“A solid book with good character development and good conversations that never sounded forced or otherwise trivial.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

A thousand years ago a wall was built.

Myths and legends have arisen as to what is on the other side but there is no one who really remembers, or believes that there are truly dragons on the other side, kept there by the magic imbued in the wall.

No one has ever seen a dragon, not even those who walk the wall and people are beginning to get curious especially one young monk.

Oberon and his motley crew of companions are sent on a quest, to see what is on the other side of the wall, Oberon is to document everything that happens and everything he sees, which of course he hopes, will include dragons. But as with all things, you should be careful what you wish for. Predictably (but not boringly), Oberon’s presence on this journey is anything but accidental but you will have to wait for the 2nd instalment to find out why he is so important to the Dragonwall and humanity’s future.

What follows is a classical tale of a dragon quest but there are enough differences to avoid making it feel like a budget version of LotR. We meet Majora, a reclusive old woman who has strange abilities, appearing where she couldn’t possibly be, moving things she couldn’t possibly move and living in a delicately balanced peace with ‘The Swamp people’, who whilst cliche in name are definitely not cliched in their character. Along for the trip are brother and sister Tannon and Layna who are half elf and have a really brilliantly believable sibling rivalry, and then Delvar , Tark and Vestos making up the group.

The characters are well written and have a great depth, you quickly become part of the group and are absorbed into the adventure. There were a couple of spots in the book that really threw me and left me wondering if I’d missed a dozen pages or something had been misprinted, but no, it was just clever writing and all became clear after I’d read further on, it may be irritating initially but persevere, it is worth it.

The scene setting is faultless, the tale is well written and fast paced imagine the entirety of LotR played out in an hour long film, that’s the kind of thing you’re heading for with Dragonwall, and I really enjoyed the entire novel, reading it in two sittings.

 

Reviewed by:

Shan Williams

Added 29th October 2015

More Reviews By
Shan Williams