Product Description

Somewhere beyond the northern mists lies a land where dreams live and dragons are real.This is the tale of the twilight of the dragons, of two nations plunged into war by a tragic misunderstanding, of a shy dreamer's incredible voyage of peace to a long forgotten land where nightmares are born. .

'Until now, there have been only two real grandmasters of modern epic fantasy-J.R.R. Tolkien and Ann McCaffrey.With the team of Preiss and Reaves, there are three, and maythey write and write and write?." -United Press International. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Great memories
Read this when I was a teenager, a very gentle tale.Out of curiosity was looking to see if there was ever a sequel.Will recommend to my children

a great read
a great read... inventive, timeless, and perfect for anyone who loves dragons.

don't let the length scare you out of reading it; it has slow bits, but so does every great fantasy, and the character variety is stunning.

Overly Derivative of Tolkien with too many characters
Three factions exist inside this fantasy novel:The Fandorans (a cross between Hobbits and Dwarves, a small people with big hearts), The Simbalans (a human people with elvish overtones, dwelling inside living trees and controlling airships run on magic crystals), and The Cold-drakes (the dragons).

The Fandorans and Simialans blame each other for incidents caused by Cold-drakes, and wrongly war against each other.Eventually they realize a third enemy is behind everything, but read the book if you want to know if they unite or continue fighting on multiple fronts.

The political backdrop and cultural make-up are described in detail, but the story itself contained too many characters.The authors chose an omniscient third person narrator for the majority of the novel, leading to scenes with little suspense or emotional connection.

As a reader, you will view events from the perspective of Talend, Tenniel, Johan, Amsel, Jondalrun, Dayon, Tamark, and others (and that's just the Fandoran section).The Simbalans also have fifteen people who have viewpoints written around them.This leaves the book cluttered and diluted.

I found the political backdrop interesting, but the story itself dragged.Too many characters plotting against each other in Simbala, and the Fandorans basically one personality with a small second dimension of personal quirks.Parts of this book made my eyes glaze, and as a reader of fantasy, I recommend Tolkien, Martin, Brooks, Goodkind, Butcher, Farland, Simon Hawke and many others above this work.

I just can't finish it...
I rarely give up on books. When I was reading the Mists of Avalon, I got so angry at one point in the book I quit reading it. A couple months later I picked it back up and finished it, and now it is one of my favorites books. I learned my lesson, always finish the book, you just never know how it will end up. I have tried reading this book, but I just can't finish it. It doesn't keep my attention. While you're reading it you realize that the storyline and plot should make for a very interesting book, but it just doesn't seem to work. I don't feel a connection to any character, they feel very superficial to me. If I ever get around to finishing it, I may come back and update this review, but that day seems to be far away.

A waste of paper
I bypassed this book for years on the shelves.. It'd catch my eye, then I'd lay it back down again after reading the back. Finally I picked it up, figuring with those two authors it couldn't be that bad. I was quite wrong. It was much much worse.

A cliche ridden book of hobbit-types and dragons. It was done much better by Tolkien and others. Don't waste your money. ... Read more