Friday, March 1, 2013

The Chronicles of Kale: A Dragon's Awakening

By Aya Knight

Kale Firehart is a young dragon, and the sole survivor of his race. As a tyrannical general and his massive bloodthirsty army close in on Kale, the most unexpected circumstance transpires. With time against him, Kale’s trusted friend, a veteran arcane sorcerer, transforms him into the one thing he despises most—a human. Kale must unwillingly live among human-kind as he embarks upon an extraordinary journey. With a band of unlikely friends by his side, can Kale overcome the obstacles before him and return to the life he once knew? The ages of dragons is all but over…

 

I have been itching for dragon stories lately for some unknown reason, and when I came across this one on my Kindle I thought it had potential. Well, as I started reading I was interested enough to keep going, but something kept niggling at me, and when I got about 30 pages in it became obvious with every word I read: this was terribly immature writing. I was appalled. I couldn’t believe that anyone would allow this book to be published in its current form. It was a classic case of ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’ making me, as a reader, feel like the author thought I was a simpleton.  Telling me every little thing that Kale thought about everything and exactly how he felt made me bored and irritated. The characters were terribly flat. Kale, as the main character, was supposed to be a Dragon that hated humans, but suddenly without good reasons or explanation, becomes enamored of them and their lifestyle with inexplicable outbursts that he still hates them. Does this make sense? NO! The elf is also too easily sold, she immediately falls in love with Kale and tells him all her woes and life story. Sure, that’s believable.  And even through all this, what truly upset me the most was that the idea behind this story could’ve been something pretty good if done properly and thought out thoroughly.  But it’s probably the worst thing I’ve ever read that wasn’t fanfiction on the internet.  And there’s fanfiction 20 times better than this. 

 
I give it a 1 out of 5 and it only gets a one because it was a good idea, if poorly executed.

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