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World of Eldaterra #1
The Dragon Conspiracy
They've been kicked out of their world. Now they want ours. In 1895 . . . a policeman follows a trail of murders that leads to a discovery too incredible to believe. In 1990 . . . fourteen-year-old James Kinghorn finds an entrance to Eldaterra, the Old World, where magic forces -- good and evil -- struggle for domination. With the help of some unexpected friends, including two dwarf brothers, a beguiling elf, parlanimals, and a wizard with many secrets. James uncovers a deadly conspiracy that began fifteen years before. IF the enemy's plans are not stopped, both worlds will plunge into unthinkable chaos. . . . The first book of the World of Eldaterra series weaves mystery and fantasy into an extraordinary, heart-stopping adventure.
304 pages, Library Binding
First published August 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
P.R. Moredun
2 books5 followersThe Dragon Conspiracy is the debut novel of P.R. Moredun. He runs a marketing company in England. This book was written from stories he told his sons during long car rides, and he set it against twentieth-century history in the hope that they would become interested in one of his favorite subjects. He originally self-published this novel and publicized it by creating a model of a baby dragon, which is featured on the jacket. The dragon has been on display in the Natural History Museum in Oxford, England.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 5, 2015
I liked this book, but I couldn't find it anywhere online (since I kept spelling it "Eldeterra"- ergh, just one letter off; also because this book's neither popular nor well-known). The story certainly was interesting, and the book was fantasy and mystery, something I enjoyed very much. Yes, the author could have done a lot more or a lot less to make the book less random and confusing and-as others would say- boring. This book, judging from the comments, is clearly not for a wide-ranged taste. But if you get what the author has wrote and can follow it through, I hope you can find it as interesting as I did.
Btw, does anyone know if there's a second book to this? I know it's not mentioned in Goodreads, but maybe nobody posted a second book if there is one -(isn't that how books get on here, people post them on here or whatever? I'm still kinda new to this thing..) I'd be very grateful if someone found out, since I'm exhausted from trying to find "Eldeterra."
If the author hasn't written or finished writing the rest of the series, he's got a lot of catching up to do!
Btw, does anyone know if there's a second book to this? I know it's not mentioned in Goodreads, but maybe nobody posted a second book if there is one -(isn't that how books get on here, people post them on here or whatever? I'm still kinda new to this thing..) I'd be very grateful if someone found out, since I'm exhausted from trying to find "Eldeterra."
If the author hasn't written or finished writing the rest of the series, he's got a lot of catching up to do!
March 12, 2016
Plot-wise, this wasn't too bad. It had potential, too, from what I can remember.
Unfortunately, I don't remember much of it. I believe I do remember that the dialogue seemed stilted, that the plot didn't really progress much even by the middle-ish/two-thirds of the book. And that it gave me a bad taste in my mouth (don't ask why; I have no idea) while I was reading it.
Mostly, I remember that there was a missing boy. And a policeman.
Not much, is it? And I think I only read this 2-3 years ago. Compare that to a book like Of Mice and Men, a novel I read around the same time period, and there you have it: the drastic difference. I can probably recite the entire plot (well, the gist of it anyway) of OMAM though I'd only read it once.
Maybe I'll try this again someday.
Then again, maybe not.
But at least the cover of this is cool...
Unfortunately, I don't remember much of it. I believe I do remember that the dialogue seemed stilted, that the plot didn't really progress much even by the middle-ish/two-thirds of the book. And that it gave me a bad taste in my mouth (don't ask why; I have no idea) while I was reading it.
Mostly, I remember that there was a missing boy. And a policeman.
Not much, is it? And I think I only read this 2-3 years ago. Compare that to a book like Of Mice and Men, a novel I read around the same time period, and there you have it: the drastic difference. I can probably recite the entire plot (well, the gist of it anyway) of OMAM though I'd only read it once.
Maybe I'll try this again someday.
Then again, maybe not.
But at least the cover of this is cool...
August 2, 2007
I would have to agree with the only other person to comment on this book that the cover is the most interesting aspect of this book. The cover is what caught my eye in a bookstore and then request this book from the library. Anyway, I was disappointed with this book which never really captivated me at any point. The author moved clumsily between two separate time periods and attempted to tie some loose ends near the conclusion but failed in my opinion. I am not sure in what direction the next two books in the series will go, and honestly, there does not seem to be much more to say. One point which the author could clear up in later books is how certain characters in the book come to possess the certain abilities they do, which he never did in this first volume.
