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Fortress Draconis (The DragonCrown War Cycle, Book 1)

Fortress Draconis (The DragonCrown War Cycle, Book 1)

List Price: $6.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How much is that dragon in the window?
Review: Fortress Draconis is a sequel to the military fantasy novel, The Dark Glory War and is book one in the Dragoncrown War Cycle. This book, however, is epic in scope and much more character-driven then the previous book. It's a good start to the series, marred only by one of the main characters being an incredible bore.

The Dark Glory War was a very interesting set-up for this story. It ended on a final note that, if you wanted to stop reading, you could have. However, it did entice you to get the next book. This is that book, and it is a lot better than the previous one. First, Fortress Draconis is not simply military fantasy. It is much deeper than that, and the emphasis is not on violence, blood flowing, heads flying off, and battle tactics. These things are in the book, so it's still not for the squeamish. But Stackpole adds scope to the plot, making it have a much grander feel. I really appreciated that.

Secondly, he adds deeper characterization to the mix. The story has a number of viewpoint characters, so we learn details about more than just the narrator. Alexia, Will and Kerrigan are the main viewpoint characters, though we do see some sections from minor viewpoints as well. This was a great addition, as one of the problems with The Dark Glory War was the fact that Tarrant was the only person I felt I knew after reading that one. Stackpole also does a better job of characterizing the people of whom we don't see the viewpoints. I get the feeling that he didn't care as much about the characterization in the first book because of the type of book it was, but this time he seems to have worked a lot harder at it.

The only failure in this aspect of the novel is Kerrigan. He is the ultimate innocent, formed by his wizard mentors to be the most powerful wizard that has been seen in quite awhile. However, he has been sheltered and thus doesn't know very much about life. When we first meet him, he is felled to tears because he has a cut. I see what Stackpole is trying to do with this character, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me. He is boring, and the book screeches to a stop whenever he's the viewpoint character. He's arrogant, but he also whines a lot when things don't go his way. When his not knowing how to act results in a death, he whines some more. It's an understandable reaction, but the way Stackpole writes him, I felt more annoyance at him than sympathy for his situation. He does get a bit better as time goes on, and I can tell Stackpole has some big plans for him. Hopefully, this upward cycle will continue and he won't be as annoying in the next book.

Stackpole's plotting and writing are really nice as well. I liked the choices that he made. One of my complaints about the previous book was that Chytrine was actually made a character in the last section of the book and I felt she was too simply written. This time, Stackpole seems to have taken a lesson from Lord of the Rings. She is not on-screen at all, except as seen in the distance. In LotR, we never see Sauron, and I think that's a good thing. In this case, Chytrine becomes an ominous presence and not a character to roll your eyes at. I was very impressed. Instead, we see the "heroes" of the previous expedition to destroy her, and we see how they have been corrupted. If the reader is familiar with them from having read the previous book, there is a sense of tragedy in this as well, and it really works. The prose is not outstanding, but it services the plot well. There are no glowing passages, but there are also no clunkers reveling in their purpleness.

Thankfully, there is no need to have read the previous book, as most of the information a reader needs to understand what is going on is included in this book. Some of the revelations will mean more (such as Crow's secret, which I will not reveal even though other reviews have, which ruined it for me), but that's not a big thing.

The only other minor problem with this book is that it still feels a bit like a fantasy role-playing game set to novel form. The party of heroes is even a classic party from one of those games: a wizard, a thief, and three fighters. Healing is done by the wizard, so there's no need for a cleric. Thus you get the feeling you could follow along in your game if you wanted to. However, that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of reading this book. It manages to lift itself beyond the typical role-playing fiction by providing interesting characters (except Kerrigan, of course) and intriguing situations. If you don't mind a little blood spilt and some severed limbs, then you can't go wrong with this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How much is that dragon in the window?
Review: Fortress Draconis is a sequel to the military fantasy novel, The Dark Glory War and is book one in the Dragoncrown War Cycle. This book, however, is epic in scope and much more character-driven then the previous book. It's a good start to the series, marred only by one of the main characters being an incredible bore.

The Dark Glory War was a very interesting set-up for this story. It ended on a final note that, if you wanted to stop reading, you could have. However, it did entice you to get the next book. This is that book, and it is a lot better than the previous one. First, Fortress Draconis is not simply military fantasy. It is much deeper than that, and the emphasis is not on violence, blood flowing, heads flying off, and battle tactics. These things are in the book, so it's still not for the squeamish. But Stackpole adds scope to the plot, making it have a much grander feel. I really appreciated that.

