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Age of Fire #1
Dragon Champion
Auron, a rare gray dragon, escapes those who kill his siblings. Armed only with his claws, determined to survive, he searches for his kind. He faces killer dwarves, elves, humans, and other dangers. Auron does find allies in strange places, and himself along the way.
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 407 reviews
October 22, 2014
Wow! This is a YA novel, sort of. Definitely great for adults, but this is a coming of age story. Knight explains in a very short, wonderful introduction that his Vampire Earth series garnered a lot of emails from fans & he likes that, except he noticed many were younger teens. He doesn't think that series is recommended reading for that age group, at least he doesn't want his kids reading it, so he decided to write this series.
As you might guess from the title, the dragon, Auron, is the main character, the hero of the story. It's a great world full of dwarfs, elves, people, & all kinds of critters. While our young dragon is as smart or smarter than a human, he's also able to communicate with some other animals like wolves & dolphins. Dragons are a wonderful mixture of base instincts, long lives, & high intelligence. All of this adds up to a backdrop on which Knight paints a great coming of age story beset by prejudice (both sides), war, slavery, the benefits of learning, & even some love/lust, although the last is handled in an entirely appropriate way for even the youngest kids.
The love/lust bit demonstrates a subtle realism with which Knight hands out the lessons in this book. Auron grows up & has urges. Even human women smell enticing & he realizes what is happening to some extent. He has memories (dragons have a type of telepathy) of how some dragons without mates like to capture female humans & play with them before killing & eating them. This is something he detests, but recognizes this in himself after he actually pursues some one time in a fit of passion. he comes to his senses & berates himself for it.
There is a lot more to this story than just the normal fantasy adventure. Even with 5 stars, I find I don't want to read any more in the series right now. This one was great, but enough for me now. Maybe more later, though.
This is probably a personal thing. I've been like this with other fantasy series that I really like, too. I'm full & another book would be gluttony. It doesn't really make sense to me. I blew right through George R.R. Martin's 'Game of Thrones', but they were kind of like candy. This is more like Janny Wurts' 'War of Light & Shadows', meaty & rich. There is far more to think about than just the fantasy story.
As you might guess from the title, the dragon, Auron, is the main character, the hero of the story. It's a great world full of dwarfs, elves, people, & all kinds of critters. While our young dragon is as smart or smarter than a human, he's also able to communicate with some other animals like wolves & dolphins. Dragons are a wonderful mixture of base instincts, long lives, & high intelligence. All of this adds up to a backdrop on which Knight paints a great coming of age story beset by prejudice (both sides), war, slavery, the benefits of learning, & even some love/lust, although the last is handled in an entirely appropriate way for even the youngest kids.
The love/lust bit demonstrates a subtle realism with which Knight hands out the lessons in this book. Auron grows up & has urges. Even human women smell enticing & he realizes what is happening to some extent. He has memories (dragons have a type of telepathy) of how some dragons without mates like to capture female humans & play with them before killing & eating them. This is something he detests, but recognizes this in himself after he actually pursues some one time in a fit of passion. he comes to his senses & berates himself for it.
There is a lot more to this story than just the normal fantasy adventure. Even with 5 stars, I find I don't want to read any more in the series right now. This one was great, but enough for me now. Maybe more later, though.
This is probably a personal thing. I've been like this with other fantasy series that I really like, too. I'm full & another book would be gluttony. It doesn't really make sense to me. I blew right through George R.R. Martin's 'Game of Thrones', but they were kind of like candy. This is more like Janny Wurts' 'War of Light & Shadows', meaty & rich. There is far more to think about than just the fantasy story.
June 25, 2019
Via Book Reviews by Niki Hawkes at www.nikihawkes.com
Even though there are many other excellent dragon books out there, I have never before read one quite like this. Most authors use dragons as important companions to their main human characters, but E.E. Knight takes it one step further by allowing his readers to become a dragon.
Told from the dragon's perspective, the story follows him from the struggles of hatching all the way to the adventures of adulthood. As if that wasn't cool enough, this dragon, Auron, is grey-scaled, an anomaly in the dragonworld who lacks the rock-hard scales that protect others of his kind.
Because most of the main characters are dragons, it makes for an interesting dynamic, as they have all sorts of traits and motives that are quite different from a human's. Everything from their basic regard of other species to the complex inner-workings of their societies was simply fascinating. Not only, that, but it also has a highly interesting story, an engaging plot, and a decent writing style.
Overall, with such a unique concept, this is a must-read for any dragon-lover!
Recommendations: Although "Dragon Champion" is geared towards adults, I sometimes feel comfortable recommending it to young adults who are ready to up their reading level, provided they can handle some "scary" moments.
Other books you might like:
"Joust" by Mercedes Lackey
"Dragon's Blood" by Jane Yolen
"The Last Dragonlord" by Joanne Bertin
"Dragonriders of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey
"Eragon" by Christopher Paolini
Even though there are many other excellent dragon books out there, I have never before read one quite like this. Most authors use dragons as important companions to their main human characters, but E.E. Knight takes it one step further by allowing his readers to become a dragon.
Told from the dragon's perspective, the story follows him from the struggles of hatching all the way to the adventures of adulthood. As if that wasn't cool enough, this dragon, Auron, is grey-scaled, an anomaly in the dragonworld who lacks the rock-hard scales that protect others of his kind.
Because most of the main characters are dragons, it makes for an interesting dynamic, as they have all sorts of traits and motives that are quite different from a human's. Everything from their basic regard of other species to the complex inner-workings of their societies was simply fascinating. Not only, that, but it also has a highly interesting story, an engaging plot, and a decent writing style.
Overall, with such a unique concept, this is a must-read for any dragon-lover!
Recommendations: Although "Dragon Champion" is geared towards adults, I sometimes feel comfortable recommending it to young adults who are ready to up their reading level, provided they can handle some "scary" moments.
Other books you might like:
"Joust" by Mercedes Lackey
"Dragon's Blood" by Jane Yolen
"The Last Dragonlord" by Joanne Bertin
"Dragonriders of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey
"Eragon" by Christopher Paolini
December 11, 2017
First off, thank you to my friend Niki Hawkes at Fantasy Buddy Reads (FBR) for recommending this novel to me! It truly was a joy to read.
Real Rating: A solid 3.5 🌟s
This novel was a good natured, fairly light read that was a refreshing change of style from the darker fantasy series that I've been reading lately. You're introduced to the main character of the book immediately after he's born and, at the same time, you begin a culture lesson on what is like to be a dragon. Yep, that's right! The protagonist is a DRAGON! Like, 🐲, but grey!
E.E. Knight's writing style is so easy to follow making this book enjoyable, fun, and relaxing. He doesn't use big words or artistic descriptors, he just tells one heck of a story! Half way through I started thinking to myself that this could be something that I could read to my 8 year old son. One scene near the start made me question this... However, the remainder of the book feels like the movie "Homeward Bound" as our young protagonist learns about himself, the world, and others around him during his coming of age journey from hatchling, to drake, to dragon. He makes more friends than enemies along this journey but he's also challenged morally throughout. I can't continue praising this novel without starting to get into plot spoilers and I don't like doing that! Just know this: This is a great book with Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, Wolves (my favorite part of the story), Vultures, Dogs, Bears & others. Each race is presented perfectly with a combination of heroes and villains. The believability of his story telling, the goodness found within random characters, and the fact that the protagonist is a scaleless dragon made this a great, heroic, read. Highly recommended! Thanks again for the recommendation Niki!
Real Rating: A solid 3.5 🌟s
This novel was a good natured, fairly light read that was a refreshing change of style from the darker fantasy series that I've been reading lately. You're introduced to the main character of the book immediately after he's born and, at the same time, you begin a culture lesson on what is like to be a dragon. Yep, that's right! The protagonist is a DRAGON! Like, 🐲, but grey!
E.E. Knight's writing style is so easy to follow making this book enjoyable, fun, and relaxing. He doesn't use big words or artistic descriptors, he just tells one heck of a story! Half way through I started thinking to myself that this could be something that I could read to my 8 year old son. One scene near the start made me question this... However, the remainder of the book feels like the movie "Homeward Bound" as our young protagonist learns about himself, the world, and others around him during his coming of age journey from hatchling, to drake, to dragon. He makes more friends than enemies along this journey but he's also challenged morally throughout. I can't continue praising this novel without starting to get into plot spoilers and I don't like doing that! Just know this: This is a great book with Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, Wolves (my favorite part of the story), Vultures, Dogs, Bears & others. Each race is presented perfectly with a combination of heroes and villains. The believability of his story telling, the goodness found within random characters, and the fact that the protagonist is a scaleless dragon made this a great, heroic, read. Highly recommended! Thanks again for the recommendation Niki!
