Boring.

Our hero, Daven Carrickson tells us his story in first person. We meet him as he is teaching sword fighting to his peers - Daven is a shepherd, and his peers are the boys of the town. He wasn't raised here, though, so he's a bit of an outsider, so it isn't quite fair to call them his friends. He learned his skills from an old fencing manual, and he uses a little bit of magic to keep score, without anyone actually getting hurt.

All this changes when one of the boys is invited to become a Guardsman. And then an actual Guardsman, hearing how great this shepherd boy is, comes out to teach him a lesson. But things don't actually go the way the Guardsman expects. And then an old man shows up at the fighting field, aking Daven to go with him and become a magical weapon of some sort. It all sounds a bit fishy and too coincidental for Daven, but he goes along with it. And thus we start the quest.

I found the book fascinating. It is well written, yes, but also unpredictable. As soon as it settles down into the direction I thought it would go, well, things change. There are wizards, and dragons, and rivalry, and school, and desperate struggles. There is also a small dollop of romance. Things doin't come easily, which is more like real life than a fantasy story. Daven has to struggle, and fight, and heal, and figure things out.

A fantasy story that is a cut above the run of the mill. I enjoyed it a lot. ( )

The author has taken an old trope and made it interesting. Poor farm/beggar/otherwise outcast boy, turns out to be a hero.

In this story, the first of three, we find Daven in a small village teaching his friends to sword fight. When a king's guard shows up to take Daven to the King, things start to go pear-shaped. Magic, dragons, and wizards populate this tale of power, politics, and war.

Daven's path to saving the world is barred by lies and misunderstandings that seem to flow naturally from the action.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes the story of the unlikely hero faced with seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. If you enjoyed The Blacksmith's Son, you'll love this story. ( )

Boys' club, by-the-numbers fantasy.

All the guards, mages and apprentices are male.
The only female characters with some page time seem to the wife of a noble landholder, and a young woman who for all the insistence on her being brave fulfills the role of "damsel in distress" and "get the girl at the end".

The dragons might be it as far as salient characters of some interest go.

Cleanly edited though someone spends a lot of time growling. ( )

Dragonprince Trilogy #1 ( )