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Dragon Star #2
The Dragon Token
With her bestselling fantasy trilogy, Dragon Prince, Melanie Rawn introduced us to Sunrunner’s magic and sorcerous evil, to a ruler striving to bring peace to warring kingdoms—and to her magnificent dragons.
In Stronghold, the first novel in Melanie’s Dragon Star trilogy, the peace won by High Prince Rohan is shattered when a mysterious invasion force begins a devastating campaign against the people of the Desert.
Now, in The Dragon Token, the time for retreat has come to an end as Rohan’s son and heir, Pol, rallies his forces in a desperate bid to halt the advance of the invaders. But ancient rivalries begin to weaken his alliance and only time will tell whether those loyal to the High Prince can defeat both the foreign invaders and the betrayers in their own ranks.
And even as Pol leads his troops forth, Andry, the Sunrunner Lord of Goddess Keep, is also determined to take the attack to this enemy force which has sworn to slay all workers of magic.
Yet the invaders have their own agenda of conquest, and they are even now readying to strike at the very heart of the Desert, stealing treasures which Pol and Andry would pay any price to reclaim—even if the price should prove to be their own lives….
In Stronghold, the first novel in Melanie’s Dragon Star trilogy, the peace won by High Prince Rohan is shattered when a mysterious invasion force begins a devastating campaign against the people of the Desert.
Now, in The Dragon Token, the time for retreat has come to an end as Rohan’s son and heir, Pol, rallies his forces in a desperate bid to halt the advance of the invaders. But ancient rivalries begin to weaken his alliance and only time will tell whether those loyal to the High Prince can defeat both the foreign invaders and the betrayers in their own ranks.
And even as Pol leads his troops forth, Andry, the Sunrunner Lord of Goddess Keep, is also determined to take the attack to this enemy force which has sworn to slay all workers of magic.
Yet the invaders have their own agenda of conquest, and they are even now readying to strike at the very heart of the Desert, stealing treasures which Pol and Andry would pay any price to reclaim—even if the price should prove to be their own lives….
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
68 people are currently reading
1402 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Rawn
77 books1,236 followersMelanie Rawn received a BA in history from Scripps College and worked as a teacher and editor before becoming a writer.
She has been nominated for a Locus award on three separate occasions: in 1989 for Dragon Prince (in the first novel category), in 1994 for Skybowl (in the fantasy novel category), and again in 1995 for Ruins of Ambrai (in the fantasy novel category).
She has been nominated for a Locus award on three separate occasions: in 1989 for Dragon Prince (in the first novel category), in 1994 for Skybowl (in the fantasy novel category), and again in 1995 for Ruins of Ambrai (in the fantasy novel category).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
March 24, 2020
What I appreciate most from Rawn is how flawlessly she’s able to weave various viewpoints together to create a cohesive story. This is a monster of a book and took me a very long time to get through because of how packed it is. The story back and forth from several different fronts of the ongoing war (including from the enemy’s perspective), and I was able to follow along almost effortlessly. I also felt connected to ALL of the characters, which is a feat in itself with so many perspectives. Rawn does a great job in taking her time and telling a comprehensive story.
I was very stressed throughout this whole novel–the stakes are HIGH and I can’t imagine how heart-pounding the next one is going to be, but I’m excited for some resolution. It’s also fun to see growth from these characters I’ve spent four (very large) books with getting to know and love. Some advancements are heart-wrenching and some are great, but I was an emotional mess for most of this reading experience.
Can’t say much more without giving spoilers–I’m excited to read the sequel and see where this story ends!
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
I was very stressed throughout this whole novel–the stakes are HIGH and I can’t imagine how heart-pounding the next one is going to be, but I’m excited for some resolution. It’s also fun to see growth from these characters I’ve spent four (very large) books with getting to know and love. Some advancements are heart-wrenching and some are great, but I was an emotional mess for most of this reading experience.
Can’t say much more without giving spoilers–I’m excited to read the sequel and see where this story ends!
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
March 19, 2021
Some more collected thoughts:
*Man alive, Gemma is annoying.
*I forgot to mention before how much I love that Sioned's response to extreme stress is to burn shit down.
*I think Rohannon's dranath issues are one of the most interesting subplots. There's stuff he needs to do but doesn't quite know how or isn't strong enough, so he starts taking drugs to help him along with the supreme teenage confidence that it's going to work out just fine. It's all very believable and I adore that young idiot.
*Meiglan's internal monologue is so great. Not having been raised to be the High Princess, she has to work pretty hard to reconcile all the aspects of her new power, and I really love how she handles it.
*The part where Sioned goes to visit Sionell to talk about Tallain makes me cry every time.
*And so does Rihani, even though Tilal is only slightly less annoying than Gemma.
*Man alive, Gemma is annoying.
*I forgot to mention before how much I love that Sioned's response to extreme stress is to burn shit down.
*I think Rohannon's dranath issues are one of the most interesting subplots. There's stuff he needs to do but doesn't quite know how or isn't strong enough, so he starts taking drugs to help him along with the supreme teenage confidence that it's going to work out just fine. It's all very believable and I adore that young idiot.
*Meiglan's internal monologue is so great. Not having been raised to be the High Princess, she has to work pretty hard to reconcile all the aspects of her new power, and I really love how she handles it.
