DragonKnight (Dragon Keepers Chronicles, Book 3)

The best book in the "DragonKeeper" series so far, "Dragonknight" tells a tale of finding your purpose in life. The plot is engaging and, unlike the first two novels, the main character has real agency. He struggles with the correct course of action, and his decisions propel the story along its unique path. This combined with the far-flung settings and locales give this story a fun, jaunty feel, as it dives into new perils, friends, enemies, combat, and even magic. Some of these aspects are rushed or even clinical in nature (i.e boring), while others, like the inclusion of a magical illusion trap, are fantastic and exciting additions. The characters are generally outstanding including the addition of several new people with unique personalities and even one stand-out who was from a completely new race. Unfortunately, Kale, the protagonist from the first two novels, is nowhere to be found until the beginning of the third act. This feels like a cop out by the author so she does not have to deal with the intricacies of Bardon and Kale’s budding relationship and can instead gloss over them with “time passed” phrases. Speaking of Kale, her introduction to the novel signals the halting of building momentum. The story slowed to a crawl for several chapters as people…sit around and read books. Fortunately, this interlude gives way to the most rousing climax of the series. A plethora of characters, familiar and new, finally faced Pretender, the lurking evil behind every danger and scheme. The scene ties up the story nicely while still leaving it open to sequels. Certainly the best book in the series so far, it is hard to put down and left me wanting more.

Knights, wizards, fair damsels in distress, a quest, and Good verses Evil fill this novel by Donita K. Paul. A fantasy - yes, and DragonKnight is a most delightful one. Bardon, a squire in service to Sir Dar, has been granted a sabbatical in order to contemplate his future. Should he continue his training and become a knight of Paladin, or should he give it up and search for something else he is to do with his life? Those are his choices. Having been granted a year in which to search his soul, Bardon and his dragon, Greer, take off for the isolated cabin of Sir Dar. Only when they arrive they find the cabin already occupied by two emerlidians, Granny Kye, N'Rae, and a minneken from the Isle of Kye, Mistress Jue Seeno. Granny Kye and N'Rae are to be off on a quest to search for and rescue Granny Kye's missing son who also happens to be N'Rae's father. Jue Seeno is N'Rae's protector, a funny job for a woman the size of a mouse. Bardon is drawn into their quest because he feels it is Wulder's will for him at this time. Only too late does he realize that the ladies expect him to be in charge of the whole quest to rescue N'Rae's father, Sir Jilles, and a number of other Knights under a spell the evil wizard Risto cast many years before. Time is of the essence. The knights must be rescued and released from the spell holding them captive before the Wizard's Plume, a comet passes beneath a northern star called Eye of the North. Who should read this book? Everyone. Male, female, old, and young, oh, especially the young who are so drawn to the world of fantasy, because this book and its first two companions are filled with spiritual truths that the young should experience. DragonKnight has something for everyone - adventure, love, and redemption. Will Squire Bardon and his party complete their quest and rescue the Knights before it is too late? Will Granny Kye be reunited with her son, Sir Jilles? Will N'Rae see her father alive? Will Squire Bardon find the will of Wulder for his life? Read the book and find out. And, oh, yes, the dragons. Be prepared to have your preconceptions of dragons totally reversed. Not all dragons are evil, fire-breathing monsters, at least not in Donita K. Paul's world. Some of them are quite large and beautiful, some of them are very small and cute, and some of them can even talk. Stand guard, though, on your emotions - the evil, fire-breathing dragons exist alongside the good dragons. Watch out for the ugly, two-headed snake dragons, they enjoy the fresh catch of the day.