Secondly, he adds deeper characterization to the mix. The story has a number of viewpoint characters, so we learn details about more than just the narrator. Alexia, Will and Kerrigan are the main viewpoint characters, though we do see some sections from minor viewpoints as well. This was a great addition, as one of the problems with The Dark Glory War was the fact that Tarrant was the only person I felt I knew after reading that one. Stackpole also does a better job of characterizing the people of whom we don't see the viewpoints. I get the feeling that he didn't care as much about the characterization in the first book because of the type of book it was, but this time he seems to have worked a lot harder at it.

The only failure in this aspect of the novel is Kerrigan. He is the ultimate innocent, formed by his wizard mentors to be the most powerful wizard that has been seen in quite awhile. However, he has been sheltered and thus doesn't know very much about life. When we first meet him, he is felled to tears because he has a cut. I see what Stackpole is trying to do with this character, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me. He is boring, and the book screeches to a stop whenever he's the viewpoint character. He's arrogant, but he also whines a lot when things don't go his way. When his not knowing how to act results in a death, he whines some more. It's an understandable reaction, but the way Stackpole writes him, I felt more annoyance at him than sympathy for his situation. He does get a bit better as time goes on, and I can tell Stackpole has some big plans for him. Hopefully, this upward cycle will continue and he won't be as annoying in the next book.

Stackpole's plotting and writing are really nice as well. I liked the choices that he made. One of my complaints about the previous book was that Chytrine was actually made a character in the last section of the book and I felt she was too simply written. This time, Stackpole seems to have taken a lesson from Lord of the Rings. She is not on-screen at all, except as seen in the distance. In LotR, we never see Sauron, and I think that's a good thing. In this case, Chytrine becomes an ominous presence and not a character to roll your eyes at. I was very impressed. Instead, we see the "heroes" of the previous expedition to destroy her, and we see how they have been corrupted. If the reader is familiar with them from having read the previous book, there is a sense of tragedy in this as well, and it really works. The prose is not outstanding, but it services the plot well. There are no glowing passages, but there are also no clunkers reveling in their purpleness.

Thankfully, there is no need to have read the previous book, as most of the information a reader needs to understand what is going on is included in this book. Some of the revelations will mean more (such as Crow's secret, which I will not reveal even though other reviews have, which ruined it for me), but that's not a big thing.

The only other minor problem with this book is that it still feels a bit like a fantasy role-playing game set to novel form. The party of heroes is even a classic party from one of those games: a wizard, a thief, and three fighters. Healing is done by the wizard, so there's no need for a cleric. Thus you get the feeling you could follow along in your game if you wanted to. However, that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of reading this book. It manages to lift itself beyond the typical role-playing fiction by providing interesting characters (except Kerrigan, of course) and intriguing situations. If you don't mind a little blood spilt and some severed limbs, then you can't go wrong with this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Stackpole's Best
Review: Fortress Draconis is the first book in the DragonCrown Series. The book starts out with Will, a young orphan who is stated in a legend as the one who will bring down the Emperess Chytrine, who is coming back to power. He is found by Resolute and Crow, an Elf and a man who bring him into the loop and explain to him what he is to do.
The book breaks into thirds, and two other characters are introduced, Alyx, a princess in command of an army and Kerrigan, a seventeen year old mage, with a skill in magic that suppasses everyone elses. Will embarks on a journey that leads him to Alyx and Kerrigan, and together they must begin to bring down Chytrine. The must also prevent her from piecing together the DragonCrown, a legendary crown that gives the wearer power over dragons, a deadly tool that Chytrine is desperate to get her hands on.
I was amazed by this book. I have never seen a fantasy mixed with a military writing, and Stackpole pulls this off brillently. Scattered through out the book are battles, all expertly written, that convay the action and the tactical thinking that is present in the commanders.
Stackpole also 'limits' some common elements of fantasy, such as dragons and magics, and makes them more believeable in terms of science. Slightly, but enough to be realistic.
Stackpole also did a great job with the characters. Each of them are well written, with personallities to match their lives. Will is a typical rouge and thief; He steals everything in sight. Kerrigan is slightly spoiled; he isn't used to action. Chytrine was not seen until the end of the novel, but you get the sense that she is very bad.
The only thing that I found hard is that this is similar to Lord of the Rings. Enough said.
A good read for any fantasy fan!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stackpole continues to impress
Review: Fortress Draconis lives up to the promise of a great tale started in The Dark Glory War. It is a book that stands alone however, not requiring you have read the prequel to understand this storyline as it takes place 25 years after the original. I did read the Dark Glory War first, however it was a year or so ago, so after reading Fortress Draconis I read it again and enjoyed the foreshadowing present in the first book that I didn't catch the first time.

