Firedrake (Dragonrealm #1), Richard A. Knaak

A land ruled by the shape-shifting Dragon Kings, Cabe Bedlam is hunted for both the legacy he represents and the future he may bring. Yet, dragons may be the least of the dangers, for in a land drenched with sorcery, Cabe's very legacy may be what destroys him!

Bent on supremacy of the Dragonrealm, Duke Toma unleashes evil powers, opposed only by Cabe Bedlam, a seemingly impotent youth who nonetheless possesses some formidable powers.

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I first read this book when I was in the sixth or seventh grade, and I loved it. It turned out to be the start of an entire series, which I loved even more, until it sadly died off. The author has revived it in the form of six PDF stories available through his website (http://www.sff.net/people/knaak/annou...), which I have not yet picked up, but certainly plan to. I decided to re-read these mostly as a form of comfort food…we lost the family dog earlier in the week, and I wanted something that would cheer me up. Born to Kvetch, the next book in my queue, didn’t seem to do the trick. So I went with this.

So, right, the book.

Firedrake begins a series of tales set in the Dragonrealm, a world ruled (at least, at the start of the series) by a race of shapeshifiting Dragons. Several generations ago, a group of human sorcerors, calling themselves the Dragon Masters, rose up and tried to free humanity from the Dragon Kings’s rule. They failed, and the Dragon Kings still rule, but the war has left them weakened. So when the find that Cabe Bedlam, descendent of the leader of the Dragon Masters, is alive and well, they decide he needs to be destroyed quickly. Things go downhill from there very fast, both for Cabe, the Dragon Kings, and the Dragonrealm.

This isn’t a deep series, but it’s fun. Lots of fun. Knaak has created a very interesting world, and Firedrake gives only the barest glimpses into the world’s history and nature. There are a ton of memorable characters floating around, from Darkhorse (a magical being composed of the Void), Shade (a cursed immortal warlock), various Dragon Kings, and the Gryphon (a humanoid pseudoshapeshifter). Cabe Bedlam himself, unfortunately, isn’t quite as interesting…he’s mostly just a Luke Skywalker archetype, right down to the evil faather. Of course, his father is crazy and utterly irreedemable, but the basic idea is pretty similar.

This is one of Knaak’s earlier books, and it does show. The writing is a little clumsy at times, and the Dragonrealm is inhabited by an annoying number of indescribable magical servants. Fortunately, these servants don’t DO much…but the large number of indescribable things running around started to get a little wearing. But overall, it flows pretty well, and I enjoy the almost cinematic way in which he presents certain scenes. This could actually be turned into a really fun movie in this day and age, though I doubt it would happen, or happen correctly.

Even with the occasionally clunky writing, I still love this book. I remember the series getting better as it goes along. I'll find out soon, I suppose. It’s always nice to visit old friends.

Also, I have to say that Knaak was one of the cooler authors I've ever met. He signed a book for me at Gen Con one year, and was very friendly to a starry-eyed 17 year-old with visions of becoming a writer. Cool guy.fantasy series young-adult5 s BaraAuthor 3 books36

Great book, great cover.
If you dragons, it's a must-read.in-czech5 s Shotgun30

I have abandoned this book on the last 15 pages. I could not bring myself to finish it.

The premise of this book definitely has potential. Dragons attempting to enslave the world (or at least control it), politics, different types of creatures and magic working together.

However, I feel as though some things are too campy. There seem to be a lot of 'all-powerful' beings with insane powers that can't do much against the main bad guy because he is more 'all-powerful'. The main character never really accomplishes anything other than accidentally being the right guy in the right place without any idea of what's going on. He never realizes his full power and there is no indication other than his 'get out of jail free' switch turning on when he is in a bind. Also, his hair is all gray, which he dyes.

As for the supporting characters you are not given enough time with them to feel them out. Relationships between certain characters are sprung on you without much basis. ("You look vaguely your grandfather, therefore I love you despite you being a completely different person entirely.")

All in all it seemed as though the author was trying to jam as much into this book as he could without adequate descriptions or build up. I would not recommend this book, and maybe in the distant future I will finish the last 15 pages, but it is not this day.abandoned3 s C.P. CabanissAuthor 7 books112

Overall this was a really fun read with some interesting ideas. We follow Cabe Bedlam and a host of other characters who live in a world ruled by the Dragon Kings, a race of dragons who can shape shift. A group of warlocks known as the Dragon Masters attempted to defeat the Dragon Kings, taking over rule of their own kingdoms, and failed. The reader enters the story long after this failure, following a descendant of the leader of the Dragon Masters.

