The Dragon Heir

A perfect conclusion to this trilogy, even if it does leave you wishing the series wouldn't end at all!

The direction this book takes is interesting; just as Jack headed "The Warrior Heir" and Seph "The Wizard Heir", Jason and Madison take up the spotlight for this book. At first it seems an unusual choice, as both were minor characters up until now. But I quickly came to love them, and in the end I was grateful for this extra glimpse into their lives.

Of all the amazing characters in the Heir series, Jason and Maddie are definitely two of the most complex, I discovered. There is both anger and heroism, selfishness and great compassion in their hearts. Theirs was a wonderful, painful, and educational tale to follow.

And of course, the show more return of all the old characters was once again a welcome part of the storyline. Though they hold smaller roles, they never falter from the personas that I encountered in the previous two.

But I have to say, it was the climax; the last ten or so chapters of "The Dragon Heir" that truly wowed me. The emotion, the delicate character interactions, the internal and outer struggles, all the truth coming clean in a flood of sorrow, betrayal, and triumph. To this day, I think the end of this book is one of the most powerful scenarios I've ever seen. I've read it several times and never tire of it.

All in all, the fitting close to a great series, which is never an easy thing to accomplish. show less

***second read review****

I still think this book had a fantastic ending, though I definitely feel like it was a little rushed. I think that I will still end up un-hauling this whole series once I am finished since I just feel that I have grown out of this type of fantasy book. That being said, it is still worth the read.

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Wow what a fantastic story! And such major improvements over the previous 2 books. The following part of this review will contain spoilers!!!!

I absolutely loved the battle that took place in the latter section of this book. I felt that the writing and story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, fearing for the characters.

I will admit, that I got a sick kind of satisfaction when both show more of the D'Orsay dudes got killed. The son was annoying the entire time and really had the potential to screw stuff up for our heroes and his dad was just a straight bastard.

On the flip side, Jason's death really through me for a loop. I thought he was an idiot for trusting Leesha (which I was still half right about!), and I was proud of his stance towards her after he found out the truth, but my heart broke when he died. He wanted such a bigger part than he was able to play.

Not gonna lie, I was caught off guard by who Snowbeard turned out to be. I always loved his character and I was shocked by the fact he was the creater of the covenant. I was also saddened to read of his death.

I really really loved the ending of the battle with Madison taking Wylie's and Jessamine's weirstones. They got what they deserved, but the fact that they were left alive has me worried. show less

"Before I die beside my mistress, I will bury the Dragonheart stone in the mountain with such protections as I can lend it. Perhaps chance will put it into the possession of one with the heart and desire to release its full power. That person will seize control of the gifts that have been given. That person will once again reign over the guilds. Or destroy them, as they deserve."


The covenant that was meant to keep the wizard wars at bay has been stolen, and Trinity must prepare for attack. Everyone is doing their part: Seph is monitoring the Weirwalls, Jack and Ellen are training their ghostly army, even Anaweir Will and Fitch are setting booby traps around the town's perimeter. But to Jason Haley it seems like everyone wants to keep show more him out of the action. He may not be the most powerful wizard in Trinity, but he's prepared to fight for his friends.
Everything changes, though, when Jason finds a powerful talisman - a huge opal called the Dragonheart - buried in a cave. The stone seems to sing to Jason's very soul - showing him that he's meant for moren than anyone's guessed.
Moral compasses spin out of control as a final battle storms through what was once a sanctuary for the gifted. With so much to lose, what will the people of Trinity be willing to fight for - and what will they sacrifice? It's everyone for himself in this thrilling conclusion of the Heir trilogy.

Although there is a fourth book on its way, this is already a pretty spectacular end of the first three books. The denouement was - for me anyway – unexpected and very clever. The author makes all the storylines merge seamlessly into a magnificent and well thought whole, with a climax that was worked out perfectly and – as is the case in many books - not a total cliche.
What I specifically liked most about this book is the fact that the author integrates a legend in her story and eventually let’s it play an important role in the plot. As a huge fan of myths and legends, this is a big plus for me. The fact that voices from the past may have some influence on individuals in the present fascinates me immensely.
The blurb and the beginning of the book are a bit misleading. It appears that Jason has the ultimate control over the important power of the Dragonheart in this book, but we have to wait until the end of the story for a definitive statement on that stone and about who can use its magic. There are some important hints to the person in question, but as the blurb suggests otherwise you doubt about the outcome until the very end of the book. Very strong piece of deception ;-) But all the more exciting!

