The Book of Air

Dragon Quartet #4

by Marjorie B. Kellogg

In the fourth novel of this popular tetralogy, Marjorie B. Kellogg brings together the four elemental dragons and their human companions in a desperate quest to free Air from her as-yet-undiscovered prison—and stop Fire before his devastating reign destroys the world.

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 4, 2003

Reviews

[Corvidae · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the lowest-reviewed book I've listed so far. From a series that started off really original and strong, it really kind of spiraled to strange places. Still original, yes, but things weren't explained very well and it felt hackneyed and rushed. The careful character constructions and cultural discussions of the first books were almost completely absent. The ending had a real feel of deus ex machina. I was glad to finish the series finally (after starting it sometime when I was in high school), but I don't know if I would recommend it.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the series overall (of course I did, it's about dragons ;) ) but ending was pretty anticlimactic. Pretty interesting theme she decided to pursue but some things were rather cliche and the various plot lines weren't always tied together smoothly.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wraps up the Dragon Quartet. The originality of the Book of Earth has been lost by this last book in the series. SPOILER: Ending very reminiscent of The Matrix. I feel like it's a cop-out... ugh.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are like crack they are so good. Its almost impossible to put them down. I got really upset when I realized I was almost done with the 4th book and that was the end of the series!!!

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, this is a 3.5. Air will always be my least favorite. Don't get me wrong- the concept behind their Quest/Purpose is a good one. I just really hate the overall execution of finding Air and how everything ties up. (Which, in case your wondering, means the execution of everything within this book.)

First up: Air- She is insufferably impatient, which is at complete odds with her guide. She makes more sense once they find a way to properly communicate, but her guide says it best when he states that she really doesn't care about anybody other than the dragons and the guides. Why should I like her? She literally doesn't care because she's too meta.

Next: N'Doch's time (Re: Baraga)- Why did we have to make that final video so graphic? Why did it have to be in our face? Was it really necessary to do something that extreme to get Fire to realize what went wrong there? Also, why don't we get a proper send-off for N'Doch's time? Everybody is getting the X-Rated end of the stick there and yet there's nobody that returns to the time to help spread the word of new times.

Also: The Guides- While G has lived a long time, the other three barely get to enjoy life. Erde never got to love anybody or be loved. N'Doch never got to enjoy a peaceful time with his remaining family. Paia never got to experience freedom. All three had kinda miserable lives- Erde's also being incredibly short in comparison. Honestly, they deserved more.

The Solution- I do enjoy the solution- Don't get me wrong. But I'm really just confused on how they all woke up at the same time but in different times. We know they woke up at the same time because of Fire and Air, but then why don't the others have their memories despite them being "downstream" of time? It all just makes no sense to me. If Earth had woken up first, then I would understand. He'd be young, not as much time to grow and remember. But he'd then have more time to try to reset Nature's earth. And then the same for Water. So this whole dragon timeline/memory just isn't working for me. Basically how this ending translates to me is that Earth (the dragon) failed, so then Water woke up and failed as well, and then Fire woke up and said EFF THIS. But they woke up at the same time- in different times? In short- the timeline of the dragons is messed up and makes no sense. It makes sense in terms of humans, but not dragons.

Overall, everything was really slow to develop. I do love the City of Air's creation and I do love learning G's history. I love a follow up with Kothen, though his story just makes me sad for him. I also enjoy Rainer coming back and the future for Djawara, Hal, and the Deep Moor women. But there really isn't much to love about this book.

