Impossible to rate in an unbiased manner - this fun, trashy, fantasy based romance was one of my first 'grown up' reads. It's a kind of fiction that's bad but neccessary from time ti time - like a bacon sandwhich on a hungover Sunday. ( )

After nearly twenty years of reading fantasy novels, this book remains one of my absolute favorites. Rawn excels at developing worlds and extended storylines. Her characters stay with you long after you've put the book down, and her style of writing jumps off the page. As far as I'm concerned, 'Dragon Prince' is a classic. ( )

This book took me four days to read. Four. I normally read a book or so a day. And it's not even all that long: 500-some pages. I don't mind slow, atmospheric reads on occasion, but it's likely that my impatience with the slow pace accounts for a half star or so.

Rohan was always a studious boy, and even those who knew him well were afraid what would happen when his father died and he became Prince. His aunt Andrade in particular, the head of the Sunrunners (magically talented people who can manipulate the rays of the sun & moon to various effects), plans to manipulate him, and starts by introducing him to a young Sunrunner woman, Sioned, with whom he falls in love.

The story starts out with great promise--Rohan showing that his years spent in books were not wasted, as he schemes and plots to ensure peace and prosperity for his people, and the intensity of the feelings between himself and Sioned and the pitfalls of their path to being together. I loved the scheming and cleverness, and I loved that others had schemes that countered his.

But then it falters. There's a story line about the dragons that's really shortchanged, and either 3 or 6 years (it wasn't particularly clear which) were just skipped, during which several key characters died in a devastating plague, with only a brief mention. It's the GSM, indeed.

Then the story picks up again, with Rohan and Sioned's quest for a child, an excellent, twisted scheme-ful and emotionally intense section.

If Dragon Prince had been a trilogy... If all three sections had been fleshed out, especially that middle section, and the first book ended with Sioned & Rohan conquering the odds to be together, the second with the full story of the plague and the importance of the dragons, and the third with the child plot and the final battles... I'd probably have given each one 5 stars. Maybe 4 for the middle one, which is weakest, unless it was punched up a lot.

But as it was, the exciting stuff--the schemes, and the emotional intensity--got buried in repetition and wordiness, when they weren't completely skipped over.

I said impatience accounted for a half star. Disappointment that it wasn't all I imagined it could have been accounted for another half star. I don't think I'll be looking for the next book in the series. ( )

http://quettandil.blogspot.com/2007/1... ( )

The Dragon Prince is the story about a young prince who is unexpectedly thrown into the seat of power at a very young age. Throughout the story, Rohan struggles with balancing his ideals for peacefully ruling his desert kingdom and the unavoidable need to wage war against those who would threaten that peace. As much as it is about Rohan, it is equally about his wife, Sioned. She is a magic user, called a SunRunner, who's considerable powers are forbidden to be used to kill. However, as a princess, she must struggle with her own inner demons and the demands to use her powers against her oaths in order to aide and protect her husband.

I found this to be an interesting novel written in a style that I'm not entirely used to reading. There is a healthy dose of action and war that I expect in a fantasy novel along with some political intrigue involving the new prince coming to power and working to institute his own ideals. Along with this, there is a lot of emphasis placed upon the developing relationship between Rohan and Sioned. This adds a nice depth to the novel, although at times it gets dangerously close to treading into romance novel territory!! Wink

I think that this is one of the rare fantasy novels that will appeal to male and female readers almost equally. ( )