Continuing on in my re-reads this summer is the second book of the Dragon Prince series. It's been about a decade or so since I read through these, so while I remember the large points of the story, there were some smaller points and a few twists that I didn't recall, which made the reread enjoyable.This book opens about twelve years after the close of the first novel, with young Prince Pol now about age fifteen and acting as a squire for his fostering prince. The events in the book largely center around the summer and Rialla for the year, including a tour of Princemarch and the Desert by Rohan, Sioned, and Pol prior to the Rialla. A man claiming to be Roelstra's son (thus making Chiana illegitimate) is causing trouble, and of course Ianthe's sons are young adults and ready to try and exact revenge for their situation as well. Everything comes to a head at the Rialla, of course, and the book wraps up shortly after that.The story is enjoyable, and the various characters and scenes are well drawn and explained, making the book very easy to disappear into as it's just so lovely. However, upon reflection, this novel really echoes the first one a little too much for comfort, right down to the parts played by Roelstra / his "son," a dranath-addicted Sunrunner, Pandsala, and the quiet return home after the Rialla including a wedding. It's still a good book, and worth the read especially if you liked the first one, but it's definitely got a lot of structural similarities to the first one and I'm hoping the remaining novels do not share them.
The only reason I picked this book up is because I don't leave a series unfinished. As with the last book in the trilogy, I wasn't too impressed with this one, either. Though there were nowhere near as many grammatical errors to distract me this time, I still couldn't keep track of all of her characters without flipping to the family trees in the back of the book constantly.I still found many of the main characters to be stagnant, with only a few making any growth/decline as a person. A lot of their actions were predicable, & while I could see them all coming I was still disappointed in their actions. I would have liked a little less realism & a little more heroism (especially in a particular fight scene towards the end when somebody stabbed somebody else, making me think that he/she had just saved their Chosen, when in the next sentence it goes to someone else's perspective like 3 minutes before the stabbing happened). So once again some of the plot twists frustrated me. Another frustrating thing: how easily these characters seem to fall in love. Aside from Roelstra's slew of daughters, everyone seems to have a happily ever after marriage.Again, not a book I would recommend.
Do You like book The Star Scroll (2005)?
There were a lot of pages in this book, but not very much actually happened. I think about 350 pages were spent at the Rialla and I was practically begging her to please MOVE ON. It was so boring recounting the events of every single day of a one week period. The resolution was almost exactly the same as the first book in the series, Dragon Prince, down to the use of magic, a duel, and something happening with dragons to make you all dragon happy. You could tell that she was a better writer by this book, so it does not have the hallmarks of a debut author anymore, but unfortunately it was just boring.
—Kaila
Continuing my re-read of this series. It can be hard to revisit something that you read over and over again when you were younger. The familiarity makes it difficult to experience it again more critically; you know where the plot is going, you know what happens to the characters, you are prepared for what lies ahead. The fact I read this series over so often means that of course I loved them at the time. Would they have been visited by Jo Walton's suck fairy as the years had passed? Luckily for me, no they had not. The Star Scroll continues years after the closing events of Dragon Prince, with Pol now a young prince in training. The dragon opera continues apace, with just as many complex characters, political intrigues, magic and now sorcery as well. Recommended.
—Vickstar
Thoroughly enjoyed the reread, but found it very noticeable with this one just how black and white everything is (Rohan & Sioned's constant angsting notwithstanding). So I found myself gravitating heavily towards the few even slightly ambiguous characters (Pandsala, Andry, Andrade) and wishing most characters weren't so bloody rigid in their goodie/baddie structure. A major betrayal or redemption arc somewhere in there couldn't hurt! People don't just make one choice of loyalty and stick with it all their lives. (But then people don't usually have one soulmate bond that is exactly like all their friends' soulmate bonds either, lol).Still, jolly good fun. Looking forward to Sunrunner's Fire!
—Aldi
