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Lore of Fire #1
Dragon Hunter
Vengeance will bring them back here. Prepare for battle. When the dragons emerge to terrorise the village of Shenzing, the legendary Dragon Warriors are summoned for help. Hajur answers the call, but in exchange for his protection he requests a boy to become his follower...someone brave enough to train in the dangerous ways of the warrior. Could Baran, a village outcast, prove to be the one?
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
9 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 25, 2013
A great dragon adventure with a difference - no elves, dwarves or magic powers. It has a fast-paced story with thrilling battles, many surprises, and real characters. Also a great message against bullying: "Outcasts make the best dragon-fighters." Beware - these are definitely NOT friendly dragons!
March 17, 2014
Good idea with dragons attacking a village and the outsider who goes on a quest but it has been done before. I kept getting echoes of Rowan of Rin, Beast Quest and Deltora. The ending was a bit rushed too. However, a good reading level for upper primary and appeals to lovers of the fantasy dragon genre.
February 24, 2013
An exciting story with a great setting. I really liked the feeling of historical authenticity and realism. It also has a great message about acceptance of those who are different.
June 14, 2017
I loved this book. It demonstrated how someone who has been bullied for most of their life can find it hard to trust others. It also clearly shows the pain that the individual would feel after the constant abused and I found myself locked in the world of sadness this boy must have faced daily. Yet he always stayed strong for his family. I loved watching him grow as a character and felt proud upon his discovery of how he can be good enough.
This book also played on my humanity quite a bit, especially at the start. I remember thinking how the villagers deserved to be punished for how they treated the boy, and how maybe they deserved to die because they were to stubborn to listen to the boy's warning. Yet when the dragons did trap some of the villagers and slowly picked them off, one by one, I felt sick to the stomach. It made me think, while some of these people didn't deserve to be alive, no one really deserve to be killed that way. However, after the dragons had left the village, the people of the town immediately start blaming the boy (the very one who tried to save all their lives and warn them, but they wouldn't listen) for bringing the dragons' fury on the village. They then started to think that the only way to save themselves would be to sacrifice the boy like an animal. This made me so mad. It made me question again whether the people deserved to die or not. However the story is amazing and it was almost set up the plot for a sequel, which looks to have sadly not gone ahead. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
This book also played on my humanity quite a bit, especially at the start. I remember thinking how the villagers deserved to be punished for how they treated the boy, and how maybe they deserved to die because they were to stubborn to listen to the boy's warning. Yet when the dragons did trap some of the villagers and slowly picked them off, one by one, I felt sick to the stomach. It made me think, while some of these people didn't deserve to be alive, no one really deserve to be killed that way. However, after the dragons had left the village, the people of the town immediately start blaming the boy (the very one who tried to save all their lives and warn them, but they wouldn't listen) for bringing the dragons' fury on the village. They then started to think that the only way to save themselves would be to sacrifice the boy like an animal. This made me so mad. It made me question again whether the people deserved to die or not. However the story is amazing and it was almost set up the plot for a sequel, which looks to have sadly not gone ahead. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2023
⭐️ 2 stars
**CAWPILE Rating System:**
**Characters** = 3/10
**Atmosphere** = 3/10
**Writing Style** = 3/10
**Plot** = 3/10
**Intrigue (drive to keep reading)** = 2/10
**Logic** = 2/10
**Enjoyment** = 3/10
**Trigger Warnings:**
- Bullying - name-calling & mild physical abuse (mentioned in retrospect)
- Parental Death - mentioned crudely (retrospective mention)
- Violence - mild-moderate fantasy action violence
# ⛰ What It's About
- This book follows a young teenager, Baran, as he struggles to provide for his mother and sisters in a town that shuns them for being ‘outsiders’. Legends of fierce dragons that were all slayed by humans hundreds of years ago have become children’s bedtime stories and myths. One day the village is attacked by dragons and many villagers die. The village elders send a signal for help from the ancient dragon warriors of the Temple of Manas. An experienced legendary warrior named Hajur answers the call. But his help comes at a cost - he chooses a boy to take back to the Temple and train as a warrior of Manas. Baran finds himself dragged onto a journey that makes him question who he is and his purpose.
# 🔍 How I Discovered It
- I believe I was given this book at some point. I found it on my bookshelf and was unsure where it came from. I thought I’d give it a read and decide whether or not to un-haul it to an op-shop.
# 🧠 Thoughts
- I understand this is a middle-grade book and isn’t meant to contain the level of complexity of other audiences, but I truly felt it was sub-par for a middle-grade book. The premise of the book was interesting and usually the master-apprentice trope is one of my favourites, but this book really missed the mark for me. I love many middle-grade books and unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them. It is hard to say where this book exactly went pear-shaped but I’ll attempt to describe it in the pros & cons.
## What I Liked About It
- This quote from Hajur was very beautiful, “Silence is the fertile garden that nurtures the blossoms of reflection.”
- I appreciated the description & explanation of how dragons produce fire. That was really interesting and I haven’t read another dragon book that actually explains this in such detail.
- The setting and overall premise of the book was sound.
## What I Didn't Like About It
- The action scenes in this book were rather vague and I felt they lacked adequate description to inform the reader on where each person/object/enemy is during the scene.
- Parts of this book felt quite illogical, such as Hajur jumping through the dragon’s fire burst and somehow not becoming charcoal like every other person…?
- The ‘rating’ of this book felt inconsistent. Some aspects feel like they were written for a very young audience, such as the descriptions and simple characters, and yet some of the violence was grotesque for that age group. Some of the scenes were dragons attacked would describe people being eaten and burned alive. This was a very odd and strange choice.
- Hajur’s character felt ultimately flawed, he is described as a wise and very skilled warrior and yet…he really lacked believability as a character. His fighting didn’t seem very skilled (could have been because of the simple and vague action scenes) and his moral standing felt…off. He says the warriors are all about peace and helping the people so they must follow this dragon and prevent it from recruiting dragon reinforcements otherwise hundreds of people will die, then right when they get close to the dragon’s trail he decides they will stop and wrap some bandages around some injured townspeople…like DUDE. All these people will die if you dawdle and don’t catch this dragon, why would you stop when you are SO close, they dragon will have time to recover then create distance between you.
- For highly skilled and specialised dragon warriors, the Manas Warrirors didn’t have any clever or unique way of fighting dragons other than sideron arrow tips, spears and swords - like every other person doesn’t have these (except the arrows, those are made of rare sideron). But couldn’t the order make some other kind of weapons using sideron to defeat dragons? These warriors have been the keepers of dragon knowledge for hundreds of years, you would think they had unique methods of catching them other than using some spears and coming at the dragon head on. It just made the Temple of Manas seem really pathetic and poorly thought through.
- I was really sad this book skimmed over and missed the training-montage trope - just a personal favourite of mine. The book says Hajur taught Baran lots of skills but doesn’t show any of them so it seems weirdly convenient that “oh yes Baran knew how to do that because Hajur showed him earlier on the trip” - right okay sure.
- The names of some things were really cheesy and lacked creativity. For example, the long tall surrounding mountain range was called the Himala Range. Honestly, Nazam Anhar just shortened Himalayas!
- Baran is also very unlikable, he constantly goes up and down in his thoughts dramatically from “I am valuable I have purpose!” to “Oh something isn’t quite right and the world will end and it is all my fault.” Bro, for a 13-year old (or is he 15?) he is very melancholy and dreary. He always jumps to the worst-case scenario and finds someone to blame - often himself. I understand that growing up being bullied and not accepted my make you bitter, but it just seems inconsistent and very dramatic when his thoughts vary so significantly. I think Nazam Anhar was trying to create that ‘inner-war’ kind of trope in Baran but made just made him feel erratic and depressed.
- I also didn’t believe the closeness and father-son-like relationship that Hajur and Baran apparently just created when there was little interaction and evidence of this relationship forming. It seemed sudden and out of the blue.
- The story was also very predictable from the second chapter onwards. This kind of made it difficult to be intrigued enough to keep reading.
# 🥰 Who Would Like It?
- If you don’t like books with lots of descriptions or detail.
- If you like a very fast-paced book that you can easily read in one sitting without utilising brain-power.
- If you like books where dragons are evil and lack intelligence - more so beasts than sentient creatures.
