Customer Reviews

Dragon Strike: Book Four of the Age of Fire

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I thought hard before giving this a 3 star rating, because I really do love this series. I love dragon tales, and this one is so original and "dragoncentric", I realize I was waiting for something like this without knowing how badly I was. So that is why I feel badly giving _Dragon Strike_ only 3 stars. For the record, I don't think this is entirely the author's fault. Looking at the books, I see they are a surprisingly uniform length, which leads me to wonder if the fourth volume suffered from an ediorial hatchet job to bring it in under a certain length. That is too bad, but worse, if it had to happen, I wish E.E. Knight had been blessed with a better editor. Not only are there misspellings and wrong words used, there is a discontinuity of some key events (sorry, the book has been returned to the library so I can't quote actual instances)during the war with Ghioz that left my brain whirling. If I may suggest it though, forge on because volume 5, _Dragon Rule_ is proving to be much better, and feels to me more than _Dragon Strike_ did, to be filling in unanswered questions.

I read all 4 books of The Age of Fire and look forward to book 5.
I really enjoyed these and recommend them to those of you that like
fantacy, fiction and dragons

The story was wonderful. Good and interesting characters. I want more in this series NOW.

The Dragon Strike Books are an excellent story, very captivating and well written. The basic story line is about sibling dragons each with a unique life experience help unify their race.

My book arrived on time in great shape. I love this series by EE Knight and can hardly wait for Book Six in the Age of Fire Series. They never disappoint although I would've been even happier if the last three I've read had been longer.

Being a fan of E.E Knight, this book did not disappoint me. Knight very nicely took his first three books in the series and brought them together in a nice cohesive manor.

Dragon Strike is E.E. Knight's fourth installment to the Age of Fire series. It details the life of the stagnant dragon empire in a way that is not glamorous, but realistic and cutthroat. In continues the story of the original three dragons from Dragon Champion, Dragon Avenger, and Dragon Outcast.

When circumstances are presented, the Dragons of the Lavadome have to make a hard decision. Continue their way of life, or embark on a new path. In this installment, the worlds of humans and dragons clash to create a borderline epic. Knight really uses his experience in political science and history to detail the aspects of a declining society.

In addition to this, Knight also starts building on the history of the land. Involving more lore than the previous novels allows readers the chance to glean perspective and insight. This is a great addition to the previous books, because it adds some of the missing substance that really hooks a reader. I am happy to see Knight head in this direction.

Another positive note of this book is that it pulls together the previous 3 stories into a cohesive series. Before, the original three were related, but could be stand-alone novels if need be. Dragon Strike sews the story together, and even adds in some of the older characters. I recommend reading the second half of Dragon Champion as a refresher prior to reading this one.

Overall, this was a solid story. It includes interesting euphemisms, and the foreshadowing is great. Knight continues his story through multiple perspectives, which adds an interesting dynamic to the series. It follows smoothly from the previous story, while creating a desire for the next.