Review: Liked the short stories and middle book
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2012
This is a library in itself.  "The First Dragoneer" is a novella or short that begins the entire adventure.  I really liked that story, so I bought the trilogy in this form.  I was disappointed in the first book, The Royal Dragoneers, though.  It seemed to focus on the fighting to the detriment of the relationships and characterization that I really liked from The First Dragoneer.  I enjoyed the 2nd book, Cold Hearted Son of a Witch, better since it had a lot more about the characters, lots of adventure, and not nearly as much brawling and trying to save the world from the monsters.  The last of the 3 books in the trilogy, The Confliction, though was back to more fight scenes.  By the time I finished it, I was really tired of it all and just didn't care, however I did admire the unexpected role played by Prince Richard in the final confrontation.  The short stories about Crimzon and Clover at the end of the collection, however, were interesting, fun, and back to concentrating on the author's imagination of characters and the other world that is so fascinating.Maybe I'm not the intended audience.  13 year old boys probably like the hack and slay stuff a lot more than I do.  But the author has the talent to delve into putting flesh and emotions onto/into the characters when he chooses to.  Without trying to be punny, I found myself thoroughly conflicted concerning what star rating to give the series.  I would give the shorts and the 2nd book four stars, but would probably give the 1st and 3rd books in the trilogy only 2 stars.  I guess that sort of averages out to the three seen above.