**CAWPILE Rating System:**
**Characters** = 3/10
**Atmosphere** = 3/10
**Writing Style** = 3/10
**Plot** = 3/10
**Intrigue (drive to keep reading)** = 2/10
**Logic** = 2/10
**Enjoyment** = 3/10
**Trigger Warnings:**
- Bullying - name-calling & mild physical abuse (mentioned in retrospect)
- Parental Death - mentioned crudely (retrospective mention)
- Violence - mild-moderate fantasy action violence
# ⛰ What It's About
- This book follows a young teenager, Baran, as he struggles to provide for his mother and sisters in a town that shuns them for being ‘outsiders’. Legends of fierce dragons that were all slayed by humans hundreds of years ago have become children’s bedtime stories and myths. One day the village is attacked by dragons and many villagers die. The village elders send a signal for help from the ancient dragon warriors of the Temple of Manas. An experienced legendary warrior named Hajur answers the call. But his help comes at a cost - he chooses a boy to take back to the Temple and train as a warrior of Manas. Baran finds himself dragged onto a journey that makes him question who he is and his purpose.
# 🔍 How I Discovered It
- I believe I was given this book at some point. I found it on my bookshelf and was unsure where it came from. I thought I’d give it a read and decide whether or not to un-haul it to an op-shop.
# 🧠 Thoughts
- I understand this is a middle-grade book and isn’t meant to contain the level of complexity of other audiences, but I truly felt it was sub-par for a middle-grade book. The premise of the book was interesting and usually the master-apprentice trope is one of my favourites, but this book really missed the mark for me. I love many middle-grade books and unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them. It is hard to say where this book exactly went pear-shaped but I’ll attempt to describe it in the pros & cons.
## What I Liked About It
- This quote from Hajur was very beautiful, “Silence is the fertile garden that nurtures the blossoms of reflection.”
- I appreciated the description & explanation of how dragons produce fire. That was really interesting and I haven’t read another dragon book that actually explains this in such detail.
- The setting and overall premise of the book was sound.
## What I Didn't Like About It
- The action scenes in this book were rather vague and I felt they lacked adequate description to inform the reader on where each person/object/enemy is during the scene.
- Parts of this book felt quite illogical, such as Hajur jumping through the dragon’s fire burst and somehow not becoming charcoal like every other person…?
- The ‘rating’ of this book felt inconsistent. Some aspects feel like they were written for a very young audience, such as the descriptions and simple characters, and yet some of the violence was grotesque for that age group. Some of the scenes were dragons attacked would describe people being eaten and burned alive. This was a very odd and strange choice.
- Hajur’s character felt ultimately flawed, he is described as a wise and very skilled warrior and yet…he really lacked believability as a character. His fighting didn’t seem very skilled (could have been because of the simple and vague action scenes) and his moral standing felt…off. He says the warriors are all about peace and helping the people so they must follow this dragon and prevent it from recruiting dragon reinforcements otherwise hundreds of people will die, then right when they get close to the dragon’s trail he decides they will stop and wrap some bandages around some injured townspeople…like DUDE. All these people will die if you dawdle and don’t catch this dragon, why would you stop when you are SO close, they dragon will have time to recover then create distance between you.
- For highly skilled and specialised dragon warriors, the Manas Warrirors didn’t have any clever or unique way of fighting dragons other than sideron arrow tips, spears and swords - like every other person doesn’t have these (except the arrows, those are made of rare sideron). But couldn’t the order make some other kind of weapons using sideron to defeat dragons? These warriors have been the keepers of dragon knowledge for hundreds of years, you would think they had unique methods of catching them other than using some spears and coming at the dragon head on. It just made the Temple of Manas seem really pathetic and poorly thought through.
- I was really sad this book skimmed over and missed the training-montage trope - just a personal favourite of mine. The book says Hajur taught Baran lots of skills but doesn’t show any of them so it seems weirdly convenient that “oh yes Baran knew how to do that because Hajur showed him earlier on the trip” - right okay sure.
- The names of some things were really cheesy and lacked creativity. For example, the long tall surrounding mountain range was called the Himala Range. Honestly, Nazam Anhar just shortened Himalayas!
- Baran is also very unlikable, he constantly goes up and down in his thoughts dramatically from “I am valuable I have purpose!” to “Oh something isn’t quite right and the world will end and it is all my fault.” Bro, for a 13-year old (or is he 15?) he is very melancholy and dreary. He always jumps to the worst-case scenario and finds someone to blame - often himself. I understand that growing up being bullied and not accepted my make you bitter, but it just seems inconsistent and very dramatic when his thoughts vary so significantly. I think Nazam Anhar was trying to create that ‘inner-war’ kind of trope in Baran but made just made him feel erratic and depressed.
