The Prodigal's War: A Tale of the Gyre

by Valerie Brown

It takes a teenage princess, a dissolute prince, and a dragon to show the world how to live in harmony with nature. And there’s never been a dragon like this one in all of fantasy literature.No one knows where the Dragon Uln came from. In fact, many people in The Gyre think she’s a myth. But when Emperor TerGhahn enslaves her, everybody is in for a rude awakening. Using the dragon’s power, TerGhahn wants to conquer all the Gyre countries, including Pengellar, the breadbasket of the Gyre. Unfortunately Pengellar’s most likely champion,
Prince Antar, disappeared twenty years ago with the Blade of Pengellar and is presumed dead. The unwilling heir to the throne is Antar’s niece, fifteen-year-old Princess Arenee, an animal lover who resolves to help the Dragon Uln by any means necessary. In the process she invents a new kind of magic. Will it be enough to withstand the imperial assault and return the Gyre to balance?

370 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 18, 2024

Reviews

[M. Heitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author builds an interesting world, dependent upon the "engine" of a dragon to keep the cycles of water, weather and life in order. When the dragon, a creature that could represent "mother nature," is captured through sorcery intended to harness the dragon's fires to forge the weapons and engines of empire, the world falls into chaos. It took me a little while to get into the story as a good portion of the first half is told from the perspective of an unpleasant antagonist. I was impatient to follow the protagonists, and their mystical relationships with the wildlife of their world. Once the pieces started coming together it quickly became a page turner.