The Dragon Crown

Dragonrealm #6

by Richard A. Knaak

Heir to the dragon emperor's throne, the young, shape-shifting drake Kyl is the focus of many who seek to control the realm's destiny. Cabe Bedlam most of all hopes that this new emperor will be the signal for peace among drakes and men, but knows that he might just as well prove the spark that brings the land to war. However, first Kyl must survive and in trying to assure that, Cabe will have to confront a nightmarish foe from his distant past, one who can strike at him even from within the wizard's own sanctum...

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Science Fiction Fantasy

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Richard A. Knaak is the bestselling author of Dragonlance novels, the Dragonrealm and Black City Saint series (his own creations), six novels for Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo series, and six works in the Warcraft universe. He has also written several non-series fantasy books.

Reviews

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the longest of the initial series, The Dragon Crown has a serious pacing issue. 70% of the book is just lead up; character goes here, goes there, thing happens, go here, go there. Explain explain. We are introduced to characters we've known since book 1 while this is book 6. It could easily have been halved in length.

We hit roughly normal pacing speed for 10%. Then by the last 20% it just whips by (so fast that I think the editor wasn't able to keep up, there are a bunch of errors). We go from a trickle of information to Niagara Falls. If not for that fast, action packed ending chunk though, this novel would be much lower ranked for me.

I've somewhat forgiven it for this though, since I did enjoy FINALLY finding out what happened to Toma who just vanishes early on in the series. And also enjoyed the character of Kyl, who I'm sure his name is pronounced "kyeel" or "keel" but I just knew him as Kyle; a white guy from the mid-west of America.

Still a good read, love the art for this cover. I'd recommend as a standalone somewhat, but the prior books were generally better.

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this since it pulls the whole Bedlam family into the story. It also puts the relationship between humans and dragons, living peacefully together in the forest where the Bedlam's live, under pressure.

Many of the characters familiar when reading this series make an appearance too, as can be expected.

[Vämpiriüs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tento díl bych označil za povedenou vztahovou fantasy s více detektivními prvky. Autor si zde více pohrál s osobními i společenskými motivacemi postav. První polovině ubírala na svižnosti ukecaná politika.

[Israha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knaak mi přišel vždy silnější spíše na poli akce, budování napětí a tajemna, ale v Dračí koruně se pro mě docela nečekaně vyšvihl s povedenou vztahovou fantasy s detektivními prvky. Dragonrealm nikdy nebyla série, která by oslovovala čtenáře "high fantasy", ale konkrétně touto knihou Knaak ukázal, že si umí pohrát s osobními i společenskými motivacemi postav a jejich vzájemným ovlivňováním se tak, aby dosáhl kompaktnosti i překvapivosti, a udržel si zároveň také čtivost a rychlý spád a neochudil čtenáře o ty tolik žádané draky, kouzla a dávky poctivé akce. Trochu škoda poněkud ukecané a politikou přecpané první třetiny knihy, protože jinak bych se v rámci žánru nebál jít na plné hodnocení.

[Eri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oproti předchozím mi chvilku trvalo než jsem se do tohohle dílu začetla. Možná proto že je víc politický a míň, 'jdeme na draky s meči a kouzly'. Jsem ráda ale za happy end (tohle je jedna věc co prostě musím jednou za čas mít, jakž takž nějaký hepík, protože jinak se mi všechno začne protivit), odhalení toho kdo za vším zlem stál, etc etc. Snad se mi jen bude stýskat po Ssarekai-ovi. Byl fajn.

[Michal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice next book of series talking about politics of the Dragonrealm, about rising new dragon king! -- quite interesting but still for me welcomed change.

[Mj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off a little slow, too much unnecessary lead in. Liked the characters and story was well done.