An excellent fantasy, especially for a debut novel. Not sure how to describe it other than sort of a "light" epic, with a scifi touch. I say "light" partly because it is not magic-heavy, and partly due to the fact that while there is a certain level of intrigue and machinations going on in the background, and that is dug up through the history of some of the characters, it is not as complex and convoluted as some of the sprawling fantasy epics that are out there. At the same time it is not "simple" as if it were something meant for younger readers.

The scifi touch comes because the book takes place millenia after our society has fallen, some remnants remain by way of cultural evolution, or physical remnants from our future that are recovered and studied.

At first the world feels a little small (travelling from one land to another seems to go very quickly) but by the end the implication is that there is a larger, unknown world out there waiting to be tapped.

I found it to be a good read, quick and easy to get into, not too long to finish and tie off the present storyline, but a definite hint that more is involved in the overall story to come.

When I started writing this it was getting longer and longer, adding spoilers and so on. I'm trying to simplify.

I thought it started out well, with an interesting premise. Unfortunately by the halfway point there were already gaping holes in several places where the plot would jump forward and there was absolutely no indication how the characters got to where they were. The ending was rushed, and by the end the hero and evil mastermind both annoyed me as weak-minded fools (and for several other reasons as well).

My biggest peeves with the book are:
References that made no sense or were incorrect, that feel like they were thrown in just because they looked impressive when any reader with an ounce of technical knowhow would say "Huh? (Bluray mouthpiece, IMDB Pro, etc)
The absolutely atrocius plot jumps involving a couple of side characters. I actually kept flipping back thinking that either my kid had been playing with my bookmark, or checking to see if a chapter had fallen out of my book. Sadly, no.

I would be surprised if I read anything by Walsh again, there are a number of other authors whose works I would prefer to read for the 4th or 5th time than to put myself through this again.

The only thing I was happy about was that I waited until I could get this book from the library and didn't blow my own cash on it.

In summation, rather than billing Walsh as the "next Vince Flynn", I would suggest waiting for the next Flynn, Thor, Child, etc, book to arrive. Or dig out some of the classics.

I must disagree with elements of the previous review. I agree that as usual Modesitt does a great job of creating a fantasy world, but part of that requires building up the belief structure of the characters. What's all the business with the Namer, the Nameless, and so on mean if we don't find out about the background? The philosophical bits, while boring at points and I would usually skim through, were usually done in a couple of paragraphs, not what I would call lengthy at all.

I couldn't put it down for 2 days (well, except to sleep) and my wife (who doesn't read nearly as much as I do and has a hard time finishing books if they don't engage her interest early on) enjoyed it as well. Looking forward to the next in the series.

I've always had a soft spot for platformers, and Daxter is one of the best. It could have been a little more challenging in some areas, but the good graphics and sense of humour along with the strong platformer elements, make up for that. The only real complaint I have is that the camera was a little tricky in some spots, when it goes into a 3 dimensional side scrolling mode where you can't adjust the view, and I occasionally found my view blocked by an object, so that I had to make a leap of faith hoping that there was something to land on. Despite that minor quibble, this game is great fun.

I've installed this software on several computers at request from end-user's and had nothing but grief due to Panda's vaunted "Truprevent Technology".

In some systems, every application that was opened, every website visited, every email, was delayed drastically as long as Truprevent was enabled (for example to open Word or Internet Explorer, it was easily 5 minutes from the time of clicking on the icon before the program would actually open, and the whole system would slow to a crawl in the meantime). It was as if Panda was trying to scan every executable, library, and driver as the program was opening.

In others any attempt to maximize videos on a site such as youtube would lock up the system completely.

The instant Truprevent was disabled, all the problems magically disappeared. These installations were also on brand-new systems with clean installs, all from different manufacturers, with no viruses already present.

The software was updated with every update and patch from Panda's website, but nothing worked and there was nothing in Panda's knowledgebase to suggest that this problem existed, nevermind how to fix it. No I didn't bother contacting Panda, I left it up to each EU whether they wanted to pay for my time going back and forth with Panda or just disable the feature, they chose to disable.

I would say it is unfair to compare this book to something written by G.R.R. Martin or others like him. This is an alternate historical fantasy, not what you might call hard fantasy. I like Martin's books for their epic nature, this is not the same style of book. Two completely different genres, like comparing Victorian mystery stories to something by Patterson or Sandford. Each are good in their own ways and need to be judged on their own merits.

For the style and setting of His Majesty's Dragon it is written very well, one of the most engaging books I've read in a long time. As others reviewed, very much like some of the sea-faring stories, just with a fantasy twist.

You might be inclined to dismiss it based on the pulpy fantasy title (although it is fitting considering the storyline), I for one am glad I gave it a chance. I picked it up from the library but will be buying it along with the sequels, and hope to see more from this author soon. Also glad to hear Peter Jackson has already picked up the movie rights, would love to see a good film adaptation of this book.

Renton's voice can get a little annoying, but for me that was compensated with an interesting storyline, good character development and very nice artwork. I thought they blended that well with alternating some decent action and some comedy.

As the series progresses the various characters are shown to have more depth than you would think at first, some have been damaged by their own history that we see get developed along the way. Renton's arrival, with what you might call the shattering of his own naive view of his world and his heroes, sparks his own growth as a person, which also seems to cause some of the others to look deeper into themselves as well.