DragonFire

I finished reading DragonFire by Donita K. Paul. This is a good continuation of Paul's series of books on dragons.

Kale and Bardon, married for three years, are faced with quite the crisis: Paladin, Wulder's protector of Amara, is gravely ill and at death's door. Burner Stox and Crim Cropper, an evil husband and wife wizard team, have broken with Pretender and each other, creating a seeming three-way war that threatens to boil over and destroy everyone.

In their desperate bid to save their beloved kingdom, Bardon and Kale must separate, Kale going with her father, Bardon with his mother-in-law, to bring an end to the fighting.

If you haven't read the first three books of the series, it's probably better to start with those before you get to this one (beginning with DragonSpell). The cast is large, the concepts and backstory tangled, and it's easier to simply start at the beginning and work your way here.

Paul once again creates an engaging story, one that kept me reading well into the night. I got lost once or twice, but I think that's because I started "skipping forward," jumping over paragraphs to see what happened next. Not Paul's fault at all, I just get sloppy when I read sometimes.

There is one thing that bugs me about this series, though, and that's the role of Paladin. Is he supposed to be the Christ-figure for the series? If he is, then I've got a major problem with some of the things Paul says about him in this book. If he isn't, then Paul should have made that clearer earlier in the series.

I guess incarnational theology is always a bit tricky to pull off in a fantasy series. In spite of my misgivings, this is a great book for Christians of all ages. But like I said, best to start at the beginning if you haven't already.