Dragon Fate: Book Six of The Age of Fire [Paperback]

Having followed this serise avidly, this installment was something of a deflating conclusion to the sagas I had come to know and love.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is the rapid and frequent shifts in pespective; alternating between characters is a device that can work well if used correctly, but following the diverging paths of three main characters plus members of the supporting cast in a book with less than 350 pages leaves the time devoted to each feeling rushed and the reader wanting more. The shifts of focus are so jarring that it seems even the author lost track of who he was writing about, on a couple of occasions confusing names and mates of the character the perspective of whom we are following, and having other characters join the scene from apparnetly nowhere.

Certainly the unforgivable sin is that this book lacks the depth of detail, character development and motivations that were found in the three original books. Presumably this is because the readership is expected be familiar with the participants, but even then it misses many possibly hooks by failing to have them develop much, if at all. They all seem to have been subject to an amature lobotomy and to be reading their lines from teleprompters with no real expression or emotion. This more than anything is quite disappointing, as though it can be felt at times it never seems to come off. The characters feel thin and hard to relate to.

As touched upon above, this is a book that can not stand on its own. The plot ties up the remaininig loose ends whilst making a weak effort to be distinct in and of itself. An effort that falls flat on its face. It is best described as a poorly padded out second half to the last installment.

The action too is disappointing. Gone are the machinations and careful thought process we are used to in favour of porting the characters around, giving each their lacklustre action sequence, and then off to the next one. The suspense too is far from fantastic; rather than pacing it nicely, the characters simply suggest that it is so, and then hop through the travel sequence to the next showdown. They don't even really have their moments to shine, just a clanger of a build-up to an unsurprising climax that the reader had guessed was coming a few pages in, excluding some last minute plot devices conjoured from the ether without explanation and a cheap backstab.

The ending is... disappointing. Much in the theme of the rest of the book, the conclusion is dry, lacklustre and unsatisfying, offering little closure and completely sidestepping explaining what, if anything became of the characters; effectively a longer way of saying 'and they lived happily ever after except X, Y and Z' It also leaves a hook for a possible sequel featuring the same continuation; one that will never materialise because by now the author has clearly lost passion for the serise and probably farted this one out only to meet the specifications of a contract.

Would reccomend only to hardcore fans. New readers are likely to wonder what the hype was all about.

Wish I had better news to report but this one stinks as a book, and really stinks as the end of a 6-book series. The first books were pretty consistent and well-paced. Book five dropped off a bit (as you can tell from its reviews) and this book (six) is bad enough the series should have stopped at 5.

It seems like author Knight signed a contract to write this book but had simply run out of story about half-a-book ago. This is an incomplete and very weak story of about 75 pages, fluffed out to 350 pages with big font and generous spacing.

In the earlier books you had the novelty of a dragon's perspective. You had battles & political scheming. Unique races, abilities, and circumstances cleverly exploited. Strategies and tactics that excited the reader. Now, well... see below.

Complaints:

-Pacing and lack of interesting events. I don't mind a slow start, but at some point the story must come to a boil. With this book it just never does.

-No clear point to the story whatsoever. There are some weird troll creatures we never really find anything about (could have been very interesting). There is a kinda-villain entity that emerges, but again we never really find anything about even at the conclusion. The 3 main dragons want to live happy-ever-after with their spouse-dragons, but other than that there's no real goal in their stories. Elves' and dwarves' stories are dangled then aborted.

-Unlike the previous books, there is no richness in character. Part of the strength of the earlier books was the play out of each sibling's strengths and weaknesses. Each character simply acts true to their nature in this book and no depth is added to anyone. Learning more about even non-primary characters like DarSii or such would have been nice.

-Tear out the first 150 pages (half the book). They aren't needed, aren't interesting, and don't add anything to the story.

-Have some action. There were probably about 5 pages of action in the whole book.

-Have some politics. This series was big on scheming, but this book had no big goals or crafty schemes.

-Deus Ex Machina. I mean *wow* a textbook example. I can't believe a professional author got away with such a basic no-no.

-The story spans many, many years incoherently. (5? 20? 100? I just finished the book and I still have no idea.) You have a hard time keeping reference... "was this chapter 5 years before the last chapter I was reading?" Seems like the author chews up years so he can come up with events to put words on a page.

-The story needlessly spans too much territory. They are flying all over the world to do unimportant stuff... just so a little backstory or second-string characters can be mentioned. Again a loss of focus on the main storylines. Even when they visit the distant lands, there's no effort spent to explain them and their people thereby making the trip real/interesting. Each land is equivalent to an "over yonder" in interestingness and detail.

-Poorly Edited: There were a couple of times they got the main dragon's name wrong on the point of view, really breaking up the reader's train of thought. (e.g. confusing RuGaard and AuRon) You ask yourself "What? Where did that dragon come in? Oh they just screwed up the name."

-Poorly Edited #2: Other times a main character would instantly just start adding to a conversation, but he never "flew in". He was just instantly beamed in from the starship enterprise and there for some reason I guess.

Reading this book was a very unpleasant experience. It's clearly not finished. New scenes are started without introduction, sketched in with some basic outline of action, and then abandoned without warning. In many places, characters are referred to by the wrong names, or are described as present just after they are said to have departed, or suddenly are in the action without having arrived. In battle scenes, entire armies appear and disappear without warning. It's like a rough draft which was published without even being edited.

I was a big fan of the first five books in the series. Now I feel angry and cheated for having spent my money on this. If this was some sort of massive printing error, the publishers should send new copies to everyone who bought this mistake. If it was not, then Mr. Knight should be ashamed to have his name on the cover, and Roc should be doubly ashamed for having published it.

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