It's been a long while since I've written a review on the blog. Also, it's been a long while since I've finished a book. This book in particular took me quite a while to finish - two months or more - can you believe it?!
The first half was just sooo hard to get through!
I love these series but sometimes it tends to drag on...
Anyway let's continue the review!
Summary
Our two heroes finally meet each other in the third installment of the series, but things are a bit awkward and tensed, since Benfro still holds a grudge against the men who took the life of his mother and Errol is severely injured, but has to manage on his own, since the dragon is not willing to help. Meanwhile the boy is haunted by dreams of his beloved Martha, imprisoned in a Golden Cage, that try to tell him something.
Not too far Queen Beulah sends off inquisitor Melyn and his troops to bring about a war in Llanwennog, her enemies and tastes the power of the Obsidian Throne.
How will our two heroes fare? And what disasters are waiting for the whole of Gwlad?
My Opinion
Rating: 7.5/10
Well, I really enjoyed the first two books. Being introduced to a new world with its own laws and magic systems and inhabitants was really interesting and our two heroes and two villains made a very interesting reading experience indeed.
I still stick to those points that I've mentioned in my previous posts on the first two sequels - which were made what feels like ages ago hehe; I love the way the world and characters are set up in this book!
That brings me to a new point in this book that really is apparant in the second half mainly: the character development, or maybe more accurately, the relationship-development that causes the changes in viewpoints of our characters, slightly.
Though it didn't change our characters that much, not in a way that turned them into new or better versions of themselves anyway, the new relationships did affect a lot of their behaviour and fixed thoughts that were formed in the first two books.
I think it was seen almost perfectly in the relationship that Melyn and Frecknock, another dragon, formed. Though Melyn hates dragons and sees them as dumb and primitive creatures and he only uses Frecknock because she useful information, still you see that he gets used to her, doesn't find her that bad at all. He mentions this when says that he wonders when he got sick of the sight of the dragon or when he wants to brag about his skills but realizes it would be unnecessary. The feelings of the need to brag, because he knows less about magic than the dragon, apparantly, and the cooled off hatred against hatred slightly change him into a different person or at least shows you a different side of him. And I really liked seeing that.
Who knows, maybe Melyn will even start liking dragons because of Frecknock!
But the most interesting things only happen in the second half of the book! The first half is slow and very descriptive. It's not like Oswald ever stops writing things so thoroughly, but in the first half he is and describing everything to the point and he is not making our characters do much. Mainly sit around in a clearing and being awkward and everything. Literally. I've had this feeling in the first two books, too; I felt like everything was really happening at an extremely slow pace. And in the first two books it was okay, but in the third book I was hoping for way more action and a quicker pace.
It really was disappointing, since the book was 500 pages long and the first 250 really tended to drag on, which caused to take months to finish this book.
In the end is was worth the wait, because the last 250 pages were really a joy to read! Cool stuff happened like Benfro breathing fire and Melyn and his troops going through crazy strong magical barriers, which was awesome! I just wished the book had given us more of that and less of those very detailed descriptions...
Hopefully the fourth book will a bit more fast paced!
That's it for this blog post!
Until the next one, then! :)
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