CSFF Tour - DragonLight

This week's tour showcases the concluding novel of Donita K. Paul's DragonKeeper Chronicles - DragonLight. I've loved this series from book one - vivid characters, sweeping action, and colorful dragons of all sizes. The minor dragons are my favorite - playful as a pack of kittens, each with unique gifts and coloring. Each book lets you dive into the wonderful world of Amara - and once you've been there, you want to go back.

This fifth novel doesn't feel as much of the series as a whole to the extent the previous books did. While each of the books can stand on its own, this book feels like an epilogue rather than the climax of the overarching story. Most plot threads wrapped up in DragonFire, so more had to be begun or greatly expanded in DragonLight. The black dragons and their source. The mystery of Toopka. Gilda's longing for the meech colony. The Followers.

While Toopka's plotline stretched believability for me, other parts of the story were very strong. The parts surrounding the minor dragon Fly (anymore and I'll give away plot points) and investigating the Followers were some of my favorites.

In all, I got the feeling that the gateway threads weren't woven tight enough for this passage in Amara. Toopka's crowning moment was seen from a distance and felt contrived, as did the discovery of the Voice. Talking gateways were a neat addition, but were they added because the plot wouldn't work any other way? A minor character, Gilda, got on my nerves enough to make me want to put the book down for a while.

Yet, while I didn't come out of the gateway in quite the same way as I had in DragonKnight and DragonFire (which I consider the best books of the series), I'm still very glad to have made a 5th trip into Amara, and hope to book a sixth journey soon. (Donita is setting an entirely new series there, coming in summer 2009!)

The tour's moderator was kind enough to mark the bloggers who also participated in the first ever CSFF tour - for DragonKnight - but she forgot two! Valerie Comer and I were also original participants.

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
* Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
* Beth Goddard
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Terri Main
Magma
Margaret
* Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
* Rebecca LuElla Miller
John W. Otte
Deena Peterson
Steve Rice
* Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
* Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams