While King Roland is not a bad king he's can in no way be considered a good king, he just does the best he can. He's brought two sons into the world, (with the not inconsiderable help of Sasha, who could very have been described as a good queen), and the land of Delain is peaceful and prosperous. When King Roland dies of a mysterious poison, his eldest son Peter finds himself accused of regicide and only he and The Dragon's Eyes know who the true murderer is…..
I have to say that I've spent the last few months wading through King's Dark Tower series, and with those seven books still fresh in my mind, I probably found myself seeing far more comparisons between those books and The Eyes of the Dragon than there really were. Even reading the back of the book, I wondered is that "The Roland", however I soon discovered that this could not be the case, King Roland does not share any of those characteristics, he is a nice enough character who is fairly well drawn (as are many of the others), there is a true multi-dimensionality about him. He tries to do his best, but in the end he has the same faults as all of us, and it is one of these faults that leads to his son, Peter's, downfall.
Peter I found to be to good to be true, he was just too perfect and I much preferred the character of his weaker younger brother, Thomas, as at least he had a flaws. Of the other characters there is not much to say, except in the case of Flagg. Anyone who has read either The Stand or The Gunslinger (Dark Tower) will know who Flagg is, but in case you haven't heard of him before, he is one of King's reoccurring characters, a creature of absolute evil, who delights in corruption. Oh and while I'm talking about cross-over characters a certain witch from Coos gets a mention too.
Right so that's enough about the story and characters, I don't think I've given too much away, now I want to talk a little about the writing style. Now King is probably most famous for his horror novels, such as Carrie or IT, this is not strictly horror. In fact it is more in the fantasy genre, even more so than The Dark Tower series. The language is also far more simplified than is usual with King, in fact although I can't see anything on the book cover to confirm this, it's my belief that this book has been written with the younger teenager in mind. Scattered throughout the pages there are a number illustrations that while nice enough to look at, do also seem to be aimed at the younger end of the market.
One thing I did find was the book seemed to fairly plod along, it took a long time to set the scene and yet I didn't feel I really "knew" the characters. That's not to say I found it unreadable, because I did actually manage to get to the end of the book quite quickly, I just didn't find it a enthralling as I usually do with a King book. The ending (no I'm not going to tell you what happens) I also found a little "blah", yes most of the strings were tied up, but I couldn't help feeling that King hadn't decided whether this was going to be the start of a new saga or not.
So there you have it, The Eyes of the Dragon is a pleasant enough read, that seems to be aimed towards the younger teenager. The language is fairly simple, the action a little slow and there is virtually nothing that would give a child nightmares. Personally although I kind of enjoyed reading it, I feel that was mostly because I was busy looking for links with other King books, and I won't be reading it again. However I would not be concerned if my children asked to read it, and just maybe there'll be a day when King writes a sequel, and then I'll find out whether I was right in my feeling that the intention was that The Eyes of the Dragon is simply the first in a Dark Tower series for children.
ISBN: 0340899069 No. Pages : 427
RRP: £6.99
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A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the ... more
throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. Th...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the ... more
throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. Th...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the ... more
throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. Th...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the ... more
throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. Th...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the ... more
throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. Th...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Amazingly well written, Great character build up, ingenious storyline Disadvantages: very long story! Shop around as buying each book could be costly
Dec 18th, 2006
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