I thought this was a good start to a new fantasy series, with a somewhat unique feel to it. Out on the edges of civilization, a group of dragon riders/tenders are clinging to the remains of their civilization as an evil force looms. At times it had a bit of a Pern feel or an Eragon feel, but even so, I thought there were good characters and the plot was good. Looking forward to the next one. ( )

Amazing! I was quickly caught up in the story. If I don’t get into the story within a chapter or two, I usually put it down and don’t return to it. This one is the beginning of what looks like a great series, eagerly awaiting the next book! Hurry Todd, please! ( )

Likeable (or hateable) characters, Dragons, a rich world in the best tradition of fantasy novels, Dragons, political intrigue and did i mentioned Dragons? ;)
I started reading fantasy with McCaffrey's Pern and therefore stories of humans bonding with dragons will always have a place in my heart. Here the humans are in the middle of the story and i like how Todd Lockwood gives them strength and weaknesses, let us feel with them and also how they grow on their tasks.
The pace of the story is good. You don't have the usual long boring chapter at the beginning to lay out the world. The society and their environment descriptions are weaved into the story so you learn more and more about it while you follow the characters. There are fast paced action sequences as well as slower interesting discussions about this worlds religion. As you may have not expected from a world famous illustrator he really can describe a scene in words as well as he does in graphic. The book offers emotional moments as well as surprises in the plot.
I really enjoyed the this and cannot wait to get the next one in hands.
And by the way - the book is full of wonderful illustrations by the artist that are a great addition to the story. ( )

This was a really really good book and I was quite surprised to note that this is apparently the author's debut novel.

Now I love dragons and dragon-human amicable relationships, so this was a pretty easy book for me to like as that is basically the fundamental premise of the story. But the author has also done a very good job about setting up an engrossing world populated by interesting characters.

The worldbuilding in this book is excellent. There are epic fantasy levels of mythology and a nice air of mystery/lost history to it which make the gradual reveals enticing.

The characters, especially the female protagonist are all quite interesting, though there are some traces of unevenness in character development.

The storytelling itself is great as the author excels in building up suspense and is pretty good at descriptions. I would like to point out though that there is something slightly wrong with the pacing/structure of the story as the first half reads like a complete book in itself.

The parts of the book that really appealed to me are the dragon/human bonding/training/interactions. I would love to get more of this.

The enemy is in my opinion the weak point - they are too generically evil - dark magic, undead, necromancy - this is standard fantasy Dark Lord stuff - some multi-dimensionality here would be useful, though the mythological Big Bad does seem to hold more promise ( )

Enjoyed this story and Lockwood's drawings. Maia is a great heroine, learning to deploy her own special talent with dragons. My one reservation (and it got more pronounced as I progressed) is that Lockwood desperately needs a better editor. Fully a third of the book was repetition or restatement of what we already knew. The action scenes in particular got bogged down by clumsy stage-managing. Malik, for instance, a father-dragon attempting to defend his dragon baby, took FOREVER to die. He was always just on the point of expiring then came back and killed lots of attackers. Darian and Maia's dialogue is about half repeating what they've already said, dragging down the story. ( )