*The part where Sioned goes to visit Sionell to talk about Tallain makes me cry every time.
*And so does Rihani, even though Tilal is only slightly less annoying than Gemma.
April 16, 2013
I kept reading because I've invested so much time in this entire series, but I started losing track of who was who! The characters keep getting named after previous characters, or versions of previous characters, and I lost track of many of them. I could tell whose "side" they were on but lost mental pics of many of the characters. The story dragged in parts.
April 3, 2014
Oh god oh god oh god.
Have to read some things for deadlines and work before I start the last one. I think I need a few days to recover from the emotional devastation, too.
Have to read some things for deadlines and work before I start the last one. I think I need a few days to recover from the emotional devastation, too.
September 30, 2015
Is this where George R.R. Martin got his inspiration for a huge cast of characters that get killed? An island invaded from across the 'pond' by ruthless barbarians? I wish Rawn would stop killing people I like. I wish Martin would stop killing people I like.
I have been spoiled by less realistic fantasy. War is hell, Rawn depicts that well. Without gratuitous gore. She is very good at giving one a sense of the character's humanity through intimate family scenes and then she kills them off.
Overall, the momentum of the story continues to build, one gets some insight into why the Vellant'im may have invaded, Pol begins to grow up & understand his father while still being a very different sort of man, Meiglan is also beginning to become her own woman, Andry spends much of the book wandering around not doing much of anything.
I have been spoiled by less realistic fantasy. War is hell, Rawn depicts that well. Without gratuitous gore. She is very good at giving one a sense of the character's humanity through intimate family scenes and then she kills them off.
Overall, the momentum of the story continues to build, one gets some insight into why the Vellant'im may have invaded, Pol begins to grow up & understand his father while still being a very different sort of man, Meiglan is also beginning to become her own woman, Andry spends much of the book wandering around not doing much of anything.
October 2, 2022
There is something going on, but the story progress is awful and just the same intrigues and infighting to stop normal functioning and cooperation.
September 9, 2020
Uh oh, I forgot to write a review of this as soon as I finished, so my memory may be hazy. I read Lovecraft Country after this, and already started the next Rawn novel, so I may get it all mixed up. Sorry!
This is book 2 of Rawn's second series set in whatever this land of Sunrunners is called (occasionally just "the continent" though there only seems to be a few other islands here and there in the world). Sioned and Rohan and their offspring (and the offspring of all their friends and enemies) romp about during a massive invasion by men from another group of islands who have some connection to sorcerers (who are a lot like Sunrunners, but enemies for reasons everyone forgot long ago).
There's a few battles, a lot of women and children in danger, and lots of talk about how mean Sioned can be (it's true, she can be!). Lots of characters don't survive: some you like, some you don't. It's all leading up to the finale (as often happens with the middle book of a trilogy) but there's enough going on to keep this one interesting.
My complaints about Rawn exist in this book as well: having a son is the only thing that matters if you are "highborn," and you don't matter if you aren't "highborn." Rawn populates her world with strong women, then has them basically living their lives to have sons. Go figure. Occasionally it's noted that women are sometimes warriors, or powerful Sunrunners, but somehow the plot is still all about saving them or getting them pregnant (with a son). Oh, and Rawn still has lots of clunky, awkward dialogue about royals' sex lives that everyone in the novel thinks is hilarious, even their children and relatives (ewww).
Still, the books are fun, the characters are interesting, and it's all leading up to something...
This is book 2 of Rawn's second series set in whatever this land of Sunrunners is called (occasionally just "the continent" though there only seems to be a few other islands here and there in the world). Sioned and Rohan and their offspring (and the offspring of all their friends and enemies) romp about during a massive invasion by men from another group of islands who have some connection to sorcerers (who are a lot like Sunrunners, but enemies for reasons everyone forgot long ago).
There's a few battles, a lot of women and children in danger, and lots of talk about how mean Sioned can be (it's true, she can be!). Lots of characters don't survive: some you like, some you don't. It's all leading up to the finale (as often happens with the middle book of a trilogy) but there's enough going on to keep this one interesting.
My complaints about Rawn exist in this book as well: having a son is the only thing that matters if you are "highborn," and you don't matter if you aren't "highborn." Rawn populates her world with strong women, then has them basically living their lives to have sons. Go figure. Occasionally it's noted that women are sometimes warriors, or powerful Sunrunners, but somehow the plot is still all about saving them or getting them pregnant (with a son). Oh, and Rawn still has lots of clunky, awkward dialogue about royals' sex lives that everyone in the novel thinks is hilarious, even their children and relatives (ewww).
Still, the books are fun, the characters are interesting, and it's all leading up to something...
September 3, 2012
I must say this one was pretty engrossing. A good feeling that almost matched up to the first trilogy. It's the middle book of a trilogy though so there's not much going on in terms what's really behind the reason of the war. It's more like a regroup and lull before the storm.
The pacing is great and although there's a lot of perspective jumps, did not find it confusing in the least. What I find rather remarkable is that despite having so many characters in the spotlight, and all over the world, the author still manages to make them quite unique, and able to weave their relationship changes, their emotions, their growth all within the context of the conflict. The last few chapters kept me glued just so I find out exactly what sort of cliffhangers will await me before plunging into book 3 next - it's a good thing to read trilogies published years ago - no need to wait before reading the next one!
