Dragon and Phoenix

Dragonlord #2

by Joanne Bertin

Once every thousand years the phoenix of Jehanglan burns to death in a magical release. For millennia the emperors of Jehanglan have tried to harness the awesome power of the phoenix's rebirth. One has finally succeeded, using black magic and the enslavement of a dragon.

Far away at the Crown of the World, Dragon-lord Linden and his new wife, Maurynna, are trying to live the life of happy newlyweds. But all is not well. Since her first Change into dragon-form, Maurynna has been unable to duplicate it. And as her inability to Change drives her into a dark abyss of depression, Linden begins to doubt the love he was once so sure of...

At this time of personal crisis, these two must journey to Jehanglan and marshall all of their diplomatic and martial skill to penetrate the treachery of the empire and set free the phoenix. But to do so they must face the dragon--the dragon who just might be a Dragonlord gone mad....

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Magic, Romance

549 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

I was born in 1953 in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. I was there for a very short time, though, as my parents soon returned to their home in Stamford, CT. I've lived most of my life since then in one town or another in Connecticut.

I've held a variety of jobs from working in factories (no fun) to painting comic books back in the days when the color separating was done by hand (also no fun, but did I ever get some great double-takes when asked "So, what do you do for a living?") to a couple of years in a second job as an assistant goatherd on a dairy goat farm (fun). For the past twenty years or so I've worked in libraries--just can't get away from books!

My ambition is to make enough money from my books that I can quit my day job and write full time.

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Current review based on a re-read. All right, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE the first book of this series. The second book (that'd be this book right here), is beautifully written but there were some POVs in the book that I was just tired of reading. I realize that they're important to the story but still...it was kind of like in The Return of the King, by the end I was sooooo tired of Frodo's bit of the story that I wanted him to dive into the volcano.
Anyhoo, I really do like this series.

[Sonia189 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around 4.4
This was a great fantasy adventure and I liked many things about this story.
It wasn't perfect because some decisions made by one or two characters at a certain point felt avoidable, like drama had to happen and that was why they were there.
I wish the author had developed more certain details than others but I was always eager to keep reading! I'm definitely going to get the last one in the trilogy.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Loved this series. Maurynna finally comes to terms with her draconic half and is able to successfully change.

[Kyra Dune · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is your classic, Lord Of The Rings style, epic fantasy. A slow build up, numerous characters to keep track of, and a richly imagined world. The main plot was interesting and I felt most of the characters associated with it were well fleshed out, three dimensional people. Some of the subplots, however, seemed a bit superfluous to me. I didn't find they added much to the core story. The book could have gone along just as well without them. And I have never been fond of getting into the head of a POV character who is only around for a chapter, or a few paragraphs, and then is gone.

It's a very well written book, if a bit slower than I prefer. Mostly I enjoyed the story, especially the dragons. And the battle toward the end was spectacular. If Lord Of The Rings is your kind of thing, you definitely want to check this one out. It's not quite as heavy on the world building and leans a little more towards the characters, especially in the romantic department, but it's definitely in the same vein as Tolkien's classic.

[Luvmyfamily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the first book but this book left some things to be desired. I wish it had more of a love story because those are the stories I enjoy. There was a very sweet one in the first book but it was very background in this book. Second, I couldn't stand Shei-Luin. Shoes selfish inconsiderate and spoiled. She had no care for anyone other than herself. Even Yesuin was only there for her pleasure. She cheated on Xaine. Even though they were married she was still his concubine. She lied to him many times. There are just too many things I can complain about her. Lord Jaunun was the same way. I also hated the way Hodai betrayed his master just to get a voice. Having said all this, the story was still a really great story. It had twists and turns to the plot. You never quite knew what was coming. That's a testament to Joanne's writing. I would give the story a 3.5 rating

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ignorant choice of mish-mashed dialect for the dragons is much more painful in this book, as the dragons speak more. It's such a pity Bertin took advice from someone barely educated in the area, and then added her own nescience to the mix. The story is good, but on (the many subsequent) re-reads I tend to skip over the details of life in the Jehangli society. Not sure whether that means that there is too much detail in those parts inessential to the story ...

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book better than the first one. The Dragonlord characters were beginning to bore me, but I really liked the new land and characters she introduced in this book. It did seem to take a long time to get where it was going and it didn't go into as much cultural depth as I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was even better than the first! So much adventure! So many suspenseful moments and nail biting scenes.