June 27, 2017
So it was pretty surprising that the author prefaces this book with a note that he wanted to write something 'tamer' for young adults, because the violence, brutality, and gore start early and don't stop. There really is something to be said for a book where one of the villains is lambasting the protagonist for killing a little village boy and you're searching around like, "Um, yes, actually, that is a pretty awful and unjustified act, why are we supposed to root for the dragon?"
The answer, I think, is because he's a *literate* dragon wise enough to co-exist with other sentient creatures (just not all of the time though, because he's happy enough to eat humans in great detail too.) The book is nominally inspired by Watership Down, except where their wandering are held together by the thread of the very clear and basic goal of 're-establish a warren', Auron's goal is constantly fluctuating. Find his family?? Sure! Of course he's passionately pursuing that. Except without much fanfare that goal changes another five times and he often drops one passionate pursuit to hare off and take a trip with some new companions.
So the book is basically in a few parts: Auron Travels With Wolves (Tamora Pierce did it better); Auron Travels With Dwarves (by far the best part of the book, but Tolkien did it better); Auron Travels With a Human (a la Clan of the Cave Bear, a bit?) and Auron Studies Under Old Mentor Dragon, before, finally, Auron Confronts the Big Bad.
This book took me a while to get through when I had nothing but time on my hands, which is telling.
The answer, I think, is because he's a *literate* dragon wise enough to co-exist with other sentient creatures (just not all of the time though, because he's happy enough to eat humans in great detail too.) The book is nominally inspired by Watership Down, except where their wandering are held together by the thread of the very clear and basic goal of 're-establish a warren', Auron's goal is constantly fluctuating. Find his family?? Sure! Of course he's passionately pursuing that. Except without much fanfare that goal changes another five times and he often drops one passionate pursuit to hare off and take a trip with some new companions.
So the book is basically in a few parts: Auron Travels With Wolves (Tamora Pierce did it better); Auron Travels With Dwarves (by far the best part of the book, but Tolkien did it better); Auron Travels With a Human (a la Clan of the Cave Bear, a bit?) and Auron Studies Under Old Mentor Dragon, before, finally, Auron Confronts the Big Bad.
This book took me a while to get through when I had nothing but time on my hands, which is telling.
January 12, 2009
This book taught me that dragons have a tough life. The striving! The struggling! The straining! The constant loss of hatchling teeth accompanied by the gain of hellacious wounds! Woe! Woe, I tells ya!
To be serious, I did enjoy this book. I'd give it a 2.5 star rating if I could. If someone asked me if I liked it in person, I would look off in the distance, slowly nod, and say, "...yeeaah, yeah...well...yes, I liked it. It was fun." The Moral(s) Of The Story came across rather heavy-handed, and the bits of poetry (as well as some of the "accents" E.E. Knight applied to some of the animals' speech) made me cringe from time to time, but I generally sympathized with the main character, and I enjoyed the author's descriptions of the world. It was very action-y, which was a nice break for me.
To be serious, I did enjoy this book. I'd give it a 2.5 star rating if I could. If someone asked me if I liked it in person, I would look off in the distance, slowly nod, and say, "...yeeaah, yeah...well...yes, I liked it. It was fun." The Moral(s) Of The Story came across rather heavy-handed, and the bits of poetry (as well as some of the "accents" E.E. Knight applied to some of the animals' speech) made me cringe from time to time, but I generally sympathized with the main character, and I enjoyed the author's descriptions of the world. It was very action-y, which was a nice break for me.
December 18, 2015
I love dragons; dragons are awesome. Unfortunately most stories featuring dragons tend to do a combination of things that I personally dislike:
-The focus isn't actually on dragons; they're just... there.
-Dragons are always evil (or the ones important to the story are evil).
-Dragons are mindless beasts.
I was super excited when I heard about this book. Not only did it promise to avoid all those things, the protagonist is actually a dragon. Sold!
Then I actually sat down and read it and came away disappointed. Now don't get me wrong; I still enjoyed this book, it delivered on the things above that hooked me, the ideas were good, and I intend to read the remainder of the Age of Fire series in my spare time. My problem with Dragon Champion is the execution of the story.
Layout
First off, it felt more like a collection of unrelated short stories than an actual novel. Each of the events Auron, the protagonist, goes through only have a thin thread connecting them to each other, if at all. Then everything is loosely tied together at the end.
It also doesn't help, and I'd actually call it a cheat, that This saves the author the trouble of needing to resolve anything further with them and just feels lazy.
Relationships
Auron makes friends far too easily, for no other reason than merely existing. It's almost as if he's got a hidden power to subconsciously emit a friendship aura that makes everyone he meets like him. Obviously there are exceptions (antagonists, random enemies), but you're never really shown why people get along with him.
Most characters boiled down to: "Hello. We are friends now." "Okay." Done. They literally have to keep calling each other "friend" in conversations, as if the author is making sure you know they're friends. And it's a good thing he did because that sense of friendship isn't really shown in their dialogue and interactions otherwise. As such, don't really have much of an impact.
Even was very poorly done. We are shown absolutely no reason why they Why? Because the author said so.
The only character I felt actually had some chemistry with Auron was . Going through their story arc, you actually get a feel for their relationship, see how it develops, and understand why they have the relationship they do. I really wish the author put as much development into the others but I guess he didn't want to bother since .
Aside from the plot-important ones, random one-shot characters seem to come into scenes just to spew exposition. Most of them have little to no reason to speak with Auron or tell him anything, least of all the inner workings of their cultures. Yet they do for seemingly no other reason than to give us, the readers, a look into the world-building. This was not a good way to do it.
The worst offender was a character whose entire purpose was, "Hello dragon-I've-just-met, allow me to tell you my life story." Did she have a reason to speak so openly with Auron? Was she important to the story? Did her past have anything to do with the rest of the book? Do we ever see her again? Did she exist for more than 2 pages? The answer to all of these is: no.
No Conflict
Moving on, I didn't feel like there was any "real" conflict. Yes, bad things happened. Yes, the hero had to overcome obstacles. But despite this, Auron never really failed a given task. "But why would you want the hero to fail?" you ask. Well we don't, hypothetical person. We want them to succeed, but at a cost. Protagonists should work for their goals; they need to be knocked down so they can pick themselves up; they need to make mistakes so they can learn and grow from them; they need conflict. Without it, they don't develop throughout the book and remain static characters.
Unfortunately that's what happens to Auron; he remains a boring, static character. He succeeds at pretty much everything he does, and on the first attempt no less. Meanwhile background characters just stand around and marvel as Auron does everything. Awesomely. There were no setbacks, no struggle, nothing truly barring his path to victory.
Auron wins battles against experienced fighters when he has little to no experience. He and Auron is still a wingless drake at this point. When it's his first time being
Auron always makes the right decision and performs the right action regardless of whether or not he has the experience or know-how to back it up. He is rarely even conflicted in his own thoughts. Sure, Auron may talk about how he's not sure what to do, but not even a page passes before either circumstance will conspire to show him the correct path, or he'll just pick the correct path and dissolve the conflict immediately.
Minor Nitpicks
Sometimes an author wants to make up vocabulary to represent something. That is fine. But sometimes, they just make an unnecessary and ridiculous one. That gets tedious. I've no problem with the author's use of sii and foua and so forth, but "dragon-dash?" Really? I get it: Auron is a dragon, and he is dashing somewhere. But is his dragon-dash somehow different from anything else's dash? Just call it a dash.
And for that matter, why dragon-lengths and dragon-lifetimes and so on? Since the POV is from Auron, a dragon, he shouldn't really need to specify his own species when speaking about measurements. We humans don't say human-lifetimes when talking about our lifespan, but we'll specify dog-years and such when speaking of something nonhuman. The constant use of dragon-(thing) kept pulling me out of the narrative as it no longer felt like it was being told from a dragon's POV.
Closing Statements
All in all, I still enjoyed the book. Or rather, I enjoyed the story. I just didn't like how it was told, which speaks more of the author than it does the story.
-The focus isn't actually on dragons; they're just... there.
-Dragons are always evil (or the ones important to the story are evil).
-Dragons are mindless beasts.
I was super excited when I heard about this book. Not only did it promise to avoid all those things, the protagonist is actually a dragon. Sold!
Then I actually sat down and read it and came away disappointed. Now don't get me wrong; I still enjoyed this book, it delivered on the things above that hooked me, the ideas were good, and I intend to read the remainder of the Age of Fire series in my spare time. My problem with Dragon Champion is the execution of the story.
