Dragon Strike

I read all 4 books of The Age of Fire and look forward to book 5. I really enjoyed these and recommend them to those of you that like fantacy, fiction and dragons

NO SPOILERS HERE!! The previous three books of this series are each excellent, and each showcases one of the three dragon siblings of the trio at the heart of the story. AuRon, the grey and scaleless clever champion of the family, who is befriended by a dwarf, understands the politics of his world from the viewpoint of the dwarves. Wistala, the green-scaled, powerful, logical yet vengeful sister, is befriended by an elf who values civilization, and learns the world from the elf's viewpoint. RuGaard, their copper brother, is cast out of his nest, captured and tortured by elves, men, and dwarves until he betrays his family. Later befriended and adopted by a royal dragon of a decadent, highly politicized underground dragon society, he never learns to regard any hominid as a sympathetic character. The three finally come together in this last book. I had expected some sort of intense interraction between the three - either a powerful clash, or an amazing reconciliation and synthesis. Surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly, I did not find the ending to be at all like this. Instead, there is a complex interweaving of the three dragons' goals and actions. The end of this piece of the tale arrives without a great deal of fanfare or finality. The dragons all behave in a way that fits with their past and personality, and the tale is as convincing and engrossing as the earlier three. There are battles and mysteries and basic decency here as in the other books. However, while the first three left room for further stories (as did this one, obviously), they also provided a satisfying ending. I didn't get the same degree of satisfaction from this one. It somewhat makes up for that fact that there is now BOUND to be more coming!! I will eagerly await the further adventures of any of these three fascinating and individual characters, singly or together. The ground has now been laid.

The title says it all, its the squeal to Dragon Champion, Dragon Avenger, and Dragon Outcast and brings the main characters of the first three together after being separated for years. Having loved the first three I had no reason not to enjoy this one as well. If I had to say something negative I would have to say that having the three dragons meet up again was upsetting in a way, since I prefer Auron (the scaleless brother and main character of the first book) I would have preferred more of him and less of his brother (who has all the power and steers the plot with it) but each character gets about the same amount of time in the spotlight so it really not a problem unless you didn't like the previous books in which case you probably won't like this one.

First off, no spoilers for this book if I can help it--the previous three are on the table. This book takes the three stories of the separated hatchlings and weaves them back together again. When the Hatchlings began their traveling lives, they were in order: 1. Auron the scaleless and wily Gray. The slayer when he was hungry, the Dwarf friend, the raider of the Iron riders, and the long planner. Finally, he's the slayer of the fascist, human supremacists who'd yoke Dragon strength. Defender of Wolves. 2. Wistala the champion. The brutal and intelligent defender of civilization. Slayer of Trolls, the tracker of mysteries and the resolver of family conflicts. The oracle and the destruction of the Wheel of fire Dwarves. Defender of people. 3. Then Nameless RuGaard of the Bats, the slayer of snakes, Demen and dragonslayer. Maimed but feisty, the betrayer of his family rose from his failings as a child to become a Conan like king wearing a crown upon his troubled brow. This book is about transformations and the reflection of three siblings in the eyes of the others. Each rattled the foundation of their world in actions and activities that were equal part brush with destiny and choices made by the sculpted personalities Knight fashioned from the book titles. Their parents origins are explored in the almost sidebar of the eventual meetings, but the stress is on how those who would use them fail to see their resistance to external forces and their tendency to eat or destroy those who would try to manipulate them. A few rousing speeches from RuGaard can be expected, alongside a few Gandalf like moments from Wistala, and AuRon and a few of his friends are going to break a few things here and there by being smart and wily. By last page, you hope there will be something more. If you're reading Knight, and I suspect you may be, keep them coming, just like this one, only longer.

After being separated by dwarf slave traders who killed their mother and sister, the three dragon siblings (AuRon, Wistala, and Copper) suffer differing experiences on their way to adulthood. AuRon mated and has a family on the Isle of Ice, which is devoid of humanoids (see DRAGON CHAMPION). His sister Wistala has become a scholar librarian in the Hypatia Empire and believes in intermingling of the species (see DRAGON AVENGER)S. Finally Copper has become the Tyn of the Lavadome who places the needs of dragons before his own (see DRAGON OUTCAST). While Wisteria works in her library, a demon captures her; after days of torture, the Fire Maidens rescue her and take her to Lavadome where she listens to the Tyn while realizing he is her brother just before AuRon arrives as the emissary of the Red Queen of Ghioz who seeks to conquer Hypatia. The Red Queen offers an alliance with the Lavadome that would make the dragons available to her warriors. Tyn decides for dragonkind to survive, they must live above ground instead of in the mouths of volcanoes hiding and praying they will not be found. He sends his sister to her home and his brother to his family as each prepares for the Red Queen. They all know if allied to her she would betray them. Book four of the Age of Fire brings this glorious fantasy to a rousing finish with the three sibling stars of the previous novels finally coming together. Throughout the saga, dragons are the protagonists while the hominids (man, dwarf, elf and blighters) are their natural enemies constantly encroaching and killing. In DRAGON STRIKE, the dragons conclude that to survive they must fight even if that means going down in flames; pacifism means death for sure. E.E. Knight makes his world of dragons soar as the audience roots for them to succeed. Harriet Klausner