|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
The Dragon's Son (The Dragonvarld Trilogy book 2) by Margaret Weiss
01/04/2005 . Source: Phil Jones 
pub: TOR. 334 page hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30469-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com and www.wizard.com
Margaret Weiss is probably best known for the 'Dragonlance' series and she has often dealt with dragons in most of her books. The first book was OK with some good characters and the second book is a continuation of the story. In the first book we were introduced to a secret dragon world society that was kept a secret from both humans and the dragons at large within the world.
The second book mainly concerns itself with the two 'dragon' sons, Ven and Marcus, as they grow up. Draconas again plays a major part. He is a dragon but walks among the humans taking on the illusion of human form. To the dragons, he is known as the 'Walker'. Ven, half-dragon from the waist down, is brought up by Bellona, a warrior at heart but now left to bring up Ven on her own. The only help she gets occasionally is from Draconas who keeps a distant eye on Ven. He assists in 'hiding' Ven's scaly legs at a local fair when they are exposed accidentally by an attacking dog and the people around initially view him as a demon.
Marcus, on the other hand, is a prince and is brought up in the ways of royalty. Over time, though, and growing up, he becomes increasingly isolated. Falling into dreams of mystical colours and strange thoughts, he eventually gives up eating and caring for himself. It takes Draconas to finally get him out of his comatose state, teach him dragon magic and to stop other dragons prying into his mind.
The first book, 'Mistress Of The Dragons', started off the series with quite a bit of promise. It had a few plot problems but there was an interesting Dragon 'culture' and interesting characters such as Draconas. The second book though feels a lot more 'ploddy' for want of a better word. It just seems like Weiss wanted the book to go from A to B and just filled in the rest. Characters are underplayed and in some instances changed dramatically from the first book. Bellona, a warrior in the first book, almost disappears into the undergrowth. She is tied up with looking after Ven, but her character is almost turned off completely in this book. The best character, Draconas the Dragon 'walker', is to me vastly under-used through out. He could be so much more. Although he comes across a lot less cold and distant toward humans as the story progresses but still I think you are left wanting a lot more from him.
At the end of the book, there is a reasonable cliff-hanger but Weiss could, as we have seen in her previous books, have written this so much better. The world she has created is an interesting one, along with some good characters. It just feels like this book is suffering from mid-term blues. It's the middle book and it shows.
After all this, I did actually enjoy the book. The writing is a bit slow at times, but it's an easy read, does answer a few of the questions from the first book and leaves a few for the next. If you've read the first then it's worth reading this follow on, just don't expect too much.
Phil Jones
|
|