Layout
First off, it felt more like a collection of unrelated short stories than an actual novel. Each of the events Auron, the protagonist, goes through only have a thin thread connecting them to each other, if at all. Then everything is loosely tied together at the end.
It also doesn't help, and I'd actually call it a cheat, that This saves the author the trouble of needing to resolve anything further with them and just feels lazy.
Relationships
Auron makes friends far too easily, for no other reason than merely existing. It's almost as if he's got a hidden power to subconsciously emit a friendship aura that makes everyone he meets like him. Obviously there are exceptions (antagonists, random enemies), but you're never really shown why people get along with him.
Most characters boiled down to: "Hello. We are friends now." "Okay." Done. They literally have to keep calling each other "friend" in conversations, as if the author is making sure you know they're friends. And it's a good thing he did because that sense of friendship isn't really shown in their dialogue and interactions otherwise. As such, don't really have much of an impact.
Even was very poorly done. We are shown absolutely no reason why they Why? Because the author said so.
The only character I felt actually had some chemistry with Auron was . Going through their story arc, you actually get a feel for their relationship, see how it develops, and understand why they have the relationship they do. I really wish the author put as much development into the others but I guess he didn't want to bother since .
Aside from the plot-important ones, random one-shot characters seem to come into scenes just to spew exposition. Most of them have little to no reason to speak with Auron or tell him anything, least of all the inner workings of their cultures. Yet they do for seemingly no other reason than to give us, the readers, a look into the world-building. This was not a good way to do it.
The worst offender was a character whose entire purpose was, "Hello dragon-I've-just-met, allow me to tell you my life story." Did she have a reason to speak so openly with Auron? Was she important to the story? Did her past have anything to do with the rest of the book? Do we ever see her again? Did she exist for more than 2 pages? The answer to all of these is: no.
No Conflict
Moving on, I didn't feel like there was any "real" conflict. Yes, bad things happened. Yes, the hero had to overcome obstacles. But despite this, Auron never really failed a given task. "But why would you want the hero to fail?" you ask. Well we don't, hypothetical person. We want them to succeed, but at a cost. Protagonists should work for their goals; they need to be knocked down so they can pick themselves up; they need to make mistakes so they can learn and grow from them; they need conflict. Without it, they don't develop throughout the book and remain static characters.
Unfortunately that's what happens to Auron; he remains a boring, static character. He succeeds at pretty much everything he does, and on the first attempt no less. Meanwhile background characters just stand around and marvel as Auron does everything. Awesomely. There were no setbacks, no struggle, nothing truly barring his path to victory.
Auron wins battles against experienced fighters when he has little to no experience. He and Auron is still a wingless drake at this point. When it's his first time being
Auron always makes the right decision and performs the right action regardless of whether or not he has the experience or know-how to back it up. He is rarely even conflicted in his own thoughts. Sure, Auron may talk about how he's not sure what to do, but not even a page passes before either circumstance will conspire to show him the correct path, or he'll just pick the correct path and dissolve the conflict immediately.
Minor Nitpicks
Sometimes an author wants to make up vocabulary to represent something. That is fine. But sometimes, they just make an unnecessary and ridiculous one. That gets tedious. I've no problem with the author's use of sii and foua and so forth, but "dragon-dash?" Really? I get it: Auron is a dragon, and he is dashing somewhere. But is his dragon-dash somehow different from anything else's dash? Just call it a dash.
And for that matter, why dragon-lengths and dragon-lifetimes and so on? Since the POV is from Auron, a dragon, he shouldn't really need to specify his own species when speaking about measurements. We humans don't say human-lifetimes when talking about our lifespan, but we'll specify dog-years and such when speaking of something nonhuman. The constant use of dragon-(thing) kept pulling me out of the narrative as it no longer felt like it was being told from a dragon's POV.
Closing Statements
All in all, I still enjoyed the book. Or rather, I enjoyed the story. I just didn't like how it was told, which speaks more of the author than it does the story.
January 1, 2020
3-3½ stars.
June 27, 2022
Interesting idea for a book but it just never seemed to click with me. I couldn’t get into the characters or the story line. Not recommended
June 25, 2016
I kind of wish this site allowed you to give "half-stars". I'd actually put this somewhere between the three and four star mark. Although I enjoyed the premise of "epic fantasy told from the dragon's point of view", the story seemed very slow-going in parts. I attribute much of this to it being the first in a longer series of novels, requiring a lot of it to be set-up, giving the reader an idea of how this world works. I also attribute a little bit of it to "well, fantasy can be like that". The book didn't really start to pick up for me until about the half-way point, when Auron joined up with the dwarf, Djer. After this point, however, there were many more colorful characters, exciting events, and not long after we find out bout the book's primary antagonist.
It should also be noted that if one likes their protagonists to be "squeaky-clean" by human moral standards, this is probably not the book for you. Auron murders his brother fresh out of the eggshell, injures and drives the other brother from the nest, and after leaving the nest has no qualms about killing and devouring children from villages he passes. He is, after all, a dragon. Some of this can be a bit jarring, but it did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.
So, although I started out feeling unsure about it due to the pacing, it really picked up toward the end and now I pretty much have to get the next book. I guess if I decide I want to read the next one, the story has done its job.
It should also be noted that if one likes their protagonists to be "squeaky-clean" by human moral standards, this is probably not the book for you. Auron murders his brother fresh out of the eggshell, injures and drives the other brother from the nest, and after leaving the nest has no qualms about killing and devouring children from villages he passes. He is, after all, a dragon. Some of this can be a bit jarring, but it did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.
So, although I started out feeling unsure about it due to the pacing, it really picked up toward the end and now I pretty much have to get the next book. I guess if I decide I want to read the next one, the story has done its job.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2011
This book is beautifully written in simple but lush terms (and wonderfully voice-acted in the audiobook). I actually started to not want to finish it towards the end because up until that point the author had avoided the whole "fantasy setting war with dragons" thing, but I could see where it was headed. It was disappointing, in a way, that we did end up there, because it's been done to death and the greater part of the book set up such a rich world for the dragons, with some really great characterizations.
I will say, though, that the part about the war was not as it was usually done, with endless minutia about this town and this person and this battle and so on, which was nice. But as I logged in to record reading the book, I see it's part of a series, which is depressing, because I'm afraid that's where we're going to get away from a fun dragony adventure into the usual swords and sorcery and dragons crap.
To put further emphasis on how good some of the writing was, the resolution for scenes with Ellium and Starlight was unexpected, original, and strangely satisfying. They began in a recognized pattern but then veered off, quite delightfully.
And as a possible spoiler:
I believe the story of Auron could be completed as it stands. I would rather see a complete book about his sister, from her impressions at hatching to... wherever. And hell, even his dad and brother could have similarly fleshed out dragon histories. Instead of another series about war dragons.
But hey. I'm just a reader.
I HUMBLY and DEEPLY apologize to E.E. Knight for not giving enough credit. As I read the synopsis for the second book in this series, I see it DOES tackle Wistala's story and HER adventures apart from Auron. Color me chagrined!
I will say, though, that the part about the war was not as it was usually done, with endless minutia about this town and this person and this battle and so on, which was nice. But as I logged in to record reading the book, I see it's part of a series, which is depressing, because I'm afraid that's where we're going to get away from a fun dragony adventure into the usual swords and sorcery and dragons crap.
To put further emphasis on how good some of the writing was, the resolution for scenes with Ellium and Starlight was unexpected, original, and strangely satisfying. They began in a recognized pattern but then veered off, quite delightfully.
I believe the story of Auron could be completed as it stands. I would rather see a complete book about his sister, from her impressions at hatching to... wherever. And hell, even his dad and brother could have similarly fleshed out dragon histories. Instead of another series about war dragons.
But hey. I'm just a reader.
I HUMBLY and DEEPLY apologize to E.E. Knight for not giving enough credit. As I read the synopsis for the second book in this series, I see it DOES tackle Wistala's story and HER adventures apart from Auron. Color me chagrined!
