In this second book, it turns out that, despite Keriya becoming a hero, her defeat of Necrovar wasn’t as final as everyone had hoped it would be. The evil warlord is working on his return and invasion of Allentria, all the while Keriya and her friends have to look for a remedy to save Thorion, who has become gravely ill because of the darksalm that’s affecting him. Will they be on time to save both their dragon friend and their world?
Dragon Child has everything good of Dragon Speaker, but is even better if you ask me. It ups the drama, it ups the stakes, it ups the character development, it ups the world building. Just everything feels more advanced.
One of the firsts things I noticed about this book is how much grander it seemed than the first. We did travel for a bit in Speaker, but we had relatively little locations to cover in that one. Here, however, we go to all kinds of corners of this world. The characters also split up quite a few times, which I think is definitely for the better. Having them all apart for a bit makes each character stand out more as they go on their own part of the quest. The locations they traverse are diverse and interesting. I myself don’t have a particular favorite, but I did greatly enjoy seeing all these corners of the world Mudgan created.
Like said before, the characters are executed better here. They all feel more distinct and I feel like they go through much more development. I cared a lot more about characters like Roxanne, Fletcher and of course Keriya in this book. My favorites are, of course, also still there. Bogspectre is there briefly, which is always a thread, and of course Thorion is a very major part of the story. Thorion… my poor dragon boy… I’m so sorry. I was legit sad at the twist regarding him. I usually don’t connect this well with characters, especially after only one and a half book, but when Thorion collapsed, I legit felt myself being genuinely worried for him. Then of course the unthinkable happens and poor Keriya is left on her own. I just feel so much for her, too, in this book. She loses so much and then has to face this demon again at the risk of her own life and that of those she holds deer. I just hope she recovers in the next book from all of the unthinkable trauma she has to go through in this one and Speaker.
The only characters I still can’t get into are Max and Seba. Seba makes sense, but I just get this weird feeling around Maxton that he somehow has ulterior motives or something. He just gives me bad vibes.
The world building is still good, and becomes more nuanced here. More things are touched upon, flashed out, etc. I still really like it.
Of course, the climax was, once more, great. Mugdan is apparently just really skilled in writing good ones. This confrontation with Necrovar was maybe even more memorable than the last, and I really wonder what happens next after this one ends rather abruptly, save for an epilogue that gives us a startling revelation, as well as maybe an explanation for the title of the next installment, Dragon Blood.
I really don’t have much to criticize here. I guess I do take a slight issue with the sexism, which seems to have no real reason to exist in this world. There’s little to no female soldiers that I can remember, and it’d be nice to actually see some or at least see this addressed so they do something with it.
I also do hope that they won’t go through some loophole to bring Thorion back. As devastating as his death was, I generally am not a fan of bringing back dead characters unless it’s executed particularly well. I’m not saying Mugdan can’t do it well, but generally, especially after such a heartbreaking death, I’d prefer if he stayed this way.
What more is there to say? Just another really good installment in a so-far really good series. I definitely recommend you pick up this one after you’ve read Speaker! I’ll be looking forward to getting to the third book and for the fourth and fifth to release!
Rating: 5/5
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