The Ebony Eye

Dragonlance: The New Adventures: Suncatcher #2

by Jeff Sampson

When Sindri Suncatcher's friends lie to him and the hunter who once vowed to imprison him now shows himself as a true friend, Sindri has difficult trusting and as he enters a mechanical maze, he must tackle his final lesson on trust.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

My writing history: I’ve been involved with children’s publishing for the past 11 years now — I got my start right out of high school, just after turning 18. Since then I’ve published eight books for children and young adults, with six more currently scheduled for release and in various stages of being written and edited. I’ve also contributed material to ten or so other books by other authors and have put out a short story or two.

My most recent release was the debut of my original YA sci-fi series Deviants. The first book, Vesper, was released in stores everywhere in January 2011, with the next two books coming out in Jan. 2012 and Jan. 2013, respectively.

Some brief bio basics: I was born on a US military base in Nuremberg, Germany on July 15, 1982. Currently I live near Seattle, WA, where I am lucky enough to work as a full time writer. Much like the main character of the Deviants series, I’m a pop culture geek who loves to indulge in books, movies, TV, and video games when I’m not working on my own stories.

Agent: I am represented by Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book of a trilogy that is part of the Dragonlance YA series. The first book must be read before this one. In this one, Sindri and his cohorts travel to confront the evil wizard that sent underlings to capture Sindri in the first book.

This book didn't do much for me. It does deal with an important issue of slavery and I liked how it tackled this subject. I think the problem is that I am reading The Goodlund Trilogy coincidentally which is also part of the Dragonlance YA series. This trilogy also dealt with slavery so this book didn't add much in my eyes. The big letdown in this book was the big bad. The first book set her up to be a formidable foe but her downfall was anti climatic and I kept waiting for one more scene from her. As for the overall story arc, we didn't get any information on that front until the final pages.

I do like these characters in this book. Unfortunately, they couldn't carry this book because the material felt recycled and did not pertain to the story that I am interested in.

[Matt Littrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series isn't quite as entertaining as the other YA books were. It isn't terrible, it just seems like the story is either rushing or dragging through the mud. There's no happy middle ground. I'll finish it out, got to see where Sindri ends up! I don't think my excitement I started with will still be there at the end though.