January 25, 2013
A delightful story of trial, hardship, and the perseverance to overcome it all, Dragon Champion follows the adventures of Auron, a rare, scaleless dragon as he moves from hatchling to full-fledged dragon. Right from the start, Auron proves his wit and cunning in blood, killing or running off his fellow drakes and thus claiming the title of clutch winner.Born in the dark of the egg cave, he soon learns that he and his sisters are the future for their kind, born into a world of dwarves, humans, and elves, all vying for the chance to claim his head for their trophy. It's not long before fortune turns upon our hero, however, for ruthless dwarves raid the nest, killing his mother and sending him and his sister, Wistala, out into the light of the Upper World. Their adventure of hunting barely has time to manifest before they are separated as Auron is captured by traders in a bid to save his sister. Escaping his bonds and fleeing a ship bound for an unknown destination, Auron is soon set on a path that will take him from one corner of the world to the other. Falling in with individuals of all shapes and sizes, ranging from Hard-Legs Black-Bristle, lead wolf of the Dawn Roarers, to Heiba, a girl with a weakness for berries. As he sees more cruelty towards his kin, Auron is pushed to discover the secret weakness dragons are reputed to have in a bid to save him...and his race, from certain destruction.
April 15, 2019
Why is dragon society so sexist? This is a fantasy, you could have done anything, and you chose that. I give kudos to them getting some genuine dragon psychology- our young dragon protagonist unapologetically kills and eats a human toddler. However, they don't seem to get wolf psychology. This was published in 2005. A lot of basic wolf psychology and body language was available at that time. I should know, because I was obsessed with wolves that year. The wolf psychology and biology has basically been pulled out of the author's ***. I prefer my xenofiction to get real-animal psychology as accurate as possible. Wolves rarely fight for the death, especially for prey. They don't die for honor. They don't practice polygyny while they're in a family-unit/pack.
The animal accents to indicate different languages was both annoying and intriguing. I feel like it could have been handled better. It almost comes across as offensive, but not quite?
Also, I'm rather confused as to why the young dragon hatchling has to have There's also the fact that most animals wind-pipes don't connect with their esophagus, like humans do. It's not a big deal that dragons have that, but I wonder if the author knew?
The animal accents to indicate different languages was both annoying and intriguing. I feel like it could have been handled better. It almost comes across as offensive, but not quite?
Also, I'm rather confused as to why the young dragon hatchling has to have There's also the fact that most animals wind-pipes don't connect with their esophagus, like humans do. It's not a big deal that dragons have that, but I wonder if the author knew?
August 17, 2011
These books were recommended to me by one of my test readers. So, I picked up the first one, this one. And, I certainly am glad that I heeded the recommendation! For years, I've been a fan of dragons, so the concept of story told exclusively from a dragon's point-of-view had me on wings of my own.
At first, I was a little taken aback by the ferocity of the opening chapter, and of some of the things Auron does later on (though, with one exception, he's defending himself and those who have helped him). But, it was great fun following Auron in his travels and watch him grow and develop as an individual. And, see him interact with his allies--especially with Hieba.
I haven't read any of his books prior to this one, but Knight certainly gives this series a very good start. There's a healthy amount of humor to balance out the drama. I definitely recommend this, and the other books, to any with an interest in dragons.
At first, I was a little taken aback by the ferocity of the opening chapter, and of some of the things Auron does later on (though, with one exception, he's defending himself and those who have helped him). But, it was great fun following Auron in his travels and watch him grow and develop as an individual. And, see him interact with his allies--especially with Hieba.
I haven't read any of his books prior to this one, but Knight certainly gives this series a very good start. There's a healthy amount of humor to balance out the drama. I definitely recommend this, and the other books, to any with an interest in dragons.
January 3, 2019
2.5 stars.
All in all I thought this one was not awful but not that good either.
...In any review by this author I think it is worth considering the following (the link is to my review of another book by this author, where I link to something they did). Hopefully Goodreads will not decide to censor my comments, because apparently they like doing that willy nilly.
---------------
Good points: I enjoyed this novel, until I got to the end (more below).
Characterization: In general this was well done. I liked the main character, who was a young dragon. I liked the fact that he was shown (not told!) to be a predator, but also to be one who killed only what he needed to survive: this was contrasted with the waste brought about by human activity (i.e. very timely in today's world, as well). We are shown that he is capable of forming deep friendships with individuals of other species (i.e. throughout the novel he becomes friends with many including dolphins, wolves, dwarves, another species of hominid...) and how he comes to want to get dragons to form closer bonds (i.e. particularly males, who tend to be aggressive towards one another). He realizes that if dragons are going to survive, they need to change the way they interact with others, and is therefore shown to be a dragon of particular vision and prescience.
World building: This was quite intricate: we are shown the main (dragon) character's world as he is born, grows, and comes of age. Throughout this time he travels and interacts with many individuals of various species. For instance we are shown his early life as a young hatchling (i.e. recently out of the egg) and we meet his family (i.e. mother and father, as well as two sisters and a brother). We learn that male dragons always fight and try to kill all other male dragons born in the same clutch (i.e. batch of eggs). We also meet many other people and species and learn about this complex world (e.g. another species of hominids used to dominate, but humans have begun encroaching more everywhere and have started to move against the other races).
Plot: This generally was well done: we follow our main (dragon) character as he is tested by the world he lives in and as he grows. He makes many friends and tries to learn more about dragons and their history. (More comments below.)
Bad points/constructive criticism:
Characterization: In general I thought this was well done as described above, save in one particular instance, which was the (human) character behind all the trouble in our main (dragon) character's world. One big problem with this book, IMO, was that the motivations of the Wyrmaster (i.e. the man who was using dragons to exterminate dwarves and elves and who was basically behind all the evil in their world) were not clearly drawn.
Oh, don't get me wrong: we do understand that the man hates elves and dwarves, but we don't completely understand WHY. Part of the reason for this is that we follow the main (dragon) character throughout the book and are introduced to the human behind everything only at the end of the book, so that there was not a whole lot of time left to detail this character's motivations.
All we are told, therefore, is that this man is obsessed with eliminating elves and dwarves and has hit on the idea of enslaving dragons to do it, because... He feels elves and dwarves have kept humans from riches and power they could have had? Or something?
As you can tell, this wasn't very clear to me.
It also was not clear to me why this character would so easily trust a strange dragon, not raised by him or his people. Now, I can accept that he didn't have the biases against dragons that he had against elves and dwarves, which was why he could accept our main (dragon) character's assertion when he hid the fact that he had come to destroy the wyrmaster (i.e. our main 'bad guy') by claiming that a man who had recognized him was in fact an elf in disguise.
...What didn't feel entirely realistic to me, was that this evil character would so easily trust someone who was a virtual stranger: basically, our main (dragon) character arrives on the island and claims to hate dwarves and elves and to want to join their fight. After making him pass some tests pitting him against other male dragons (i.e. tests of flying ability and combat), he is essentially accepted by the humans who are part of the wyrmaster's movement.
This honestly felt a bit... fast for me.
World building: Again, part of the problem with this book was that the world building and motivations of the 'bad guys' (particularly our main 'bad guy') were relatively summarily drawn at the end of the book, such that we don't get a very good feeling of the bad guys' motivations or the structure of their society.
We see that the wyrmaster has built a movement which draws in outcasts. Beyond this however, we don't get a very good sense of *why* these people would join this movement and agree to kill innocent people. For example, one human befriends our main (dragon) character and admits that he doesn't like what they are doing but that he only wanted to get to work with dragons. There is another character who seems to hate dragons (he seems to be the son of another man who fought and killed many dragons, and appears to have been badly wounded, probably by a dragon). Beyond these relatively superficial details about one or two individuals however, few details are provided, such that we are never given a sense of the nature of this society (i.e. of the country and movement of the wyrmaster).
Plot: The plot details at the end of the book felt rather unsatisfying to me, as a result of the characterization and world building issues at the end of the novel.
Therefore, the final part of the plot, which should have been the 'payoff' for the earlier world building and the earlier parts of the novel, just felt rushed. The dragons free themselves and take over the island of the wyrmaster (the wyrmaster is killed), driving off the surviving humans. This happens in the space of a few pages such that, combined with the lack of world building and characterization with regards to the main 'bad guys' of the book, I felt uninvolved in what was happening.
To my mind, this was because all the aspects relating to what should have been a very important/crucial part of the story was not detailed enough. So not enough world building and characterization at the end of the novel, and a rushed ending.
...So all in all I liked this book at first, then was really disappointed with the ending. 2.5 stars.
All in all I thought this one was not awful but not that good either.
...In any review by this author I think it is worth considering the following (the link is to my review of another book by this author, where I link to something they did). Hopefully Goodreads will not decide to censor my comments, because apparently they like doing that willy nilly.
---------------
Good points: I enjoyed this novel, until I got to the end (more below).