There were twists and turns I expected (and was none-the-less excited for) and some I didn’t expect which were so good. I truly love this trilogy. The worlds and characters are so well done and rich. I was highlighting lore, deities, bits about magic and the religions throughout the entire book! Much like the first one. The ending of this book was chef’s kiss! 🤌🏻 The epilogue was also the best. I love how it wrapped things up!

These books hold some of my truly favorite characters besides the ones in the Eragon series. They really do feel like old friends. Otter the bard is by far one of the best and he’s only a supporting character. I love all of the dragonlords & co. to be honest.

I feel like this series was ahead of it’s time in ways. It’s inclusive and it addresses abuse of power. The dragonlords are really there to keep the balance. They’re the fair and noble ones who decide legal matters if true humans can’t find a resolution and they’ll even topple a kingdom or two if they have to in the name of justice and saving the world. I feel like this doesn’t give away too much, but the act of the dragonlords rescuing a true dragon (also enslaved and trapped within a mountain) ultimately sets free so many Zharmatian and Tah’nehsieh slaves the Jehanglan empire was keeping bc a huge chunk of the Jehangli soldiers were wiped out in the rescue mission. There’s also something about seeing an oppressive dynasty/empire fall in these dark modern times, and with it some of its worst high ranking perpetrators, that gives me hope. Anyway, 10/10 recommend these books to anyone who hasn’t read them.

The ebook version does have some typos and such that I assume come from tired eyes because 609 pages to convert to ebook format.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "Dragon and Phoenix", the sequel to "The Last Dragonlord", Maurynna and Linden embark on an eventful journey to Jehanglan (an empire loosely based on Imperial China) to free a dragon held captive underground for a thousand years. Two other dragonlords, Otter the Bard, and Maurynna’s childhood friend Raven accompany them, as does Taren, a spy for Lord Jhanen, a Jehanglan noble who plots to overthrow Emperor Xiane and seize his throne. A parallel plot to the dragonlords’ journey is the story of Xiane and his concubine Shei-Luin, who loves Yesuin, a royal hostage from the People of the Horse, nomadic tribesmen who threaten the empire’s northern border. Bertin offers us well-rounded characters and a fast-moving story, set in a vividly realized world. As in
"The Last Dragonlord", Bertin offers us vividly realized subsidiary characters: Shei-Luin’s
loyal servants, who would die (or kill) for her; Miune, the lonely young water dragon always searching for more of his kind; Shima, the Tah’nehsiah shaman’s apprentice, whose destiny surprises everyone; and Hodai, the mute, whose desire to sing brings about the destruction of all he holds dear.

[Torontokp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book appealed to me a lot, more than most reviews here. And here is why.

Though I read this book in the series first, and though initially it was very confusing with a lot - and I mean a lot - of characters pouring in from every direction like the attendees of Wimbledon matches, once you got used to the folks and understood who is who, the story just seemed to flow.

There are the titular mythical creatures, there are dragonlords (shapeshifters) and magic to contain some of them.

Even if you are not into fantasy, I think you will enjoy the narrative skills of the author. You understand why many of the bad people do what they do; you get their motivation. The story has some twists and turns and also treachery by an evil person worming his way into the group that trusts him implicitly.

For the pure joy of reading an adventure that has depth in it, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good yarn to spin.

More details are here.

-- Krishna

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe I actually read this BEFORE Last Dragonlord. Let me be clear to anyone who is going in (proper) chronological order; if you have questions about whether to bother with the next book in the series -- if you liked Last Dragonlord a decent amount, the answer for Dragon and Phoenix is YES, absolutely! (And for #3, Bard's Oath... sigh... that's a separate review.)

This is a startlingly well-fleshed-out sequel that keeps the world, changes the locale and half the characters, and adds to its mythology in a truly enjoyable way that changes the premise of the original book. But! Keeps the core relationship and navigates "lovers' quarrels/misunderstandings" in a relatively satisfying way!

...Now I kind of want to re-read this one.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The emperors of Jehanglan have suborned the power phoenix to their power using black magic and the enslavement of a dragon. Called to rescue, Dragonlord Linden and his new wife, Maurynna, must balance the fact that Maurynna's power signature is keeps her hidden, but also prevents her from changing into her dragon self.

Why I started this book: Just reread the first book, and while I didn't remember liking this one as much as the first, I knew that I needed to reread it to understand the third book.

Why I finished it: Better than I remembered but much more strongly in the traditional epic fantasy genre than the first... which flirted with the edge of romance. Plenty of characters and subplots.