The pacing is great and although there's a lot of perspective jumps, did not find it confusing in the least. What I find rather remarkable is that despite having so many characters in the spotlight, and all over the world, the author still manages to make them quite unique, and able to weave their relationship changes, their emotions, their growth all within the context of the conflict. The last few chapters kept me glued just so I find out exactly what sort of cliffhangers will await me before plunging into book 3 next - it's a good thing to read trilogies published years ago - no need to wait before reading the next one!
December 3, 2024
✨ The Dragon Token ✨ book 2 of the Dragon Star Trilogy by Melanie Rawn ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Book two is one of my favorites in this entire series. Full of political intrigue, in addition to mysterious invaders, the High Prince Pol now faces rivalries that challenge the alliances his father forged.
Book two is one of my favorites in this entire series. Full of political intrigue, in addition to mysterious invaders, the High Prince Pol now faces rivalries that challenge the alliances his father forged.
April 29, 2020
Loved the multiple, convoluted plots! As they weave the strands of light, so Ms. Rawn weaves their stories.
July 31, 2020
Wow...ummm...hmmm. Melanie Rawn is second only to Robert Jordan for me, at least among fantasy authors. She's undoubtedly one of the most influential, and possibly most underrated, authors of the hardcover fantasy boom of the 1990s. Dragon Prince mixes romance, politics, magic, religion, and war for unbelievable turns of plot and unforgettable characters who are at once awesome, beautiful, charismatic and totally believable. Furthermore Rawn's style is straight-to-the-point in a way that doesn't have the excess internal dialogue of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and while it isn't weighed down with descriptive prose, it manages to be as descriptive as it needs to be. And, of course, it needs to be said that this is not standard (at the time) Tolkien-clone fantasy: she mixes the best of the Mists of Avalon Celtic-inspired fantasy with Arab desert-inspired culture, and her own religious magic and the heroes and dragons of generalized heroic awesomeness. All of this means I had serious trouble putting down her first trilogy of the Dragon Prince world. I can't remember why I put down The Ruins of Ambrai, but it must have been a catastrophic life-event of some kind. I intend to pick it back up ASAP.
Unfortunately, this unputdownability doesn't continue with the Dragon Star trilogy. We still have the same wonderful characters, although they are a little older and facing new challenges, and there's a greater focus on the younger generations. We also have the same wonderful setting: the dragons, the desert, the Sunrunners, and the diarmadhim sorcerers. Roelstra's leftover offspring are still kicking around, occasionally causing trouble for everyone. On top of that, however, are two problems that made getting through the first two books of this trilogy really hard.
First, the main problem faced by High Prince Rohan and his family are a group of invaders from...where? These bearded fellows show up on dragon ships, indiscriminately setting fire to everywhere, taking nothing but horses, ruthlessly killing Sunrunners. It's bad, yes, but neither we nor the characters know anything about these invaders. We gradually learn a name, Vellant'im, for these formidable foes and a few fun facts. Despite The Dragon Token even granting us the POV of a few Vellanti characters, at the end of this book still no one knows anything about them. I found that this really sapped the motivation. Our favorite characters are just getting beaten mercilessly, despite their ingenuity in slowing down the Vellant'im, and they don't even know why. I find it confusing.
What's even more confusing is that this book (and Stronghold, the first book of the trilogy) skip around from one point of view to another throughout the whole conflict every few pages. I was genuinely surprised when I came to a sequence that lasted more than two pages. Quite often these shifts happen right when things are getting interesting. Huge battles are skipped over with fleurons, and we come back in the middle of a few of those battles, and by then I couldn't remember what happened before because there had been an intervening seven two-page sequences featuring characters I didn't care about. Characters are also named after each other. I couldn't keep track of who was who quite often, even forgetting who Sionell was, and what a critical role she played in Sunrunner's Fire, the final book of the first trilogy.
That was pretty disappointing, because, as I said, I love Melanie Rawn's writing usually, and she has things that no other author has. All of the above led to me not looking forward to this book, falling asleep reading, and trying desperately to finish it so I could move on to something else. I was going to give this book 2.5 stars, but then in the last ten pages things get very very interesting, and contain some of Rawn's best writing. It's that kind of conflict that is really inspiring to me as a writer, and I hope Skybowl has more of it, although honestly, I'm only looking forward to reading it if it is more like the last seventy or so pages of The Dragon Token.
Unfortunately, this unputdownability doesn't continue with the Dragon Star trilogy. We still have the same wonderful characters, although they are a little older and facing new challenges, and there's a greater focus on the younger generations. We also have the same wonderful setting: the dragons, the desert, the Sunrunners, and the diarmadhim sorcerers. Roelstra's leftover offspring are still kicking around, occasionally causing trouble for everyone. On top of that, however, are two problems that made getting through the first two books of this trilogy really hard.
