Rating: 
Summary: Still good but failing fast
Review: I usually love David Drake. His writing is great, his tactics fun and imaginative. This book is no different. However, he has written over 2000 pages in this series, and he needs a new direction (not a new world - characters bounce between them about every 15 minutes - which gets kind of annoying). The characters started out interesting, but they have yet to change or really DO anything. Ilna is whiny, Cashel sort of hits everything, etc. My biggest problem is the romance. Romance in fantasy is fine. Lack of romance in fantasy is fine. However, Drake made it (to me at least) very clear that certain people liked certain other people by the end of the first 100 pages in Lord of the Isles. And, despite those people switching worlds about as often as we turn the pages and even going to Hell for each other, nothing has happened. Given the sheer number of pages involved in all this, I have to give Drake the all-time Character Interaction Rut award. The series can be salvaged, but if he doesn't change people's behavior and relationships in the next one, I'm back to rereading my Belisarius books.
Rating: 
Summary: a disapoitment.........
Review: I was a big fan of the first two books, and I couldn't wait for this on to come out. I was let down. The story line was just repetitive to the first two books, and after awhile that just gets boring. There was just no real strong plot to this book. I was definetly disapointed. I hope the next one is better.
Rating: 
Summary: best one in series
Review: I was reading these series because I thought the only interesting character is Ilna the Weaver, and I was curious about what happened to her. I was very surprised when I read this book and found it to be by far the best one in the series. The plot was much better than the first two books. Prince Garric and Tenoctris are trying to close the bridge that opens Valles to the cosmos, letting in dangerous creatures. Same old same old there, nothing new and exciting. Sharina is taken through the bridge by a creature that serves the Dragon, turning Sharina herself into a servant of the dragon. However, the Dragon is not evil, he needs her help to recover his mummy that is being used to destroy the world. He sends Sharina through many worlds with her new friend, the birdman Dalar. Cashel goes in search of Sharina and ends up in the Underworld after killing the wizard he was supposed to ask for help. He is accompanied by the wizard's ring, which has a demon trapped in it. The demon Krias is a refreshing addition to the stories with his witty sense of humor. He reminds me strongly of the faerie Mellie that Cashel befriended in Lord of the Isles. Lastly, my favourite character Ilna has her best adventures yet, which make the book a good and interesting read. She is taking the child Merota, niece of Lord Tadia, with her on a ship to Erdin. On the way they are shipwrecked on Yole, risen from the sea again with an army of dead things. Ilna meets the best character Drake has yet introduced into the story yet, the sailor/pirate Chalcus. He actually loves Ilna, and he let's us see her softer side. His witty humour and dialogue add a lot to the story. I found myself breathlessly waiting to find out what would happen to him and Ilna next. It seems that Drake has finally figured out how to write romance. He did a very poor job with Mellie and Halphemos. I was sad about Halphemos' death, but Chalcus is much better than he ever was.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mind of Creation
Review: In the third saga of The Lord of the Isles - the story line has a real appeal especially when listening to the audio version. The characters always seem to come alive and it adds real appeal in what each character goes through in there series of journeys to various levels in the dimensional worlds. This fantasy saga is good and I truly enjoyed it. Cashel seems to have become my favorite character through the series even though the author has build up each character to become even stronger. I like what he seems to be doing with Ilna and look forward to the next story where I believe he will give her the opportunity to feel what she has lost - a strong personality in this series she'll continue to assist Garric bring peace to the Isles as well as the other very loveable characters in this fantasy adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Wizard Servant of the Isles of the Demon-Drake Lords, oh my!
Review: Oh no, another one? I thought the first two books were great, and it should have ended there. Stealing from Virgil and Assyria, while sticking time-warped 20th century kids in late medieval Italy, was brilliant. I love a good semi-historical yarn. Oh, you say those kids didn't time-travel from the present to their ages of yore? Could have fooled me. Who hid the blue jeans?The third book, for which I had to wait, had only one or two memorable scenes, and no tent pole ideas as tall as the first two books. Methought Drake had used up his source material, so I was glad when I could say I had finished reading the trilogy. The series doesn't need to "explore relationships more deeply" -- it just needs some new ideas. Someone should give Drake a sabbatical. I wrote this review after seeing the fourth book and thinking of it as an interminable homework assignment. Drake actually has quite a few good tricks in this third book, I just couldn't recall any of them until I read a one-paragraph refresher.
Rating:
Summary: How do you spell "trite"?
Review: Put bluntly, David Drake has produced a rather bland and poorly wrought piece of fantasy here. As a fan of the first book, I read with enthusiasm, but still no serious expectations. The book was full of childish sentiments (e.g., 'We *must* stop Evil and help the Good!' or 'No one wants what I want! Peace for all the Isles!'). All of the characters have become parodies of themselves. The long descriptions of trite details were difficult to read. At least make the details interesting. They are usually what adds depth to the world-building. Instead, in this case, they drew me away. In short, forget this series. I know how hard it is to leave a plot hanging, but in this case you're not missing anything - which is really too bad, since this series at first appeared like it had serious promise.
Rating:
Summary: This really is a good series
Review: The books in this series thus far are excellent. The structure is good, the endings come together nicely, the dialogue doesn't get boring, and the plot is interesting and imaginative. The pace is good, and I didn't get sick of the characters, there aren't too many characters. That's more than I can say for the Wheel of Time. This series deserves a broader popularity.
Rating:
Summary: Let down....
Review: The first book was good. The 2nd book was a minimal thumbs up,but this last book has been rather dull. The classic fantasy motiffsare paraded about, the characters start to become like broken records in terms of personality traits, and i get tired of hearing how tall and big all our protagonists are (oh, and btw, I know how cranky Ilna is at this point!). A good series gone bad. Save your time, save your money, and save yourself from another standard fantasy epic (read Geroge R.R. Martin's GAME OF THRONES or CLASH OF KINGS to see *real* characters embedded in a fanstasy world)
Rating:
Summary: This really is a good series
Review: The first of this series, Lord of the Isles, had a great start with the development of the characters. The second one, Queen of Demons, gave each of the characters and the reader, a great adventure. What happened with Servant of the Dragon? No new story line and a complete rehash of Queen of the Demons. I admit that some of the characters were imaginative and added to the story (Dalar, for instance), but overall this book was disappointing. Each of the characters went off again on their own and fought through a series of minor, but life-threatening battles, to end up together and facing the arch-enemy just like in the last book. It would've been much more enjoyable if the author developed the relationships between the original characters a little more and provided more cooperation between the Barca's Hamlet people before and during the final conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Fell short of the first 2
Review: The first of this series, Lord of the Isles, had a great start with the development of the characters. The second one, Queen of Demons, gave each of the characters and the reader, a great adventure. What happened with Servant of the Dragon? No new story line and a complete rehash of Queen of the Demons. I admit that some of the characters were imaginative and added to the story (Dalar, for instance), but overall this book was disappointing. Each of the characters went off again on their own and fought through a series of minor, but life-threatening battles, to end up together and facing the arch-enemy just like in the last book. It would've been much more enjoyable if the author developed the relationships between the original characters a little more and provided more cooperation between the Barca's Hamlet people before and during the final conflict.
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