Don’t annoy a dragon. That’s the main message from this book. As the new generation of dragons take to the skies the number of humans looking to hunt or harm them increase, and that’s only going to end badly for the ones who can’t spit venom and fly.

 

As the young Elderlings explore Kelsingra and begin to learn more about the magics of dragons and their keepers, we finally start to see some people within the ruling family of Chalced. The country of Chalced and its warlike attitude have been a background character throughout the Elderlings book. While we’ve previously seen the roughness of Chalced ship crews this is the first time we actually meet the ailing and desperate rule of Chalced, the Duke, as his actions bring them closer to war with the dragons.

 

Talking of war, I’ve realised that one of the things I appreciate about the Elderlings series is the lack of focus on battles. In the Farseer trilogy when Verity’s quest ends with the flying of stone dragons to wage war on the Out Islands, we don’t see it. We just see the aftermath and hear a bit about the impact of those flights on the Outislanders. Similarly here we get a sense of what has happened as a result of battles, but not the sword thrust by pike blow description that it sometimes feels like fantasy books like the Lord of the Rings trilogy offer. That’s great for me, because those are the kind of scenes I would just skim over anyway.