholesome fantasy novel which I thoroughly enjoyed both as a child and again as an adult. The quality of the novel mostly holds up under my most recent reading, but several weaknesses have also come to light. It is a solid beginning to a series which takes place in a deep and intricate world. The book is entertaining throughout and able to easily hold one’s attention when the action is occurring; however, pockets of exposition litter the volume, and when it is exposition time, get ready to wade through a fair bit of it. Whether descriptions of history, dragons, magic systems, or the seven high and seven low races, the details of the world are rarely delivered in an expert fashion, bogging the story down in places. Exposition is crammed into lulls in the action like traveling sequences, making those scenes stretch on for too long and adversely affecting the pacing of the story. The most notable issue with pacing occurs near the end of the story but, due to spoilers, I have relegated that discussion to my rants and rambles. What carried the book for me as a child were the characters. While many are one-dimensional and seem to exist only to provide solutions to problems along the quest and ensure the protagonist meets each of the seven high races, several of the main supporting characters receive good development. The main protagonist, Kale, is relatable, likable, and well-developed. My only complaint here is the basic and repetitive nature of many of her internal dialogues and debates. The simplicity of her dilemmas is understandable given the age of the target audience, but the repetitiveness has no excuse. Despite its flaws, this book is ultimately an exciting read, great for young audiences and good for older readers as well. I would definitely recommend this for pre-teens, either to read alone or with their parents.
RANTS AND RAMBLES
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