First, the main problem faced by High Prince Rohan and his family are a group of invaders from...where? These bearded fellows show up on dragon ships, indiscriminately setting fire to everywhere, taking nothing but horses, ruthlessly killing Sunrunners. It's bad, yes, but neither we nor the characters know anything about these invaders. We gradually learn a name, Vellant'im, for these formidable foes and a few fun facts. Despite The Dragon Token even granting us the POV of a few Vellanti characters, at the end of this book still no one knows anything about them. I found that this really sapped the motivation. Our favorite characters are just getting beaten mercilessly, despite their ingenuity in slowing down the Vellant'im, and they don't even know why. I find it confusing.
What's even more confusing is that this book (and Stronghold, the first book of the trilogy) skip around from one point of view to another throughout the whole conflict every few pages. I was genuinely surprised when I came to a sequence that lasted more than two pages. Quite often these shifts happen right when things are getting interesting. Huge battles are skipped over with fleurons, and we come back in the middle of a few of those battles, and by then I couldn't remember what happened before because there had been an intervening seven two-page sequences featuring characters I didn't care about. Characters are also named after each other. I couldn't keep track of who was who quite often, even forgetting who Sionell was, and what a critical role she played in Sunrunner's Fire, the final book of the first trilogy.
That was pretty disappointing, because, as I said, I love Melanie Rawn's writing usually, and she has things that no other author has. All of the above led to me not looking forward to this book, falling asleep reading, and trying desperately to finish it so I could move on to something else. I was going to give this book 2.5 stars, but then in the last ten pages things get very very interesting, and contain some of Rawn's best writing. It's that kind of conflict that is really inspiring to me as a writer, and I hope Skybowl has more of it, although honestly, I'm only looking forward to reading it if it is more like the last seventy or so pages of The Dragon Token.
December 6, 2020
Probably the slowest of all the books I have read by Melanie Rawn, but it's appropriately so as the middle book in the Dragon Star trilogy. After the sheer violence of Stronghold and the social and political shakeups, this book needed to be slower paced and provide a significant amount of context. This is also where a huge amount of the best character development work comes into play, particularly with some of the younger characters who now find themselves embroiled in a war in a world that no longer makes sense.
Like the other Rawn books I have reviewed, I read this every year or two, and I've spent a long time (30 years) deconstructing what I think works and doesn't work.
Things I Like:
- Pacing. It's a solid breather, setting up character development, side-plots, and backstory to carry through to the series conclusion. Even though there are times where I would happily slap the protagonist, Pol, the other characters in the book manage to balance out the narrative to prevent his character from dragging it all down.
- Themes. It's a war novel, no doubt about that. Characters have to deal with significant themes such as destruction of home and way of life, social collapse, death of loved ones (children as well as adults), transitions of power to people they aren't sure are capable of doing the job, and so on. There are also subplots which deal with the social, religious, political, and interpersonal realities of situations like rape and abortion, though these are only lightly touched on and done so in a tasteful manner.
- Representation of Women. Unlike some other settings, where women are portrayed as either the damsel in distress or as caricatures of empowerment (yes, that is a gross generalization made for brevity), women in this series are definitely given pivotal roles, responsibilities, and significant development while also adhering to the appropriate sociocultural roles and rules Rawn has established for the gender in the world she has created. In fact, I would say that the women are, on the whole, the most interesting characters in the entire Dragon Star trilogy - and definitely a precursor for the more openly feminist critiques Rawn explores in the Exiles Trilogy (or duology, as the third book likely will never be published).
Things I Dislike:
- Names and Cast Size. Both the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star are Epic/High Fantasy series, with more emphasis on epic. As such, there is a HUGE cast of characters. Unfortunately, until you've got a good handle on who is related to whom, the similarities between some names makes keeping the characters straight difficult. While it makes sense in reality that people would name their kid after someone they admire, it doesn't translate well into a story like this. For example, there's Rohan, Rihanni, Rohannon, Riyanni, Sioned, Sionna, Sionneva, Sionell, Andrade, Andry, Andrev...and so on and so forth. Each character has a distinct role and development (or at least a plot purpose for existing), but it's easy to get them confused.
- Pol is a whiner. In Stonghold, he whines about not being allowed to do what he thinks needs to be done; in Dragon Token, he whines about what makes him so important that he has power over so many lives. Pick a lane, Pol. In fact, one of his family members should be more than happy to slap him upside the head and tell him to get over himself more effectively than they manage throughout the series.
- One pair of antagonists, Chianna and Rinhoel, are so mustache-twisting caricature bad in terms of their development that - were it not for the fact that they actually serve a valid plot point - the book would have been better without them. This can be said for a number secondary characters as well, who don't really contribute much to the manuscript beyond clogging it up with people.
Like the other Rawn books I have reviewed, I read this every year or two, and I've spent a long time (30 years) deconstructing what I think works and doesn't work.
Things I Like:
- Pacing. It's a solid breather, setting up character development, side-plots, and backstory to carry through to the series conclusion. Even though there are times where I would happily slap the protagonist, Pol, the other characters in the book manage to balance out the narrative to prevent his character from dragging it all down.
- Themes. It's a war novel, no doubt about that. Characters have to deal with significant themes such as destruction of home and way of life, social collapse, death of loved ones (children as well as adults), transitions of power to people they aren't sure are capable of doing the job, and so on. There are also subplots which deal with the social, religious, political, and interpersonal realities of situations like rape and abortion, though these are only lightly touched on and done so in a tasteful manner.
