King's Dragon

Rating:
Summary: A little slow at the start, but great character interplay!
Review: The start was a little slow. Once into the story I was totally captured to see when the two main characters, Liath and Alain, would cross. The character of Hugh is obviously going to play a large part in future works concerning this alternate setting. I would advise any lover of fantasy or adventure to read this novel

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant example of world-building
Review: Readers of my own work, the Deverry series of fantasies, often ask me what else I'd recommend. I now have something to tell them! KING'S DRAGON is a brilliant piece of world-building and a great beginning to this new series. I found Elliott's "alternate Christianity" fascinating, and I wish the changes that such a religion would have made in our own Europe were real. -- Katharine Ker

Rating:
Summary: Excellent fantasy novel on all counts!
Review: Fans of high fantasy with historical overtones such as Guy Gavriel Kay and George R.R. Martin will find this book an excellent read. Outstanding characterization, a sure grasp of plotting, and a gift for accessible but lyrical prose. This is just the beginning of a wonderful new world full of fascinating characters, magic, and adventure. I am anxiously awaiting PRINCE OF DOGS, the next installment. Brava, Kate

Rating:
Summary: [e-mail]
Review: ---- KING'S DRAGON Kate Elliot Daw, Feb 1997, $22.95, 544 pp. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title

Rating:
Summary: Excellent characters! Great series!
Review: I definitely enjoyed the "King's Dragon"/Crown of Stars series. The characters were complex and interesting, and the story unfolded slowly in the beginning and then built to a fast paced... not conclusion, but stopping place. The best thing about this book is that although it was full of the fantasy staples..sorcery, battles, elves, kings, etc. it did not overuse them. You definitely will enjoy spending time with these characters, and I know I look forward to reading more about them in the future.

The only reason I rated this series a 4 (instead of 5) is because the later books (especially #4 "Child of Flame") can be a little hard to follow at times. The many plotlines/characters are woven in a very intricate tapestry. This can be very entertaining though, after reading some of the less thought provoking fantasy series out there.

Rating:
Summary: Few Redeeming Features
Review: The flaws in this series are so many that its good features serve only to highlight the abundance of poor choices, repetitious description, shallow characterizations and logical errors.

The writer is obviously deeply immersed in the historical period, so much so that reverence for it overwhelms the story. The novels frequently become mired in long quotations and references, which are poor transliterations of real historical works with the names changed, much as a poor student might plagiarize to get their essay up to the assigned number of pages.

With in excruciating detail the novels separate the good characters from the bad by one simple method: make the good people suffer. Rape, torture, mental and physical, imprisonment, long enslavement, pathological fears, betrayal and injury are the lot of all main characters, because that lets them show what good people they are! Worse, the characters do not develop in response to their traumatic lives, and the reader is treated to the dubious and repetitive pleasure of seeing the only worthwhile persons in the series suffer, without any real development for at least three full novels.

There is some excellent dialogue and description, easily enough for one good novel. But as other reviewers have noted, the author quickly exhausts a limited range of descriptive phrases and begins to repeat. As the evocative power of the writing sadly fades, the reader is left with little to enjoy of the series. The twists of plot are sadly lacking in creativity and are bluntly foreshadowed over a series that would be twice as good were it one fourth the length.

Rating:
Summary: Epic and slightly confusing
Review: The Crown of Stars series, by Kate Elliott, is the best series I have ever read. Ms. Elliott has hundreds of plotlines intricately woven within each other to create a beautiful tapestry in her books. Her writing style is wonderful, and her attention to detail is fabulous. The characters have depth, feelings and I can picture them as real people. This book can be classified as fantasy, but it truly could have happened.

In the first book, King's Dragon, there are only two main characters. While they don't meet in this book, you are still drawn into their lives and pasts. The countries of Wendar and Varre seem like real places, and have plausible castes and rules. I envy Ms. Elliott her ability to draw one inside her books.

I would highly recommend these books to anyone. (Note: There is quite a bit of violence and some themes that would be inappropriate for young children. Please make sure you are mature enough to handle this if you are to read.)

Another side note: The poetry in these books is *wonderful*, but due to the fact it would have originally been spoken in Wendish, they do not rhyme and the rhythm is off. But the poetry is truly some of the best I have read.

Rating:
Summary: A strong start to an outstanding series
Review: I picked up this book on a whim at the library, and ploughed through it and the next three of the series within two weeks. Elliott has developed an intricate, compelling storyline that rewards the attentive reader. Each chapter uncovers some new layer to the onion -- or suggests that one will be uncovered later. This is a story of sweeping scope, with more than seven distinct "main" protagonists, whose individual stories intertwine and separate, then intertwine again. Most of the main pro- and antagonists are fairly clearly good or evil, but there are several important characters hovering somewhere in the middle. This dynamic makes for an engaging plot that doesn't suffer from predictability.

This first book is the slowest of the lot, so far. It does delve heavily into background and history, but it does so for a VERY good reason. Everything you learn in this book is important for the later books, and I found myself in book IV wishing I'd paid better attention back in book II to some chance story a minor character told in passing. The intrigues and hidden manipulations only comes to light slowly, as the protagonists themselves learn the truth. A story of this scope can't be done justice by being told quickly.

As I see it, the books seem to fit the following pattern: book I is foundation, suggesting some greater plot is driving the action; book II shows there is more than one greater plot, and introduces several mysteries; book III slowly unravels a couple of mysteries, but mostly establishes a few new ones and moves the story closer to conclusion; book IV drives clearly toward the series climax and explains several of the mysteries, but leaves more than enough to make you wish book V had been published already.

One note: This first book contains a central plotline of domestic violence and rape. Some readers may find this very disturbing, especially as there's no skipping over those sections without missing too much to continue.

Rating:
Summary: Another world awaits you ....
Review: Words won't convey how much I hated this book. I read almost all fantasy fiction that is published in the US and this is the worst I've seen yet. Kate Elliott is a dreadful fantasy writer if this is an example of what she writes.

In King's Dragon, the characters are badly developed and dull, every minute little detail of the world Elliott has created is 'explained' to the detriment of what little plot line there is, and to the confusion of the reader. And her attempts at poetry were laughable.

I waded through the entire book, determined to see if it got any better. It didn't. Then, I returned the next 3 books in the series to the bookstore for novels by much better fantasy writers - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hicks, and Terry Pratchett.

If you really want to read good fantasy epic fiction, try Terry Goodkind, Weis and Hicks, or George R. R. Martin, not this.