King's Dragon

The Crown of Stars series, by Kate Elliott, is the best series I have ever read. Ms. Elliott has hundreds of plotlines intricately woven within each other to create a beautiful tapestry in her books. Her writing style is wonderful, and her attention to detail is fabulous. The characters have depth, feelings and I can picture them as real people. This book can be classified as fantasy, but it truly could have happened. In the first book, King's Dragon, there are only two main characters. While they don't meet in this book, you are still drawn into their lives and pasts. The countries of Wendar and Varre seem like real places, and have plausible castes and rules. I envy Ms. Elliott her ability to draw one inside her books. I would highly recommend these books to anyone. (Note: There is quite a bit of violence and some themes that would be inappropriate for young children. Please make sure you are mature enough to handle this if you are to read.) Another side note: The poetry in these books is *wonderful*, but due to the fact it would have originally been spoken in Wendish, they do not rhyme and the rhythm is off. But the poetry is truly some of the best I have read.

I picked up this book on a whim at the library, and ploughed through it and the next three of the series within two weeks. Elliott has developed an intricate, compelling storyline that rewards the attentive reader. Each chapter uncovers some new layer to the onion -- or suggests that one will be uncovered later. This is a story of sweeping scope, with more than seven distinct "main" protagonists, whose individual stories intertwine and separate, then intertwine again. Most of the main pro- and antagonists are fairly clearly good or evil, but there are several important characters hovering somewhere in the middle. This dynamic makes for an engaging plot that doesn't suffer from predictability.This first book is the slowest of the lot, so far. It does delve heavily into background and history, but it does so for a VERY good reason. Everything you learn in this book is important for the later books, and I found myself in book IV wishing I'd paid better attention back in book II to some chance story a minor character told in passing. The intrigues and hidden manipulations only comes to light slowly, as the protagonists themselves learn the truth. A story of this scope can't be done justice by being told quickly.As I see it, the books seem to fit the following pattern: book I is foundation, suggesting some greater plot is driving the action; book II shows there is more than one greater plot, and introduces several mysteries; book III slowly unravels a couple of mysteries, but mostly establishes a few new ones and moves the story closer to conclusion; book IV drives clearly toward the series climax and explains several of the mysteries, but leaves more than enough to make you wish book V had been published already.One note: This first book contains a central plotline of domestic violence and rape. Some readers may find this very disturbing, especially as there's no skipping over those sections without missing too much to continue.

A terrific read that had me entranced from page 1 to the end! Kate Elliot has rendered a wonderful mix of historical curiosities, mysteries and references with the immense power of imagination to give us a great beginning to an epic. Each character is excellently developed, complete with goodness and evil, confidence and insecurities as a real person would have. The struggles and mishaps they encounter will have you wrestling with empathy and frustration and the victories they have gets you in a celebrative mood. What I really love most about the book is Elliot's excellent play with the mysteries of our world. A circle of stones (very much like the stonehedge) is as much as source of mystery and intrigue to the characters in their world as it is to ours. Is it a remnant of their equivalent of medieval mysteries? or from a world other than our own? And this is not the only reference - others include the mysteries of celts, astronomy, horoscopes, greek and roman mythology. All wonderfully woven to create something familiar, yet a world entirely of its own in King's Dragon.Definitely a book that leaves you longing for seconds and more.

For ages I had always heard about Kate Elliott's books and I had never read them...but one day I just HAD to pick up King's Dragon because I felt compelled to read it. Boy was I right! I finished the book in about a day, while at the same time traveling back and forth from London.I immediately clicked the the first two main characters: Liath and Alain. They both had very human wants and needs and more importantly, emotions. I think that Kate Elliott is one of the best character developers out there (yes, I think these are better than Harry Potter, you just have to be up to reading thick novels with political conflict, etc). Liath, who was "stolen" by an evil man called Hugh, was then abused and raped. Usually, in fantasy books, the enemy is very flat: dark side, evil magic, etc...while Hugh could be a person walking (or riding) down the road like anyone else, etc. He was very real and more than once I could not figure out how Liath was going to get out of the situations she was in. Filled with court drama, awesome characters, and romance, this seris is one of the best out there.