Poor. In places very clunky, in others just odd. The essence of a great story lurks there, but between the plot jumps, and wooden characters it's hard to tease it out. Some of Irene's later works are quite good, but this isn't one of them.

It gets bonus marks for having a love triangle without too much angst although given one of the participants is a beast for most of the time I'm not sure it quite qualifies. Sadly this is resolved into two couples in due course entirely predictably, and hence becomes trite. In a land surrounded by hostile neighbours magic has always been provided by the dragons, but now they're leaving after persecution from the villagers, and older forms of individual power are surfacing instead. The King's family have always had a special bond with the dragons so they're weakening too and the prince is missing. Meanwhile a hedge witch has adopted a strange wolf who needed healing (guess who).

My biggest problem was a lot of the jumps in plot - the author assumed a course of action and presented it fait accomplai without giving the reader any of the details, yet the passages either side were unnecessarily detailed. I'm not sure if this was just overly heavy editing, rushed writing or poor plotting, none of which the author is prone to in other works. The one dimensional characters didn't help much either.

It sort of reads like you'd imagine cliched melodrama fantasy to be, and there's so much better available. DNF somewhere in the 2nd book when with 400 pages to go it show'd no sign of improving or becoming captivating at any point. ( )

The Dragon Nimbus novels, Volume I by Irene Radford

Comprising of :

1) The Glass Dragon

This was a re-read for me, of a book that I had bought (with its sequel) many years ago. I hadn't picked up the third in the series, so when I saw this omnibus, I thought I would get it, to sort of complete the set. I like the idea of a glass dragon - or rather, a dragon that is almost invisible, but still material.

The story centres around Jaylor, a journeyman magician on his quest to try for mastery. However, though his magic is strong, it is unconventional, so he is looked down on by other magicians. The country is in danger, as the magical borders and the king's health, maintained by now scarce dragons, are failing. Baamin, the senior magician and king's advisor, is trying to keep the information quiet while getting his journeymen to look for the remaining dragons and the king's missing heir. Jaylor unwittingly stumbles into the middle of a plot to take over the kingdom, and finds allies to help him try to foil it.

I don't want to knock a first effort, but the novel does need some polishing. Somehow, I struggled reading this, and maybe that's why I didn't get the last book in the series the first time around.

(2.5 stars)


2) The Perfect Princess

This book read a lot more smoothly than the first book, especially the first half. The second half got a bit jumpy, but not so badly that I focused on the writing more than the story. I think the plotting is alright, but the writing could still use more polishing. The device of an unnamed villain (in both 'The Glass Dragon' and 'The Perfect Princess'; but it took me a while to work out if they were different characters in each) telling us their plans at the end of every few chapters seemed awkward to me. Although this unknown was obviously plotting against Jaylor and his allies, it was confusing to suddenly have these asides which didn't really fit into or advance the story.

The narrative begins where the first story ended (it's awfully hard to review the second book in a trilogy-combined-into-one-volume without spoilers): the prince has been rescued and must now prove himself worthy of the throne while the enemy seeks to undermine the foundations of the kingdom.

This time, the story focuses on events around the prince, although Jaylor is still an integral part of them. The 'Perfect Princess' refers to the princess Rossemikka, whom the neighbouring country of Rossemeyer want to marry the prince, in a bid to make an alliance for peace. At the same time that the prince is fighting for his throne politically, the magic that underpins the kingdom is dissolving. The handful of magicians that are left have to adapt and struggle to use their magic for the good of the country in the face of increasing suspicion, planted by the enemy, from the Council, who are supposed to support the king.

Because this is an improvement over the first book (2.5 stars), I'll give it 3 stars.


3) The Loneliest Magician

This story takes place over 300+ densely packed pages. While Radford's ideas are good, the language is still awkward, but either it's improved over the first two books or I'm adapting to it. I think she could have benefitted from a co-writer. There's a new unknown narrator of the asides (the previous two having been killed off at the end of each previous book respectively), and it's equally hard to be certain of their identity.

The newly crowned king and queen have a firmer rule over a Coronnan that is still not fully stabilised. The dragons, whose magic maintains the border, have deserted Coronnan for their own safety, and there are factions trying to bring down the monarchy, as well as those of neighbouring Rossemeyer and SeLenicca. Magic is outlawed in Coronnan, so Jaylor, his family and the newly reformed Commune of magicians have to leave the capital, and seemingly distance themselves from the crown. The queen is unable to produce an heir, and king Simeon of SeLenicca starts a war at the border. The apprentice, Yaake - who has strong and unusual magic, rises to journeyman, and is given his quest to find Shayla, the last female dragon. She, and the king whom she is linked to through the Coraurlia (the crown made from rare dragon glass), have been magically injured, and their left wing/ arm disabled. And then Yaake disappears for three years while things continue in this hiatus.

Meanwhile, in SeLenicca, we are introduced to Katrina, whose maternal family have been highly acclaimed lacemakers to the royal family for generations. SeLenicca has been exploiting its resources for a thousand years, with lace now its only valuable resource for export. Simeon, who is king through marriage to queen Miranda, has made things much worse since his only use for SeLennica is as a stepping stone to conquering Coronnan. The country starts falling prey to plague while the lower echelons of society regress to looting and violence as poverty hits hard.

Although there has been some more improvement, still 3 stars.

( )