Ms. Chima made some hard decisions at the end of the book, but although many here complain about it, I see this as yet another sign of the fact that she’s just an extremely good author. Occasionally, the courage to make a hard decision about the characters can contribute a lot to a story and that was definitely the case here.
The latest events, where Grace and JR are concerned, were perhaps a bit too fast paced for my taste, but the outcome of that storyline was also different than expected and worked very well.
The last section was a real goodbye. All the following events were listed, as one often sees in a movie. One person talks about the events after the climax, how everyone deals with the stuff that happened, what each character does with his life. This gives a sense of completion, which is a pity when it’s such a beautiful book, but wonderful to read.

This series should be turned into a movie, for sure, but only by someone who knows how to make fantasy movies correctly and without serious deviations from the books. So that’s a no go for the guy who wrote the script for Eragon!
Cinda Williams Chima is currently writing the fourth book in The Heir Chronicles series and also has a deal for a fifth book!


By now, I have read six books by Cinda Williams Chima and I think it's safe to say: I really like her style, her stories, her characters, her books. She's definitly highly ranked on my list of favourite YA fantasy authors. I would even dare to say she's probably on top!

Visit my Fantasy bookblog http://draumrkpa.blogspot.be/ for more reviews, new releases,... show less

Magic is real, and the people who use it are dicks.

Wizards have been engaged in a bloody battle for supremacy for generations, and they don't care who they destroy in the process. In [b:The Warrior Heir|213647|The Warrior Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #1)|Cinda Williams Chima|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41c83bLdLWL._SL75_.jpg|1072532], young Jack finds out that he has magic and that the wizards plan to use him as a pawn in their latest scheme. With help from the few wizard rebels, he manages to badly damage the wizards' power over the other magic guilds. In the second book, [b:The Wizard Heir|500743|The Wizard Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #2)|Cinda Williams show more Chima|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CS2visUEL._SL75_.jpg|488848], the growing band of rebels continue their fight to create an egalitarian magic society while keeping the non-magic users safe. But in [b:The Dragon Heir|2866413|The Dragon Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #3)|Cinda Williams Chima|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1206645200s/2866413.jpg|2529437] the wizards forge an uneasy alliance amongst themselves, and their combined power may be enough to destroy the haven of Trinity and all who have worked so hard to create it. The rebels' only chance to survive is to harness the power of the Dragon Stone. But the secrets of how to use the stone have been lost for centuries, and they're running out of time...

Sounds awesome, right? After all this build up, [b:The Dragon Heir|2866413|The Dragon Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #3)|Cinda Williams Chima|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1206645200s/2866413.jpg|2529437] should be the apex of excitement and epic adventure! And yet--it's actually kinda boring. There are so many characters, and they all get more than their fair share of inner monologues about their personal problems. Even though this is the final battle, Chima introduces all manner of extraneous characters and extra plot points, then forgets about half of them. It's an unfocused mess of a book, and the climax is an unsatisfying deus-ex-machina.

The world building is subpar (I'm still bothered by the fact that we never see any hint that there's a broader world out there--it's all either western Europe or America. If both sides are in such dire straits, how come they never thought of seeking out help elsewhere?) and the plot is inconsistent. Chima isn't great at creating novel, memorable characters, either--I literally could not remember which male teen was which. That said, when Chima focuses on Seph, Jack or Madison, the story comes alive. And Chima is one of the few ya novelists who doesn't do gender essentialism. I loved that the male and female warriors are described using the same language (none of that half-hearted bullshit about how the dude is so strong and brawny and the lady is "lithe" or "slender"--they both hack people to death with swords and have got the incredible fore-arms to prove it). The characters have a wide range of motivations, abilities, and goals, irrespective of gender. It's sad how excited I am to find a fantasy book without that set of stereotypes.