[Braxton Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erde knows the dragon guide to Air. A being part-human and part-beast from her time, Gerrasch has now evolved into a techno-wizard. But no one still has any idea where Fire has hidden the final dragon Air. Now the dragons and the dragon guides must race to discover Air before it grows too late for their destiny, before the world can end.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series. I read the foreword in the first novel how Kellogg enjoys the space between, and how this series is a blend of fantasy and science-fiction. It started out very much fantasy in The Book of Earth, and the science-fiction came in full swing here. But I have two complaints. First, I feel like the ending of the novel happened just a little too quickly. For me, I feel like the reveal of the true nature of this world happened, and then the ending came a little too quickly, so I would have like a little more time to process and digest just what Kellogg had set up with this series, because I absolutely loved the idea that she had with the story. My other complaint is the love triangle between Paia, Kother, and Fire. In The Book of Fire, she set up this huge thing that Paia and Kother were tied together by destiny and fell in love at first sight. Then nothing happened with it. With how the book ended, it was kind of unavoidable, but she still should have addressed it in some way, because there's no resolution to this thing that was critical to the plot of the third book.
But again, I love this series. I feel like it deserves more recognition than it gets. Though I do believe one major factor about it not being as popular is because this series came out around the same time as Harry Potter, and it just wasn't what people wanted. If it had come out in the 80s though, I'm sure it would have been huge, because this series has a very 80s fantasy feel to it.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book, all of the plot threads come together from the previous books. We have all four dragons and their guides, the antagonists, and time travel galore. The Book of Air has a much different flavour than the other three in the trilogy. A lot less travelling and a lot of urgent sleuthing. The ending was unsatisfying for me. It felt rushed, but as others have mentioned--a cop-out, since it basically unravelled the entire past books . Several other plot threads did not resolve (or did not resolve convincingly): Fire's decision to help them vs. hinder them, the Paia-Kothen relationship, Air's reveal . Glad I am done with this series.

[Caliropa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the conclusion for the Dragon Quartet, it was satisfying enough. I didn't think the final ending and resolution was that ground breaking and it still left me with some questions. Also, this book gets into some abstract concepts which I thought was a little hard to visualize in my head. Overall, I would read the entire series over again at some point to see all the connections again. It was a well thought out story and its a bummer the author hasn't written another books.

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

How has this not been made into a series of movies or a mini series yet? I’m actually sad that it’s over

[Stephanie Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 5/5 recommend. goes in my collection of "ah yes, keeping this to re-read"

wish the ending had a bit more, though; it was great and left me smiling by the end, but still...i want more

[Viridian5 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Back in 1995 Marjorie B. Kellogg's The Book of Earth was released, and I enjoyed it a lot. Although it involved dragons, it had some unusual properties for a fantasy, and I really felt for the dragon guide Erde. The ending kind of sucked, but since it was the first book in a series that didn't surprise me much.

When The Book of Water jumped them to a not-so-far-in-the-future Africa, I was surprised. Kellogg didn't handle science fiction quite as well, and dragon guide N'Doch could be a pain in the ass at times, but I was still interested enough to go on to the third book, The Book of Fire. The Book of Fire takes place much further in a future where the environmental devastation is much worse and people are nearly reduced to fantasy-styled beliefs. Dragon guide Paia was really a pain in the ass. Plus, dialect! For the most part it sucked. But I eventually picked up The Book of Air, published in 2003, and read it recently.

The Book of Air continues the series' downward spiral into the ground. It takes place in several time zones, sometimes for no good reason. It has some people who speak dialect to annoying lengths. It has dragons being mysterious for no good reason. It has people being stupid and aimless and then blaming it on destiny. The science fiction doesn't work. What looked like a major plotline at the beginning was dropped completely until it gets two pages at the very end. You have nanotech that can give you anything you want except when it mysteriously won't. You have healing that works unless it doesn't. There's no sense of peril. There's a brief sex scene so euphemistic that I didn't know for sure if they'd had sex until one of them said so. The ending sucks and in some ways makes no sense. The environmentalism is anvilicious and preachy.

Then there are the things that bother me now that might not have bothered me in 1995. Like how the dragons "talk" in ALL CAPS. Like how the animal/dragon guide thing has been done to death. I'm not so sure that I would like The Book of Earth as much today, but it's definitely the best book in The Dragon Quartet series. The Book of Air is the worst.

[Laurla2]

"what he wants is power, luxury, and me."
"but you're back into whats, not whys. even a dragon's got to have his whys. and when you know a person's whys, then you've got power over him."

"the only real power in words is what we give them ourselves."

"no sensible animal fouls and destroys its own nest. only the human animal."

