Lords of the Sky

Books like this are why I'm thankful for the 90's and used book stores. The 90's is just the best of fantasy to me. George Martin, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb and now I can add Angus Wells apparently. I went to the book store looking for a specific book (in the hardcover section because who wants paperback?) when I happened to turn around and saw the cover of this book and thought it looked dope and it was only $1.99! Absolutely will take a chance for that.

Lords of the Sky is definitely classic fantasy. There are rarely “oh shiiiiit” twists, clean language and it's a band of teenagers that are supposed to save the world. Only it's not “evil” they're saving it from, they're saving it from civil war.

There are 3 kinds of people: Dha, Ahn, Changed.
Dha are mainlanders who fought an ancient war to be rid of the “Ahn” and banished them to a faraway island.

The Ahn are obviously pissed off and have spent years preparing for battle to kill them all. They have become great engineers and made flying objects that can transport their very aggressive warriors over seas.

The Changed are a magically created human-animal being. If “Feline” they are quick and agile. If “Canine” then they have heightened senses. If “Bull” they are very strong. Sounds pretty dope? Think again because they are slaves to the Dha people. They wallow in servitude until death or they decide (after old age or buying themselves) that they may cross a north river into another land inhabited by Dragons. That sounds awful but it's worth it to live in freedom. The catch is that the river has a magical essence to where you can cross it but you can't come back.

Our main heroes are all aligned with the same dream to meet the dragons and become Dragonriders. They then use their new found power to create peace in the world by basically un-segregating people and suppressing the ancient issues they have.

Super happy with this book and can't believe it's not more popular. I will say that the love interest between the 2 main characters was very “Romeo and Juliet” in the sense they have “love at first sight” and will die for each other after knowing each other for 5 minutes. I find that childish and could do without.