Overall, I'd recommend this series, but with the caveat that the last book doesn't live up to what came before it. show less

This was definitely my least favorite book in the Heir Chronicles series so far. A lot of the characters' relationships got developed overly quickly and off-screen, as though the author was trying to limit the length of the book and therefore cut out all the character-building scenes to allow herself to juggle all her subplots without writing a book that was much longer than the previous two. More time could have been spent on Linda and Hastings, who seemed almost like an afterthought in this installment. I'd have also liked to see more effort to weave the subplots naturally into the flow of events, rather than having them pop up out of nowhere when they become necessary for the plot. For example, Jack's mom becomes suddenly very show more interested in what's keeping everyone so busy halfway through the book, but she was barely mentioned (if at all) before that point. Also, the relationship between Jason and Leesha was developed almost completely off-screen. In one scene, they're going off to hang out for the first time as friends, and the next thing you know, they're a couple. It's very jarring.

I also felt like the new origin story this book introduced was sort of plopped right in. Like, Nick was talking about it like it had been there the whole time (despite never being so much as alluded to in previous books), and none of the other characters were really questioning what he was talking about, at all.

The main characters also seemed very self-important, compared to all the other nameless rebels on their side. Trinity was supposedly full of seers, sorcerers, and the like who were fighting alongside all our main characters, but in the end, when Jessamine Longbranch is being called out for the crimes she's had a hand in, they only mention Jason's death, Maddie's supposed death, and Ellen's injury , as though the main characters are the only ones who exist and matter. It just felt like the author totally forgot that there was an entire army there, not just the few people the readers cared about.

Of course, the prose in this book also continued to have its sloppy sections, much like the previous books. There was a part, for example, where Jason's thoughts are presented almost as though they are dialogue, though the next paragraph in the book is Jason's actual dialogue. I ended up having to reread the passage because it was so confusingly done.

Finally, I really wasn't expecting the story to get so completely wrapped up in this one, being that it's only the third of a 5-book series (from my understanding). I mean, I understand that they are presented as companion novels for each other, but the first three were interconnected and had a fairly linear story line, so I figured that would continue on into the fourth book. After reading the hastily-pasted-together pages of exposition at the end of this book, however, I have the feeling I'll never read about these characters again. I suppose we'll see, but that seems like awfully poor organization on the author's part. This felt like the end of a series; if she picks up in a different time period with different characters, like i'm suspicious she will, it should be presented as a spin-off series, not Book 4 of the same one.

All that said, this book wasn't a complete flop. I was engrossed in the story much of the time; in fact, I think it was the latter half, where things started getting hastily thrown in, that I really grew unhappy. I suppose the main point is that the author had a really good thing going, but it feels like she got a bit over her head with it all. show less

Wow what a fantastic story! And such major improvements over the previous 2 books. The following part of this review will contain spoilers!!!!





I absolutely loved the battle that took place in the latter section of this book. I felt that the writing and story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, fearing for the characters.

I will admit, that I got a sick kind of satisfaction when both of the D'Orsay dudes got killed. The son was annoying the entire time and really had the potential to screw stuff up for our heroes and his dad was just a straight bastard.

On the flip side, Jason's death really through me for a loop. I thought he was an idiot for trusting Leesha (which I was still half right about!), and I was proud of his stance show more towards her after he found out the truth, but my heart broke when he died. He wanted such a bigger part than he was able to play.

Not gonna lie, I was caught off guard by who Snowbeard turned out to be. I always loved his character and I was shocked by the fact he was the creater of the covenant. I was also saddened to read of his death.

I really really loved the ending of the battle with Madison taking Wylie's and Jessamine's weirstones. They got what they deserved, but the fact that they were left alive has me worried. show less

Wow what a fantastic story! And such major improvements over the previous 2 books. The following part of this review will contain spoilers!!!!





I absolutely loved the battle that took place in the latter section of this book. I felt that the writing and story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, fearing for the characters.

I will admit, that I got a sick kind of satisfaction when both of the D'Orsay dudes got killed. The son was annoying the entire time and really had the potential to screw stuff up for our heroes and his dad was just a straight bastard.

On the flip side, Jason's death really through me for a loop. I thought he was an idiot for trusting Leesha (which I was still half right about!), and I was proud of his stance show more towards her after he found out the truth, but my heart broke when he died. He wanted such a bigger part than he was able to play.

Not gonna lie, I was caught off guard by who Snowbeard turned out to be. I always loved his character and I was shocked by the fact he was the creater of the covenant. I was also saddened to read of his death.

I really really loved the ending of the battle with Madison taking Wylie's and Jessamine's weirstones. They got what they deserved, but the fact that they were left alive has me worried. show less