Supposedly Fire had trapped Air so the four dragons could not complete their mission. How he managed to do this was never explained or even hinted at. The actual "release" of Air was a disappointment. And Air herself was an even bigger disappointment!! After all this build up of how important she was to the Purpose, she never even shows up in "person" or in dragon form, and all she contributes to the goal is "hurry, hurry!" which got real old real fast. Gerrasch -- who was the best thing happening in the whole book -- wondered if Air was even sane anymore. i liked the ending, unfortunately there were just so many loose ends. The fire dragon's conversion from villain to cooperative went mostly unexplained. all other villains in the series are swiftly murdered off by fire. the ending seemed rushed and simplified. the nanotech is never explained, the location of air's body is never explained. how is she trapped and unable to communicate in this future city, no explanation. the tinkers get returned to their time, but kothen is left dumped alone in the future, without paia. i dont get it.

[Carlee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly read all four of these books just so I could figure out what happened, and I was so disappointed that I wanted to write a letter to Marjorie asking her why she published four of these books. It took until the fourth book to have a clear idea as to what the major plot point was, and there barely any foreshadowing in the three books before. Any hint to what the main plot was consisted of main characters questioning what the main plot was. On top of that, while I had suspended my belief long enough to believe that dragons did exist, and that they had powers, I could not believe that the dragon handler for the Air Dragon, the most powerful and important one, was a man who had spent so long in front of computers, thinking about nothing but the dragons and eating food, that he had lost the ability to communicate verbally. What?! There was hardly any wrapping up of sub-plots, and we finally focus on a character who was introduced in book 2, and it felt so foreign, and like a last minute addition to the book because Marjorie wasn't sure how to end it, that one hardly felt anything towards the character after being distant for 2 1/2 books. Horrible, horrible book.

[Kris R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I got a little more out of this book than I did the first time I read it.... When it first came out, I had been waiting for an end to a beloved series for a long time. I remember that I didn't like it, and was very disappointed in the big reveal for the dragon Air. I reread the other 3 occassionally, but this one stayed on my shelf for about a decade.

Knowing everything that was coming, this time I was able to observe the cryptic words and actions of certain characters and interpret them, instead of just being confused and annoyed that no one would say what was going on. In terms of story, the intensity and drive of the previous books is kinda lost, and this one meanders around in a big empty city for a very large chunk of time. The major conflict point of the entire series is resolved more or less without words at all. The actual ending itself is weak, sudden, and very deus ex machina.


Loved the other three, this one is only okay.

And what is with the horrible meat-dragon on the cover.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it was 4 years later I finally read this book and it was... okay. I think I liked this series more because of who introduced it to me... Uncle Hugo in Minneapolis than I really enjoyed the series itself. Back before the turn of the century, there were very few self published writers, even fewer female writers and so little with magic and dragons. This book is a bit of a let down and not memorable at all.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the previous book, I was sorely disappointed. The characters were still interesting, the dragons were fun adn individualistic, but the plot stunk. The characters are separated in small groups and spend most of the book wondering aruond in some alternate world trying to figure out how to get out. The alternate world is boring and I ended up thinking ot myself that this would be a good one to cure insomnia!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was on the fence after reading the third book, which was not up to par with the first two. I read this last one to finish the series, 8 years in the making. (I thought it was a bad gap, then I came across George R R Martin and Jean Auel.)

I'm glad I'm done, and I'm going to enjoy the first book as a stand alone from now on.

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit the author was masterful in her craft with this final book. Not only did she bring everything to a close but she managed to pull of an amazing feat, 'killing' the main characters without actually making the reader feel the loss because they guessed earlier on in the series this is what it would come down to.

[Susan Carr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omg, that was painful, but I've finally finished the series. This last book has been really hard to get thru. Granted it's been years since I read the other 3 in the series, but the characters and story line in this last book just went to shit.

[M Beal · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is the final book in the series and it was a let down. The first two were wonderful, but as I read this I have to parrot the opinion of another reviewer. "It felt like the conclusion to the matrix, a total cop out."

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dragon Quartet-Bk 4

[Alexa Segur · Rating 2 out of 5]

DFN

[Karen Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little long.

[lulzcannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing end to a series that started off so strong.