Customer Reviews

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a very engaging novel about a young girl who is forced to live her life as a young man in order to fulfill her destiny. It is a coming of age story, like many great works of fiction in the young adult fantasy genre. Alas, this novel is certainly good, but not great: the story is exceedingly predictable. This in itself if not a reason not to read the book--there is definitely some comfort in understanding exactly what you are getting when you pick up a book--mysteriously gifted young person unfairly kept down by circumstances out of their control, young person's potential finally recognized by those around them, a dire secret keeps young person's full capacity from saving them from a certain doom, young person goes on a journey of personal discovery to become who they really are. This plot works for Harry Potter, for Star Wars, and for Snow White. So, not much there that you haven't seen before...but the trappings, and the journey itself are quite nice. I haven't read much recent YA fiction set in China (although technically, this is a made-up country, not China itself, the tone is very Chinese with occasional bits of Japanese influence thrown in), although the current Temeraire series (see Temeraire Vol 1-3 Box Set With Bonus Poster)has a very very charming Chinese dragon in it, and one novel takes place in China. The historical details are quite interesting, and nicely done. The writer has a light touch, and although I felt on occasion that she gave away too much too quickly in the beginning, overall she was very readable. Both my wife and I read this book, and we both ended up satisfied with the ending, which was very very exciting. We had a hard time putting the book down for the last 100 pages or so, and by the last page, I was out of breath. Unfortunately, we also both agreed that the middle section could have been edited down significantly to make a tighter story. The task that the heroine needed to accomplish was so obvious to readers that watching her struggle through the problem was dull and frustrating. It was important to the plot that this struggle not seem overly facile, but I think that about 250 pages in the middle might have been condensed to about 125 and it still might have been a bit saggy.

This is not going to be the next HP--there may not be another one of those for a hundred years, to be honest. But there is no shame in not being HP. This book is a fun, at times thrilling adventure, full of heart and intrigue, and with an excellent ending and very engaging characters. Eon, Lady Dala, and Ryko are all folks I would like to get to know better in the next book, and I confess that by the end, even the "villain" Lord Ido gained some real appeal as a character. I confess that I am quite looking forward to the sequel--I will be buying it as soon as I see it!

If you are a fan of young heroines, a fan of Chinese flavored fantasy, and are willing to embrace a truly fascinating vision of dragons, this book will certainly satisfy. If you are looking for true originality...well, there is enough new here to make things interesting for a time, but you may loose interest about 200 pages in. I encourage you to march on through, because the ending is a wonderful ride.

EON DRAGONEYE REBORN is a fantasy-action, swordplay novel dealing with Eastern culture and mythical dragons. At its core is the study of how female culture was subdued only to break through in times of desperate need.

The dragon culture of the novel permeates throughout, but only for the masculine ...that is until Eon (actually a teenage girl known secretively as Eona) fights her way into the fire-breathing realm. Mystical and not-just-a-bit enchanting, Eon is an interesting read that plunges the reader deeper and deeper into this nearly fairytale land. Author Alison Goodman (a woman writing in a sword and sorcery action novel?!) is to be commended for her ability to keep the reader engrossed in the story, especially as Eon/Eona falls and falls and falls, giving us a sense of dread that keeps getting upped as the novel progresses.

Death is ever-present in the story, too, as favorite characters get poisoned, beheaded or run-through with sharp blades. The main antagonist is a deeply disturbed dragon master named Ido who's lust for power might hold the key to Eon's life and his/her ability to call the Mirror Dragon, a beast that hasn't been seen for many years and is, apparently, a female dragon too.

The big battle that ensues toward the end of the novel is interesting but pretty transparent (I knew how Eon could call up his/her dragon about halfway through the story).

The other annoying part of the story is how it ends; obviously a tie-in for a future book. Although I accept this ending, it was bothersome to not learn what had happened to a few characters by the end of this story rather than (forcibly?) pulling it into a sequel.

Also, there were just a few too many kowtowings going on. I understand the need for decorum within such a culture, but it caused the story to drag at times.

But all-in-all the depth of the tale and the extreme struggles that Eon/Eona had to go through kept me reading, as did some nicely worded fight scenes. A good read; it just bugs me that I now have to wait to read what happens to these characters when I feel Mrs. Goodman could've given us more on the characters and a few less ceremonial kowtows.