[Stuart Schneider · Rating 2 out of 5]

The classic set up book. It is amazing to me how big a book this is, yet nothing truly happens but for the final 75 pages of this story, and we are left with a classic civil war theme for the third book. I am hoping that the author moves away from the tale of this faraway land, and like the first book in the series, deals with a completely different subject matter altogether. Major disappointment to the point where I was losing track of the relevant characters and just wanted to get through the story. Hopefully, the next and final installment of this series is better than the 2nd.

Stuart J. Schneider

[Marianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the second book in a series. It's not necessary for the first book, but I think it's better to read the first if you read this.

This book follows the same characters as the first book, but the story is largely it's own.

I love a lot of tidbits in this book, the area and the people groups. Unfortunately the book is shattered into such small chunks that it's kind of annoying to get tossed to another story bit when you're just getting into one part. This one book could have been better as two.

[K Ascalon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sequel, but I feel like it shouldn't have been. I enjoyed it, but the story was about the new characters. The ones from the previous book were second fiddle, almost forced into the story at times. This created a conflict of expectation on the part of me, the reader. I started to care far less about the characters from the first book, and even became annoyed when they were flipped to, making their trek towards the new characters.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the same world as the initial novel, this one continues the saga, though the main characters of the first and more tangential in this one. Lots of good characters. My only complaints are the length (540 pages means a somewhat slow read) and the head-hopping (sometimes a paragraph/person) that makes it a rather disjointed experience. The concept kept me reading despite these stylistic issues. On to the third book!

[Michaell Baumler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was also a hard book to put down I tried to finish it in one day

[David]

Great continuation of Dragonlord. If you liked the first book, I'd recommend the second.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this so much as a kid and have been looking to reread this as well as dive back into the series

[Jodi Zemsta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start. Names are confusing. Rushed ending.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @pg 51

I forgot how insufferable these characters are lmao. The writing is all telling and melodrama too. :')

[Joaquín Escudero · Rating 3 out of 5]

La continuación de un libro que me gustó mucho sigue con un desaire, es un libro que toma 400 páginas en partir y una vez que parte, se hace corto

[Steve Pillinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long-delayed review: This, again, was a bit of a let-down after my original high expectations (see my review of the first volume, The Last Dragonlord). Despite the delay since reading it, I remember that the storylines were too many and confusing at times.

I've given it 4 stars to match my rating of The Last Dragonlord.

[Mashael · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read I thought it must have taken years to write such a great book and when I looked it up afterwards, I was right. I love the world of Dragonlords that Joanne Bertin has created. The sequel has even more magic than the first, and the “foreign” land they journey to is a marvel of world-building and made-up culture. I love the politics and intrigue and all the details which are just so delicious. The plot is always exciting, the mood tense and I can never quite see how she is going to work things out but then she does in such a good way. A great read.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dragon and Phoenix" is an excellent, character-driven book. The summary blurb on Goodreads doesn't characterize the plot very well, though. The story of "Dragon and Phoenix" is dominated by the plots of two people in the vaguely-Chinese empire of Jehanglan. Jhanun, a noble of Jehanglan, plots to gain the throne for himself, and he tricks the characters from the previous book, were-dragons from a vaguely-medieval-European country, into traveling to Jehanglan. The second plot is by the imperial concubine Shei-Luin, who vows to become Empress to ensure her children's future.

The plot threads are woven together through multiple viewpoint characters. The two stories remain strangely unconnected (Shei-Luin and Jhanun's plots each shape larger events, but don't collide directly), but are each interesting and compelling. The ostensible focus of the book is the quest by Maurynna and Linden to rescue the imprisoned dragon or Dragonlord in Jehanglan, but the focus is all on the characters and their relationships with each other.

Prominent features of the story and storytelling style: there's lots of plotting, but none of it hidden from the readers. Viewpoints shift among all major characters, so we always know who's planning what and why and how. This book isn't a mystery. Also, none of the characters are evil for the sake of evil. All of the characters, even the prime antagonists, have motives which one might respect. Lord Jhanun is ambitious, but it's apparently piety that drives his scheming. Other characters are driven by love of family or children, devotion to lovers, or loyalty to employers / aristocracy.

Overall, this book is well worth reading. It's full of interesting, fully-realized characters. The tone isn't very dark; I didn't think there was ever a question that there would be a positive ending.

Note that this is a sequel to the book "The Last Dragonlord", but it's completely standalone. I don't think anyone would miss much by reading this book first.

[Fleurbleues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the three star rating, this book is not bad. It is in fact quite enjoyable at times. I wanted to give the book 3 1/2 stars. Usually I'd give it a 4 star but since that's the rating I gave to book 1 I felt that since I enjoyed this book less that it should be lower.

