Pure Jonel ~ Confessions of a Bibliophile: A Dragon`s Tale

Title: The Propehcy

Series: A Dragon`s Tale /1

Author: Mark Boyd

Published: December 13th 2012 by Createspace

Length: 496pgs

Format: ecopy

Genre: fantasy

Shelf: review

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The prophecy, a foretelling of a great king born of dragon-human-elven blood that unites all of the races in a millennium of peace is an ancient story told to all dragon hatchlings from the Dragon Book of Lore. A foretelling born of old majic, through the centuries, became just another story to give the young hope. The old believed...the young cannot perceive how it could ever manifest; who would ever want to be other than pure blood dragon? The prophecy existed in story only, until Anaterri Strayarth, a blue dragon living in human form and the daughter of Stragor Strayarth - Head of the High Council of Dragons, saves the life of Prince Leandro Sargovia with a transfusion of her dragon blood. The unification of human-dragon blood sets in motion the beginning of the once dormant tale and a love that transcends time. Grand Magi Aloysius Alamaris, a black dragon hiding in human form, learns of the initiation of the prophecy and plots the ultimate destruction of all who seek to bring the prophecy to fruition. Anaterri and Leandro are now pitted against the ultimate evil, fighting not only for their own lives but also the lives of their children...and they must insure the prophecy is allowed to manifest...at all cost.

Find out more about this novel & The Dragon's Tale series at Mark Boyd's website.

Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages.

My Review:

This story flows forward with grace, in a manner that lulls you into the story. Boyd’s smooth writing draws you into the novel and his exciting storyline keeps you there. This author develops the world for this series in a complete yet entertaining manner. As a reader you get to know about the world as a whole, what it looks like, who lives there, and what’s going on. All the while you’re traveling along an adventurous route with the characters that you can’t help but love. One thing I would have liked to see, however, was a bit of change in the formatting. This author changes perspective from scene to scene & character to character. An extra line break or some physical marker between those changes would have made it slightly easier to follow and I wouldn’t have felt jolted out of the story by the change.

I was completely enthralled with Boyd’s interpretation of dragons. They were unique, yet stayed within the general confines of what a dragon ‘should be.’ I also loved the concept of ‘dragon space.’ It was quite unique and added an extra layer of depth to the story as a whole. The excerpts from ‘the prophecy’ itself really add to the fantasy aura of the story. I do have to say, however, that the rhyming made me giggle a little.

This is an exciting new voice in the world of fantasy. I would recommend Boyd’s first novel to anyone who enjoys the genre and expect great things from him in the future.

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