- Representation of Women. Unlike some other settings, where women are portrayed as either the damsel in distress or as caricatures of empowerment (yes, that is a gross generalization made for brevity), women in this series are definitely given pivotal roles, responsibilities, and significant development while also adhering to the appropriate sociocultural roles and rules Rawn has established for the gender in the world she has created. In fact, I would say that the women are, on the whole, the most interesting characters in the entire Dragon Star trilogy - and definitely a precursor for the more openly feminist critiques Rawn explores in the Exiles Trilogy (or duology, as the third book likely will never be published).
Things I Dislike:
- Names and Cast Size. Both the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star are Epic/High Fantasy series, with more emphasis on epic. As such, there is a HUGE cast of characters. Unfortunately, until you've got a good handle on who is related to whom, the similarities between some names makes keeping the characters straight difficult. While it makes sense in reality that people would name their kid after someone they admire, it doesn't translate well into a story like this. For example, there's Rohan, Rihanni, Rohannon, Riyanni, Sioned, Sionna, Sionneva, Sionell, Andrade, Andry, Andrev...and so on and so forth. Each character has a distinct role and development (or at least a plot purpose for existing), but it's easy to get them confused.
- Pol is a whiner. In Stonghold, he whines about not being allowed to do what he thinks needs to be done; in Dragon Token, he whines about what makes him so important that he has power over so many lives. Pick a lane, Pol. In fact, one of his family members should be more than happy to slap him upside the head and tell him to get over himself more effectively than they manage throughout the series.
- One pair of antagonists, Chianna and Rinhoel, are so mustache-twisting caricature bad in terms of their development that - were it not for the fact that they actually serve a valid plot point - the book would have been better without them. This can be said for a number secondary characters as well, who don't really contribute much to the manuscript beyond clogging it up with people.
November 10, 2023
I read this to see if it was better than The Ruins of Ambrai; it was. Much better.
Not an ideal choice as it turns out to be the middle book in a trilogy - and even though it comes with a plot summary of 'what has gone before' at the start of the volume, I found that went completely in one ear and out of the other, with a long list of meaningless names - but it really didn't need the summary anyway. It starts off in the aftermath of a disaster, with Prince Rohan dead, his heir struggling to fill his father's shoes, and his stronghold burned to the ground to keep it from the victorious invaders... and if I didn't know why they were invading, then neither, it appeared, did anyone else. (The reason is still a mystery at the end of this book, but there are hints.)
It has the same issue as the other novel in that there are lots of characters whose names are explicitly variants of one another (Sioned, Sionell, Siona, Rohan, Rohannon, Rihani), but in this case it is generally because the offspring have been consciously named for a grandfather or a family friend or so on, and in any case I had far less trouble keeping them all apart. Which may simply be because they were better characterised in the first place.
Rohan is dead before the book even begins, but his personality is felt throughout the whole of the story. Other people die, sometimes randomly and shockingly almost off the page, but the deaths have weight and consequences on those left behind. By the end of this book I was thoroughly invested in the characters and world into the middle of which I had jumped at the opening; there are multiple different locations and plot strands going on, but by and large I had no trouble keeping track of them as the narrative jumped from one to another. I'm not very clear what the function of dragons in this universe is, since although they seem to be bonded to certain people they play an almost incidental part in the plot for this book, but the hints are that they are somehow central to the reasons for the invasion, so their inclusion doesn't come across as gratuitous here.
If we had originally read the first book I assume we were meant to know of Pol's ancestry; as it was, it came as something of a twist climax, although I'd worked out the truth from Sioned's allusions as she is haunted by her past. And poor Meiglan seemed an unlikely wife for him in the first place, so his realisation about her doesn't come out of nowhere - but then his realisation when she is in danger hits hard. This isn't your average fantasy cast of attractive and sexually smouldering young people, although there are teenagers thrust into responsibilities beyond their years by the necessity of war; it is very much a family affair, with most of the characters married with children, and significant numbers of them middle aged or older and still passionately human in their intensity; it shouldn't need saying, but it does. There are not many books where a major character is the mother of a man in his thirties with daughters of his own, for example, and yet herself subject to devastating feelings and ambitions for the future; she is as strong an individual as he is, and probably stronger in character.
I have a suspicion that I read this entire trilogy before, thirty years or so ago, because the names 'Andry' and 'Sunrunner' are definitely familiar even though I couldn't have said anything about them. And it would explain why I instinctively found myself sympathetic to Andry even though most of the characters in the book regard him with resentment or suspicion; I think I had probably read a book from his point of view...
Not an ideal choice as it turns out to be the middle book in a trilogy - and even though it comes with a plot summary of 'what has gone before' at the start of the volume, I found that went completely in one ear and out of the other, with a long list of meaningless names - but it really didn't need the summary anyway. It starts off in the aftermath of a disaster, with Prince Rohan dead, his heir struggling to fill his father's shoes, and his stronghold burned to the ground to keep it from the victorious invaders... and if I didn't know why they were invading, then neither, it appeared, did anyone else. (The reason is still a mystery at the end of this book, but there are hints.)
It has the same issue as the other novel in that there are lots of characters whose names are explicitly variants of one another (Sioned, Sionell, Siona, Rohan, Rohannon, Rihani), but in this case it is generally because the offspring have been consciously named for a grandfather or a family friend or so on, and in any case I had far less trouble keeping them all apart. Which may simply be because they were better characterised in the first place.
