This book has great character writing, novel and interesting fantasy concepts, and what might be half of a plot. It's the first half of a "duology" set in the same world as Robin Hobb's Liveship and Tawny Man novels (with enough independence that it's intelligible to new readers like myself, and enough cameos and references to entertain readers of her prior books). Unfortunately, it reads like it's merely half a story, not one story out of a pair.
The basic tale, as billed on the jacket, is that a (flock? herd?) of baby dragons have hatched near a human city, but due to environmental pollution and other factors they are all disabled in one way or another, and when they start to present a danger to the city, a small group of humans is enlisted to help the dragons relocate to a more remote location. The first problem is that in a 470 page book, the first substantive meeting between the dragons and either one of the two major female protagonists comes on page 292. This book isn't the story of a journey; it's the story that starts the journey. Presumably, everyone will get somewhere in the second volume. Call me old-fashioned, but I liked it more when fantasy series made sure that each volume had a plot arc all its own -- this book felt more like the publisher had arbitrarily split an 800-page novel in the middle to maximize sales, rather than like one single 400-page story conceived and written as half of a pair.
That might not be a critical flaw, though, if you're reading for something other than plot. I'd never read Robin Hobb's novels before now, but had always heard they were excellently written, with strong and interesting characters and novel concepts. On those points, this book does deliver. Some elements of the book are pretty painfully generic (telepathic dragon babies), but parts of it are strikingly original (the dragons have a life cycle similar to that of salmon, and a combination of environmental catastrophes, some at least the fault of Man, have resulted in a herd of, well, baby dragons with disabilities, and aspects of the plot mirror modern wildlife relocation efforts). The two central human characters, a young outcast mutant girl and a "wealthy, educated, and deeply unsatisfied Bingtown Trader's Wife," are extraordinarily well drawn, and their interactions with the various minor characters are treated with an incredibly perceptive eye for human psychology.
There are a few other issues (for example,the main villain is homosexual, which inevitably raises the spectre of homophobia, however unfair) but on the whole, the main problem I had with the book was just that very little happens in it. I hate to pigeonhole, but given the book's pacing and narrative style, I think it will appeal far more to fans of Austen or books like "The Mists of Avalon" than to fans of more typical fantasy bestsellers -- as it stands right now, this is a set of interesting character studies, not a story, and my four-star rating is a compromise between what this book might be the first half of and what it is now. I haven't read the second volume yet, so that could change, and this could be the foundation of a five-star work. But by the last page of this one, I still found it falling significantly short of a full story.
In the meanwhile, I'd only recommend this book if you're already a fan of Robin Hobb and want an additional window into the world of her prior books, or if you're the type of reader who's far more interested in characterization than in plot. If it sounds like this might interest you, then, as a free Kindle download, it's definitely worth it. If you're at all plot-oriented, though, wait until they put out a single-volume edition of this one and its sequel together -- and hope that something happens in the second act.
A note on editions: this review is primarily based on the print text of the book. After downloading and examining this "free edition with bonus material," it appears to be essentially the same text; the "bonus material" appears to just be the first chapter of the second half, _Dragon Haven_.
