The planet Starlight is controlled by dragons. Because of the depletion in their atmosphere of an essential gas, pheterone, they must search for a way to survive. They know that a network of gas veins exists deep beneath the crust of their planet, but, being dragons, they are not skilled with ways to drill.
One dragon, Magnar, finds humans on another planet he calls Darksphere, captures several of them, and forces them to drill through Starlight’s crust in order to release the gas. A man escapes and returns to the planet of humans. He tells everyone about the missing people they call the Lost Ones and how they went through a portal to a dragon planet. Since the portal doesn’t always work, he is unable to prove his story, and nearly everyone thinks he is crazy or maybe he murdered the others.
A few believe his story and form a group called the Underground Gateway, which refers to the portal. Unfortunately, the escapee’s son is imprisoned and becomes inaccessible, so the Gateway has to try to piece together information as they secretly search for the portal. After many unsuccessful years, they are considered by most to be nothing more than crackpot conspiracy theorists.
One hundred years after the initial enslavement, Adrian Masters, a 24-year-old expert swordsman, sets out on a journey to find the portal to the dragon planet. He is accompanied by Marcelle, a sword maiden of amazing skill whose ideas about how the operation should be carried out conflict with his own. Adrian believes in using stealth and cunning to free the slaves, while Marcelle opts to take a more direct approach. This causes friction between these two warriors, though they respect each other’s skills highly.
When Adrian and Marcelle find the slaves, they learn that these longsuffering people have no memory of their origins, making them reluctant to believe the two would-be rescuers, especially since the dragons crush any opposition to their cruel tyranny. Undeterred by the overwhelming obstacles, the two warriors set out to free the slaves and face mortal danger at every turn. As they battle dragons, endure torture, and dispel superstition, they learn that an ultimate sacrifice is the only way they can bring liberty to the oppressed.
Series: Tales of Starlight (Book 1)
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Living Ink Books (September 10, 2010)
Page Count: 400
What I liked: I’ve actually enjoyed this book a bit more than the YA partnering series,
Dragons of Starlight. Perhaps it’s because I’m older, perhaps I have a different mindset now or maybe I just like Adrian’s and Marcelle’s story a bit better.
I felt more for the slaves in this book. I could really see the devastating suffering they went for especially with the Cattle Children. They broke my heart. I enjoyed being in the contrasting point of views of Adrian, Marcelle and Drexel. It was neat seeing the different perspectives of Starlight through them.
I also like the concept of the spirit Starlighter, Cassabrie inside of Adrian. Another innovative Mr. Davis idea. The book possesses good twists and classic Bryan Davis description. He always paints vivid descriptions. 🙂
What I didn’t like: What I didn’t like is what I usually don’t like with many of Mr. Davis’s books is that I feel like the dialogue is a little forced or overly prosy. I had trouble getting into the mindset that a child was speaking when her dialogue was so mature. Perhaps this is what Mr. Davis was going for, but it bothered me to a degree.
Content Cautions: The book has some violence and implied mature concepts, but it’s all very subtle. Basically this book is pretty clean. 🙂
Over all I give the book four stars! 🙂 Thank you, Mr. Davis, for another good book. 🙂
About the Author:
Bryan Davis is the author of the following young adult fantasy series: Dragons in our Midst, Oracles of Fire, Echoes from the Edge, and Dragons of Starlight. He also wrote I Know Why the Angels dance, a contemporary novel for adults.
After laboring as a computer geek for 20 years, Bryan followed a dream to become an author. He began by writing a story to motivate his seven children to gain some excitement about writing, and that story grew into a novel. After spending the next eight years learning the craft and enduring more than 200 rejections from publishers and agents, he broke through with his best-selling series Dragons in our Midst. He is now a full-time author and lives with his wife, Susie, and their children in western Tennessee.
You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and his website! I also have an interview with him I had on the blog!
Other Books by Bryan Davis:
Dragons of Starlight:
Dragons of Starlight Book 3: Diviner
Dragons of Starlight Book 4: Liberator
If you enjoyed this review, you can find more over on the Book Reviews tab of click the link. 🙂
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