Customer Reviews

King's Dragon (Crown of Stars, Vol. 1)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I picked up this book on a whim at the library, and ploughed through it and the next three of the series within two weeks. Elliott has developed an intricate, compelling storyline that rewards the attentive reader. Each chapter uncovers some new layer to the onion -- or suggests that one will be uncovered later. This is a story of sweeping scope, with more than seven distinct "main" protagonists, whose individual stories intertwine and separate, then intertwine again. Most of the main pro- and antagonists are fairly clearly good or evil, but there are several important characters hovering somewhere in the middle. This dynamic makes for an engaging plot that doesn't suffer from predictability.

This first book is the slowest of the lot, so far. It does delve heavily into background and history, but it does so for a VERY good reason. Everything you learn in this book is important for the later books, and I found myself in book IV wishing I'd paid better attention back in book II to some chance story a minor character told in passing. The intrigues and hidden manipulations only comes to light slowly, as the protagonists themselves learn the truth. A story of this scope can't be done justice by being told quickly.

As I see it, the books seem to fit the following pattern: book I is foundation, suggesting some greater plot is driving the action; book II shows there is more than one greater plot, and introduces several mysteries; book III slowly unravels a couple of mysteries, but mostly establishes a few new ones and moves the story closer to conclusion; book IV drives clearly toward the series climax and explains several of the mysteries, but leaves more than enough to make you wish book V had been published already.

One note: This first book contains a central plotline of domestic violence and rape. Some readers may find this very disturbing, especially as there's no skipping over those sections without missing too much to continue.

The Kingdom of Wendar is in turmoil. King Henry still holds the crown, but his reign has long been contested by his sister Sabella. There are many eager to flock to her banner, whether from belief in her cause or the hope of personal gain. Internal conflict weakens Wendar's defenses, drawing raiders, human and inhuman, across its borders. Terrifying portents abound and dark spirits walk the land in broad daylight. Two innocents are to be thrust into the midst of the conflict - Alain, a young man granted a vision granted by the Lady of Battles, and Liath, a young woman with the power to change the course of history. Both must discover the truth about themselves before they can accept their fate. For in a war where sorcery, not swords, may determine the final outcome, the price of failure may be more than their own lives.

It has been quite a while since I read a series and thought "damn, it's over!" at the end. The author has built a vast number of interesting characters but, despite the number, one is able to know and relate to each. Each of the characters has their own remarkable flaws and imperfections, and you actaully have opportunities to sympathize with each throughout the series (even the remarkably "evil" ones you think you would never agree with). Unlike the Robert Jordan WoT series which seems to go on and on and on without resolution, Elliot has squeezed a sweeping epic into a (mere) 7 books, and I found myself disappointed when I finished the last of the third book. Fortunately, there are enough open issues, unanswered questions and unresolved conflicts in the end that Elliot could forseeably write another series to "fill in the blanks". I, for one, sincerely hope to see more from this author in the very near future.

I would normally give King's Dragon four stars, or even 4.5 stars, but I'm giving it five because I think the ultimate Amazon rating is an unfair reflection of Kate Elliott's first novel.

King's Dragon is your typical long fantasy book. Kate Elliott uses a lot of familiar fantasy tropes: bastard princes, magic, people rising from obscurity to the nobility, etc. However, since it's nearly impossible to find a fantasy novel without those tropes, they didn't really get in the way of my enjoyment of the story.

As you'll probably read below and above this review, Kate Elliott has taken many familiar historical events from our world and changed them into something... well... fanciful. Again, using our world as a springing board into an unfamiliar world is another recognizable trope used by fantasy authors. Most authors don't acknowledge their use of our own history in their story, and most people don't criticize them because the average person doesn't notice the historical and legendary references. Kate Elliott does acknowledge that she has used history in her book, and now everyone has chosen to criticize her for it. I hope you, random reader, are not such a person.

King's Dragon opens up with a PoV from a being who isn't human; her race, purpose, and physical appearance are kept a mystery; some of her anonymity is uncovered over the course of the novel. She is leaving Henry with the child she made with him. This child is what makes Henry the next King, because-while not birthed legitimately-proves that he can produce an heir. The baby, whose name is Sanglant, is the King's Dragon. Sanglant is the captain of the Dragons. The Dragons are the paramount Cavalry soldiers of the King, who most often ride in the vanguard of the King's army. Prince Sanglant, however, is not the main character of King's Dragon, but one can easily gather this from the book jacket description.

There are two main characters: Liath and Alain.

