| Darna after finding out something from a priestess, in her home city of Tiadun, and with the Prince and his men searching for her she sets off for the city of Anamat - where there are others who can see dragons. It isn't until she gets there, meeting Myril, Iola and Thorat along the way, that she learns the city seems to be as dragon-blind as the provinces they left. When Darna finds out how much an apprenticeship will cost, more than she will earn scavenging and begging, she realises she has to find other means. When she's offered a bag of gold to do a bit of thieving, she takes the opportunity and ends up angering the dragon Anara. I'm not sure what I thought of this book. The concept seemed good but it wasn't until I started reading how quickly I realised I might not like this book as much as I had hoped. The writing seemed slightly disjointed and for most of the book it didn't seem to be going anywhere. It picked up but it had too many long moments that just seemed to be there just because. I couldn't really connect with the characters. I just found most of them really irritating and the one I could put up with, Thorat, wasn't as involved in the story. Iola annoyed me with her aimlessly staring into space along with her naivety. Myril was a bit weird, it's hard to describe but if you read it you might understand. Darna made me at times want to put the book down. She was either as stubborn as a mule or a lost sheep willing to do as she's told. She never stuck to one or the other. I found the fact that it was written in the third person and then every so often a random first person, not spoken, sentence was thrown in rather irritating. I wasn't hooked on this book at all and come the end forced myself to read just to finish it. If it wasn't for the times it picked up slightly then for me this would have been a one star book. |
 (Volume 1) - Amelia Smith)