This book adds more to the world of the Dragonlords. Our main characters go to a whole new country (basically China) that the rest of the world hasn't had contact with in ages. Very little is known about it. The first half of the book is really about establishing the new characters and setting so it's incredibly slow, which was a problem for me. The first time I attempted this book I quit perhaps four chapters away from when the book starts to get interesting.

The plotting is better in this book, but I found that the characters were more fun and the story more enjoyable in the first. I think the biggest issue with this book is its wonky pacing. It's so slow in the beginning and so fast at the end that you feel unsatisfied with the ending. I also didn't like how quickly she jumped from POV to POV. This is a problem with fantasy writers who write stories with lots of POV. Sometimes they are too quick to jump from one character to another and this was true for this book. There were times that it actually took me out of the story because I was just getting into a character and the author was moving on to the next one. It worked in the finale of this book because it was a chaotic mess but there were still many times it didn't work for me.

There were also things that had no improvement. Bertin's dialogue is still pretty stiff at times, although it was better in this book. Her writing, in general, did improve although it was still a little stilted. However, this book had moments where the writing was very good. I've re-read the book a couple of times and I still enjoy it. There are just things I wish were done better.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to The Last Dragonlord, it mostly involves a country across the sea with a decidedly Asian/Mongolian feel to it - I particularly enjoyed that it was more involved with the other Dragonlords. The expansion on this world is fascinating.

Essentially a man from this fabled country no one can get access to as it's guarded by magic shows up at the Dragonlord's castle letting them know of this Dragon being held captive in cruel conditions in order to keep a Phoenix enslaved - the country's magic is fueled by the Phoenix and only the Priesthood (mages) are aware of the true story of how the Phoenix came to be there. The rest of the populace are under the impression that it's consensual.

It falls on the True Dragons / Dragonlords (Weredragons) to figure out who and how to free them. There are failures that are heartbreaking and an extensive bit of intrigue and politics (though happily nothing that was mind-breakingly dull), there are awful things that some of the background characters go through (if you have issues with mentions or light-details of sexual assualt, you may want to skip this book - there is one scene where there is a bit more detail of what this one particular character goes through, but it's not... graphic. It's still awful.). The book is decidedly darker than the first one in this series - in fact, I think it makes the first one look like a bloody romantic ballad - but the author was able to break it up so that, while dark, it was interspersed with humour and lighter bits to keep it readable.

The end was satisfying but left a bit of a cliff-hanger

[Kylara Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is better than the first. The plot is better, the characters are stronger and they actually have problems they have to deal with. Things aren't just handed to them. I don't think the two different plot lines mash well. It almost feels like 2 different stories, one about a group of Dragonlords travelling into a hostile Empire to free a mad dragon, and the intricacies of said emperor's court. The two barely mesh and it was only on a re-read that I fully understood all the court stuff, of course it could be the first time I read this book, I skipped all that stuff.

I can't stand the character of Raven. He is such a whiner. Doesn't he understand about soultwins? And also Maurynna got on my nerves and I didn't understand why she couldn't change.

Things weren't very well explained. Especially why the full dragons can't sense Dragonlords anymore.

I really want the author to hurry up and write the 3rd book. [Edit: I really want to read the 3rd book, but I don't want to buy it yet, and my library doesn't have it.] I want to know what happens, even if the book is kind of mediocre. if the author would just focus on the court stuff, it would actually be a lot better

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book over many many short sittings. I never had a big block of time to immerse and enjoy. It was a good book and a great extension to The Last Dragonlord. Maurynna, Linden and a band of other Dragonlords and true humans set out rescue a true dragon held captive by magic by a people who worship another magical creature - a phoenix.

The book jumped around a lot. Many of the jumps were nothing but short excursion to events involving other characters and it was often difficult to see the significance of the events. Despite these "interruptions" the story carried along quite well.

This is one of those books I'll probably come back and reread at some point and suspect I'll enjoy it as much or more the second time around. It definitely has enough detail and depending on which details resonate in the second reading it could be a completely different experience.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I want to say that I do like Ms. Bertin's writing style and the way she sets up her world. The characters are well built and well defined, the world and landscape is rich and detailed, and the writing itself fairly fluid.

That being said, I found this second book very long to get started. The first two hundred pages were needed to introduce and set up a brand new culture much different from the one explored in book on of this series. The author gives you a very good sense of this culture and its politics, but the action is long in coming and it is a very slow read. I kept waiting for the main characters from the previous installment to actually get going. After those first two hundred pages, the story and action do pick up some and make it a better read, despite some sections that do drag on and slow things down a bit.

I would still recommend it, but it is not as engrossing as The Last Dragonlord.