The world in this is extremely fascinating. My main drawback is that not a lot was developed. These really cool places would be visited and then ignored a page later, which was frustrating. It would have been nice to see some of these places in more detail. The world had some similarities to other fantasy novels that I've read, but it seemed to have its own twist on things. There was the Void, which was a non-place that housed demons, which was really interesting. There were undead people who could be controlled by the people who had woken them, though I was never sure if it was the person who had killed them or not. And each of the Dragon Kings ruled a different portion of the land, where the cultures and landscapes varied. We didn't get to see very many of these kingdoms, however.

The characters in this were not very well developed. They were interesting and had a lot of potential, but I didn't really think that any of them changed. Cabe makes discoveries about himself and morphs into something else, but without a lot of exploration or advancement. It's the same for most of the other characters as well, particularly Gwen. My favorite of the characters was Darkhorse, a demon from the Void who goes against his nature and helps man. I don't know that he developed all that much, but he was fascinating to read about.

The writing and structure of the story are definitely different that what I am used to reading. I haven't read a lot of older fantasy books, tending to stick with more modern publications, so I'm sure a lot of the style has to do with the time period. Once I was used to the way it was told it was an easy read and well written. More explanation about some of the world and further development of the characters are the main issues that I have with this one.

I read this in the first volume of Legends of the Dragonrealm . This volume contains the next two novels in the series, which I plan to continue and read in the near future.

2 s Herdis Marie451 33

Although Knaak is a wizard as far as creating worlds and fantastical beings goes, he is sadly lacking in both character development and writing style. I found "Firedrake" easy to read, but at times it was quite dull. Knaak's language lacks both brilliancy and originality. His prose is such that I know several fanfiction authors who could do a great deal better. He somehow manages to sap all of the dramatic potential out of his action scenes, so that they end up sounding he was bored when he was writing them.

The story centers around character Cabe Bedlam, with whom we are really not given a lot of space to become acquainted. He meets Gwyn, the "Lady of the Amber", with whom he fairly swiftly falls in love, without any more build-up than a brief consideration of her physical beauty. This is both cheesy and lacks believability.

The plot twists that happen during the course of the novel give the reader the impression that they are supposed to be surprising, yet they are all entirely predictable. There was not one plot twist during the course of the novel that I had not foreseen, and although I am an experienced reader, it is not too hard to surprise me.

In summary, this novel was perfectly average, and would probably be a good fit for more inexperienced readers, perhaps readers who care more about world building than characters or plot.american fantasy2 s Michal83 7

Ohnivý drak je prvá kniha z celkom populárnej série Dragonrealm od Richarda A. Knaaka, ktorá obsahuje už 15 kníh, pri?om na ?alších troch knihách autor práve pracuje. Ohnivý drak je kniha, ktorá bu? zaujme alebo nie. Je to v porovnaní s ostatnými knižnými sériami jednoduché dielo s novým originálnym svetom.


Dej: Cabe je oby?ajný ?ašník v meste Mito Pica. Zo svojho detstva si ve?a nepamätá. Je vychovávaný svojim "otcom" Hadeenom (lovec) a vedie pokojný, i ke? ?ažký život. Cabe žije vo svete zvanom Dra?ia ríša.

...viac na: http://overdeadbooks.blogspot.sk/2014...favorites my-library2 s Fernando2

Este libro no pudo tener más clichés típicos de un mal Anime de fantasía porque no le dió el tiempo al autor.fantasy2 s Jacob6 2

After reading Shade, it was a must to find out how everything happend. The start of the series is amazing. Anyone who loves dragons this is a must read. fantasy2 s Charlee51

I first read this book when I was eleven, and d it so much that I named my dog after the main character (Cabe) and stole my favorite character (Darkhorse) to use in online roleplays, as eleven year olds are wont to do.

Unfortunately, it did not live up to the memory.

The writing style is bad--passive voice, excessive adverbs, and generally clunky sentences abound. The dialogue feels stilted, in some places painfully so. Upon meeting our first female character, her 'ample figure' is referenced three times on one page; things don't improve much on the female character front from there. The female love interest's salient characteristics are being really hot and also emotional
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