Rohan is dead before the book even begins, but his personality is felt throughout the whole of the story. Other people die, sometimes randomly and shockingly almost off the page, but the deaths have weight and consequences on those left behind. By the end of this book I was thoroughly invested in the characters and world into the middle of which I had jumped at the opening; there are multiple different locations and plot strands going on, but by and large I had no trouble keeping track of them as the narrative jumped from one to another. I'm not very clear what the function of dragons in this universe is, since although they seem to be bonded to certain people they play an almost incidental part in the plot for this book, but the hints are that they are somehow central to the reasons for the invasion, so their inclusion doesn't come across as gratuitous here.
If we had originally read the first book I assume we were meant to know of Pol's ancestry; as it was, it came as something of a twist climax, although I'd worked out the truth from Sioned's allusions as she is haunted by her past. And poor Meiglan seemed an unlikely wife for him in the first place, so his realisation about her doesn't come out of nowhere - but then his realisation when she is in danger hits hard. This isn't your average fantasy cast of attractive and sexually smouldering young people, although there are teenagers thrust into responsibilities beyond their years by the necessity of war; it is very much a family affair, with most of the characters married with children, and significant numbers of them middle aged or older and still passionately human in their intensity; it shouldn't need saying, but it does. There are not many books where a major character is the mother of a man in his thirties with daughters of his own, for example, and yet herself subject to devastating feelings and ambitions for the future; she is as strong an individual as he is, and probably stronger in character.
I have a suspicion that I read this entire trilogy before, thirty years or so ago, because the names 'Andry' and 'Sunrunner' are definitely familiar even though I couldn't have said anything about them. And it would explain why I instinctively found myself sympathetic to Andry even though most of the characters in the book regard him with resentment or suspicion; I think I had probably read a book from his point of view...
February 15, 2021
The invasion continues and people keep dying, even major characters. My heart weeps for every one of them :(
There was a gaping hole in this book and it was Rohan: he was the heart and soul of this series and it's painful to read how much people misses him. I miss him so much as well!
Pol tries but he's inevitably different.
The point of views switch left and right, taking us through all the map, reminding us that the war is internal as well as external. I found the enemy point of view very interesting, I want to know more!
The ending was explosive, between Chayla, Meiglan and everything.
I don't know that I find believable the revelation Pol experiences by the end of the book.
As for Meiglan
There was a gaping hole in this book and it was Rohan: he was the heart and soul of this series and it's painful to read how much people misses him. I miss him so much as well!
Pol tries but he's inevitably different.
The point of views switch left and right, taking us through all the map, reminding us that the war is internal as well as external. I found the enemy point of view very interesting, I want to know more!
The ending was explosive, between Chayla, Meiglan and everything.
I don't know that I find believable the revelation Pol experiences by the end of the book.
As for Meiglan
June 15, 2017
I might try to come back to this series, but in all honesty, it was getting boring. Too many straight white people. Too many characters that I didn't care about, making them too hard to keep track of.
My biggest pet peeve in fantasy is too many characters with similar names. This series is one of the worst at it (Pol and Polev, Rohan and Rohannon and Rihani, Sioned and Sionell and Sioneva, Tobin and Tobren and Torien, Chay and Chayla and Chaynal and Chayly). Seriously. It's great that your characters want to name all their children after their best friends and relatives, but it shows a lack of imagination when all of them do it, and you end up with names that are garbled, weird, and too close to other characters' names.
I actually stopped this book twice because I couldn't take it anymore, but nothing I was reading was keeping my interest. Luckily, I found something else and have decided it's time to move on.
My biggest pet peeve in fantasy is too many characters with similar names. This series is one of the worst at it (Pol and Polev, Rohan and Rohannon and Rihani, Sioned and Sionell and Sioneva, Tobin and Tobren and Torien, Chay and Chayla and Chaynal and Chayly). Seriously. It's great that your characters want to name all their children after their best friends and relatives, but it shows a lack of imagination when all of them do it, and you end up with names that are garbled, weird, and too close to other characters' names.
I actually stopped this book twice because I couldn't take it anymore, but nothing I was reading was keeping my interest. Luckily, I found something else and have decided it's time to move on.
January 9, 2025
It's difficult to express just how much I love these books - stories. Large cast of characters? Yes. Complex story line? Yes...and yet not. Beautiful descriptions, not over the top nor too many, just enough to give the reader the feeling of 'being there.' And in the midst of all the war, scenes of the domestic - men, warriors, playing with their children, arguing with their spouse or a friend - in short, being human with all the strengths and flaws of human nature. All of this goes into an epic story of survival against invasion. Beautifully written. I cried. I chuckled. I laughed.
Exceptional.
Exceptional.
February 4, 2021
These books continue to be chock-full of characters I can't bring myself to care about doing inane things for 700 pages a pop. I made it about 200 pages in speed-reading then just gave up and jumped to the end. While the final chapter had some intrigue to it, it was devoid of any measure of reasons to care, since I see no difference in the characters or the situation they're in from the 200-page mark, nor from the beginning of the first book.