August 13, 2016
Books I read before but seemed to almost and sometimes practically forgotten. This was one of them. I'm trying to remember what this one was about or what I liked about it. I know there's magic and dragons, etc and dragons coming into the real world or something like that. I faintly remember liking it of course. And that cover. If you like stories with dragons, fantasy, magic then you'll probably like this?
April 16, 2008
Quite frankly the maturity of the writing style totally sucks, but the storyline and a couple of the characters are VERY cool. Plus being an artist, the cover drove me to it. I havnt read any of the others, but I wouldnt mind taking a looksie.
July 17, 2017
I read this when I was probably 13, and I remember really liking it, which is why I'm so disappointed to find it so terrible now. Also an excellent example of how growing up ruins everything. Darn this “critical thinking” thing. Within the first chapter of the book, I was thinking “oh no” because the writing was so bad. The whole book to some degree, but especially the beginning, feels stilted and poorly paced, with weird unnatural dialogue and too many attempts to be mystical and mysteriously dramatic. There are so many random characters introduced so quickly at the beginning that seem like they'll be major characters but then have only pages of focus throughout the whole book, and there are so many bit characters that it prevented me from feeling attached to any of them, so some “key” character deaths fell pretty flat. I gave up on trying to remember who anyone is pretty early on, because it's so much information to absorb in the first chunk of the book, and then no new characters being introduced at all for the last 2/3 or so. My favorite (using the term loosely) character was James' mother, who gets approximately a page of dialogue in a 300 page novel, and no character building at all beyond “she's good at crossword puzzles.”
The whole book feels very..juvenile? It feels like something a 16 year old just getting into fantasy would write, or possibly like a very rough draft in need of much more polishing. The pace of the novel is very awkward, and I felt like the transitions between characters and time periods were very unnatural and hard to keep up with. Sometimes a scene that didn't feel like it was done abruptly cut to another scene several hours or days later and just picked up there, so there's very little sense of time passing, and I absolutely couldn't tell you how much time the novel is meant to have eclipsed. It also didn't seem to stick to a single age-group, since much of the dialogue feels like its written for very young children, but then battle scenes are heavy on gore and graphic description. On the whole, I enjoyed some of this, and I enjoyed the premise, which is “young boy and talking animal friends fight dragons and save world” but it just felt poorly executed. To sum up, I think this is a case of “Good idea, bad writing.”
Rating: 4/10
cross posted at mintbooks.tumblr.com
The whole book feels very..juvenile? It feels like something a 16 year old just getting into fantasy would write, or possibly like a very rough draft in need of much more polishing. The pace of the novel is very awkward, and I felt like the transitions between characters and time periods were very unnatural and hard to keep up with. Sometimes a scene that didn't feel like it was done abruptly cut to another scene several hours or days later and just picked up there, so there's very little sense of time passing, and I absolutely couldn't tell you how much time the novel is meant to have eclipsed. It also didn't seem to stick to a single age-group, since much of the dialogue feels like its written for very young children, but then battle scenes are heavy on gore and graphic description. On the whole, I enjoyed some of this, and I enjoyed the premise, which is “young boy and talking animal friends fight dragons and save world” but it just felt poorly executed. To sum up, I think this is a case of “Good idea, bad writing.”
Rating: 4/10
cross posted at mintbooks.tumblr.com
July 3, 2020
From the very start I just wasn’t that interested in this book. It just wasn’t doing it for me. The plot was nice, but I found it pretty generic. I already know what the ending is going to be from the moment I started reading it more. Also I’m just not one for older English written books. I don’t know why, but I found it rather boring. It took too much space and I could have easily read the book without so much confusion if the book wasn’t so convoluted. I did like the story though, especially the one involving the cop.
January 14, 2017
This book wasn't too bad, but there are reasons it has a 2/5.
The World of Eldaterra features a boy names James who walks through a magical sea arc and finds himself in Eldaterra, the Old World. Here he meets two dwarves, a talking dog, and a wizard who tells him of his fate to save both worlds from evil. In a parallel plot line, we get to see fifteen years into the past where a man is investigating a mystery of murders. Both James and the detective find themselves pit against an enemy that many thought long gone. Banished from Eldaterra, the female dragons make do in the human realm, unable to have offspring. Now James must get rid of this evil threatening both worlds.
