Dragon Keeper - Premium Fantasy Novel for Adults | Perfect for Book Lovers, Gift Ideas & Fantasy Enthusiasts | Great for Reading at Home, Travel & Book Clubs

I'm afraid that this book has been done a great injustice by its publisher, who apparently decided that the work was just too long to print in one volume, and split it into two. This might not be so bad if both volumes were printed at the same time, but it appears that we have to wait till May till the other half will be published. Which means that this volume, which just stops with no resolution to its various plots and conflicts, will be left hanging until then.For those who have read the prior books set in this universe (the Assassin, Live Ship, and Golden Fool sets - and I highly recommend reading these prior to this book, though it is not entirely necessary to understand what happens in this book), the opening of this book will come as no surprise, as we follow the tribulations of a group of sea snakes up the Rain Wild river to their dimly remembered cocooning grounds. What does come as a surprise is an entirely new cast of characters, with only a couple of nods to some of the major players of the prior books. Here we find Alise, a Bingtown woman enticed into a marriage of convenience with Hest, scion of a major Trader family, Sedric, Hest's personal secretary, Thymara, a Rain Wilds child so visibly marked by the Rain Wild physical 'abnormalities' that she would have been left to die at birth without the intervention of her father, Leftrin, captain of a Live Ship barge(!?), and Sintara, a newly hatched dragon.It's the status of the newly hatched dragons that form the core of this book, as when the sea snakes of the opening finally do hatch, they are all deformed in some manner, runty, weak, and unable to fly or hunt for themselves. As they grow, the demands they make on the humans to feed them becomes a severe problem, till finally a proposal is made for the dragons to attempt a trek up the Rain Wild river to find their ancient and only partially remembered home of Kelsingra, accompanied by a group of 'keepers', a few hunters to provide provisions, and Captain Leftrin and his barge. Alise, as a scholar of dragon lore, comes along, with Sedric assigned as her chaperon.While the plot ostensibly is all about this trek through the wilderness, it's really about how each of the characters changes over the course of this challenge. Because of this, the book's pacing is quite slow; there are few major 'action' type events, and quite a bit of introspective looking inside each character. Those looking for slam-bam action should look elsewhere; those who enjoy fully developed characters and world building should find much to enjoy here. The envisioned world truly is remarkable, fully detailed but with just enough left hazy to make you hungry for more details, and far away from standard fantasy settings.Sexual relationships form a major theme throughout this, including some same-gender ones, along with how and why rules of society that address such relationships come to be and when they are still applicable (or not) in a new group separated from the old society. I was, however, a little unhappy about Alise continuing to be such a blockhead about such matters, when the clues were all around her, finding it a little difficult to believe that someone could really be that naïve. The other characters I found to be very well constructed, each with their own foibles, lacks, and problems. The other major theme is one of the status of women and those who are handicapped in some way in society, as shown by the problems each of the female characters (including dragons) here endure, and which I thought was very effectively handled.The major problem with this work, as I indicated before, is that it just stops. All the characters and their problems that were so carefully set up are just left hanging. Obviously, the resolution for all this will have to wait for the 'sequel'. If you can hold your breath for a couple more months, this is ok. If you can't, I'm afraid you will feel unsatisfied with this book.---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)