Dragon Champion

(Warning: Some slight spoilers ahead!)

As a lover of dragons and fantasy, this book immediately caught my interest. I pretty much love anything fantasy-related. The only problem is that fantasy can be a pretty “cut-copy” kind of genre. A lot of authors stick to the same general layout when they write the world and characters for their books. It seems to always be the same: The magical elves, the mountain dwarves, and the mortal humans. Dragons are usually the big-bad monsters or the wise-good reptiles. So, when I picked up this book, I was a little cautious. I wasn't sure if it would end up being just another samey fantasy book or a hidden gem. But I was still eager to try it out. In the end, even if I don't particularly like it, I still get some enjoyment just because I like reading about faraway fantasy lands filled with magic and magical creatures.

So, is this book one of those hidden gems? No, not really. After reading it, I can sum up my overall feelings with a big “meh”.

I thought it was really cool to have the dragon as a main character, though I feel the potential was wasted. Hearing the small tid-bits of dragon culture and lives was pretty interesting. I think the book should have been more focused on that. Maybe going more into the history of the different dragons and their culture and languages. The history of the world was nice, but nothing was was super unique or memorable. I guess for me, there were tiny pieces of interesting parts of history. For example, I thought the concept of having the dragon living and being raised by wolves was very interesting! Overall though, the book just isn't that captivating. It gets so boring at times, honestly. Nothing really caught my attention or really inspired me to keep going. The dragon's journey wasn't that harrowing or compelling. It's not like where Frodo has to take the One Ring to Mount Doom or the entire world will plunge into an era of chaos. Nothing feels frantic or energetic. Sometimes, it just feels that “this dragon is going here and here just because he wants to.”

I think that maybe if the journey had more feeling or had more at stake, it would be more inspiring to read on about. The beginning pieces are there, but they need to be emphasized a bit more. If Auron was the last of his kind and had to find the fabled DragonLand (or something similar to that), then it should feel like that. Auron should be thinking about how he holds the key to his species survival! Or if it had a more “fish out of water” type of feel. Auron could be a dragon that knows next-to-nothing about the world below and is forced to retreat after a giant dragon war or something like that. He has to survive in environments he has never seen before and interact with creatures he didn't know existed in order to get back to the dragon lands. As I said before, it starts out trying to give this kind of feel, but it falls short. As it is now, it's just...eh. Kind of boring.

Also, it doesn't really help that Auron isn't a very interesting character in my opinion. Having a dragon (who was partially raised by wolves) sounds like it would make for a great narrating voice! Instead, I feel that if you took Auron out and plopped in a human, elf, dwarf, etc., it wouldn't have much of an impact. Having Auron make observations in a more dragon-perspective from his culture and up-bringing would have made it more interesting to read about. Also, Auron didn't feel like he made any huge character developments. He is traveling through a world entirely new to him, and it doesn't seem to have had any effect on him at all.

With all that said, there were some parts of the book I really did like. As I said before, showing the lifestyle of dragons and some of their culture was something I enjoyed reading a lot. I personally liked the explanation that the reason dragons hoard treasure such as jewels and coins (having to eat to them in order to make their scales hard). That was an interesting twist! There were a few moments in the book that I liked and wished were expanded upon or had more of an impact on Auron / the story (such as living with wolves).

Dragon Champion isn't a bad book in my opinion, just one that's...okay. I still went through it and didn't mind it too much, but it fell short. It is a book with some interesting bits to it. If you like fantasy (and dragons!) books, I would still recommend that you at least take a peek at it and see if you like it. If you can get past the flaws and enjoy it, it's not a bad book at all and can be an enjoyable read.

In most every book you come across dragons are viewed as simply evil creatures. Probably one of the most interesting things for me with this series is seeing things from the dragon's point a view. Not a narrow view in that they are only looking to feed and build a horde, which would probably be a pretty boring book, but a dragon's view from hatching and surviving to becoming a full drake. Definitely one of my favorite series currently, I can't wait to read the rest of the series.