Liath is a girl whose birth is shrouded in mystery. We get the idea she can use magic, but her father is protecting her from an unnamed evil. When her father dies, she is bought by Hugh in an auction of her father's things; she is-what would be called in ancient times-a debtor. Hugh is a Frater, or Father, who has an unhealthy interest in Liath. Under his care, she suffers many abuses. Hugh beats her and smothers her mind in an effort to get "The Book of Secrets" from Liath; the book of Secrets stays mostly a mystery in this novel. Liath is definitely the focus of this first installment.

Alain also has a mysterious birthing. During a raid from the inhuman Eika, Alain sees a vision from the Lady of Battles. Alain swears an oath to her, and this sets his feet on a path to war and the revelation of an even greater mystery.

Both characters are swept up in forces far greater than they are. Both have destinies we the reader cannot yet fathom. Both are uniquely differentiated characters we can empathize with and become attached to.

I haven't read the second book yet, but I am eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail. The tone of the novel is that of a writer who normally feels at home in an SF setting, but is working with an idea that is more fanciful than scientific. I've often liked such books; The Cold Fire Trilogy, Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and Azazel; those stories seem to all have a more literary cast to them-King's Dragon is no different. Kate Elliott's second book in this series, Prince of Dogs, actually was a finalist for the Nebula award; neither Robert Jordan, nor Terry Goodkind can boast being a finalist for any award.

My three favorite authors from this genre are Jordan, Martin, and Tolkein. If you enjoy these authors then you may find this review helpful.

Elliot's characters, plot, and history reflect a feminist tendency that runs strong throughout the series. Two of the protagonist characters are women, one being the hero. The two male protagonist characters are slightly feminine, particularly Alain(even his name sounds like a girl's). On a positive note, Elliot seems to excel at revealing each character's deepest emotions. Additionally, her female characters are well rounded and strong. However, in terms of the world dynamics, Elliot goes overboard. In example Elliot uses many references to Latin(Dariyan) even changing Virgil's Aeneid to Virgilia's Heleneid, which I think is too blatantly feminist. Also, the main deity(ies) are women. While I welcome strong female characters and historical influence, I dislike such an unbalance. Similarly, I don't enjoy totally male dominated stories. If Elliot insists on creating a world with a powerful female element, she could at least have done her readers the service of creating her own history rather than just flipping our world's history(it just seems lazy, and lends discredit to that creative option). If you have gotten this far, then you should buy this book. The plot is addictive and her writing style is adequate. The high points much outweigh the faults in her exciting series of novels. But do not expect a read like that of Tolkein or George R.R. Martin. In terms of enjoyment, I compare Elliot's work to Terry Goodkind. Many people disagree with me and believe Elliot is worthy of Jordan like praise, so read the books. To each his own.

I am an avid fantasy reader and was seeking a new series to sink my teeth into. I read online reviews of this book before I bought it and found them quite positive. After reading 400 pages of King's Dragon, I called it quits (something I rarely do). The author spent so much time on background info for the religious and political landscape of the story, that she completely forgot about progressing the storyline itself. I didn't care about the characters and I didn't care about the story. If you like complex, detail oriented fantasy, maybe this book is for you. If you read fantasy for a rich storyline that urges you to read on and on, try something else.

For ages I had always heard about Kate Elliott's books and I had never read them...but one day I just HAD to pick up King's Dragon because I felt compelled to read it. Boy was I right! I finished the book in about a day, while at the same time traveling back and forth from London.

I immediately clicked the the first two main characters: Liath and Alain. They both had very human wants and needs and more importantly, emotions.

I think that Kate Elliott is one of the best character developers out there (yes, I think these are better than Harry Potter, you just have to be up to reading thick novels with political conflict, etc). Liath, who was "stolen" by an evil man called Hugh, was then abused and raped. Usually, in fantasy books, the enemy is very flat: dark side, evil magic, etc...while Hugh could be a person walking (or riding) down the road like anyone else, etc. He was very real and more than once I could not figure out how Liath was going to get out of the situations she was in.

Filled with court drama, awesome characters, and romance, this seris is one of the best out there.

The Crown of Stars series is well-thought out and obviously well-planned. It's epic in scope and it's got a lot of texture. There are many complex characters who we follow in parallel, as in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Some of them are very likable, and there are some really excellent villains (e.g., Hugh). Ms. Elliott's creatures are imaginative and enjoyable, and I especially liked the way they interact with the humans. Ms. Elliott uses a lot of description and therefore her plot moves very slowly (again, similar to WOT).

