Customer Reviews

Storm Dragon: The Draconic Prophecies, Book 1

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

 

 

Storm Dragon by James Wyatt is the first book in a new trilogy called Draconic Prophecies. An interesting note about this novel, it is the first hard cover book set in the Eberron. Mr. Wyatt's first book in the Eberron world was titled In the Claws of the Tiger: War-Torn, Book 3 (War-Torn)and was part of the War-Torn series of stand alone novels. Based on the first novel by Mr. Wyatt, I had high hopes for this book as well. I am very pleased to say, I was not disappointed in the least. If this novel marks the quality of the rest of the trilogy then this has the makings of a superb series of novels.

The plot of this book is multi-faceted even in the simplest of terms. The main plot revolves around a prison escape of two convicts and the plans of each one of them. Being the title of the trilogy there is also much discussion and development of the Draconic Prophecy. Mr. Wyatt does a fantastic job when dealing with the prophecy. He never reveals more than a few lines of the jumbled prophecy at any one time, it is a very interesting, effective, way to deal with a prophecy in a novel. The two convicts that break out of Eberron's most secure prison are separate storylines in and of themselves as well. Gaven is the keeper of the prophecy due to events in the past that the reader learns about during the last quarter of the book. What having that prophecy in his head has done to him, and will do to him in the future, is an entirely different matter. Haldren, the mastermind behind the escape, has his own plans and motivation as well. Since the duo escaped from the super prison, there are many people hunting them, including four Dragon marked houses. There are still plot points I haven't discussed, but I will let you find those on your own. Suffice it to say that this novel is packed with plot, but it is never so packed that it drags the story down. It was obviously well thought out and I am curious to see where it takes us in the next two books.

The characters of this book, and there are many, are all well written and have their own voices. What I mean by that is; when one character talks it's evident who it is. The dialog is well written, it helps the characters become their own unique entities. The is truly a plethora of characters in this book, once I realized just how many there were, I was a little worried that some lesser characters would be lost in the shuffle. However, that was not the case in this novel, at no time did I feel like I didn't' know where a character was or what they were doing. I think that speaks volumes of how well Mr. Wyatt planned this novel out.

The one criticism I have about this novel is there are about three or four places where there are, what I can only call, time-jumps with little to no explanation. These jumps kind of take the reader by surprise as one minute the character is talking about doing something or going somewhere and the next paragraph they have accomplished everything they were just talking about. I am not sure if this was intentional, a victim of editing, or just what the case was, but it was something I noticed.

As with most, if not all, books that start a series or trilogy, this book is forced to provide a lot of information to the reader in a very short time. However, Mr. Wyatt does this in a way that it does not feel like an information dump. Rather he makes it feel as though the reader already knows these characters, and he is simply reminding us of what we already knew. When in fact, to my knowledge, this is the first time these characters have seen print. That is a major plus for this novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. Fans of the Eberron world will surely find the small pieces of information and background interesting. Fans of the fantasy genre should also enjoy this novel as there seems to be elements that will please everyone. With this novel, Mr. Wyatt has proven he will no doubt make a name for himself as a fantasy author. I, for one, hope his career is long and storied as his books are a joy to read. I can easily see myself recommending this novel to many, many people.

At first off I thought that I might have to fight to get through a couple of chapters... I was right...

BUT! I was rewarded with a thrilling story that I did not want to put down. I can understand comments made by other posts, but what they have said can't take away the rush from some parts of the story that I enjoyed.

I have read many books from this setting and I have enjoyed all of them to especially include this one.

Storm Dragon is a great read, strongly character-driven without much of the dungeon/monster formula that D&D novels often fall into. Battles are swift and devastating with a variety of fighting styles. Some of the plots twists are telegraphed a bit far in advance, but then the book is about Prophecy, so having an inkling of what's going on isn't out of place.

This is my first venture into the world of Eberron, and I love it - this book is very fast paced, has intriguing characters, and enough familiar fantasy elements to make it comfortable with enough new elements to make this a very engaging read - Everything from the beginning to the end had a great and even pace, and I want to read the next story in the series now - without giving things away, the last 2 pages turned the entire ending into a new and interesting direction which made me read them twice to ensure that I fully understood what was being hinted at - if you are a fan of the D&D world, read this book - If you are a fan of Dungeon Punk and Flying Airships, read this book - If you want a fantasy novel that you will not want to put down, read this book - I highly recommend this novel.

I have to start by saying i have a very small attention span and i hardly ever read, but this book caught my eye so i thought i would give it a try. I absolutely loved this book, it has an incredible storyline that has you wanting more and more, i simply could not put the book down. I was actually upset when i finished the book because i did not want to stop reading the story lol. I highly highly recommend this book and the 2nd book Dragon Forge.

I've never read any works by James Wyatt before... and after reading this book, I would probably give great pause before reading another. There are simply too many bad writing flaws present in this book for me to know where to begin. The main character is the cliche "destined one without knowing why he has this power". Characters seem to fumble about with urgency but not much direction - too much "making it up as you go along" can make what's supposed to be suspence seem instead just aimless. And while yes, Wizard of the Coast adventure novels are certainly formulaic pulp that mostly target players of their games, there is a blatant and baldly stated "hook" at the end of the book that made me twinge at how poorly included it was.

The fact that you couldn't truly sympathize with most of the characters was a serious shortcoming as well. The hero was a little too "woe is me" that became quite tiresome, his estranged paramour was a bit too bland. Outside of them, every other character was an ambitious glory hound or manipulater.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much, but I simply think if you're going to put a fantasy book in hardcover... the story should be one that you'll return to and re-read. This story does not fall in that category.

Considering how lack luster In the Claws of the Tiger was, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well written and gripping this trilogy starter was.

This is the second Eberron novel I have read by Mr. Wyatt and my favorite by far. The dual story lines and separate sub plots in no way disjoint the main story, and they tie off rather well at the end just enough to leave you satisfied. Obviously they are not completely subdued, since this IS the beginning to a trilogy, but you don't feel the need to throw the book across the room and swear incessantly because the author left you hanging.

I enjoyed most of the main charactered immensely, save Gaven's would be wife Rienne, because they were unique, dialogged well, dynamic and capable of a growth and development. Gaven especially is an enjoyable and character who is easy to empathize with and cheer on.

My only complaint about this book is the same complaint I have with all Eberron's novels, Wyatt's in particular. Why do we need changlings? Why? Not only are they easymode spies and bad guys, but they're ALWAYS bad guys, always sneaky and underhanded, and always there. Not only does Wyatt always include a changling in every Eberron novel he's ever written, but it's the SAME changling in every book. The only back story to this changling is that which is carried over from the previous books, which isn't much. The only things we know about this changling is that he's been sneaking around pretending to be other people(always artificers) for a while. We know nothing of his allegiances and motivations, but we can rest assured they are almost certainly not noble or good.

As with the other Eberron novels I've read, even in spite of the Wyatt's continued use of his changling retard I did enjoy The Storm Dragon and look forward the continuation of the rest of the trilogy.