REVIEWED by Jay V.
TITLE: Wardrake
AUTHOR: J.A. Jaken
SERIES: Dragon Mage Chronicles #4
PUBLISHER: White Owl Publishing
LENGTH: 236 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 4, 2020
BLURB:
Andrei and Jander return home to the city of Vallerin with the grimmest possible news and tell their king to do what he can to prepare his people for war. Kirin is heading toward the capital with a legion behind him, and he is determined to take revenge both on Andrei and on the apprentice he believes supplanted him in his former master’s heart. This time, with the might of an entire dragon army at his command, he very well might succeed.
REVIEW:
What everyone has feared throughout this series of books is about to happen in the final novel – a dragon army is coming to attack the kingdom. Andrei, a mage master and Jander, his mage apprentice and a dragon mage, have been on missions to stop the impending battle and they are always one step behind Kirin, the dark mage once an apprentice to Andrei. He’s intent on killing everyone in his wake and with a huge command of soldiers and dragons, he’s got a very good chance of destroying them all.
Jaken has really wrapped up this series beautifully. This really is the fifth book of The Dragon Mage Chronicles as it starts with a wonderful prequel, where we get the backstory on Jander trying to potentially find an apprentice and learn to master his magic skills. He gets more than he bargains with the master mage Andrei. They develop more than just student / teacher and become each other’s greatest support system.
As the books continue through their adventures, this final book finds them returning home to the kingdom to stop the major battle that is to come. Some of the pacing in the middle books is somewhat lopsided but this one has a good arc and story building. The tensions are high but not unbearable with a conclusion that is unexpected, but a pleasant surprise from not being too traditional of a story. There’s a lot of ‘what we learned’ at the end and it’s a nice wrap up to the series. Now that all the books are out, one should read them back to back to get better continuity so the balance of the sections has a better flow – this is an epic story that needs that many books to get through all the adventures and growth. We also get to pick up the stories of all of our side characters as they come together in the final battle – I love me some Boaen, who grew up a prostitute and is now in love with the King, though the King is going to marry a Queen to unite two countries. Everyone gets a shining moment and it’s nice to see all the characters’ progress.
I’m going to miss all the adventures, but it was a fun ride. It’s crazy that the prequel came out just over a year ago and Jaken has given us so much of her writing since. I honestly don’t know where I’m going to get my fantasy fix now. But it was worth it to take the adventure and learn some new things along the way.
RATING:
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