Jared,
Here it is! The book I’ve been hyping for the last month.
Title: Dragonwatch
Series: Fablehaven Adventure Series; Book 1
Author: Brandon Mull
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Youth/Teen
ROTS Setting: EU, Modern, Magic, Fairies, Demons
Synopsis: In the hidden dragon sanctuary of Wyrmroost, Celebrant the Just, King of the Dragons, plots his revenge. He has long seen the sanctuaries as prisons, and he wants nothing more than to overthrow his captors and return the world to the Age of Dragons, when he and his kind ruled and reigned without borders. The time has come to break free and reclaim his power.
No one person is capable of stopping Celebrant and his dragon horde. It will take the ancient order of Dragonwatch to gather again if there is any chance of saving the world from destruction. In ancient times, Dragonwatch was a group of wizards, enchantresses, dragon slayers, and others who originally confined the majority of dragons into sanctuaries. But nearly all of the original Dragonwatch members are gone, and so the wizard Agad reaches out to Grandpa Sorenson for help. […]
Recommendation: Highly recommend this series, and strongly encourage reading the Fablehaven series first. Early teens and up can easily handle this book. I advise moderate caution with younger readers as there are some darker themes.
The world is just as alive, just as magical, and just as brutal as we’ve come to know and love in the Fablehaven series. The plot was pretty good, and it kept the pace up. The characters, Kendra and Seth, were pretty good too. I think they came off the page better than in say the first or second Fablehaven book. In all, it was a very enjoyable read that kept me turning the page and I flew through the book. A good start to the series and I definitely recommend it and will be keep reading the series.
While being remarkably low on spoilers, I didn’t feel the book did very well at introducing the characters and the world to readers who hadn’t read Fablehaven. The learning curve felt fairly steep. I’ll be interested to see how new readers handle this book.
This is also more of a continuation than a sequel series. It’s like 3 months after the end of book 5, still the same summer if I remember correctly. The characters haven’t changed at all (or regressed, but I’ll get to that). There was no peace so it’s literally disaster after disaster. I would have much preferred a solid year between the end of Fablehaven and the beginning of this book. It would have let the characters grow and settle after the events that would have clearly affected them. It would have also allowed for an easier transition into the main plot of the series.
My other big issue is with Seth…..or how the author handled/used Seth. All throughout the Fablehaven series Seth has been used as a major plot device. He creates problems and then fixes everything in the end. His rash and reckless behavior is a common element dig the hole and his risk taking behavior fills it in. Nearly every book followed that format, but over the course of the series he began to mature. Less recklessness and more calculated risk taking………In this new book Seth feels like he’s regressed. He’s got no self control but at the same time he’s conveniently not loosing control at specific points and then taking the big risk to fix everything.
So in summary, this series is well worth reading, but you would probably do well to have read Fablehaven first. In spite of the issues I had it was an entertaining story that promises 4 more amazing books.
Robert
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