January 19, 2023
I have to admit I found this one a bit of a struggle at time. We are coming from the death of Rohan and war is raging. They are fleeing from the desert and fighting to stay alive. This book certainly didn’t shy away from a kill count with a few shocks. But it completely dried up for until we hit the last 6 chapters. I usually love this series and I will continue as I’m completely invested and really need to see this come to a conclusion.
September 9, 2023
Dragon Star and Dragon Prince has always been some of my favorites. I feel that these series are highly under recommended. It really is worth the read if you are a Fantasy fan. Interesting Magic system, intriguing politics, flawed and engaging characters, epic plot and let's not forget Dragons.
October 12, 2023
Has been and will always be one of my favorites. A comfort read. All the dragon books by Melanie Rawn get read every few years or so.
These are my books where the characters are friends and I like to visit them once in a while.
These are the books upon which all other books are judged.
These are my books where the characters are friends and I like to visit them once in a while.
These are the books upon which all other books are judged.
July 15, 2018
Finally finished this long, involved book. Lots of war, betrayal, bravery, sacrifice. The final confrontation between High Prince Pol and the High Warlord awaits in the next book.
Read
July 5, 2019Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.
April 22, 2020
Loved it 🎉
I really enjoyed this book the exploration further in to the characters all the twists and turns really keeps you turning from page to page.
I really enjoyed this book the exploration further in to the characters all the twists and turns really keeps you turning from page to page.
May 25, 2020
It was hard to put down.
November 25, 2024
Sad, frustrating, and hanging ending. Well written though.
Read
October 23, 2025In the sequel to Stronghold, as Rohan's son and heir, Pol, rallies his forces in a desperate bid to halt the advance of the invaders, ancient rivalries weaken his alliance. Reprint.
September 15, 2015
I have a lot of shelves on here. Most of them are for broad categories, like genres or the medium in which I read the book, but others are for elements within the novel. I love looking at my “mountains” shelf, where all the books that for some reason or another featured mountains will be housed. What other shelf could you find both Heidi and At the Mountains of Madness next to each other?
I clicked on 3 different elements for this novel, only to change my mind. None of them were featured enough for it to warrant making it on the shelf. Mountains were there but it wasn’t really about crossing mountains, or being cold and tired. It was the characters involved and what they were working towards that mattered. It’s a war novel, so sure there are a lot of horses (I have a “horses” shelf, of course), but even though two of them were named, they did not feature large enough for me to click the box.
Of course, one of my favorite elements, redheads, was mentioned enough that it did get a check. And dragons.
This makes me realize that this is an extraordinary book. Oftentimes fantasy authors will get really caught up in describing their exotic locales and the terrible dangers lurking in every cave, or just can't wait to kill off a character who gets sucked into a swampy morass. Each principality has its own weather of course, and we know what to expect when the Desert is mentioned, or Graypearl, or Fessenden. These are known quantities. Instead, time spent on descriptions is entirely character based; their politics and their motivations.
It can be really hard to keep it all straight, and I won’t lie, I’m not very good at remembering names. Even worse, many people have “namesakes” so the same name will echo across multiple generations until I have no idea whose kid this actually is.
There are a ton of point of views and no one gets more than a few pages before it jumps to the next character. I liked it at first but about halfway through I started to feel the drag. There were a lot of reaction shots and not as many action shots. About 100 pages from the end it really picked up, though, and the last 10 pages were awesome.
Melanie Rawn is not afraid to kill or seriously injure/maim her characters. I’m getting to a place where I realize this is war and no one is safe but I’ve still been surprised and surprisingly heartbroken at a few of the deaths. Some of them are especially poignant. Not a spoiler – there is one with a father and his young son, he tells his son what a good job he did in battle and the good guys won so it’s ok to relax now. And by relaxing we mean dying. I teared up at that one.
I was startled to realize that this is book 5. So…that means only one more book in this universe. I’m going to be really sorry to see these characters go and I really REALLY want everything to work out for them.
I clicked on 3 different elements for this novel, only to change my mind. None of them were featured enough for it to warrant making it on the shelf. Mountains were there but it wasn’t really about crossing mountains, or being cold and tired. It was the characters involved and what they were working towards that mattered. It’s a war novel, so sure there are a lot of horses (I have a “horses” shelf, of course), but even though two of them were named, they did not feature large enough for me to click the box.
Of course, one of my favorite elements, redheads, was mentioned enough that it did get a check. And dragons.
This makes me realize that this is an extraordinary book. Oftentimes fantasy authors will get really caught up in describing their exotic locales and the terrible dangers lurking in every cave, or just can't wait to kill off a character who gets sucked into a swampy morass. Each principality has its own weather of course, and we know what to expect when the Desert is mentioned, or Graypearl, or Fessenden. These are known quantities. Instead, time spent on descriptions is entirely character based; their politics and their motivations.
It can be really hard to keep it all straight, and I won’t lie, I’m not very good at remembering names. Even worse, many people have “namesakes” so the same name will echo across multiple generations until I have no idea whose kid this actually is.
There are a ton of point of views and no one gets more than a few pages before it jumps to the next character. I liked it at first but about halfway through I started to feel the drag. There were a lot of reaction shots and not as many action shots. About 100 pages from the end it really picked up, though, and the last 10 pages were awesome.
