Rating: 
Summary: An intesresting opening for the series
Review: An interesting book that you just can't stop reading. All the characters in this book seem so vivid and alive. I especially liked the medieval european set up. The plot is getting better and better as you keep on reading. A must for Fantasy fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth it! But not the best!
Review: My three favorite authors from this genre are Jordan, Martin, and Tolkein. If you enjoy these authors then you may find this review helpful. Elliot's characters, plot, and history reflect a feminist tendency that runs strong throughout the series. Two of the protagonist characters are women, one being the hero. The two male protagonist characters are slightly feminine, particularly Alain(even his name sounds like a girl's). On a positive note, Elliot seems to excel at revealing each character's deepest emotions. Additionally, her female characters are well rounded and strong. However, in terms of the world dynamics, Elliot goes overboard. In example Elliot uses many references to Latin(Dariyan) even changing Virgil's Aeneid to Virgilia's Heleneid, which I think is too blatantly feminist. Also, the main deity(ies) are women. While I welcome strong female characters and historical influence, I dislike such an unbalance. Similarly, I don't enjoy totally male dominated stories. If Elliot insists on creating a world with a powerful female element, she could at least have done her readers the service of creating her own history rather than just flipping our world's history(it just seems lazy, and lends discredit to that creative option). If you have gotten this far, then you should buy this book. The plot is addictive and her writing style is adequate. The high points much outweigh the faults in her exciting series of novels. But do not expect a read like that of Tolkein or George R.R. Martin. In terms of enjoyment, I compare Elliot's work to Terry Goodkind. Many people disagree with me and believe Elliot is worthy of Jordan like praise, so read the books. To each his own.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent world Setting and Characters.
Review: This is quite a different book. What I really like about it is you know its being built up to something big, and you know later on in the series everything is likely to blow up all at once. She gives you clues here and there, and you really have to think and concentrate on those clues to solve certain mysteries. She'll completely convince you that something is headed this way, when its really headed the other way...Anyway, I really love how the world setting has been done, you can really imagine what it is like, and the characters are superb. The description is top class, though sometimes can go overbaord. The only bad things I can say about this series is the religious stuff can sometimes get annoying, though there may be a reason for that if fans suspicions are correct for the final book. In some parts it does slow down quite abit. Overall: Excellent world setting, dialouge and characters. Astonishingly detailed, panoramic and highly intelligent and really gets you involved. Downside - Carried away with religion, can slow down in parts quite abit.
Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars; great imagery; slow plotting; great History
Review: OVERALL FEELING: Great imagery and wonderful History and characters; slow on plot and pacing and structure needs work; bit too much exposition at times; she's done her Historical work on this one though. SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-), Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F) DIALOGUE: B+ STRUCTURE: B HISTORY SETTING: A CHARACTERS: A- EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: A- EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B+ SURPRISES: B MONSTERS: not applicable PACING: C+ OVERALL STYLE: B FLOW OF WORDS: B CHOICE OF FOCUS: C+ TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: B- COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: B+ OVERALL GRADE: B- (at the lower cusp) QUICK REVIEW: A promising story that started to lose it about ¾ of the way through the story. Elliot did a wonderful job illustrating Historical viewpoints (rare in most fantasy novels) as well as delving into her characters. The focus was on a young man and young woman . . . the man had to deal with being called to arms against evil creatures to the north while the woman had to deal with a rape and debt slavery, after losing her father. Eventually, things got better for the woman and she joined the Eagles (special scouts), but as the story progressed, the pacing felt all wrong and I began to think about reading some of the many other books on my shelf. ** WILL READ AGAIN**
Rating:
Summary: An excellent start to great high fantansy
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Great Book and Seriese
Review: I love this book-it was excelent! Personally I feel that if you haven't started them yet wait until the 5th one comes out, it's not like you absolutly HAVE to know what happens but I was waiting forever for the 3rd and 4th ones (I'm still waiting for the 5th). This was an excelent book because it had an intriging plot with many little details that she never forgot to incorperate. Also it's set in a land simmiler to Medieval Europe but different enough that it feels like fantasy. It also doesn't get overly religious even though the people are. Definently read this!
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite series
Review: I absolutely love this series. I have been reading fantasy and sci-fi for many years, and enjoyed, loved many of them, but I haven't found one as captivating and interesting as this one. There are so many subplots and things that happen to the main characters where you go, "hey these people are so real, they don't live in a magical land where everything goes right suddenly." I got so frustrated while Liath was a slave to Hugh. I'm so used the main characters being able to get out of bad situations really quickly, I found that she fights back, but he is stronger. it got me sooo frustrated and I couldn't put the book down until she was free, and then something else happens to her. I didn't get as attached to Allain, though I do enjoy reading about him it isn't the same. To me, Liath is the real main character.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking reasoning
Review: 'Clumsy' best describes this fantasy rank-and-file member. The characters are sadly modern in spirit; the narrative logic fails every so often; the world refers constantly to that of ours; again, the understanding of history and psychology is marginal. The literary value rates as 'commonplace'. It would be a good social satire, if it were satire at all. More, it is obvious that the author tried to apply various tricks belle arte, such as taught at advanced writing seminars. Yet she applied them without taste and refining. I am giving the three star rating for the effort applied only. Clumsy, and without hope for improvement. This is the first book by Kate Elliott in my hands, and I won't care to seek the others. in fact, I am so offended by this text, as to post my evaluation of it. Yes, it is yet another petty analysis of coming of age.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking in originality
Review: This book was entertaining enough for a quick read, but I found it to be rather lacking in originality. The fact that the religion was almost completely based on Catholicism with only slight alterations showed an inability to be creative. Changing the names of famous authors by a letter or two is another example. I don't think that this would have bothered me all that much if the author had a point to make by doing this, however there doesn't appear to be one. It just comes off as laziness and lack of desire to create something on her own. In addition, the character development was weak and the plot was only marginally better. That being said I did not think this was a terrible book. It kept me entertained and left me curious to find out what happened next. It just didn't have that extra something that would make it a really good book.
Rating:
Summary: You'll be in for the long haul
Review: I've read the first two books so far and have really enjoyed them. The books aren't really self contained, there are plots that continue on between the books without being resolved. This isn't a bad thing, but I just wanted to warn everybody that you'll get sucked in for the long haul :-)
| 
