The Last Battle (Dragonmaster book 3) by Chris Bunch
01/10/2004 . Source: Donna Jones 
pub: Orbit/Times Warner. 326 page enlarged paperback. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-84149-179-9. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk href="http://www.OrbitBooks.co.uk">OrbitBooks
Hal Kailas' world as the Dragonmaster is tumbling about around his ears. With peace comes turbulence, with the end of the fighting comes hopelessness. Hal's relationship with his wife, Lady Khiri, is falling apart. His old war beasts, the dragons, cast out from mankind because of the war they symbolise.
Hal must turn his attention to a new mission, find a new purpose and end this ridiculous hiatus that has formed between him and the rest of humankind. In short, Hal needs to find his North, the direction that he lost all those years ago when he went looking for adventure in the arms of the dragon flier attractions.
Throughout his time as Dragonmaster, he noticed that dragons were being terrorised, on occasion even killed, in their native lands. It's time to find out their threat and possibly find a new one to threaten man himself.
I said in my review of the second book, 'Knighthood Of The Dragon' that, unfortunately, the plot seemed to be dragging its feet and not flowing as the first book had. I'm sad to say that it seems the rot had actually set in back then.
In the first six or so chapters, the book spends a great deal of time telling its readers about the previous events in the first two books. This is fine in moderation but the novel practically tells us the full background story. It makes me feel as a loyal reader, that I am either a) an individual with a very short attention span, b) a lazy third book reader who can't be bothered to start a trilogy at its beginnings or c) a village idiot! This is not a good start for the series that made its debut with a breathtakingly awe-inspiring first book.
In those same chapters, another flaw shows its nasty maw. Two of the main side characters are neatly and quickly swept to one side. It seems that Bunch didn't want these complications to mar the plot. In some ways, it is all to add to Hal's ever decreasing interest in the world after war, but it made me wince with the lack of thought that went into it. The scenes are short and snippy, making the intention run away screaming in denial.
Other flaws, again in those sorry first few chapters, included a failed attempt at describing the main dragon character of Storm, Hal's main dragon. In one instance, Storm is a myriad of greys, much like he is described in the previous books. Then he develops a red/orange tinge to him that unfortunately bears no resemblance to grey! While I doubt that it was the book's intention to do this, I believe this confusion is more down to a slapdash method of describing the situations in which these descriptions arose and thus confounding anyone reading the novel, rather than Storm having an unintentional face lift.
Overall, the characters have taken on a more cardboard look - two-dimensional and hard to get interested about. This was a lacking feature of the second book but didn't cause too much of a problem overall. In this episode, the problem is detrimental to an already flagging plot.
The plot woefully lacks imagination and translates into a photo-negative of the missed opportunity that 'The Last Battle' inevitably is. As a reader, I felt that scenes were rushed and skeletal in their formulation. This showed in the very structure of the novel's writing, short sentences and even shorter paragraphs meant that you were no sooner reading about one element or scene when you were thrown - unwilling into another.
The description of all the dragons was poor and monotonous, each time we see the feared red and black dragons they are just the 'red and black dragons'. It was a problem throughout the book with any descriptive passage, extremely basic language to describe a magical, gigantic atmosphere that just didn't work.
The ending of the trilogy and the final revelation left me cold that nasty cold meal feeling that puts you off eating even when you are starving hungry. I was so disappointed with this book, I couldn't wait to be done with it.
Donna Jones |
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