Dragon's Treasure

If you like grand adventures where you are transported to a different place with magic and dragons, this might be a book for you. Elizabeth Lynn writes with a wonderful style, full of vivid images and violence manageable for the delicate minded. This book is the sequel of Dragon's Winter, which I recommend you read first. The first book is a grand adventure about the stealing of something of great value to the dragon lord -taken by an evil wizard and guarded by orc-type creatures. Dragon's Treasure is mostly about the life surrounding the dragon lord's land: its bandits, its soldiers, the young wolf-boy and a sweet herbalist who is in love with the dragon lord. It is a music-filled land, whose lord is good and fair. The tension throughout the book has to do with the dragon lord's exacting justice as well as his potential explosive temper -not good for a dragon! It's a book of adventure and romance. Enter the world of Elizabeth Lynn; she weaves wonderful tales.

Upfront, I have not finished reading this book yet. So I can't completely review it at this time. However, I feel the need to address issues made by the reviews of other readers. First of all, this book IS a sequel. So making a review stating this that and the other doesn't make sense is simply stupid. Read the previous book first and then open your mouth. Second, it has been SEVEN years since the first book was released. Yes, seven years, so yeah, a recap was necessary in this book for those of us that read the first one way back when. That being said, the previous book, Dragon's Winter, was an excellent book. I have been waiting and checking the shelves for all these years hoping for a sequel. I wouldn't do that for something that wasn't worthy.

This was an enjoyable read, although at times it seemed to lack focus. Sometimes the pace was relentless, at other times too liesurely. It may have suffered a bit in that I checked out both it and the previous volume (Dragon's Winter) from the library at the same time, and read them back-to-back. The first two or three chapters felt very repetitive from the end of Dragon's Winter. If there had been a gap of several months between them, I might have needed the recap more. As mentioned, I felt the plot lacked focus. It began with the bandit rampage of Treion, who may or may not be a half-sibling of Karadur, the Dragon-Lord who is trying to hold onto his humanity. But after Treion is captured, the story loses focus. The rivalry between Karadur and Treion is never as gripping as between Karadur and Tojiro in the first volume. Although the redeption of Treion was nice, it didn't have much punch to me. I really wanted Karadur to tell Treion they could be brothers, and he never did. All in all, this felt like the tpyical middle volume of a typical trilogy. I expected more of Lynn given her reputation and how excellent Dragon's Winter was. As an additional caution, this novel includes a gay love affair. It's handled in a tasteful way, but if this sort of thing bothers you, Dragon's Treasure may not be the best choice for you. Deby Fredericks author of "The Magister's Mask"

The Crimson Dragon Karadur Atani rules Dragon Keep with a fair and even hand. The peasants respect him because they know peace in a world at war and believe he can keep his dragon side under control so no innocents gets hurt. A bandit family lives on his lands. When they kill a farmer he burns them and their house out of existence except for their leader Treion and one of his friends. Only Maia is left of her family; she becomes a herbalist to his people. Treion becomes a bandit and draws other to his banner but when he is caught and claimed by Lord Sarnia because he killed the man's mistress; much to his own surprise Karadur rescues him and punishes him. He offers him his freedom if he works for him for one year. He also takes Maia as his mistress and only she can lift him up from a depression when a trusted friend leaves his service for reasons unknown to him Elizabeth A Lynn, a master fantasist, has written a beautiful adult fairytale starring a dragon who lives much of the time as a man and interacts with humans more than he does his own kind. The nature of the bond between Karadur and the outlaws is one that will probably be examined in a future book because there are relationships that need to be revealed. Karadur is the main protagonist who spends his time killing his enemies, avoiding war coming to his territory and trying to insure his tenants are treated fairly. Maia who loves him dares much to make him whole again. DRAGON'S TREASURE is a priceless treasure. Harriet Klausner