This book was originally self-published and is for a young adult audience (based on the given age of James at 14 years old). Despite the target audience, the book doesn't detail the world of Eldaterra fully, rather we see a glimpse and we are back in England, making the world-building feel half-assed. This is my second time reading the book, although the first time, when I was around the same age as the protagonist, it did not hold my attention the way many other young adult novels did. It had the thing that interested me, dragons, but it didn't really give anything unique about them or any reason for me to keep reading. Another issue with this book is that is is the first in the series...but there have not been anymore published, as far as I could find out. Researching the first novel itself led me to very little information about it. Being published in 2005, you would think there would be another one by now, which shows a lack of interest for Moredun's readership and a pointless venture when reading in hopes of another, only to find that there isn't one. On another note, it was an okay read, but not something I would recommend or read again.
The World of Eldaterra features a boy names James who walks through a magical sea arc and finds himself in Eldaterra, the Old World. Here he meets two dwarves, a talking dog, and a wizard who tells him of his fate to save both worlds from evil. In a parallel plot line, we get to see fifteen years into the past where a man is investigating a mystery of murders. Both James and the detective find themselves pit against an enemy that many thought long gone. Banished from Eldaterra, the female dragons make do in the human realm, unable to have offspring. Now James must get rid of this evil threatening both worlds.
This book was originally self-published and is for a young adult audience (based on the given age of James at 14 years old). Despite the target audience, the book doesn't detail the world of Eldaterra fully, rather we see a glimpse and we are back in England, making the world-building feel half-assed. This is my second time reading the book, although the first time, when I was around the same age as the protagonist, it did not hold my attention the way many other young adult novels did. It had the thing that interested me, dragons, but it didn't really give anything unique about them or any reason for me to keep reading. Another issue with this book is that is is the first in the series...but there have not been anymore published, as far as I could find out. Researching the first novel itself led me to very little information about it. Being published in 2005, you would think there would be another one by now, which shows a lack of interest for Moredun's readership and a pointless venture when reading in hopes of another, only to find that there isn't one. On another note, it was an okay read, but not something I would recommend or read again.
August 7, 2018
The back cover mentions that this story began as a series of stories told to Moredun's sons...it certainly read that way. Now you're in one time period, now in another. Now in one world, now in another. Now in one head, now in another. I found it incredibly confusing and very frustrating to read. The concept was good, but the style kept me unhappy. More power to those who really like it.
April 24, 2011
Read this part of a 'fist-reads' program ages ago. Lost the review... wherever it is. And so, I have nothing really to say. I was holding on to it, thinking I would review it again, but ah, not really keen on it.
I just don't remember anything! I think I'm remembering more of 'sorcery and celia' or 'the magical chocolate pot' or maybe even a Jones book... than this.
I just don't remember anything! I think I'm remembering more of 'sorcery and celia' or 'the magical chocolate pot' or maybe even a Jones book... than this.
May 19, 2015
This was actually a great story. It's a little confusing at first, but half-way through the book things get really good and craziness starts happening. Definitely worth checking out, but the only thing is, it says it's the start of a series, but there aren't any other books available yet. Which is sad.
August 25, 2016
I don't care what the other reviews are for this book. I think it's a great piece of fiction! The story jumps back and forth in time, but it comes together at the very end! I think the author of this book (who's real name is Allistair Mitchell... he just goes by a pen name) should do a sequel! This time team up with Alex CF (artist and illustrator) and make Eldaterra Vol. 2!
October 5, 2021
I read most of the 1895 parts because I can't resist a mystery. I skipped the 1910 parts, after the first thirty pages or so, because they were so boring and derivative I couldn't stand it.
There was a ghoulish and fascinating story idea buried in here, but with most of it being unreadable, I can't really recommend it.
There was a ghoulish and fascinating story idea buried in here, but with most of it being unreadable, I can't really recommend it.
June 6, 2009
A delight tale of intrigue and two estranged worlds. The themes are hardly new but the take on the tale is rather intriguing. This book passes muster and will stay as part of my permanent collection. In other words, I am fickle and picky about the books I keep! =)
June 13, 2017
The cover is much more interesting than the actual book.
Read
August 19, 2007Not impressed at the moment. I might give it a try some other time. The book cover looked interesting, and it was cheap.
January 20, 2009
Flat, 2 dimentional, characters. Uninspired prose. Trite story line
February 25, 2011
a little too far fetched and random. too many little plot add ons to make me interested. it seemed that the story wasn't really getting anywhere
July 8, 2014
Not bad, I liked the ideas of the book and could see with more polishing it would be a fine series...I don't know if the sequels will come out. I hope they do!
meant-to-read-but-didnt
March 7, 2019Another First Look ARC. I think I started this one, but never made it to the end.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews