The Last Dragonlord
(The Last Dragonlord trilogy, Book 1 of 3)
Joanne Bertin
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Since their creation by ancient magicks, the Dragonlords, a strange combination of human and dragon souls, have been the peacekeepers of the Five
Kingdoms of humanity. Gifted with the ability to shift between human and dragon forms at will, the immortal weredragons each have a soultwin, a fellow Dragonlord who forms
the other halves of their human/dragon double souls - all except for Linden Rathan. The elders have not sensed the birth of another of their kind in the centuries since he
first Changed. In legends and bard's tales, Linden is known as the Last Dragonlord, the only one without a soultwin, possibly doomed to a near-eternity of loneliness.
The Dragonlords Linden, Kief, and Tarlna are summoned to settle a dispute sparked by the mysterious - some say unnatural - death of the Queen of Cassori. As they hear the
testimony and investigate the crime (if crime there be), Linden chances upon a girl who may be his soultwin. Is it possible that there are more fledgling Dragonlords out
there that the elders of his kind have overlooked? Linden is overjoyed at the possibility, the one bright light in his mission. But there was never a more dangerous time
for such a discovery, for the Fraternity of the Blood, a band of humans sworn to eradicate the Dragonlords' influence over truehuman affairs and are willing to use black magic
to do it, has been revived in the land of Cassori, and they would like nothing better than to discover a weakness in the visiting weredragons. More than just the throne of a
human kingdom rests on the Dragonlords now; the entire Dragonlord race stands to fall to the Fraternity, unless Linden and his companions, both mortal and immortal, can stop
it.
REVIEW: This is a very good story, with a wonderful, original concept and great characters. The plot moves decently and is fairly unpredictable. A few plot devices seemed a little obvious and unlikely, given the intelligence of the characters, but otherwise the story seemed fairly sound. The dragonlords themselves make an excellent addition to the world of fantasy and the lore of dragons, described in a way that makes them into a nicely realized race. I might have rated it higher had I been able to finish it faster. As it was, various events and projects kept me from it for weeks at a time. Still, this is a wonderful fantasy tale, with a sequel just out.
You might also enjoy:
The Vlad Taltos series (Stephen Brust, Fiction - An assassin/detective uses his bonded dragonlike jhereg as an assistant)
Dragon Keep (Janet Lee Carey, YA Fiction - A princess born with a dragon-claw finger faces the sapient dragons who ravage her kingdom)
Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger (Jeffrey A. Carver, Fiction - A starship navigator befriends dragons dwelling in hyperspace)
The Dragon and the George (George R. Dickson, Fiction - A man finds himself in the body of a dragon)
The Familiar Dragon series (Daniel Hood, Fiction - A murdered wizard's dragon familiar forces a bond with a reluctant human detective)
The Dragon Quartet (Marjorie B. Kellogg, Fiction - Elemental dragons and their human companions time-travel to save Earth)
The Halfblood Chronicles (Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton, Fiction - From hiding, shapeshifting dragons amuse themselves by taunting tyrannical elf lords and their human slaves)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - Dragons have enslaved humans, but one dragonslayer resists)
The Dragonriders of Pern series (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the world of Pern, dragons and their bonded riders fight deadly Threadfall)
The Temeraire series (Naomi Novik, Fiction - Alternate-history Napoleanic wars feature dragon corps, where sapient dragons serve as flying warships)
Eragon (Christopher Paolini, Fiction - A farmboy bonds with a rare dragon's egg)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - A dragonslayer must team up with the last surviving dragon to topple a corrupted king)
Testament of the Dragon (Margaret Weis, Fiction - Illustrated stories about a man who serves the last Western dragon)
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - In a self-aware fairy tale world, a princess runs away from home to live with the dragons)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A dragonlike alien takes a human host to save the rest of his species from annihilation)
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