How I do so wish that book reviewers would start eating more fiber in their diets. "8th Grade and up" Ya know, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings was originally considered a children's story as well. Let's all get over the "Young Readers" badge of shame that keeps adults from reading a good story.Perhaps it got it's Young Reader status because it doesn't drop the F bomb or depict explicit sex and gratuitous violence? Ignore all that, find a comfy sofa and a good reading lamp and sit down to a very enjoyable day of storytelling.

Eon is a VERY well written story that weaves together Chinese horoscope/dragon/political intrigue/gender bias and other themes beautifully.

Well done Allison and I look forward to the next installment. Say hello to The Fairy Tree in Fitzroy Gardens for me - Melbourne is my most favorite city on Earth.

This REALLY needs to be a movie. Move over Eragon.

EON's richly realized fantasy world has a lot of potential, but the author squandered it.

The protagonist, Eon/Eona, is a crippled girl preparing for a competition that will select a new apprentice Dragoneye, a position of great wealth and power. Dragoneyes each forge a connection with one of the eleven spirit dragons, using their power for the benefit of their nation, the Pearl Empire. The problem is that for hundreds of years, Dragoneyes have been male, and physically whole. Eon has incredible magical gifts, but she must live like, think like, and essentially believe herself to be a man in order to compete.

The competition doesn't turn out the way that Eon hoped it would - she doesn't win like she had hoped, or lose like she had feared. Something utterly unexpected happens and Eon is immediately thrust into a world of high-stakes court intrigue. She soon realizes that that the royal family is in a state of great upheaval, and she's at the center of it. Political infighting dominates the novel - the fantasy elements, the spirit dragons, take a backseat to scheming and plotting.

This is where the book started to go wrong for me. Eon is in a very dangerous position, and she's desperate to consolidate her power. The author gives Eon, and the reader, dozens of hints about what she needs to do - but Eon remains oblivious, and continues to make the same mistakes over and over again.

When Eon gets hints that suppressing her feminine self decreases her spiritual power, she doubles up her efforts to destroy those feminine energies. I understood why Eon couldn't see the truth, but I lost any sympathy as evidence began to pile up and Eon never considered any of it thoroughly. Eon is a smart girl, and I didn't believe she could really be so stupid.

The central conflict doesn't develop - it just repeats itself. As a reader, I kept waiting for some kind of breakthrough, some progress, and getting impatient when I didn't see any. This ties into EON's other main problem - it's too long. It's loaded down with endless descriptions of every building, robe, and ceremony. The writing is good, but there's too much of it. The long descriptions and treadmilling plot make the middle of the book a real struggle to get through.

I wanted to like EON, but I didn't, and I won't be picking up the sequel.

Eon is hiding a secret: she is actually Eona. In a fantasy mileau heavily influenced by feudal China, 12 spirit dragons (one for each of the years of the zodiac) help rule the land with the humans they are bonded to. They all serve under the Emperor. Being a Dragoneye wears out the body, so after a 12 year training period and a 12 year reign, the retired Dragoneye has the stamina of a old man, and a scant few years of retirement.

Because of the girl-disguised as boy motif, and the setting amidst the military training barracks, the obvious comparison is Tamara Pierce's Alanna's books, but Eon: Dragoneye Reborn take a much grittier tone. Eona is not only hiding her gender, she is also coping with a painful lame leg. As an awkward repressed memory resurfaces, Eon realizes that that her master was actually the one to inflict the injury, gambling on the fact that her deformity will allow her to avoid the locker room, all the better to conceal her secret. Of course, as a woman disguised as a boy, one of her prime concerns is how to cover her menstruation. This is discussed in frank detail and the author doesn't take an easy out of providing some magical herb which ceases her cycles, either.

The author plays with every possible variation of gender and class roles, including several different types of eunuchs, men and ladies of the court, serving maids, and contraires (biologically male, but they dress and live as women.)

