Sarah K.L. Wilson is so boss at storytelling, they'd allowed her to have two middle initials in her name. I'm currently caught up to book four in her Dragon School series, and I am having a blast reading it. And, by the way, since these volumes run at novella length, I'd been able to burn thru those four volumes just today. First Flight is the first entry and my first time reading this author's stuff, and it hooked me good, good enough that I didn't even pause when it came time to purchase the subsequent volumes.
I will say that I'm glad this series is up to fourteen volumes already. There's no tearing my hair out waiting for the next installment. Also, I may have had issues with how First Flight had a sudden swerve in its plot that came off as rather abrupt and with no explanation given. More on that in a mo.
Dragon School is projected to comprise twenty novellas, and I'm salivating to get thru the existing fourteen and then to not looking forward to waiting for the remaining six. Four books in, it's plenty good. Not quite up there yet with my two all-time favorite YA reads about dragons, which are Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong and its sequel Dragonsinger (the second sequel, Dragondrums, is sort of meh). But I like Wilson's worldbuilding quite a bit and the character work she invests in her MC...
...who happens to be 16-year-old Amel Leafbrought. Amel desperately yearns to be a dragon rider. There are two knocks against her. She's a commoner. And she's a cripple, her hip crushed and her leg mangled, lasting fallout from when she was 17 months old and accidentally dropped during her family's flight from a raiders' attack.
Each year, multitudes of recruits perish in their try to gentle a wild dragon. Those who fail yet survive are pulled from the recruitment program and demoted to becoming servants of the dragon riders. And there's Amel Leafbrought, hobbling along, her crutch under one arm, not given much chance to do anything but die right away. Except Amel has colossal pluck, and is obstinate as ef, and means to achieve her lofty dream, and there's also that she didn't want anymore to be a burden on her impoverished family.
Amel is so easy to root for. She's a refreshing change from the spate of asskicking fantasy/sci-fi heroines who seem to just dominate every obstacle like it was a trifling thing. Yes, Amel is resilient, and, yes, she's steadfast in her pursuit of her goal. But, damn, the sh-- she has to go thru. The author portrays the dragon riding community - or at least its fresh recruits - as mostly scornful and condescending towards those with disabilities. This series tells of a grand adventure, yes, but it's also a study in how small-minded and bullying your peers can be. As if the dragon academy weren't grueling enough. I love that Amel simply carries on despite the "stigma" others choose to associate her with, never mind that her infirmity isn't her fault.
The worldbuilding fascinated me, specifically the infrastructure of the dragon school. It's interesting that the color of the dragon signifies its rider's specialty. The rider of a white dragon is slated to be a healer. A rider who chooses a gold dragon is bound for diplomacy. And purple...
Amel suspects she'd be last to pick out a dragon, just as she suspects she'll be last in everything, and she's right. She ends up with a purple dragon, only to learn that purple dragons are the most prickly lot, and the most solitary. Except Raolcan is an awesome dragon, with his deep eggplant color and yellow eyes and immediate deep connection with Amel. I haven't liked a dragon this much this fast since I first ran into Ruth in McCaffrey's The White Dragon. By the way, those rare recruits who choose a purple end up as couriers.
One gripe that I would've had had I not binge-read a bunch of these is that, deep into this first book, the status quo changes abruptly and the training is accelerated with no good reason given. But because I did binge-read the first four entries, that acceleration was eventually explained away. But, yes, I think I prefer binge-reading or binge-watching a series because I tend to retain things better and the overarching narrative holds together better when experienced that way.
It's a short read and much of it devoted to the minutiae of rudimentary training such the care of one's dragon and mucking out its stall. But it's actually interesting stuff, partly because of how even something as elementary as those activities prove to be quite a challenge for our handicapped heroine. The plot's climax dovetails into the novella's title as Amal and her fellow recruits must complete their first dragon flight. Amel survives this, probably.
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Kindle Customer
Good but too short
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 19, 2021
Rachel
Pure escapism, but the story doesn't end
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 12, 2022
Cell1e
Very short little episode type books-not worth the money
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 1, 2022MADEUPgroup
Great story! Bit too short.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 23, 2018Rio61
Excellent story but the folow-on books are expensive for their length
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2021
