Father of Dragons, the first instalment in the Ballot’s Keep series, was one of my first “official” reviews, meaning that, since there were not so many reviews of that book, mine was more than once linked; the particularity of that book was the unexpected event of Xeras, one of the hero, getting “pregnant” of a female dragon! All right nothing of the actual intercourse was “clear” to the reader, and we only knew that one night Xeras entered a dragon’s liar and the morning after he exited a little disoriented and with a “bump” on his hip. By the way Xeras was not exactly in an emotional situation that was good for him to be ready to face this unexpected turn of his life: still mourning the loss of his former lover, Drin, and fighting the attraction he was feeling for Carly, he was not at all ready to be a father, and consequently, responsible for another life.

When this second book starts, I had the strong impression that Xeras was depressed; it can be an harsh comparison, but to me he seemed like a rape’s victim: he was stuck with a daughter he didn’t want but for whom everyone is considering him as responsible of her actions. And Drinia, the little baby dragon, is a difficult child, above all since Xeras doesn’t know nothing on how to properly rise her. But the parent instincts are strong, and even if Xeras didn’t want Drinia, now she is there, and she is his own responsibility. I think Drinia is good to Xeras since she gives him a reason to be.

The second important issue for Xeras, and another reason for his depression, is Drin, his former lover. Drin is “haunting” Xeras as a ghost, he is a voice that is always in Xeras’s mind, advising him on what he has to do or what would be the best approach to something. Drin is a “good” voice, he wants the best for Xeras, and if it means that Xeras has to fall in love with Carly, completely and unconditionally, Drin is willing to let Xeras go. Problem is that Xeras is not ready to, and the fact that he named Drinia after his former lover is a good sign of it. Xeras is worried that, if he really falls in love with Carly (or if he admits with himself he is in love, since for me he already is), Drin will disappear. Actually, aside from some little sign here and there, I had the feeling that Drin was not really a ghost, but more a figment of Xeras’s imagination, that he was using Drin as an excuse to not let it go with Carly.

The novel is more a quest of Xeras for understanding himself, his role in the world and his feelings; the love story between Carly and Xeras is nice but not center stage, even if Carly is really a perfect man, kind and comprehensive and more than willing to come to terms with Xeras, even accepting to share him with a ghost if it means to have at least a little share of Xeras. Sincerely this was more the story of Xeras and Drinia, than Xeras and Carly, but it was nice, and Drinia is indeed a wonderful character.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609282078/?tag=elimyrevandra-20