At the tournament where candidates battle each other for the opportunity to become the next Dragoneye, Eona is nearly chosen by the Rat Dragon, but at the last moment she is instead chosen by the Mirror Dragon, missing for these past 500 years. Believing her to be a fellow eunuch, Ryoko and his mistress Lady Dela (a contraire) take Eona under their wing when Eona's victory elevates her to the prickly intrigues of the imperial court.

Eona spends most of her time trying to subdue her female or "Moon" energy, even going so far as to take steroids. It's only at the very end that Eona realizes the Mirror Dragon is actually female as well, and embraces her femininity to fully access her power.

Long battle scenes, and a plot that moved a bit slowly in places can be forgiven for the richly detailed world, complete with several nations, competing social classes, and a complex backstory. Goodman's exploration of gender settles in nicely somewhere between Tamara Pierce's Alanna series and Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness. The highly anticipated sequel, Eona: The Last Dragoneye isn't due to be published until 2010, but we can only hope that Eona will be marshaling her magical gifts and martial training to meet the challenges that will surely be facing her ahead.

Alison Goodman is a competent writer, and "Eon: Dragoneye Reborn" is respectable fantasy novel. The story is approachable but is still interesting and well-crafted overall. Her action/fighting scenes are especially nice; they have an exciting fast pace that also brings in characters' emotions, while still being clear about the details of the action.

The book is easy to read and the writing style is suitable for young adults. But unlike many YA fantasy novels, it isn't light or humorous at all - the story is serious, and it takes itself seriously as well.

"Eon: Dragoneye Reborn" follows one of the most popular fantasy plot templates - the coming of age story in which a reluctant young hero has a destiny of power and responsibility thrust upon him, forcing him to grow up and accept it. For me, that story never gets old, even though I've read dozens of variants. And I actually thought this book brought some interesting variations to the familiar stereotype - the hero is a girl who must pose as male, and she's saddled with an assortment of flaws that counterbalance the powers she's endowed with.
Eon's masquerade is plausible, and she's forced into her destiny with at least as many weaknesses as powers, if not more. Even her friends and supporters are a mismatched team of defectives - the crippled, the old, the sexually deviant, children.

At first glance, the book seems strongly derivative of Chinese culture and legend; especially, the dragon magic system is prominently based on Chinese astrology. But don't expect to learn Chinese myth or history from it! As the author's note in the back comments, though the world of the novel was "at first inspired by the history and cultures of China and Japan, [it] rapidly became a land of imagination with no claim to historical or cultural authenticity." You can see the transformation happen as you read. The early parts of the book are heavily influenced by Asian myth, but over the course of the story, Goodman successfully builds the world into something much more creative and original.
The resulting world was solid, and seemed to have depth beyond just what was described.

Again, Goodman is a pretty good writer. Her metaphors and imagery, while sometimes unusual, are often particularly apt. I liked "a gentle smile that transformed his shovel face" and "the life-changing decision marked only by the twitching ear of the kitchen cat".
However, she does sometimes spend too much time on physical descriptions of people, places, and things - taking too literally the advice to "paint a picture" for the reader. It's a bit of a shame because, like I mentioned, there are times when her imagery is excellent, concise and evocative, and over-description can detract from that.

The magic system seems interesting, and I look forward to seeing it developed further in the upcoming sequel, "Eona: Last Dragoneye". In "Eon", the magic was not used that often, so it was left a little unclear. For example, Eon has a presumably magical ability to 'see' other people's emotions and relationships. This sixth sense is poetically described once or twice, but has no bearing on the plot, and is thus unexplained. Hopefully it will be fleshed out and resolved in the sequel.

Overall, I liked this book a lot.

For years, sixteen year old Eona has been living a secret life. Gifted with the ability to see the eleven invisible energy dragons that lend power to the Empire, she holds a very rare talent. But women who possess magic are scorned, which compels Eona to live her life under the guise of twelve-year-old Eon, a candidate for the position of apprentice to a Dragoneye, the human catalyst between the dragons and the Empire. But Eona will soon come to find that even harder than disguising her true identity will be navigating through the turbulent waters of court politics and choosing to do what is right...which includes being true to herself, no matter what the cost.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn is a strange and intensely compelling read. Based off of Chinese and Japanese myths and legends, it is an exhilarating blend of mystery, suspense, and foreign culture and habits that will engross and entertain readers to no end. Eona's character is very honest, and despite her insistence at being considered male, her true voice and nature rings out clearly, making her a highly appealing character whose motives and struggles are completely relatable.

