At first I rather liked the clunky attempts at high fantasy which reminded me of an unpolished Anne McCaffrey or Patricia McKillip, and the subtle Christian touches were okay too (after all mythology is mythology whether it's Celtic, Greco-Roman, or Judeo-Christian). But around the halfway mark the proselytizing began with an Epiphany scenario expounding the virtues of the one and only LORD THY GOD complete with heavenly visitations, a baptism, and the book's protagonist essentially being "born again"...and that's when I gave up. I don't really mind a bit of spiritual mumbo-jumbo but when the author almost breaks the fourth wall in order to preach the good news that's my signal to reach for something else to read. Since I didn't finish it I can't give it any stars.

It's been a long time since I've had to force myself to plod through a fantasy novel. I heard that Lawhead is a modern day Lewis and decided to take a chance. Unfortunately, I chose his first book and it really, really shows. From the setting, plot, characters and even dialogue is trite and retread. I began to notice this when I started rooting for the main character to fall into a pit and die a slow, horrible death. That didn't happen. I'll give Lawhead another try; I've heard he's since improved vastly.
The only plus is the reader is introduced to the notion of a god who is actively searching for us. ( )

The book In the hall of the dragon king is about a boy name Walker and he is sent to his father’s for the summer and he gets lost in the woods and does not know his way out. Walker now gets to his father’s house and then he goes outside with his dad for a hike and his dad fall down a hill and dies. Walker now has no where to go and his father is dead cause he fell down a hill and is stuck in the woods all by himself. In the jungle he finds a sword lying in the middle of the woods. Walker picks up the sword and brings it home and then when it is at home a guy comes over and takes it when he goes into the shower. No he says my sword is gone and I must go hunt it down and so he finds a trail and it takes him to a house and they guy is at the porch with his sword and he takes it and runs back home. When Walker gets back home he finds a dragon and kills him because he said it was not the hike that killed your father it was the guy who stole the sword. Then he goes back and kills him.
What I liked about his book was that it was cool and very interesting. The book was also interesting because it had tons of action in it. After the dragon comes I thought that was going to be a good part but then it was boring. I liked how the author wrote his book it was cool. I also liked the book but it was too long. When Walker’s dad died that I thought was a sad part. Last is that the way the author put his feelings in the book was cool. Clearly you can see that the book was good and what it is about.

This is an early Lawhead book - I think maybe only his second ever. My feeling is that he las learned a great deal since writing this one. These days his descriptions are so much more vivid, his characterisation so much deeper, and he really understands how to put a story together. Another big difference is that these books are fantasy, whereas these days Lawhead writes mostly historical fiction.

The story in this book is not bad. Quentin, an acolyte of the god Ariel, leaves service at his monastry to take a vitally important and urgent message to the queen. This leads him into an adventure to seek out a lost king, and he finds out a good deal more on the way.

Even though the story is not bad, it is not brilliant either. As a story it does not compel you to keep reading, and the characters are just a little too wooden to really care about. Whereas much modern fantasy has its genesis in Middle Earth, this book seems to have had its genesis in Narnia. Not that this fnatasy world is at all like Narnia - but you can see the same story ideas in places.

A book for Stephen Lawhead completists only. ( )

Good if a little formulaic. ( )