Customer Reviews

In the Hall of the Dragon King (The Dragon King Trilogy, Book 1)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the Hall of the Dragon King

I first read this book when I was about nine years old. At the time, I thought it was the best fantasy book I had ever read. I then promptly put the book down and never touched it again until recently.

The story is about a boy named Quentin, who is sent on a mission by a wounded knight to give a message to the Queen. That of course sends him on all sorts of adventures, during which he finds the one true God and saves everyone. It is a very Christian book.

My opinion has changed somewhat since I was nine. Next to other books Dragon King simply doesn't compare. The beginning, though it's supposed to be exciting, is slow. The characters take awhile to develop personality and the overall feel of the book makes me think that it had a really bad editor.

There are lots of reasons why it is still a good book, though. The plot is very original, and once you get past the boring parts, it is very fun to read. The battle sequences are lovingly played out, the connection to God and Jesus is cleverly interwoven, and there are even some funny parts in there.

Overall, for young readers it is a must, and older readers should read it too.

Christopher C., (age, 14), Yokota, Japan

15-years-old acolyte, Quentin is wakened by a commotion in the temple of Ariel one night. A very badly wounded knight had stumbled in to the temple. His name is Ronsard(he is one of my favorite characters) and he has an extremely important message for his Queen Alinea. Ronsard asks if anyone could go and give the message for him. Quentin agrees to go but he can no longer return to the temple. The knight tells him to go to a hermit named Durwin and to give the message without stopping. So, mounted on Ronsard's horse Balder, Quentin rides to Durwin's house. He meets Durwin and also Durwin's friend, Theido. Theido and Quentin rides to Askelon where the Queen was, but they are caught by the crafty coward, Prince Jaspin. The Prince is the King's brother and he wants to have the crown. Quentin escapes and goes to the Queen. The message he gave was that King Eskevar had been captured by the evil necromancer, Nimrood. Then, the Queen, Durwin, and Quentin meets Theido. He had escaped and together they ride to save the King. Quentin learns of a new God, the Most High and he turns away from Ariel and the other gods to worship the true one God. Durwin teaches him more about God on the way.

Can they rescue the King from Nimrood? Can they win the battle with Prince Jaspin's 100,000 men with their 10,000?

This is a wonderful Christian fantasy. The next one, "The Warlords of Nin" is my favorite in the Dragon King Trilogy.

Stephen R. Lawhead's book, "In the Hall of the Dragon King" is a fantasy novel. The story is set during what seems like the Middle Ages where there are kings and queens, knights and lords, and battles against good and evil.

Quentin is the main character of the story. In the beginning, he is a fifteen-year-old acolyte to the god Ariel but later becomes a follower of God. He is very headstrong, courageous, and kind. He is always helping others and makes many friends. Durwin the Holy Hermit is the one who teaches Quentin about God. Durwin is a hermit who lives in the woods, healing and helping the sick. He is very helpful and caring and loves to tell others about God. Toli is a Jher, a race of people who live in the woods. He leaves his tribe to be a servant of Quentin. He is not only a servant, but also Quentin's best friend. Toli is a quiet person with a crafty and quick mind. Prince Jaspin is the wicked brother of the Dragon King of Mesandor. He is crafty and mean but also a coward. He plots against the king with the help of Nimrood the Necromancer. Nimrood is an evil magician who calls on the dark side for his powers. He is evil, cruel, and a lunatic for power.

Very late in the night, Quentin awakes suddenly. He hears the priests talking in the temple a goes to find out what happened. A morally wounded knight had stumbled into the temple where Quentin serves as an acolyte to the god Ariel. The knight says his name is Ronsard and that he has a most important message to deliver to Queen Alinea at the city of Askelon. Since because of his injury, he pleads for one of them to send to message. Quentin decides to deliver the message for him. But though that means he can never come back to them temple, he still insists he will go. So one of the priests named Biorkis, tells him to go and on the way ask help from a certain man named Durwin. Quentin leaves on the knight's horse Balder and sets off for Durwin's cottage. He arrives there and sees not only Durwin there, but also Durwin's friend Heidi. When they hear that Quentin has a message from Ronsard for the queen, they both suddenly get excited. Theido says he will go with Quentin to Askelon. They go to Escalon trying to slip there unnoticed but Prince Jaspin recognizes Theido. You see Theido is really a lord who was made an outlaw by Prince Jaspin! Prince Japan's henchmen catch Theido but Quentin escapes. Quentin takes his message to Queen Alinea. When he delivers the message and the queen reads it, she tells him that Nimrood the Necromancer is holding the Dragon King prisoner. Queen Alinea knows that if they don't free the king, Nimrood and his accomplice, Prince Jaspin, will kill him. The queen then frees Theido, and goes to Durwin's cottage with Quentin and her warder, Trenn. Then, the four of them flee to an ancient city called Dekra, but they find out that Prince Jaspin has put three Harriers on their trail. Harriers are barbarous and savage people who hunt down people and bring them back, dead or alive. Will they be able to make it to Dekra to obtain help to find the king? And even if they do, will they be able to free him from the evil clutches of Nimrood the Necromancer?

Great trilogy, one of my favorites of fantasy novels. It's very exciting and suspenseful, while at the same time it has a Christian moral to it. My favorite part is in the beginning where Quentin tries to give the message to the Queen. Also love it when Quentin and his band try to free the king. Enjoyable for everyone, kids and adults alike though my opinion is it is best for teenagers.

For other fantasy books like "In the Hall of the Dragon King", I recommend the Narnia Chronicles and the Lord of the Rings series. These books are also terrific!

