Tuesday 26 September 2017

Stephen R. Lawhead: In the Hall of the Dragon King (1982)

    Carrying a sealed message from the war-hero Dragon King to the queen, Quentin and his outlaw companion, Theido, plunge headlong into a fantastic odyssey and mystic quest (Goodreads).

    What starts out as a cliché, slightly dull fantasy actually evolves into an entertaining and well-written novel (although still fairly cliché). The plot jumps right into the action, and although this may be a positive, it gives no background for our protagonist, and we are not able to connect with him as much as we would like. Boring exposition in the first half gives way to much more exciting and intriguing details, although the main character disappears slightly during the climax. His character development, while interesting, is slightly unrealistic and dull, although the rest of the characters are interesting enough. A well-executed and exciting climax (still cliché) is, unfortunately, followed up by a somewhat lame resolution, where the villain, living up to his unexciting and lethargic character, is put down almost as weak as movie-version Voldemort. 6.7/10

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