The story is slightly predictable in the first half of the book, but Goodman does an excellent job at drawing out the plot and artfully laying the foundation for the climax of the story. Eona's tale picks up a few surprising elements and the book goes out with a bang as political tensions reach their breaking point. The ending is heart stopping, and the complete cliff hanger will most certainly leave readers yearning for the conclusion of this smart and drama filled duet in the next book--whose title is too much a spoiler to reveal yet, but hopes to be just as riveting and breathtaking.

The world of Eon is based on East Asian history and mythology, and is well done. Eon is a cripple who must become a Dragoneye and control Dragon magic to save her master and herself from poverty. She pretends to be a boy to do this, and inadvertently brings about the coming of the lost Mirror Dragon. Eon is drawn into dangerous court intrigues as Dragoneye and gradually finds the key to her power is accepting that she is Eona, not Eon. The pacing is at times frustrating since it takes Eon much longer to figure things out than the reader, but the writing is quick and easy to read. Alison Goodman does use some annoying stylistic tropes (i.e., fragments used to build tension or draw attention), but not excessively.

Eon lives in a world in which 12 powerful Dragons and their human partners, the Dragoneyes, are a central part of the system. They can control the elements and are important allies to the emporer. Each year one Dragon becomes the leader and gains even more power than he usually has. This year the Rat Dragon is ascending to power and the Rat Dragoneye is looking for a apprentice.
Eon's only chance to achieve a position of power and money is to get choosen by the Rat Dragon. Every year only one boy will get this honour and this year Eon is one of the candidates. But what nobody knows is that Eon is really Eona. Only male Dragoneyes are allowed so Eona and her master play a dangerous game and it's crucial that nobody will find out the truth about who Eon really is.
When the time comes and the Rat Dragon makes his choice something happens that will change the whole world. Eona, as Eon, is thrown into a world full of power games, dangerous intrigues and strict rules. Will she find a way to adapt and survive?


"Eon" is a the first book in a duology and it blew me away. I needed some pages to get a good connection to the world, the characters and the writing style but then I was amazed by how great this book was.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed with the world Eon plays in. Everything that has to do with the Dragons and the Dragoneyes, their powers and mythology, the foreign culture and customs (asian influences), the intrigues - everything together was a bit too much to digest on the first pages but after about 50 pages I was in the story and everything started to make sense. From this moment on I was in Eona's world, I saw what she saw, smelled what she smelled and so on. Alison Goodman's writing style is so engaging and made imgaging the things she described very easy.

The story was complex but never illogical. Everything that happened felt natural and right. You don't have to have any background info about the story because the author made it easy to understand the foreign world she created. She made me feel part of it and made me at times forget that I was only reading about the world in a book.

Eona is an amazing heroine. She's strong, intelligent and a real survivor. She was severly hurt at her hip and leg years ago, so she is not as perfect as the other Dragoneye candidates. But Eona is not the only extraordinary character in this book. You also have Ryko, a fighter who's an eunuch, you have Lady Dela who is really a man but lives as a woman, you have Lord Ido, the dangerous and power-hungry Dragoneye and many more characters that made reading this book so worthwile, thrilling and interesting.

There are a lot of things going on in "Eon" and I don't want to talk about details. But I can tell you that you will be suprised several times in this book and hopefully you will love this story as much as I did. The end is an open one that fit to the story, it left me craving for more.

I already read "Eona", the second and final book in the duology, and it's just as good as "Eon". So don't worry that this series has a fantastic start and then will disappoint you, these two books are both amazing.

cover
I think the cover is breath-taking and wonderful, especially the dragon is amazing.

final appraisal
"Eon" is an fantastic story full of thrilling developments, fascinating characters and a heroine that I enjoyed following on every step of her dangerous journey. Add to that Alison Goodman's wonderful way with words that makes the world she created come alive and you have a fantastic book that you shouldn't miss.

I loved this book. The only annoying thing is that it was not available as an ebook and I was forced to purchase it in paperback, when I swore I would not buy any more paper books!