Book 1 in the Dragon King Chronicles
AUTHOR: Ellen Oh
PUBLISHED: January 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, adventure
PREMISE: Kira, bodyguard to the prince and hated by nearly everyone, may be the key to saving everyone.
MY REVIEW: Sigh. Ever have a book you were so looking forward too because everything about it screams awesome, but then you start it and you're just overwhelmingly disappointed? That was me and Prophecy. I guess it was my own fault for having high expectations of this. I really did want to like this one, you guys. It's got those things I usually adore: high fantasy, influence of other cultures, strong kick-butt girl. Plus, Ellen Oh herself is a really cool person. Follow her on Twitter, she's so much fun.
But...you can really tell this one is Oh's first book. It's like those corny SyFy films: has just enough to get a amusement or two but when you actually sit down to think about it, it's so implausible it's not funny. Then there's the fact that once again: no female friendship to be had. Seriously I am so tired of this. Read Tortall or Circle of Magic authors; you can have a main female character be kick-ass AND have female friends who are just as awesome as she at the same time without diminishing her in any way. Hell, look at Avatar: the Last Airbender (since Oh has given that as a main influence). You have Katara yes, but then in season 2, Toph comes along, as well as Suki, and even Azula and her gal pals and all are equally awesome and kick butt together and it doesn't ruin everything. In fact it makes it even better. So I ask you authors, why do you all insist that your lone female character is the only female who can be intelligent and kick butt? Then there's also a problem with really awkward/cliche sounding dialogue and info dumps after info dumps and a severe lack of telling instead of showing.
So there's nothing wrong with it persay...it just really screams amateur. I really hate that too because I wanted this book to be awesome. Perhaps the second one will be better? I really hope so.
WHO SHOULD READ: Graceling fans, Throne of Glass fans, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five sighs, because I wanted this to be awesome
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