Joanne Bertin - Dragon and Phoenix

Joanne Bertin revisits the fabulous world she created in The Last Dragonlord, reuniting us with the Dragonlord Linden and his new-found love, Maurynna, in a tale of sweeping adventure and terrible consequences.In the far-off land of Jehanglan, a dragon has been captured and put to horrible use -- its magic drained from it to hold a phoenix in stasis. But the phoenix needs to burn. When the dragon's cries of pain reach the ears of the Dragonlords Linden and Maurynna, they must travel deep into Jehanglan to free the dragon and the phoenix.

Comment: This is the second installment in the Dragonlord trilogy by author Joanne Bertin. I got the first two books years ago and I read the first one in 2017. How time passes by so quickly and only now I've read the second and it's almost the end of 2019...

In this sequel we find the couple Linden and Maurynna settled in their relationship but Maurynna is still feeling bad she can't change into her dragon self. She also misses the ocean and the fact she had just gotten to be captain of her ship. Nevertheless she feels happy she is with Linden and they go on with their lives in the mountains.

Then one day the dragons hear about their imprisoned ancestor in the distant land of Jehanglan and a mission to rescue him is planned. The problem is how tog et there since that land has been closed off from other nations. During the travel the team faces several setbacks but eventually the dangerous mission seems to become a reality. However, their dragon ancestor has been locked up in pain for so long that me has become too dangerous and too angry. Will they succeed in returning alive from this rescue mission?

I really liked this story too, as I had the other one. I think the author has cleverly thought about the world, about the characters and how to develop the situations through the plot.

I also would say that the biggest problem in this story for me was how some drama situations felt like they could have been avoided and I'm not certain if I have that feeling because those things didn't have to happen or maybe they didn't have to happen like that. Anyway, this was an engrossing story to follow and despite my edition being a hardcover - thus not easy to carry - I wanted to know what happened so it felt quite easy to keep the book open.

The plot seems a little tricky because there is a big cast of characters and different settings in which the action takes place. Despite this, I think it's still easy to follow what is happening and even though there are some parts I didn't find as interesting to read about, I was always eager to see what my favorite characters were doing. There is some talk about the distant land's "rules" and religion and some of those things were also interesting, believing it or not, but I think some details which are often found in these types of fantasy books (where we have different countries or nations with weird or unfair religion rules) are just too much of an expectation and not a necessity. Some scenes because of this felt annoying to me to read.

The characters are engaging although we don't have a very deep characterization on any of them besides the obvious and what we would expect anyway if they are the "good" or the "bad" guys. I suppose this is something one can wait for as it is, after all fantasy stories tend to follow certain rules like this notion that the adventures they face are more important than their complexity as characters.

Of course I was more than glad to see Maurynna and Linden happy together despite their personal issues, I also liked meeting new characters like Shima and even some dubious ones had their points of interest. In general, this was a very engaging read and I was always eager to see what would happen next.

I suppose I could say some of the plot is a bit too slow in developing. We are privy to a lot of setting up the plans and the problems before the real action really starts. Although some scenes, like I said, were a bit annoying and even felt repetitive, I still think the author showed her cleverness in several moments and I confess there were things I was still surprised at. There is some emotion here too, I think this could have been even more depicted and explored but it was good as it was. Of course, some potential situations were not developed in favor of others a fantasy reader would expect anyway but, al in all, this was a good read.

Considering this, of course I'll read the final installment in the trilogy and I can't wait to see where Maurynna and Linden will be like with a more settled relationship and life.

Grade: 8/10