Characterization: In general this was well done. I liked the main character, who was a young dragon. I liked the fact that he was shown (not told!) to be a predator, but also to be one who killed only what he needed to survive: this was contrasted with the waste brought about by human activity (i.e. very timely in today's world, as well). We are shown that he is capable of forming deep friendships with individuals of other species (i.e. throughout the novel he becomes friends with many including dolphins, wolves, dwarves, another species of hominid...) and how he comes to want to get dragons to form closer bonds (i.e. particularly males, who tend to be aggressive towards one another). He realizes that if dragons are going to survive, they need to change the way they interact with others, and is therefore shown to be a dragon of particular vision and prescience.
World building: This was quite intricate: we are shown the main (dragon) character's world as he is born, grows, and comes of age. Throughout this time he travels and interacts with many individuals of various species. For instance we are shown his early life as a young hatchling (i.e. recently out of the egg) and we meet his family (i.e. mother and father, as well as two sisters and a brother). We learn that male dragons always fight and try to kill all other male dragons born in the same clutch (i.e. batch of eggs). We also meet many other people and species and learn about this complex world (e.g. another species of hominids used to dominate, but humans have begun encroaching more everywhere and have started to move against the other races).
Plot: This generally was well done: we follow our main (dragon) character as he is tested by the world he lives in and as he grows. He makes many friends and tries to learn more about dragons and their history. (More comments below.)
Bad points/constructive criticism:
Characterization: In general I thought this was well done as described above, save in one particular instance, which was the (human) character behind all the trouble in our main (dragon) character's world. One big problem with this book, IMO, was that the motivations of the Wyrmaster (i.e. the man who was using dragons to exterminate dwarves and elves and who was basically behind all the evil in their world) were not clearly drawn.
Oh, don't get me wrong: we do understand that the man hates elves and dwarves, but we don't completely understand WHY. Part of the reason for this is that we follow the main (dragon) character throughout the book and are introduced to the human behind everything only at the end of the book, so that there was not a whole lot of time left to detail this character's motivations.
All we are told, therefore, is that this man is obsessed with eliminating elves and dwarves and has hit on the idea of enslaving dragons to do it, because... He feels elves and dwarves have kept humans from riches and power they could have had? Or something?
As you can tell, this wasn't very clear to me.
It also was not clear to me why this character would so easily trust a strange dragon, not raised by him or his people. Now, I can accept that he didn't have the biases against dragons that he had against elves and dwarves, which was why he could accept our main (dragon) character's assertion when he hid the fact that he had come to destroy the wyrmaster (i.e. our main 'bad guy') by claiming that a man who had recognized him was in fact an elf in disguise.
...What didn't feel entirely realistic to me, was that this evil character would so easily trust someone who was a virtual stranger: basically, our main (dragon) character arrives on the island and claims to hate dwarves and elves and to want to join their fight. After making him pass some tests pitting him against other male dragons (i.e. tests of flying ability and combat), he is essentially accepted by the humans who are part of the wyrmaster's movement.
This honestly felt a bit... fast for me.
World building: Again, part of the problem with this book was that the world building and motivations of the 'bad guys' (particularly our main 'bad guy') were relatively summarily drawn at the end of the book, such that we don't get a very good feeling of the bad guys' motivations or the structure of their society.
We see that the wyrmaster has built a movement which draws in outcasts. Beyond this however, we don't get a very good sense of *why* these people would join this movement and agree to kill innocent people. For example, one human befriends our main (dragon) character and admits that he doesn't like what they are doing but that he only wanted to get to work with dragons. There is another character who seems to hate dragons (he seems to be the son of another man who fought and killed many dragons, and appears to have been badly wounded, probably by a dragon). Beyond these relatively superficial details about one or two individuals however, few details are provided, such that we are never given a sense of the nature of this society (i.e. of the country and movement of the wyrmaster).
Plot: The plot details at the end of the book felt rather unsatisfying to me, as a result of the characterization and world building issues at the end of the novel.
Therefore, the final part of the plot, which should have been the 'payoff' for the earlier world building and the earlier parts of the novel, just felt rushed. The dragons free themselves and take over the island of the wyrmaster (the wyrmaster is killed), driving off the surviving humans. This happens in the space of a few pages such that, combined with the lack of world building and characterization with regards to the main 'bad guys' of the book, I felt uninvolved in what was happening.
To my mind, this was because all the aspects relating to what should have been a very important/crucial part of the story was not detailed enough. So not enough world building and characterization at the end of the novel, and a rushed ending.
...So all in all I liked this book at first, then was really disappointed with the ending. 2.5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2018
This is decent, though I found it hard to get invested at the beginning. The book felt a lot longer than it did. Idk. I'm kind of indifferent. I liked the book, but I don't know if I want to continue to the sequel. Definitely if you don't like the first part, I recommend continuing because it does get better as it goes along.
The first thing I want to talk about is the cover. Has the cover artist ever seen an animal? That is a very wrong number of leg joints, and I can't begin to properly understand what's going on with the wings.
Now the book is kind of a coming of age story. Our protagonist is a dragon, and far more animal than human at the beginning. That was my first difficulty in relating to the book. Now I love "talking animal" stories and those with nonhuman protagonist, but for much of the first part of the book the main character has no motivations other than eating and surviving. He never really does develop a ton of personality, though he later develops feelings and motivations more relatable to a human, especially when he
But in the beginning, well...for one thing, he eats a small child, because he was hungry. Not to mention that he killed and ate his brother. So...yeah, it was a struggle, at the beginning.
Definitely my first read where the protagonist ate a kid.
The world building is a pretty generic elves and dwarves fantasy land. The dwarves had some interesting details added, like the glowing moss in their beards. I'm always a slut for glowing moss. But pretty usual stuff. Dragons come in a bunch of different colors. I've been looking for a dragon book with a HTTYD-type approach with tons of unique species, but to no avail. Oh well. The development and biology of dragons in this world was still interesting to read about.
A high point: There are talking wolves. They don't come in for too long, but I appreciated Blackhard and the other wolves.
I don't really know how to summarize my thoughts, though. There's plenty of action, and if you love dragons I recommend it, but all the same, this book was overall just okay. Nothing wrong with that, but it won't stick in my memory forever.
Last comment: At one point a room is described as "taller than it is high." What? I think someone definitely is high.
The first thing I want to talk about is the cover. Has the cover artist ever seen an animal? That is a very wrong number of leg joints, and I can't begin to properly understand what's going on with the wings.
Now the book is kind of a coming of age story. Our protagonist is a dragon, and far more animal than human at the beginning. That was my first difficulty in relating to the book. Now I love "talking animal" stories and those with nonhuman protagonist, but for much of the first part of the book the main character has no motivations other than eating and surviving. He never really does develop a ton of personality, though he later develops feelings and motivations more relatable to a human, especially when he
But in the beginning, well...for one thing, he eats a small child, because he was hungry. Not to mention that he killed and ate his brother. So...yeah, it was a struggle, at the beginning.
Definitely my first read where the protagonist ate a kid.
The world building is a pretty generic elves and dwarves fantasy land. The dwarves had some interesting details added, like the glowing moss in their beards. I'm always a slut for glowing moss. But pretty usual stuff. Dragons come in a bunch of different colors. I've been looking for a dragon book with a HTTYD-type approach with tons of unique species, but to no avail. Oh well. The development and biology of dragons in this world was still interesting to read about.
A high point: There are talking wolves. They don't come in for too long, but I appreciated Blackhard and the other wolves.
I don't really know how to summarize my thoughts, though. There's plenty of action, and if you love dragons I recommend it, but all the same, this book was overall just okay. Nothing wrong with that, but it won't stick in my memory forever.
Last comment: At one point a room is described as "taller than it is high." What? I think someone definitely is high.
April 8, 2015
Like stories about dragons, but bored with them being written either as mindless/souless monsters or humans with big scaly bodies and fire breath? Dig Watership Down? (Come on, the comparison is inevitable, and I'm far from the first one to make it.) Enjoy rich world-building and inventive takes on archetypal fantasy races? If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you should really give this book a try.
There are some brutal moments, so if you're squeamish--for instance, if you have to look away when a pack of wolves is tearing into a deer on a nature documentary--consider yourself warned. This also isn't a book you can turn your brain off for; the reader is presented with large, dense chunks of information alongside important plot points. (I missed or forgot about a character's initial introduction and flipped back, very confused, when he showed up again later and I was expected to remember who he was and why he was important. Whether that's a fault of unmemorable writing for that character, or a fault of mine for zoning out when he was introduced, I'm still not sure.) The rather forgettable supporting cast is why this book has three stars instead of four.