If you are expecting something like Lawhead's profound and satisfying "Pendragon Cycle" when reading these books, prepare to be disappointed. This isn't typical Lawhead, it's the Lawhead "lite" version, because it lacks the depth of description, character and emotion present in many of Lawhead's other works. Undoubtedly, this is more entertainment than the literary fiction of those offerings. But it would be unfair to criticize Lawhead too harshly for this, because this series was born in the infancy of his career as a writer. Readers familiar with the more polished and developed Lawhead as evident in his later work would do the man an injustice by measuring his first work by the incredibly high standard of his more mature efforts.

As a series geared towards the level of teens rather than adults, and where the reader is not under the false expectation that it contains the majesty and depth of the "Pendragon Cycle", this is still a great read. This first volume i!n the series of three (The "Dragon King" Trilogy) introduces us to young Quentin, an assistant in the temple of Ariel, who forsakes aspirations of priesthood in order to undertake an important mission for the King. This quickly leads to a quest to save King Eskevar from the hands of his evil brother Prince Jaspin who harbours selfish ambitions to take over the crown. Quentin and his great war horse Balder are soon joined in this quest by the religious hermit Durwin, the renowned outlaw Theido, and later by the prison warder Trenn, the good Queen Alinea, the mysterious nomad Toli, and the brave knight Ronsard. But Jaspin proves to be a mere pawn in the hands of the evil necromancer Nimrood, and it is from the clutches of this corrupt wizard that the King must be rescued. Quentin and company face perils of many kinds, including a long journey through the lands of Mensandor and Elsendor to the dreaded Karsh, the desolate home of Nimrood. They encounter the dreaded Harriers, and a! multitude of other dangers. The action rarely lets up, as the friends flee from one danger into the next.

The battle lines between good and evil are clearly marked out, as a conflict ensues between the powers of light and darkness, good and evil. Lawhead plainly intends this conflict to portray spiritual warfare. On one side is Nimrood, with his powers of sorcery, occultic skills and dabbling with the dark arts. On the other side is young Quentin and his band of fellow fighters for freedom, justice and righteousness. Pagan religions worshipping "the old gods" are present - in fact Quentin serves such a god during his days at the temple. But these gods are presented as "shadows, faint mists tossed on the breeze and dispersed." (p.174). A key turning point comes when Quentin meets "the Maker, the One, Most High God", and receives His blessing (p.173-7). The Christian symbolism being very clear, it is ultimately the Most High God who makes victory over against the forces !of darkness possible.

In the end, the struggle between good and evil is somewhat simplistic, the victories a little too easily accomplished (the rescue from Nimrood's island a case in point), the Christian imagery rather thinly veiled, the characters rather two-dimensional, and fantasy world of Mensandor not breathtakingly vivid in description. But that's OK. If you like to read about medieval type settings with knights in shining armour, evil wizards, and heroic quests, you'll love this book. The action is fast and furious, the story line enjoyable, the message clear and positive. It's not deep, it's not profound, but Lawhead "Lite" is still an enjoyable read.

I think you need to remember that this book's aimed for the young adult audience. If you've read Song of Albion, or Byzantium, or Hood and Scarlet, then you read this, you will notice the difference, and I think that's why some people are giving it only a few stars.

However, there's virtually no series I'd recommend more for young adults, especially who are into Fantasy.

This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I've read a lot of books, it kept you through the whole book, I couldn't put it down! It's one of those books you can read twice, the trilogy is! It is defenetly a keeper!

This book is amazing! Would that my first novel would be this successful (200,000 copies is a level not reached by most books)!

In this book, Quentin is torn from his life's work in the temple of Ariel to help a wounded knight's message reach his queen in time. When Quentin gives the message, the queen asks for his help in rescuing the man she loves more than anyone else . . . her husband, King Eskevar. Together, with several other companions, they go through many trials and dangers to try to get the good king back from the evil wizard, Nimrood.

A good read if you like Lawhead, fantasy, or books with lots of Christian symbolism. The other books in the series are not quite as good, but are still much better than the average pagan fantasies out there today.

In The Hall Of The Dragon King is an adventure about the hero in all of us. It's the story of a young boy named Quentin, whose great destiny is thrust upon him quite unexpectedly. As you travel with Quentin, his hopes and dreams become your hopes and dreams, his fears and pain become yours, and his victory is your victory. You find yourself cheering him on and booing the bad guy. Lawhead's vivid writing style brings all of his stories to life, and fills the reader with a sense of adventure. You can't put his books down until they're finished! I love his works. If you've never read a Lawhead book, this is a great one to break you in. You'll find yourself scanning the bookstores for his name, and anything he's written will somehow find its way onto your bookshelves. I'm sure of it.

This is an early Lawhead book - I think maybe only his second ever. My feeling is that he las learned a great deal since writing this one. These days his descriptions are so much more vivid, his characterisation so much deeper, and he really understands how to put a story together. Another big difference is that these books are fantasy, whereas these days Lawhead writes mostly historical fiction.

The story in this book is not bad. Quentin, an acolyte of the god Ariel, leaves service at his monastry to take a vitally important and urgent message to the queen. This leads him into an adventure to seek out a lost king, and he finds out a good deal more on the way.

Even though the story is not bad, it is not brilliant either. As a story it does not compel you to keep reading, and the characters are just a little too wooden to really care about. Whereas much modern fantasy has its genesis in Middle Earth, this book seems to have had its genesis in Narnia. Not that this fnatasy world is at all like Narnia - but you can see the same story ideas in places.

In the Hall of the Dragon King is a GREAT begining to a series. You, as a reader, instantly like the main characters and are thrown headlong into their quest for truth and the salvation of their kindgom. Lawhead shows that even in the first series he published, he already had that...that...I don't even know if words can describe it. Lawhead is one of my favorite authors and this book lives up to any and all expectations I had. It is worth any price Amazon can set.