Melanie Rawn is not afraid to kill or seriously injure/maim her characters. I’m getting to a place where I realize this is war and no one is safe but I’ve still been surprised and surprisingly heartbroken at a few of the deaths. Some of them are especially poignant. Not a spoiler – there is one with a father and his young son, he tells his son what a good job he did in battle and the good guys won so it’s ok to relax now. And by relaxing we mean dying. I teared up at that one.
I was startled to realize that this is book 5. So…that means only one more book in this universe. I’m going to be really sorry to see these characters go and I really REALLY want everything to work out for them.
July 6, 2011
From the PFS Book Club...
What I Liked: Rawn continues to deliver what she does best: a mixture of great characters with opposing motivations and lots of action and intrigue. The plot moves rather quickly, bouncing back and forth between characters, and gives a grand scope that most fantasy novels can't amount to. The world-building aspects of the previous books definitely help here.
The other main strength is that Rawn isn't afraid of killing off characters, and for a fantasy novel, she does quite well at depecting what what war is really like. Even children are offered up as potential victims, as famine and sickness go hand-in-hand with war. Rawn also manages a wonderful glimpse into grief, giving the reader the entire range of emotional responses to loss.
What I Didn't Like: This book is suffering from major middle-book-of-the-trilogy-itis. The major plot points go unresolved, we know just about the same amount about the mysterious barbarians as we did when the book began, and the major characters don't grow that much - we see a few characters deal with grief, pain, and suffering, but that's about it.
The other problem is that there are simply too many character floating around. The main cast has ballooned to about thirty main character (no joke there), and all of them get moments in the sun. And some of those moments are dull and boring because the reader wants to get back to the core cast. The other major problem is that several of the outlying characters' plotlines aren't currently connected to the main story, so the reader doesn't really care about them at all. The Tears of the Dragon and the Firon plotlines simply don't add anything to this volume.
Last Thought: The worst book of the six book series, due to unresolved plots and extra characters.
What I Liked: Rawn continues to deliver what she does best: a mixture of great characters with opposing motivations and lots of action and intrigue. The plot moves rather quickly, bouncing back and forth between characters, and gives a grand scope that most fantasy novels can't amount to. The world-building aspects of the previous books definitely help here.
The other main strength is that Rawn isn't afraid of killing off characters, and for a fantasy novel, she does quite well at depecting what what war is really like. Even children are offered up as potential victims, as famine and sickness go hand-in-hand with war. Rawn also manages a wonderful glimpse into grief, giving the reader the entire range of emotional responses to loss.
What I Didn't Like: This book is suffering from major middle-book-of-the-trilogy-itis. The major plot points go unresolved, we know just about the same amount about the mysterious barbarians as we did when the book began, and the major characters don't grow that much - we see a few characters deal with grief, pain, and suffering, but that's about it.
The other problem is that there are simply too many character floating around. The main cast has ballooned to about thirty main character (no joke there), and all of them get moments in the sun. And some of those moments are dull and boring because the reader wants to get back to the core cast. The other major problem is that several of the outlying characters' plotlines aren't currently connected to the main story, so the reader doesn't really care about them at all. The Tears of the Dragon and the Firon plotlines simply don't add anything to this volume.
Last Thought: The worst book of the six book series, due to unresolved plots and extra characters.
July 20, 2014
The second in the Dragon Star trilogy, and the fifth in the Sunrunner series, The Dragon Token is a continuation of the war between the mysterious invaders and the subjects of High Prince Pol. That being said, the battles described resemble skirmishes rather than ongoing battles, with the bulk of the book centring around the cast of thousands (or so it seems!) that populate Rawn's world. After a while I gave up on trying to keep track of all the characters, and just went along for the ride. For me, the main action was contained within the last few chapters, with plot twists (not the word I'm after, but it'll do for now) which separated themselves from the rest of the novel by being so different from the rest of the story (which, after a while, starts reading as hundreds of pages of the same tale). Pol's "revelation", however, felt a little forced, and one I'm not entirely sure is believable or necessary. Nonetheless it will reserve my judgement for the next (and concluding) novel, with the reassurance that Rawn is a good enough author that whatever the outcome, she will make it work, and work well.
June 30, 2016
It's taken me a while to finish this re-read. I've been keeping the book at work but I've not made as much time at lunch to keep going with this one as I did with the earlier ones. I think the relentless war and geography hopping was getting me down a bit!
In short - Pol is an ass of epic proportions. I mean just unbelievably selfish and stupid.
Poor Meiglan gets the short end of the stick no matter what she does.
Andry is a bit of a prick as well, riding off on his own putting himself in danger and pulling on strings he doesn't totally understand. And terrifying poor Alasen half to death, idiot!
Maarken breaks my heart every time.
And OMG Chayla, I can hardly bear to think about what comes next!
In short - Pol is an ass of epic proportions. I mean just unbelievably selfish and stupid.
Poor Meiglan gets the short end of the stick no matter what she does.
Andry is a bit of a prick as well, riding off on his own putting himself in danger and pulling on strings he doesn't totally understand. And terrifying poor Alasen half to death, idiot!
Maarken breaks my heart every time.
And OMG Chayla, I can hardly bear to think about what comes next!
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