Auron makes up for it. Watching him develop, how he responds and reacts to--and grows from--his unusual and difficult circumstances is the best part of the story. Writing a highly intelligent apex predator and making him sympathetic without turning him too human couldn't have been easy, and the author did a great job.
I haven't read the rest of the series as of this review, and I hope it's just as good as the first was; even if it isn't, Dragon Champion stands well enough on its own to make it worth reading.
- Reviewed by Rachel C.
There are some brutal moments, so if you're squeamish--for instance, if you have to look away when a pack of wolves is tearing into a deer on a nature documentary--consider yourself warned. This also isn't a book you can turn your brain off for; the reader is presented with large, dense chunks of information alongside important plot points. (I missed or forgot about a character's initial introduction and flipped back, very confused, when he showed up again later and I was expected to remember who he was and why he was important. Whether that's a fault of unmemorable writing for that character, or a fault of mine for zoning out when he was introduced, I'm still not sure.) The rather forgettable supporting cast is why this book has three stars instead of four.
Auron makes up for it. Watching him develop, how he responds and reacts to--and grows from--his unusual and difficult circumstances is the best part of the story. Writing a highly intelligent apex predator and making him sympathetic without turning him too human couldn't have been easy, and the author did a great job.
I haven't read the rest of the series as of this review, and I hope it's just as good as the first was; even if it isn't, Dragon Champion stands well enough on its own to make it worth reading.
- Reviewed by Rachel C.
March 16, 2019
It's basically Name of the Wind set in a world of interspecies hominid wars, if Kvothe was a dragon.
Loved the writing style and the worldbuilding, great sense of history-making events happening in the world around AuRon. I do really like this "adventures of a...." subgenre where the plot is fairly lose and we're just following how the protagonist reacts to various stuff that happens to them. Reading this, you get the sense that Knight didn't "railroad" AuRon, who became a well-fleshed out character who made his own decisions (anyone who's tried writing will understand).
The second book is apparently set in the same time period but following Wistala, which I'm super keen on because I loved her character and kind of related to her for some reason.
Loved the writing style and the worldbuilding, great sense of history-making events happening in the world around AuRon. I do really like this "adventures of a...." subgenre where the plot is fairly lose and we're just following how the protagonist reacts to various stuff that happens to them. Reading this, you get the sense that Knight didn't "railroad" AuRon, who became a well-fleshed out character who made his own decisions (anyone who's tried writing will understand).
The second book is apparently set in the same time period but following Wistala, which I'm super keen on because I loved her character and kind of related to her for some reason.
September 13, 2018
Knight honestly said that this was a book he made for all ages to enjoy specifically because he felt that his other series was to violent for the 13 year olds who were reading his book....
THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS...Goodness gracious...
The amount of murder in this book is ridiculous and there is references to rape
This book is at a weird inpass in which the gore and violence in this book is definitely not for kids but the writing at times can seem juvenile
I recommend it based on the fact that it's a uniquely gritty from a dragon's POV
THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS...Goodness gracious...
The amount of murder in this book is ridiculous and there is references to rape
This book is at a weird inpass in which the gore and violence in this book is definitely not for kids but the writing at times can seem juvenile
I recommend it based on the fact that it's a uniquely gritty from a dragon's POV
September 4, 2008
I read this book about one third of the way through. It was rather boring and I kept waiting for the dragon to do something that would be considered exciting. Nothing happened and I quickly returned it to the library.
March 26, 2023
Hoo boy, now this was an interesting read. I wish I could say that I loved it, but that would simply not be true. The beginning enraptured me with the lore and the surprisingly brutal and disturbing start to the tale, but the pacing, plot development and main character left a lot to be desired.
The way this entire book was structured felt odd to me. You could divide the whole book into several groups of events or sections that happen in chronological order, but those sections were wildly differing in quality and interest to me. My issue was that these sections would get developed through several chapters and, when they would finally start to get interesting, they would end and the plot would move on to another section. I felt like there was no real continuity to the story, it was mostly a group of events with specific characters that would happen, and then the main character would move on. And while I understand that this was a story of growth and development for Auron, the way the plot was structured was just not interesting to me, or at least the sections didn't get enough time to be fully developed into something that would become interesting.
The beginning with the hatching, the loss of Auron's parents, him losing touch with his sister, being captured and then freed, followed by him slowly getting used to the world as he swam to an archipelago and began his lonesome life was actually really interesting. There was a lot of loss, a lot of emotions, and a lot of world building, especially when it came to how Auron's very young life developed (having to learn how to steal food from humans, kill humans, fight them off to protect dolphins, etc). The main overreaching plot point here was Auron's search for an ancient black dragon (who's name I will not type because I simply cannot remember it because it's complex and I don't want to butcher it) to learn of an apparent weakness that dragons possessed.
Then came the next part of the story, which involved the wolves, and this part completely lost me. I found it difficult to take it seriously, it was more like a fairy tale, with Auron living and hunting as part of a wolf pack and communicating with them. This section, so to speak, didn't last for very long, and once it was over and the plot moved on, I was honestly wondering what the point of it was. I found my thoughts wandering a lot while reading this section of the book because it barely held my interest.
The part that came next was a lot more interesting, with Djer and the dwarves. There was so much good and almost overwhelming world building here, and Auron's friendship with Djer was great, but after the ill fated battle involving the dwarves and the Ironriders and Auron having to move on, I was left feeling kinda disappointed. A good plot point just kinda ended and then moved on to something else, I was left wanting more, I wanted Auron to stay with the dwarves.
And that something else involved Auron adopting a human child as he roamed his way through the rugged steppes, which was unexpected but kinda adorable in a way. However, this is where the pacing issues began to show their ugly head, in my opinion. This overarching plot with Auron searching for the ancient black dragon, the main thing driving the plot and his motivations forward, which I was expecting to last until the end of the book, quickly came to its fulfilment when Auron, very suddenly, found the black dragon in a manner of a paragraph. This was just odd and unexpected to me, but still exciting nonetheless, and I really liked the black dragon as a character and his interactions with Auron, and all the world building that came with it. This section also started to introduce very large time skips, which, while I didn't mind them, they weren't something that I expected. This part ended in a rather sad way for the black dragon, and with Auron not having learned what this weakness of dragons was. Still, I liked this part of the plot, even though it wasn't as well fleshed out as the section with Djer and the dwarves.
And then the whole plot took another nose dive. Auron, deciding to live out his life alone without a mate or hatchlings, decides to make a sort of pact with another humanoid race called the Blighters (which, to this point, I was led to believe were nothing more than brainless apes who didn't even have a functioning society) in order to protect them in exchange for having his own territory (which was previously the black dragon's). And then, in a span of about 2-3 pages and about 15 years in the book, Auron basically becomes a general of this Blighter nation, leads them into a war, and rediscovers the human girl who he adopted before he met the black dragon. To put it simply, I found myself caring so little about this extremely sudden turn of events and the rapid yet very time skip-y plot development. It was so fast that I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, and the pacing was so rapid that I was left thinking that the author was trying to rush the book.
This huge nose dive in book quality was quickly remedied by the next section - Auron learns of a human Wyrmmaster who's training dragons to use them as tools to fight against the elves and dwarves and to bring back the glory to humans that the other races stole from them. This section started at about the 80% mark of the book, and I so dearly wish the whole book was based around this plot point. It was really well developed, it had even more world building, some really well developed motives and morals (the Wyrmmaster believing that he's doing the right thing for his own people and for the good of the world, but he's doing it in ways that are very dark and brutal), it had a lot more dragon interactions, a lot more learning about their behavior, bunch of cool scenes and well developed characters, and resulted in an ending that I found generally satisfying, if a bit flawed in pacing, since it felt a little bit rushed. This section was, by far, my favorite, and is what the book should've been about.
Apart from the rollercoaster of a plot quality, another issue I had with was the main character himself, Auron. Truth be told, I found him to have the personality of a cardboard box sitting in a storage room. He didn't stand out as particularly... well, anything, really. He just felt plain and boring. Some of the other characters throughout the story (like Djer) felt like they had a lot more personality than Auron, at least to me. Apart from that, there were a few confusing parts of the book where charterer names were misspelled or weren't used properly (Shadowcatch and Shadowstalk), and there was one odd conflicting detail. Apparently, Auron only learned to sleep with one eye open in the last few chapters due to the dangerous environment he was in, and is said that he couldn't do it when he was young, even though he was described multiple times as sleeping with one eye open during his young adult days throughout the book.
I realize that a lot of the points I'm making might come across as whining or nitpicking, but the overall plot development and pacing for me was just a bunch of ups and downs in terms of quality and interest, and it often felt like certain plot points ended just when they were becoming really interesting, which was a shame.
