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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an interesting web you weave Mr Knight, December 14, 2008
First off, no spoilers for this book if I can help it--the previous three are on the table.
This book takes the three stories of the separated hatchlings and weaves them back together again.
When the Hatchlings began their traveling lives, they were in order:
1. Auron the scaleless and wily Gray. The slayer when he was hungry, the Dwarf friend, the raider of the Iron riders, and the long planner. Finally, he's the slayer of the fascist, human supremacists who'd yoke Dragon strength. Defender of Wolves.
2. Wistala the champion. The brutal and intelligent defender of civilization. Slayer of Trolls, the tracker of mysteries and the resolver of family conflicts. The oracle and the destruction of the Wheel of fire Dwarves. Defender of people.
3. Then Nameless RuGaard of the Bats, the slayer of snakes, Demen and dragonslayer. Maimed but feisty, the betrayer of his family rose from his failings as a child to become a Conan like king wearing a crown upon his troubled brow.
This book is about transformations and the reflection of three siblings in the eyes of the others. Each rattled the foundation of their world in actions and activities that were equal part brush with destiny and choices made by the sculpted personalities Knight fashioned from the book titles. Their parents origins are explored in the almost sidebar of the eventual meetings, but the stress is on how those who would use them fail to see their resistance to external forces and their tendency to eat or destroy those who would try to manipulate them. A few rousing speeches from RuGaard can be expected, alongside a few Gandalf like moments from Wistala, and AuRon and a few of his friends are going to break a few things here and there by being smart and wily.
By last page, you hope there will be something more.
If you're reading Knight, and I suspect you may be, keep them coming, just like this one, only longer.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Further developments..., May 11, 2009
NO SPOILERS HERE!! The previous three books of this series are each excellent, and each showcases one of the three dragon siblings of the trio at the heart of the story.
AuRon, the grey and scaleless clever champion of the family, who is befriended by a dwarf, understands the politics of his world from the viewpoint of the dwarves.
Wistala, the green-scaled, powerful, logical yet vengeful sister, is befriended by an elf who values civilization, and learns the world from the elf's viewpoint.
RuGaard, their copper brother, is cast out of his nest, captured and tortured by elves, men, and dwarves until he betrays his family. Later befriended and adopted by a royal dragon of a decadent, highly politicized underground dragon society, he never learns to regard any hominid as a sympathetic character.
The three finally come together in this last book. I had expected some sort of intense interraction between the three - either a powerful clash, or an amazing reconciliation and synthesis. Surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, I did not find the ending to be at all like this. Instead, there is a complex interweaving of the three dragons' goals and actions. The end of this piece of the tale arrives without a great deal of fanfare or finality.
The dragons all behave in a way that fits with their past and personality, and the tale is as convincing and engrossing as the earlier three. There are battles and mysteries and basic decency here as in the other books. However, while the first three left room for further stories (as did this one, obviously), they also provided a satisfying ending. I didn't get the same degree of satisfaction from this one.
It somewhat makes up for that fact that there is now BOUND to be more coming!! I will eagerly await the further adventures of any of these three fascinating and individual characters, singly or together. The ground has now been laid.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dragon Strike, March 24, 2009
Over all I was very disapointed in this one. I found that over time the emotion of the characters failed, for example, with the plot twists imposing that the Copper's wife killed his previous wife you could never realy feel much towards her.
You would think this book was about them seeing each other and possibly resolving something between each other, both the green and grey dragon spent years searching for each other and when they do they don't want to talk because of different ideas between them, was disapointing to the entire purpose of the books lost like that.
Plus alot of the plot build ups were never solved. Will the Green dragon ever get a mate, who knows.. it just never was solved and left me unsatisfied. Over all I found the series good, but maybe not worth all the money that the books cost.
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