The writing was inconsistent throughout the series. Sometimes it seems brilliant, but at other times I'd think "why did she tell me that?" or "this could be moving a little faster." It's often wordy. Her editor could have almost arbitrarily taken out a third of the sentences with no ill effect. Sometimes she over-explains what a character is feeling or his/her motivation when it would have been better to let the dialog or action speak for the character. Sometimes she tells me something too many times (e.g., "but his voice always sounds like that"). I wonder if the inconsistency is due to different editing processes, because it's not like that in all the books, and even some individual books are internally inconsistent. I thought the fourth book, especially, was not well edited.

The pace of these novels is so slow that I found my self bogged down in the middle of book 5 with not much desire to go on, so I decided to quit. I struggled with that decision because I really did want to find out what happened to the characters, but it was taking me too long to get there and the writing style wasn't good enough to make up for the crawling pace (unlike Wheel of Time).

Overall, these books entertained me for a while. The plot was interesting and the characterization was particularly notable, but it eventually got too slow.
--FanLit.net

The flaws in this series are so many that its good features serve only to highlight the abundance of poor choices, repetitious description, shallow characterizations and logical errors.

The writer is obviously deeply immersed in the historical period, so much so that reverence for it overwhelms the story. The novels frequently become mired in long quotations and references, which are poor transliterations of real historical works with the names changed, much as a poor student might plagiarize to get their essay up to the assigned number of pages.

With in excruciating detail the novels separate the good characters from the bad by one simple method: make the good people suffer. Rape, torture, mental and physical, imprisonment, long enslavement, pathological fears, betrayal and injury are the lot of all main characters, because that lets them show what good people they are! Worse, the characters do not develop in response to their traumatic lives, and the reader is treated to the dubious and repetitive pleasure of seeing the only worthwhile persons in the series suffer, without any real development for at least three full novels.

There is some excellent dialogue and description, easily enough for one good novel. But as other reviewers have noted, the author quickly exhausts a limited range of descriptive phrases and begins to repeat. As the evocative power of the writing sadly fades, the reader is left with little to enjoy of the series. The twists of plot are sadly lacking in creativity and are bluntly foreshadowed over a series that would be twice as good were it one fourth the length.

It was with great anticipation that I set out to enjoy the Crown of Stars series. After all, it is most often compared to George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice saga. As such I ordered the complete 7 volume series (in hardcover no less) and have just completed the first book, King's Dragon, last night. This review is difficult on account of the fact that there are two distinctive qualities to the story that need addressing.

I'll begin by agreeing that the scope of the world Kate Elliott has crafted in her tale is nothing shy of epic. The reader is carried along from the perspective of two very insignificant characters (as far as society is concerned) as they discover the vastness of the world around them. In that aspect the novel works well. Additionally Elliott does a very commendable job fleshing out her characters early on; I was very interested in the exploits of Alain and Liath right from the get-go.

Unfortunately it is the middle of the book that begins to stumble in my opinion. KE is a bit too concerned with her fictitious religion (that often crosses so close to reality that it is laughable) and what could be the culmination of a bunch individual story plots combining in an epic battle is instead dragged on and on with intricacies. Granted her political poise and even her (unbearable at times) over reliance upon the religious aspects of the world could be considered brilliant writing by some, I personally sought a little bit better pacing from the middle to around three-quarters in.

The good news is that the ending actually picks up on the promise delivered in the beginning and has (to my own surprise) left me eager to dig into the second volume, Prince of Dogs.

And just to clarify, I'm by no means an action junkie in my reading. I can appreciate the slow pacing and daunting details required to flesh out an entire fictional world (I mean honestly, that's technically what fantasy is). However, I felt that Kate Elliott's flaw in this piece was her tendency to get bogged down when the reader would expect the pace to start quickening. What worries me is that many other reviewers state they flew through this one only to get bogged down later in the series... Probably not a very encouraging sign that I found myself bogged down already.

Browsing through my local used bookstore I came across The King's Dragon and decided to take a chance. Two days (and two very late nights) later my chance was rewarded with characters believable in both motivation and action, very real and applicable emotional turmoil, sub-plots that make sense, and the hints of an overarching plot that will (hopefully)prove to be deeply intriguing/interesting.

If you like fantasy with political intrigue, diverse races, millitary struggle, the conflicting but everpresent influences of church and state on everyday life, characters both ordinary and extraordinay, and the presence of magic, you will enjoy The King's Dragon.