That said, I have to give credit to the author in regards to the world building, which was absolutely excellent and full to the brim with lore, history and various different races that all felt different and unique amongst each other. The dragons themselves as creatures were also really interesting, and I particularly liked how the author handled the whole philological aspect in regards to how the dragons get their wings and their ability to breathe fire. Those aspects felt unique and added a lot to the story, in my opinion.
Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad book, but I wouldn't call it a great one either. It sits right in the middle for me, it was simply an alright book. I enjoyed reading it, even though many parts of it were less enjoyable to read compared to other. Nevertheless, I do plan on checking out the following books in the series, because I think the author did a fantastic job of setting up the universe, and I'm curious to see if I like the plot and cast of characters in the follow up books more compared to this one.
The way this entire book was structured felt odd to me. You could divide the whole book into several groups of events or sections that happen in chronological order, but those sections were wildly differing in quality and interest to me. My issue was that these sections would get developed through several chapters and, when they would finally start to get interesting, they would end and the plot would move on to another section. I felt like there was no real continuity to the story, it was mostly a group of events with specific characters that would happen, and then the main character would move on. And while I understand that this was a story of growth and development for Auron, the way the plot was structured was just not interesting to me, or at least the sections didn't get enough time to be fully developed into something that would become interesting.
The beginning with the hatching, the loss of Auron's parents, him losing touch with his sister, being captured and then freed, followed by him slowly getting used to the world as he swam to an archipelago and began his lonesome life was actually really interesting. There was a lot of loss, a lot of emotions, and a lot of world building, especially when it came to how Auron's very young life developed (having to learn how to steal food from humans, kill humans, fight them off to protect dolphins, etc). The main overreaching plot point here was Auron's search for an ancient black dragon (who's name I will not type because I simply cannot remember it because it's complex and I don't want to butcher it) to learn of an apparent weakness that dragons possessed.
Then came the next part of the story, which involved the wolves, and this part completely lost me. I found it difficult to take it seriously, it was more like a fairy tale, with Auron living and hunting as part of a wolf pack and communicating with them. This section, so to speak, didn't last for very long, and once it was over and the plot moved on, I was honestly wondering what the point of it was. I found my thoughts wandering a lot while reading this section of the book because it barely held my interest.
The part that came next was a lot more interesting, with Djer and the dwarves. There was so much good and almost overwhelming world building here, and Auron's friendship with Djer was great, but after the ill fated battle involving the dwarves and the Ironriders and Auron having to move on, I was left feeling kinda disappointed. A good plot point just kinda ended and then moved on to something else, I was left wanting more, I wanted Auron to stay with the dwarves.
And that something else involved Auron adopting a human child as he roamed his way through the rugged steppes, which was unexpected but kinda adorable in a way. However, this is where the pacing issues began to show their ugly head, in my opinion. This overarching plot with Auron searching for the ancient black dragon, the main thing driving the plot and his motivations forward, which I was expecting to last until the end of the book, quickly came to its fulfilment when Auron, very suddenly, found the black dragon in a manner of a paragraph. This was just odd and unexpected to me, but still exciting nonetheless, and I really liked the black dragon as a character and his interactions with Auron, and all the world building that came with it. This section also started to introduce very large time skips, which, while I didn't mind them, they weren't something that I expected. This part ended in a rather sad way for the black dragon, and with Auron not having learned what this weakness of dragons was. Still, I liked this part of the plot, even though it wasn't as well fleshed out as the section with Djer and the dwarves.
And then the whole plot took another nose dive. Auron, deciding to live out his life alone without a mate or hatchlings, decides to make a sort of pact with another humanoid race called the Blighters (which, to this point, I was led to believe were nothing more than brainless apes who didn't even have a functioning society) in order to protect them in exchange for having his own territory (which was previously the black dragon's). And then, in a span of about 2-3 pages and about 15 years in the book, Auron basically becomes a general of this Blighter nation, leads them into a war, and rediscovers the human girl who he adopted before he met the black dragon. To put it simply, I found myself caring so little about this extremely sudden turn of events and the rapid yet very time skip-y plot development. It was so fast that I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, and the pacing was so rapid that I was left thinking that the author was trying to rush the book.
This huge nose dive in book quality was quickly remedied by the next section - Auron learns of a human Wyrmmaster who's training dragons to use them as tools to fight against the elves and dwarves and to bring back the glory to humans that the other races stole from them. This section started at about the 80% mark of the book, and I so dearly wish the whole book was based around this plot point. It was really well developed, it had even more world building, some really well developed motives and morals (the Wyrmmaster believing that he's doing the right thing for his own people and for the good of the world, but he's doing it in ways that are very dark and brutal), it had a lot more dragon interactions, a lot more learning about their behavior, bunch of cool scenes and well developed characters, and resulted in an ending that I found generally satisfying, if a bit flawed in pacing, since it felt a little bit rushed. This section was, by far, my favorite, and is what the book should've been about.
Apart from the rollercoaster of a plot quality, another issue I had with was the main character himself, Auron. Truth be told, I found him to have the personality of a cardboard box sitting in a storage room. He didn't stand out as particularly... well, anything, really. He just felt plain and boring. Some of the other characters throughout the story (like Djer) felt like they had a lot more personality than Auron, at least to me. Apart from that, there were a few confusing parts of the book where charterer names were misspelled or weren't used properly (Shadowcatch and Shadowstalk), and there was one odd conflicting detail. Apparently, Auron only learned to sleep with one eye open in the last few chapters due to the dangerous environment he was in, and is said that he couldn't do it when he was young, even though he was described multiple times as sleeping with one eye open during his young adult days throughout the book.
I realize that a lot of the points I'm making might come across as whining or nitpicking, but the overall plot development and pacing for me was just a bunch of ups and downs in terms of quality and interest, and it often felt like certain plot points ended just when they were becoming really interesting, which was a shame.
That said, I have to give credit to the author in regards to the world building, which was absolutely excellent and full to the brim with lore, history and various different races that all felt different and unique amongst each other. The dragons themselves as creatures were also really interesting, and I particularly liked how the author handled the whole philological aspect in regards to how the dragons get their wings and their ability to breathe fire. Those aspects felt unique and added a lot to the story, in my opinion.
Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad book, but I wouldn't call it a great one either. It sits right in the middle for me, it was simply an alright book. I enjoyed reading it, even though many parts of it were less enjoyable to read compared to other. Nevertheless, I do plan on checking out the following books in the series, because I think the author did a fantastic job of setting up the universe, and I'm curious to see if I like the plot and cast of characters in the follow up books more compared to this one.
December 2, 2020
An exciting adventure story through the eyes of a dragon!
I was at the bookstore in search of a fantasy book involving dragons and an employee enthusiastically recommended this series, saying it was complete and its "like Watership Down but with dragons". I'm glad for the chance this fellow dragon-obsessed employee was working at the time I was in need of dragons.
Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down! It has everything I want in a fantasy story: nature, tragedy, action, quests, romance. I recommend it as a must-read for dragon lovers.
I was at the bookstore in search of a fantasy book involving dragons and an employee enthusiastically recommended this series, saying it was complete and its "like Watership Down but with dragons". I'm glad for the chance this fellow dragon-obsessed employee was working at the time I was in need of dragons.
Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down! It has everything I want in a fantasy story: nature, tragedy, action, quests, romance. I recommend it as a must-read for dragon lovers.
April 7, 2021
This is the story of Auron, a baby dragon whose barely escapes the slaughter of his family and has many adventures. The first half, of Auron just struggling to stay alive in a world overrun by humans, is quite grim. But the tone lightens later on, as Auron joins a wolf pack to survive, and makes friends with a dwarf who hires him to guard a caravan on a long journey to the East. There are four kinds of hominids in this fantasy world, humans, elves, dwarfs, and “blighters” who are despised as being uncivilized and subhuman. Yet Auron at one point allies with a village of blighters and discovers that once the blighters had a great civilization with art, architecture, and writing that eventually fell to human. Humans are the villains in this fantasy novel yet Auron adopts a young orphaned human girl as his daughter for years, returning her to the human world only once she is grown. Auron’s ability to make friends in unexpected ways is endearing. This is the first in the Age of Fire series that I have read, but I wonder if the dragon called the Old Lodger in “Novice Dragoneer”, by the same author, might be an elderly Auron. I found a novel about dragons written from the dragon point of view refreshing.
April 11, 2021
I love dragons. This was an interesting book told from the point of view of a dragon as he ages from a hatchling to a dragon who will probably be spoken above in history. The author created a rich world with multiple cultures, peoples, species, and a long history.
