DragonKnight Review

DragonKnight by Donita Paul is the third book in the Christian fantasy DragonKeeper Chronicles.

This book is set 3 years after the events of the previous book. Bardon and Kale have both come to the end of their respective training. Barden is setting off to complete his sabbatical before taking the oath to become a knight, but those plans are derailed by the appearance of two emerlindians (a young girl and her grandmother). Together he joins them as the reluctant leader of a new quest to find and rescue some lost knights of Paladin who are being kept in a secret location under a sleeping spell. 

I gave this book a 3 out of 5 stars. I was surprised that the main character for this book wasn’t Kale, but Barden (at least for the first 75 % of the book, at which point it started to switch back and forth between the two). This seemed an inconsistent move and bothered me. I’m not fond of switching main characters between books in a series unless it changes to a supporting character with every book, but with two previously from Kale’s perspective it just annoys me. Furthermore, it makes it even worse (in my opinion) to then turn into a back and forth within the same book (especially for only the last fourth of said book). This is just personal taste, but for me it’s just something I don’t like.

It also did not help that I find Barden to be quite an irritating character (not bad, just his personality rubs me in the wrong way).  Don't get me wrong, I don’t dislike him, but feel more like I put up with him or tolerate him; which is not a good place to be in with him as the main character. Much of what he does or thinks I just don’t understand (his motivation or where he is coming from). And unfortunately some things are not made clear or settled (that I feel should have been) by the end of the book. All of this plus an almost completely new cast of characters (at least for the first ¾ of the book) didn’t set me up to enjoy this book as much as the others.

On a more positive note, the action scenes were really good and probably my favorites. They kept me on the edge of my seat and my apathy for the characters quickly faded in the midst of the events taking place. Thankfully they took place frequently enough to keep me moving through the book without getting too discouraged. The writing was also the familiar easy to move through style and the pacing was much better.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others. I don’t feel that I wasted my time reading it, and I do plan on continuing; I am just disappointed in some of the writing choices and characterization (I feel I could connect better with the characters if they felt a little more fleshed out, well rounded and less flat).