Bardon heads to the mountains to spend a long-anticipated sabbatical in solitude before taking his vow as Paladin's knight. But someone already lives in the cabin he was instructed to occupy. A young girl named N'Rae and her grandmother need Bardon to help them find Granny Kye's son, imprisoned with other knights following Paladin. Bardon suspects one is his friend Kale's father, and reluctantly agrees to lead the quest. The wonderful land of Amara returns in this delightful sequel to DragonQuest. A troupe of varied characters fills the pages: members of the seven high races; the seven low races; major, minor, and meech dragons; and the legendary minneken. Combine this with a twisting plot, beautiful descriptions, and depth of characters, and you have a novel that's too rich to devour in one reading. Readers of the previous books may be disappointed at first with Kale's absence, but she does come into the story later on. While DragonKnight tells a complete story on its own, much of it draws from the previous novels, so the series is best read in order. Recommended for teens, adults, and anyone fascinated with dragons. - Katie Hart, Christian Book Previews.com

Squire Bardon is tired of people. All he wants is a nice quiet sabbatical, a chance to read books, contemplate life, maybe get in a little fishing, and of course seek the presence of Wulder, creator of all. Instead he finds two females waiting for him. They announce that they are on a quest and he is their leader. There's Granny Kye, calm, unflappable, ready to help anyone in need even if she has to invite them to come along on the quest and spend Bardon's last coin in the process. N'Rae, a beautiful young emerlindian girl, can commune with animals, but she also keeps Bardon busy getting her out of scrapes. He's convinced Wulder never created two more exasperating females. Granny Kye is searching for her son, who was imprisoned in an enchanted castle with other knights and placed under an evil spell. If they are not rescued before the Wizard's Plume, a new comet in the sky, passes over the Eye of the North, they will die. This is a fast paced story about good and evil that will keep you turning pages until the end. It also left me with a strong desire for a flying dragon all my own, with a purple body, cobalt wings and a great sense of humor. If you like fanasy, this one's for you.

Having the read the two first stories in the Dragon keeper series I got my hands on this book as soon as I could. I'd started to read it the same night I got it, and the next I found it hard to stay away from. I was surprised to see my favorite heroine, Kale was missing from the story, but as the reviews in the front of the book promise, she shows up. If not for the events of her small time in the book, I wouldn't consider this a worthy sequal to the last one. But to see our heroes three years later is rewarding and when we finally see Kale once again no other events could take away a readers joy. On the long wait I found it was easy to watch Bardon's adventures as seeing things from his eyes was a new experience. There's enough excitement to keep you holding out for Kale to show up. IMO the ending was probably the most rewarding part. Overall, I found I wasn't disapointed, but rather impressed with the format in which this new book was told. Bardon goes from skeptical of Wulder to having true faith in the end. An awesome read where a fantasy world is made to imply truth in Jesus, similar to Aslan in the "chronicles of Narnia."

I'm enthusiastic about DragonKnight. This is the kind of fantasy I eat up--a quest for a noble cause, conflict between good and evil, a personal battle within. On top of that, I thought this was by far Mrs. Paul's best writing. First, I thought the protagonist, the previously prickly squire Bardon, had a believable goal from the outset. The problems and delays that cropped up still felt like a part of the original problem, so I easily transferred my concern to seeing the new foils dispatched. In addition, the characters that waylaid him from his original plans were delightful, interesting, well developed. Second, I found Bardon to be a more complex character than Kale, heroine of the previous DragonKeeper books. He was someone I could care about in his internal as well as external struggles. I also thought Mrs. Paul improved the battles in DragonKnight. With perhaps only one exception, I could see each scene, track the participants, follow the outcome. Realistically, some people were injured and some villains died. Once again Mrs. Paul's inventiveness is evident. The minneken Jue Seeno threatens to steal the show as did Dar in DragonSpell and Toopka in DragonQuest, yet Mrs. Paul again manages to keep the focus in the right places. Bardon's mental rehearsal of the principles from the tomes, clearly a potential minefield of preachiness that Mrs. Paul avoids, are especially fresh and appropriate. As in the first two books, I thought there were occasional slips into transparent Christian equivalency, the most noticeable being prayer before meals (particularly the one where Bardon said, "We thank You for this food and for the hands that prepared it."). Still, these intermittent lapses did not spoil the story for me. The end held some wonderful surprises, all made believable because they had been properly foreshadowed. I must also admit to shedding a tear and may have cried outright if the characters had given in to grief. All in all, this book delighted from beginning to end.