May 7, 2023
Ok, everyone who follows me probably knows the drill by now. Migraines have been the absolute bane of my existence lately, and I haven’t been able to read nearly as much as I would have liked - either I was in too much pain to absorb what I was reading, or so exhausted from the pain that I kept falling asleep while trying to read. In any event, I’ve finally gotten through this first book of May. So without further ado…
I’ve never experienced such a fabulous depth of world building within so few pages. E.E. Knight somehow manages to craft the amount of world building into 369 pages that I would normally expect to find in books of at least 600 pages or more. Note my use of the word “craft”, NOT cram. Because the storytelling is perfectly paced, without feeling crammed with too much info at once. AuRon is an imminently likeable main character, and his trials/adventures beginning as a fresh hatchling, and through to drakehood are both harrowing & entertaining. I’m glad that I already own the whole series, so I can continue reading without pause.
I’ve never experienced such a fabulous depth of world building within so few pages. E.E. Knight somehow manages to craft the amount of world building into 369 pages that I would normally expect to find in books of at least 600 pages or more. Note my use of the word “craft”, NOT cram. Because the storytelling is perfectly paced, without feeling crammed with too much info at once. AuRon is an imminently likeable main character, and his trials/adventures beginning as a fresh hatchling, and through to drakehood are both harrowing & entertaining. I’m glad that I already own the whole series, so I can continue reading without pause.
June 15, 2018
The author is wrong in saying this book is for all ages it's for young adults and up. The story starts when Auron our main character hatches and promptly kills and eats one of his brothers while exiling the other. As he and his sisters grow they learn about how the dragons are hunted by all the other races (humans, dwarfs, elves and blighters=see orcs). One day his cave is attacked and he sees all of his family die but a sister who escapes with him and his exiled brother. He gets captured so his sister can escape to find other dragons. So starts a journey where he tangles with each race and manages to make friends and escape danger (sometimes not entirely whole). As he progresses on his way he grows up gaining the ability to breathe fire, gaining him allies, wings and the ability to fly, saving his life, and learning the ways and history of all the races which brings him to a madman and the reason his life became what it was. The madman is basically Hitler by the way and he is using dragons as war machines. He rewards his favorites by letting them rape the female dragons he keeps locked up and castrates the rest. Anyway as with any story good defeats evil during a battle and everyone gets their happily ever after.
The characters are solid and well written, their growth is and relation to who and what is around them is believable and relatable. The descriptions of the characters and the world they live in are great without too much detail to bog down the story. The dialogue is well done and thoughtful getting what we need with an info dump or repetitiveness. The pacing and structure of the story flows well and we can see the time passing and everything is steady leading up to the climax.
The characters are solid and well written, their growth is and relation to who and what is around them is believable and relatable. The descriptions of the characters and the world they live in are great without too much detail to bog down the story. The dialogue is well done and thoughtful getting what we need with an info dump or repetitiveness. The pacing and structure of the story flows well and we can see the time passing and everything is steady leading up to the climax.
July 29, 2010
An uplifting dragon story written from the perspective of a young dragon from birth to first mating, encountering many difficult lessons and facing many challenges. Written for an early teen audience--the author's forward states that he wrote it with his 10-13-year old fans of his other series in mind, since he had written that one (about vampires in a futuristic Earth) for an older teen audience. Provides some positive moral lessons, such as illustrating throughout the book how the main character, a dragon, learned to appreciate the wisdom of his mother, who had taught him to avoid the seven deadly follies of dragons (gluttony, wrath, lust, etc.). The only thing I would be concerned about is the dragon's devouring of humans--it is presented as a normal part of dragon life, and the author doesn't try to justify it, but does show the dragon coming to some conclusions later about not wanting to kill humans as indiscriminately as his fellow dragonkind would, and moves in a direction toward a more civilized dragon society.
I was previewing the book because my 10-year old daughter wanted to read it. I felt it would be okay for her, but it is less geared toward entertaining someone her age than she would probably want.
I was previewing the book because my 10-year old daughter wanted to read it. I felt it would be okay for her, but it is less geared toward entertaining someone her age than she would probably want.
November 25, 2018
UPDATE AFTER READING 3 BOOKS IN THE SERIES: couldn't find any motivation to continue the series.
Impression after first book:
This was a fun, quick read but looks geared more towards young teens. Story seems to jump in some places (which might be fine with people with really short attention span). If the second book is also similar in style, I will skip the rest of the series (edit: I tried the third book and gave up on the series).
In terms of story, it's about a very young dragon trying to grow up in a world where his family has been snatched away from his life, and there are no adult dragons around to guide him. He is clever but gets into fights without much thoughts and pays for it many times. There are men, dwarves, elves, wizards, and what nots that are able to capture/kill dragons with their own styles and skills. But our hero manages to survive and tries to do the right thing.
The perspective is quite unique in this book. It believeably portrays what a young dragon might do, and what it would do. Author has done his research in terms of birds and animal behaviours, specially wolves. And that would have kept me interested in the series. But the blunt narration and dialogues (where not needed) drives me away from reading this.
Impression after first book:
This was a fun, quick read but looks geared more towards young teens. Story seems to jump in some places (which might be fine with people with really short attention span). If the second book is also similar in style, I will skip the rest of the series (edit: I tried the third book and gave up on the series).
In terms of story, it's about a very young dragon trying to grow up in a world where his family has been snatched away from his life, and there are no adult dragons around to guide him. He is clever but gets into fights without much thoughts and pays for it many times. There are men, dwarves, elves, wizards, and what nots that are able to capture/kill dragons with their own styles and skills. But our hero manages to survive and tries to do the right thing.
The perspective is quite unique in this book. It believeably portrays what a young dragon might do, and what it would do. Author has done his research in terms of birds and animal behaviours, specially wolves. And that would have kept me interested in the series. But the blunt narration and dialogues (where not needed) drives me away from reading this.
January 26, 2015
I really, really enjoyed this book up until a point. Somewhere along the way AuRon lost a bit of my sympathy, probably during all of those years he spent alone, hiding and being selfish. When he finally decided to start doing something about the situation in his world it felt very forced and fake. Not to mention that most of the book was of the "walking around purposeless" variety, AuRon had very little direction for a good chunk of the book. When the action finally picked up again, the last 100 or so pages, all of it happened too fast and easy. There was very little resistance and everything just seemed to go his way, over the span of a couple hours, he got a tidy little ending, all wrapped up with a bow.
I think the concept was wonderful, and for the most part I liked the story, the world building, and the characters. It was unique without being gimmicky. All of which is why, despite its short comings, I gave it 4 stars. I will likely read the sequel in the hopes that it is better than the first.
I think the concept was wonderful, and for the most part I liked the story, the world building, and the characters. It was unique without being gimmicky. All of which is why, despite its short comings, I gave it 4 stars. I will likely read the sequel in the hopes that it is better than the first.
June 27, 2011
This is a unique perspective. It's from the point of view of a dragon independent of his connections to the human world. There's no "rider", "bonded" or "keeper." While he may have friends among the various humanoid races, none have more influence than friendship. He's wild and yet he's not evil. He may eat humans when he's hungry, but he's happier to eat their sausages, cows and sheep. He's even happy to work with or for humanoids to earn his food if that's easier for him than hunting on his own. It seems that usually wild dragons are portrayed as uncontrolled, evil, greedy, or gluttonous. It's refreshing to see a point of view that gives the dragons credit for their own intelligence without requiring the intervention of humans.
I did grade this at less than 5 stars because at times it seemed that E.E. Knight was telling stories just to flesh out the world - not because the characters would tell (or listen) to that story at that particular time.
I did grade this at less than 5 stars because at times it seemed that E.E. Knight was telling stories just to flesh out the world - not because the characters would tell (or listen) to that story at that particular time.
December 14, 2011
I thought it was an excellent book,giving that I've been looking for a book with a dragon as the main character. Though I loved the parts where he saves the dolphins and fights for The dragonelles against Eliam Dragonblade and the other dragonguards. However, I was seemed quite rash for him to spit his foa when he sent Heiba away, even if he had good intentions.I enjoyed the parts he'd stayed with Blackhard and Djer.Though it was actually a little corny in some parts;I thought AuRon's brother would turn up again but instead there was Starlight.I still think he should have finished him off,though it made him seem like his brother, because of the way they disliked each other.It never said what happened to Wistala, even though it seemed like a foreshadowing that she was at the Isle of Ice, so I found that disappointing. Either way, it was still a good book and I plan on reading the others in the Age of Fire series.
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