Michael Stackpole is one of my favorite authors now. I first ran into his work in the X-wing novels of the Star Wars universe, then moved on to his fantasy novels and work in Battletech because I enjoyed his writing so much.

If you haven't read anything by Mr. Stackpole, give this one a shot and you'll be hooked. If you enjoy Robert Jordan (as I do) give this book a read as the world here is just as rich and deep, with the action coming even more quickly and the plot twists being just as good.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good story, very predictable
Review: I am a fan of Michael Stackpole. A big one. I love his Rogue Squadron books and the "Blood of Kerensky" trilogy in the Battletech universe and I enjoyed the Dark Glory War, but this book was not even close to on par with those books.

The key problem with the story is its predictability. Now, please understand that this statement is from someone who has only read The Wheel of Time books and some of the Sword of Truth series for his fantasy fix. I should not be able to pick out exactly what is going to happen several pages before it does happen in a genre I have very little famaliarity with. But I can. Heck, I even figured out what would happen on the last page about halfway through the book (granted this was because I had read Dark Glory War). I am not a particularly perceptive person when it comes to noticing trends in books, which suggests to me that this is a problem that lots of readers of this book will have. Then again, Stackpole has never been a particularly subtle writer so this probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

Leaving that aside, however, the story is rather entertaining. The characters have some personality to them and it is rather interesting to see what happened to all the people from Dark Glory War over the gap between the two books. I also kept waiting to see the pivotal showdown between Seethe and Crow which kept me turning the pages (unfortunately it never came). Because Stackpole needed to hide the identity of Crow from Will (our new main character) we never get to see Crow's feelings about the various Dark Lancers, many of whom were his close friends in Dark Glory War. It doesn't help that the reader knows who he is from his first appearence, but keeping his identity hidden from all for the whole book really hampered Stackpole's ability to build some good character conflict. This conflict should come in book 2 of the series (which, with any luck, should be out sometime in the next ten years...) but it would have been nice to see it in here, especially since I spent the vast majority of the book eagerly awaiting the revelation of who he was and how everyone would react. Now I just have to wait longer.

Ultimately, it is an interesting enough book. Stackpole's work on the Star Wars and Battletech books has prepared him for setting of on his own well enough, but he has some kinks to work out. If you are considering reading some of Stackpole's fantasy work, however, you might want to start on some of his other books first.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good start
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would encourage anyone looking for a nice light read to pick it up. I disagree with the assessment that one must read "Dark Glory War" prior to this one. I did not and understood the plot very well. I did pick up Dark Glory War in the bookstore AFTER I read Fortress Draconis and in all honesty, it did not seem as interesting nor did it appear to be as well written. I want to stress that Stackpole is not trying to imitate Tolkein or here with this story, although the usual Tolkein plot devices are there. It is very action oriented and the characters are very predictable and seem to be very typical of the types of characters that pop up in these books. There's the "Orphaned Thief who is really a Subject of Prophecy", a "Mysterious Long Lived, Wise, White Guy with a Beard" who provides guidance a la Gandalf, there's also the "Buxom, Sword-Wielding Babe" who fills out her breast plate, yet can hold her own. Best of all, there's plenty of bad guys, to include those wonderful types that seem to exist by the millions, even though they are extremely easy to kill. Juar like Orcs. The Prime Bad Guy is actually a Bad Girl, but her gender is more or less ignored by the book. She has Nazgul like assistants who do all her duty work, one of whom talks in clever rhyme.

Like I said, not a bad read, lots of fun, one can hope this won't turn out to be another Wheel of Time series and last until we all die of old age. Enjoy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good start
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would encourage anyone looking for a nice light read to pick it up. I disagree with the assessment that one must read "Dark Glory War" prior to this one. I did not and understood the plot very well. I did pick up Dark Glory War in the bookstore AFTER I read Fortress Draconis and in all honesty, it did not seem as interesting nor did it appear to be as well written. I want to stress that Stackpole is not trying to imitate Tolkein or here with this story, although the usual Tolkein plot devices are there. It is very action oriented and the characters are very predictable and seem to be very typical of the types of characters that pop up in these books. There's the "Orphaned Thief who is really a Subject of Prophecy", a "Mysterious Long Lived, Wise, White Guy with a Beard" who provides guidance a la Gandalf, there's also the "Buxom, Sword-Wielding Babe" who fills out her breast plate, yet can hold her own. Best of all, there's plenty of bad guys, to include those wonderful types that seem to exist by the millions, even though they are extremely easy to kill. Juar like Orcs. The Prime Bad Guy is actually a Bad Girl, but her gender is more or less ignored by the book. She has Nazgul like assistants who do all her duty work, one of whom talks in clever rhyme.

