My first taste of Ed Dunlop’s work came in the form of a Sherlock Jones mystery. My family loved it. It was funny, exciting and spiritual all at the same time. So, I was very excited to receive the Terrestria Chronicles: The Dragon’s Egg and The Crown of Kuron by Ed Dunlop for review. There’s nothing better than a good book and so I split the books with my daughter. She took The Crown of Kuron and I took The Dragon’s Egg. Ready, set, read!
Now, although we read different books our reactions were pretty similar. We were bored. Maybe we’re just not the castle and knight type of girls. Jade reported that it took a long time to read the book because the plot was “kind of slow and not really exciting.” And that’s pretty much my take on it also. I also found it to be heavy-handed with the delivery of Christian values.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the premise of the books. I love the values that the stories are illustrating. But to be honest (and please don’t pelt me with eggs), but the writing style for these particular stories reminded me a lot of Moses’ writing. Huh? What I mean is, Moses repeats himself an awful lot in his writings. I later understood that in Hebrew repetition signifies the weightiness of a matter so I learned to appreciate it (or at least be patient) but it’s not something I look for in secular stories.
For example in The Dragon’s Egg, Josiah just keeps repeating how he can’t disobey King Emmanuel. He can’t disobey King Emmanuel because he’s done so much for him. He can’t disobey King Emmanuel because of his vows. He can’t disobey because … well, you get the idea. Then the names of the knights (although wonderfully and vividly explained) got on my nerves. I understand the point behind them (we should be faithful (Sir Faithful), dedicated (Sir Dedication), watchful (Sir Watchful), etc.) but it just didn’t work for us.
And I hate to say it but I liked the dreaded Morphina better than the knights. She really is a sneaky villainous who is a force to be reckoned with in the books. Mr. Dunlop’s depiction of how people allow their secret desires to morph their sensibilities was very well done (and oh so true). And while Josiah can be annoying at times, he is an excellent example of what all people face when they’ve chosen a higher path to live on.
Although we didn’t enjoy these two books, I do think that families that enjoy knights and jousts will get a kick out of it. I think boys would probably really enjoy it since there’s jousting, dragons, glory and treasure involved. (And if you’re a mystery buff like we are, definitely check out Ed Dunlop’s Sherlock Jones (and other) series. )
Khalid Family: 2 out of 5
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