Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Order of Scales-Stephen Deas

The Order of Scales


Stephen Deas

Roc, Feb 7 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780451464378



As the humans backstab one another in their endless avaricious grab for power, none notice the dragons are awakening from the control of the alchemy potion. While Prince Jehal the Speaker of the Realms and former Queen Zafir fight for the control of The Adamantine Palace, the dragons are soaring in the sky fully aware of what the humans did to them as they return to their natural predatory state since the elixir is just about gone.



In the mountains where the dragons are beginning to soar, Kemir observes Snow the dragon leading a horde of freed dragons as she begins avenging centuries of enslavement to the pathetic humans. Meanwhile Jehal desperately needs to save his beloved wife and child held captive by his enemy. He turns to the dragons of the north, offering them their freedom in exchange to flying him and his supporters against Zafir and her allies. Neither side reckons with the dragons in open revolt as their human bickering may prove the extinction of mankind.



This is a strong bloody finish to the Memory of Flames fantasy trilogy (see The King of the Crags) as this Dragon Realms thriller takes to the sky with brutal results. Ironically those who want to lead the Nine Kingdoms battle one another while ignoring the real threat from the fast and furious fireballs even as the alchemists fear the scarcity of the potion that kept the dragons docile. This is a super climax to an intriguing political-military saga in which war is deadly and maiming while the recently freed dragons add to the lethal chaotic mix by returning to their fiery roots.



Harriet Klausner

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