Like I said, not a bad read, lots of fun, one can hope this won't turn out to be another Wheel of Time series and last until we all die of old age. Enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Angry Again
Review: I was angry when I first finished reading The Dark Glory War. Not because of any lack in the story but on the behalf of Hawkins. It has been a long time since a character has roused my empathy to such a point, but testament to Stackpole's skill, he managed it not only once but did it again in Fortress Draconis.

Hawkins (my favourite character, if you haven't guessed) did seem to be somewhat marginalized in FD but since he isn't seen from first person anymore, that's understandable. The introductions of Alyx, Will and Kerrigan were handled in a manner that made them fully-rounded characters and by the end of FD, I was begining to like them all despite certain reservations I'd had about Kerrigan earlier on.

Frequent actions scenes, intimations of events that occured in DGW and afterwards, and a mingling of old and new characters (is it my imagination or is something going on between Alyx and Crow?) make FD a satisfying and convincing follow on to DGW. Certain aspects, such as Resolute's new sword and the scene on the last page that made me so angry, create a tension that guarantees an audience for Stackpole's next book, Rage of Dragons.

Though I'm eagerly waiting for the next book, I'm not going to ask Stackpole to hurry, nor write lots and lots of pages (at least 500). I'm simply going to leave a few words of encouragement:

Write it and I'll buy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Book, Must buy
Review: I was introduced to Michael Stackpole through his endeavors in the Star Wars Universe. After enjoying his XWing books and I, Jedi, I quickly gobbled up some of his fantasy works such as Hero Reborn, Once a Hero, Talion: Revenant and Eyes of Silver. In my opinion Michael Stackpole is an excellent writer who keeps the pages turning and who kept the lamp next to my bed lit late into the night as I kept reading, unable to put the story down.

With Dark Glory War, prelude to Fortress Draconis, we saw the rise and fall of a generation's heros through the eyes of a man destined to suffer no matter how much good he does.

In Fortress Draconis, 25 years have passed, and a full fledged war is being waged against the forces from the north and the people of the southlands. The next generation's heros emerge to, hopefully, complete the task started by their predecessors. Powerful magics meet new and powerful sciences, a multitude of races gather to battle an ever-present threat and a vague prophecy begins to unravel. And in the center of it all stands a man who is a bridge between the heros of the past and the heros of the present, who has no family and no nation to call home; a man who's honor compels him to fight, not only for the liberation of a land he's never set foot upon, but for the memory of who he once was.

If you like your fantasy deprived of the cookie-cutter format, then you'll like Michael Stackpole and his DragonCrown Saga.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Book, Must buy
Review: I was introduced to Michael Stackpole through his endeavors in the Star Wars Universe. After enjoying his XWing books and I, Jedi, I quickly gobbled up some of his fantasy works such as Hero Reborn, Once a Hero, Talion: Revenant and Eyes of Silver. In my opinion Michael Stackpole is an excellent writer who keeps the pages turning and who kept the lamp next to my bed lit late into the night as I kept reading, unable to put the story down.

With Dark Glory War, prelude to Fortress Draconis, we saw the rise and fall of a generation's heros through the eyes of a man destined to suffer no matter how much good he does.

In Fortress Draconis, 25 years have passed, and a full fledged war is being waged against the forces from the north and the people of the southlands. The next generation's heros emerge to, hopefully, complete the task started by their predecessors. Powerful magics meet new and powerful sciences, a multitude of races gather to battle an ever-present threat and a vague prophecy begins to unravel. And in the center of it all stands a man who is a bridge between the heros of the past and the heros of the present, who has no family and no nation to call home; a man who's honor compels him to fight, not only for the liberation of a land he's never set foot upon, but for the memory of who he once was.

If you like your fantasy deprived of the cookie-cutter format, then you'll like Michael Stackpole and his DragonCrown Saga.


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