- I also didn’t believe the closeness and father-son-like relationship that Hajur and Baran apparently just created when there was little interaction and evidence of this relationship forming. It seemed sudden and out of the blue.
- The story was also very predictable from the second chapter onwards. This kind of made it difficult to be intrigued enough to keep reading.
# 🥰 Who Would Like It?
- If you don’t like books with lots of descriptions or detail.
- If you like a very fast-paced book that you can easily read in one sitting without utilising brain-power.
- If you like books where dragons are evil and lack intelligence - more so beasts than sentient creatures.
February 17, 2015
Dragon hunter is a very exciting book it has lots of paragraphs with suspense.
It consists of a fantasy and the content of the book is suitable for any age as long as you can understand read this
fascinating book.
It consists of a fantasy and the content of the book is suitable for any age as long as you can understand read this
fascinating book.
August 11, 2013
Loved it. Utterly and completely loved it
December 9, 2013
i have only one word it discribe this book: awesome!.
January 23, 2020
This adventure fantasy is suitable for Young adults. Its main character, Baran, faces very important life obstacles in a relatable fashion and survives through perseverance and grit. Set free by his apprenticeship to the mysterious order of the Dragon Hunters, he is able to take the first step in safeguarding all peoples, not just the isolated village whose disdain is all he's ever known.
Azam illustrates the mountainous country hosting these peoples very convincingly, as well as the very well-depicted winged menaces they face after blissful centuries of hiatus between attacks. Love of this land seeps into us even as the monsters that roam it use all their devastation against us.
I'm very ready to read the other volumes.
Azam illustrates the mountainous country hosting these peoples very convincingly, as well as the very well-depicted winged menaces they face after blissful centuries of hiatus between attacks. Love of this land seeps into us even as the monsters that roam it use all their devastation against us.
I'm very ready to read the other volumes.
April 15, 2020
The heroes journey arc was followed to a t but the story-line lacked depth. The dialogue was stunted and didn't flow naturally and the fight scenes with the dragon weren't fleshed out.
For a quick read, shallow read, it was okay.
For a quick read, shallow read, it was okay.
October 28, 2020
I think Dragon Hunter was extremely good, it was definately one of the best ive ever read. The parts i enjoyed the most were during the start and end of the book, when Baran first met the dragon and how we wounded it then, and how he defeated it ultimately.
November 14, 2018
There is now a third book in the series: "Dragon Swarm".
Available as an eBook from:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KFF1QC2/
Available as an eBook from:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KFF1QC2/
November 14, 2018
There is now a third book in the series: "Dragon Swarm".
Available as an eBook from:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KFF1QC2/
Available as an eBook from:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KFF1QC2/
April 10, 2013
This book has been listed by the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) as one of the "Notable Books for Younger Readers" for 2013: http://cbca.org.au/default.aspx?conte...
There is also a review on the "Bug in a Book" site: "An epic setting and a fantastic story..."
http://buginabook.org/2012/10/19/drag...
There is also a review on the "Bug in a Book" site: "An epic setting and a fantastic story..."
http://buginabook.org/2012/10/19/drag...
October 4, 2013
I really liked this book, but the one downside was that...... they kill the dragons :( I'm not really a fan of books that kill dragons, because I LOVE dragons!!!!! But even though they were hunting them, it was a really good book, adventure wise and stuff like that
Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars :P
Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars :P
December 16, 2014
This is definitely a book aimed at younger audiences. I struggled with some of the words chosen (a crossbow that fires lances (a ballista, perhaps)? The dragon swept its fire?), and some dialogue felt sterile. That being said, this had the action I tend to look for in fantasy-adventure tales, and I can't fault that.
December 13, 2012
The dragons of old...vicious, destructive and vindictive are back.
I prefer tales where the dragons have more relatable personality, but this tale if filled with adventure, danger and bravery and will appeal to boys aged 10+
Contains themes of bullying, belonging and being honourable.
I prefer tales where the dragons have more relatable personality, but this tale if filled with adventure, danger and bravery and will appeal to boys aged 10+
Contains themes of bullying, belonging and being honourable.
January 24, 2013
This is an okay story, but because of the way it is written, I didn't feel like I got close to any of the characters, and there was no depth to it.
October 8, 2013
Fantastic!!!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews