Written by a homeschooling mom and retired school teacher, DragonKnight was an unexpected treasure to uncover.
Tales of knights and noble deeds comprise our youngest daughter's favorite genre. After exhausting the classics, finding good books for her becomes problematic. Modern writing quality in this genre is too often poor, and/or the forays into dark powers go too deep or the worldview is starkly inconsistent with Biblical values. So I was absolutely delighted to find this series, which is well written, has the desired quests and nobility and which is saturated with truth and the sorts of principles with which I want my daughter to fill her mind and heart—all without peachiness or moralizing!
In fact, I am eager to introduce our daughter to this rich fantasy world, full of tutmanhofers, mariones, emerlindian, kindias, a minnekin and more, each quite imaginative yet believable. She will learn from this excellent example of the type of writing she dreams of authoring. And I look forward to her pleasure over the many creative and original ideas the story holds.
DragonKnight is rich with allegories and can be enjoyed by a broad range of ages and people, including non-Christians; an effective way to share truth.
There are some difficulties in reviewing the third book in a trilogy when one has not read the first two books! Although the book can stand on its own, there are references to past people and events that I could not fully understand. I wondered about the use and origins of the good dragons, which usually have negative connotations, but I knew this was likely explained in previous books. I've ordered copies of both previous books, knowing our daughter will want to read this series.
Although the author does not belabor these descriptions, some younger and/or more sensitive children might be disturbed by the word images of some of the creepy creatures in DragonKnight (see Noteworthy Issues: Intense Situations). Amy, who is unmoved by such things, is ready to read this series at age 14, and she could have handled it well several years ago. Our older daughter, who is far more sensitive about such matters, would not have been ready at such a young age.
DragonKnight is reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books, with their creative new worlds, imaginative races, and woven-in truths. Time will tell whether it becomes considered classic.