Dragon's Treasure

Rating:
Summary: beautiful adult fairytale
Review: The Crimson Dragon Karadur Atani rules Dragon Keep with a fair and even hand. The peasants respect him because they know peace in a world at war and believe he can keep his dragon side under control so no innocents gets hurt. A bandit family lives on his lands. When they kill a farmer he burns them and their house out of existence except for their leader Treion and one of his friends.

Only Maia is left of her family; she becomes a herbalist to his people. Treion becomes a bandit and draws other to his banner but when he is caught and claimed by Lord Sarnia because he killed the man's mistress; much to his own surprise Karadur rescues him and punishes him. He offers him his freedom if he works for him for one year. He also takes Maia as his mistress and only she can lift him up from a depression when a trusted friend leaves his service for reasons unknown to him

Elizabeth A Lynn, a master fantasist, has written a beautiful adult fairytale starring a dragon who lives much of the time as a man and interacts with humans more than he does his own kind. The nature of the bond between Karadur and the outlaws is one that will probably be examined in a future book because there are relationships that need to be revealed. Karadur is the main protagonist who spends his time killing his enemies, avoiding war coming to his territory and trying to insure his tenants are treated fairly. Maia who loves him dares much to make him whole again. DRAGON'S TREASURE is a priceless treasure.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Mid-Volume Blues
Review: This was an enjoyable read, although at times it seemed to lack focus. Sometimes the pace was relentless, at other times too liesurely. It may have suffered a bit in that I checked out both it and the previous volume (Dragon's Winter) from the library at the same time, and read them back-to-back. The first two or three chapters felt very repetitive from the end of Dragon's Winter. If there had been a gap of several months between them, I might have needed the recap more.

As mentioned, I felt the plot lacked focus. It began with the bandit rampage of Treion, who may or may not be a half-sibling of Karadur, the Dragon-Lord who is trying to hold onto his humanity. But after Treion is captured, the story loses focus. The rivalry between Karadur and Treion is never as gripping as between Karadur and Tojiro in the first volume. Although the redeption of Treion was nice, it didn't have much punch to me. I really wanted Karadur to tell Treion they could be brothers, and he never did.

All in all, this felt like the tpyical middle volume of a typical trilogy. I expected more of Lynn given her reputation and how excellent Dragon's Winter was.

As an additional caution, this novel includes a gay love affair. It's handled in a tasteful way, but if this sort of thing bothers you, Dragon's Treasure may not be the best choice for you.

Deby Fredericks
author of "The Magister's Mask"