Review: 4.5 stars. A too feisty hero, but it's a lovely addition to the series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2011
4.5 stars.I'll tell you right away that the little something I didn't like in this book was that Graitaan, the Draconian, sometimes reminded me too much of a feisty heroine than a fierce and fearsome hero.I really like the world building and in this book I think it's even richer than in the previous books. The story is a prequel for the other two books in the series. Graitaan, the last survivor of the Draconian company, and Sadan, the commander of the Finnarian army, have been fighting together for 8 years in a war in the human realm. Graitaan can hardly stand Sadan, while Sadan feels that Graitaan is his destined mate. The story is about a long seduction.The narration alternates between the point of views of both the male protagonists. Graitaan is probably the more interesting, because he has a troubled past - in a society where belonging to a clan is paramount to have social respect, he is of unknown origins - and he was given a chance by a childless couple. His recollection of the past is very moving. Since he barely survived his childhood, Graitaan is smaller than the other Draconians. Having known little love and a lot of despise, he is a loner and he became more so after losing his companions. I liked that he was proud and almost careless, he reminded me a lot of an adolescent, with a rebellious and uncompromising streak, but also loyal to his mission.Sadaan was less fleshed out, probably because we only saw him in his pursuit of Graitaan.In the book we get to see a very young Vlar, the protagonist of the first Gaven books, and he was incredibly cute, almost unrecognizable from the first time we meet him in the series. He had the funniest pages of the story.This book had much less angst than the Gaven books, but it's characters are more memorable in my opinion, because they are much easier to approach and they are more open and more equal than Gaven/Vlar.I highly recommend this series, especially this book, but even if it could probably be read before the first two books in the series (or even as a stand-alone) I would recommend to read them in order, because the contrast between the adult and the child Vlar is priceless.