Dragon Fate

Publisher's Summary

Dragon Fate, the first novel in J.D. Hallowell's popular War of the Blades series, is a heroic fantasy adventure in the classic tradition of the genre. Delno Okonan is a young former soldier eager to put the swords and strife of war behind him, when a chance encounter leaves him inextricably entwined in a tangled web of dragons, magic, and intrigue, as he struggles to find his place among dragons and men, and stave off a plot by renegade dragon riders that threatens all he now holds dear. 

©2012, 2013 Joseph Delno Hallowell (P)2015 Westhall Media

Great book - A little easy though

Hallowell writes a great book here. It's got everything you could possibly want in it: dragons, riders, combat, and even a little magic thrown in for luck.

The story can actually be broken up into several different themes. The first theme is that of a common solider with exceptional leadership skills. And how those skills alienate him from both his common brethren and the nobles who look down on him. A part of both but separated from all. This can be related to many a story or military tale. Another theme is the one of companionship and loyalty. We get this theme through Delno's relationship with the men he led (Which we get to meet though out the land and tale) as well as his relationship with his partnered Dragon. And then we have the political theme where Delno is again forced into a leadership role to stop other Riders from taking over the kingdom.

This is really my only fault with this book. Delno, with a newly hatched dragon and new to the saddle, is pretty much given the rule of the Riders. Even though there are several elder riders with century's of experience over him, all but the main villain seem ready to hand over the reigns to him. It just came off as too easy.

But other than that flaw, the story is fantastic and multi-layered. I'd highly recommend this book and look forward to others.

Gill does a great job as well.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Great Dragon Read From Cover to Cover.

As far as Dragon story's go this one is worth the read. The story was great, slow in some parts for my taste, (though) I do prefer thrillers myself. I really enjoyed the narrator he did an excellent job switching from character to character. There was some occasionally language (if that bothers you) but was approatedly used. As far as the author goes I enjoyed his style especially his use of the phrase (my love). All in all the book was definately worth the read.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Pern meets Tolkien

this was a thoroughly enjoyable book for me. as a teenager I was an avid fan of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern and spent many hours dreaming of touching the sky while riding my own dragon.

J. D. Hallowell has masterfully and beautifully captured the essence of the loving, Soul binding connection between dragon and Rider that I loved and craved so much as a boy.

if that wasn't enough to hook me completely into the story, Hallowell had my inner nerd cheering for his use of the law of thermodynamics as inspiration for his" scientific" explanation of magic.

my one honest and serious complaint is that the story is far too short! I wish there were a hundred books in this series so that I might lose myself in this world as thoroughly as I did in the world of Pern as a teenager.

with all that said I'll still give credit where credit is due. Brian J Gill did an amazing job narrating the story. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his voice and watching the images he painted it in my mind.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

definitely in my multi listen list.

a solid work of entertainment. I have seen better, but not by much! I buy about 4 books a week so I would know.... yes it is a little predictible, and the characters are a little flat, but it is still quite enjoyable.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Not compelling

Fine narration. I bought this book for the .... Dragons! I wanted to like it, but it's almost painfully boring. Besides bonding with a dragon hatchling, nothing much happens for the longest time. And the bonding scenes were sickly sweet, unlike the bonding of Temeraire with his rider in His Majesty's Dragon.

No tension for most of the book. No "big bad" till 2/3 into the novel, when a plot finally emerges. Any problem or challenge is quickly resolved by the ever-ready hero, who calls everyone "my friend" and "looks into their eyes" as a sign of his sincerity. Gah.

I'd thought maybe it was written for older kids, till I reached the sexy scenes.

Too much of the book is filled with italicized mental conversations with a "deart heart" telepathic dragon, and endless details about dragon growth and development, or much-ado-about-nothing (boring needless trivia), like this bathtub excerpt below:

***********
Delno woke early; there were still a couple of hours until dawn, but he couldn’t get back to sleep. He decided to have a bath before starting the day, since he had the time. He went to the bathing room and pumped the tub about a quarter full with cold water, then he used the second pump, which pulled water from a supply tank that was warmed by the kitchen stove, to pump it full of enough hot water to be comfortable before he got in to soak.

“Ah, you are awake, Dear One, I was hoping to have a chance to talk with you before you started training today.”

“What are you doing awake, Dear Heart? I thought you’d sleep long after the meal you had yesterday.”

While he was happy to have her company, he didn’t want her distressed in any way.

**********

The last chapters are okay, with action and villains and some suspense.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Book for pre-teens.

I'm not certain that it's fair for me to say much about this book because I only listened to a few chapters. From those few chapters it was obvious that this book is written for the preteen to teen fantasy market. This is another frustrating example of a book placed in the Epic Fantasy genre that should be in a Teen Fantasy group. I'll definitely be ready returning it. What I did listen to may very well have turned out to be a great book for that preteen child.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

If you like dragons, this is for you!

Where does Dragon Fate rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Middle of the pack, overall. For someone craving a story about dragons (as I was when I listened), it deserves a higher rating. This is like Paolini's Inheritance Cycle done correctly.

What did you like best about this story?

Dragons! I like the fact that the dragons aren't inherently noble or evil. They are as different as humans in that respect.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Entertaining, classic genre tale

This is a straightforward sort of story. Delno is pleasant likable hero whose only real flaw at the start is that he hasn't been able to settle in a career, mildly disappointing his parents. He meets his dragon, and eventually with the help of friends they do the things that need to be done to defeat the baddies. A story to escape into and enjoy, set in a well built world, I'll be very glad to visit there again when the next book is available.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Well written

I loved this one enough to write a review. Two thumbs way up in my opinion.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

I enjoyed the second book...

Would you consider the audio edition of Dragon Fate to be better than the print version?

Again, the main observation is the weak use of magical abilities that are available to the characters, rather than exploiting them.

And of course, the reader and his voice (see book one comment)!

Wonderful

I only have one question, why didn't I find this audio book / author before now. This was a great book and grabbed me from the first chapter and didn't let go until the very last page. It had everything I ever want in a great book magic, action, Warriors and of course dragons. It kind of reminded me of Christopher paolini and I loved his series. The narrator just seamed to be perfect for this audio book if you want a great listen then give this a go. I'm off to start book 2.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful