Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis

Now that Billy let the Watchers out of their prison in order to save his father, these evil spirits are roaming all over the earth, wreaking havoc wherever they touch, and attempting to distract Billy and company. When Morgan kidnaps Walter's sister Shelly in order to have a hostiam, they decide it's time to take drastic measures. Therefore, Billy and Bonnie enter Dragon's Rest, a place where the dragons come to rest when they die, since they have had no redeemer to let them into heaven. They are looking for three people in particular: Clefspeare, Merlin's wife, and Professor Hamilton's wife. Billy faces a hard decision there in which he must sacrifice himself to be a redeemer.

The entire concept of Dragon's Rest is an original setting, much like the concept of the candlestone. Bryan Davis returns to originality in Tears of a Dragon, but not completely. The first half of the book is littered with wasted time and situations with typical outcomes. The last chapters of the book and Dragon's Rest are the saving grace that puts this book on the Elite List.

The characters never developed any personality as they should have throughout the series, but most of them stayed realistic and imperfect throughout the series. Bryan's worst problem in the character area was unnecessary characters, but that was set straight in the end.

The basis of the series, translumination, comes too much in handy at times for the characters. In every book, Bryan seems to come up with a new way Excaliber can get the characters out of scrapes. However, the idea of translumination was well thought out and not mindless like some of the other ideas Bryan Davis has cooked up.

The ideas and legends about dragons Bryan invented were ingenious and original, thus creating a good basis for a series. These ideas, again, were not mindless most of the time in their origin. They instead were very persuasive in their content and were good enough to be real.

I wish I could rate the final book in this series five stars because of the highly original end, but there is too much clutter at the beginning keeping the book away from this honor. Nevertheless, this has been a good debut series and gives hope for Bryan Davis down the road. If he keeps this trend up, he'll have a five star in no time.

4.5 stars

Circles of Seven by Bryan Davis

Billy and Bonnie are called into a series of alternate dimensions called the Circles of Seven in order to free prisoners that have been bound there by Morgan, the evil sister of King Arthur. She wants to lure the two anthrozills to her so she can destroy them. Professor Hamilton continues to decipher Merlin's diary in order to guide the two chosen children through the circles safely. But when Bonnie becomes seriously injured, Billy must make a hard choice between saving the prisoners or saving his only true love.

I can't express to you how tired I am of plots like this. Circles of Seven is a cheap, mindless quest with all the trimmings-CRT's, near-death experiences, confrontations, showdowns, and the like. There nothing really special about this addition to the Dragons in Our Midst series.

The characters are slowly morphing into perfection with each book. Bonnie and Ashley lost whatever good characteristics they had in The Candlestone. Morgan is a typical, cheesy villain, complete with Literary Trash sayings at the push of a button and maniacal laughing. Also, the discovery of the knights in The Candlestone has created a sea of unnecessary characters without personalities.

Where Bryan Davis did well at thoroughly explaining fantastical elements in The Candlestone, he lacks that in Circles of Seven. There are several tools and procedures regarding alternate dimensions that confuse the reader because of lack of explanation. This is unprofessional, especially since he described things well in The Candlestone.

Other than those things, there is really no point to the book at all. I would say that it is a sidetrack from the original point of the series, but what is the point of the Dragons in Our Midst series? One interesting thing happens at the end of the book that serves to open up a new topic of exploration in the fourth and final installment of the series, Tears of a Dragon. It also serves to make sure everything doesn't turn out right.

I hope Bryan Davis discontinues his track of inconsistency as he continues to author books.

2 stars

The Candlestone by Bryan Davis

Bonnie Silver has been lured to a mad scientist's laboratory under the assumption that the mad scientist is her father. He wants her to enter the candlestone, which he now has in his possession, and retrieve her mother, who is trapped inside of it. Bonnie agrees to do so only for her mother. When she is transported into the candlestone, she is surprised by the strange surroundings, yet she takes comfort that God is with her. Ashley, a girl working for her father, marvels at Bonnie's faith and immediately feels guilty for ever sending her in. Meanwhile, Billy, Walter, Professor Hamilton, Clefspeare, and Billy's mother are all trying to figure out where in the world Bonnie could have gone and why she left, all while Professor Hamilton is trying to decipher Merlin's cryptic diary.

The setting inside the candlestone is one of the most original fantasy settings ever created. Bryan Davis worked very hard crafting each detail and intricacy of the workings of his original setting. It is not a fantastical setting in which anything can happen and any convenient element can be created to save the characters from harm. It has its limits and flaws, thus making as realistic as it possibly can. Bryan did not spend little time thinking about this; the evidence is clear: he cared about what he was doing when he wrote The Candlestone.

The characters are getting better as the series progresses, as it should be. Billy continues making normal mistakes, and Bonnie and Professor Hamilton begin developing personalities. Ashley, the new character, is a realistic genius character in that she is not very practical. However, Walter and Billy's mother cease to have any purpose in the plot and should have never been introduced.

Besides all this, the end of the book is mostly original. The best part about it is the key character death. The showdown at the end was a bit much, and several other things turn out perfectly. Other than these minor mistakes, the book is flawless.

It is very promising to see that Bryan Davis didn't let the ideas he introduced in Raising Dragons go to waste. He put them to good use and invented several more. I can only wonder what the rest of the series will be like.

4.5 stars

Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis

Billy Bannister thought he was a normal kid. He was an only child, going to school, having a good life-until one day he set off the fire alarm at school, thus turning on the sprinklers. All Billy did was breathe. His parents eventually tell him that he's descended from dragons-namely his father. His father used to be a dragon, living in King Arthur's time. Billy eventually finds out that another girl at school is also a dragon descendant. He also finds out that there is a group of people who call themselves dragon slayers, who believe that all dragons are from Satan and that they should be destroyed-and several of them work at his school. He, his parents, and several other allies soon find themselves on the run from the dragon slayers-and in a fight for their lives.

The best thing about the first book in the Dragons In Our Midst series is that it sets up the background for the series very well. Bryan Davis has already built a sturdy foundation for his dragon theories that should be promising for the rest of the series. However. Raising Dragons is not a very good novel in itself.

To begin on a positive note, the characters, while they lack personality, make realistic mistakes. This also is a good start to the series. Another positive note is that the villains are not mindless hatemongers. They have a point and actually believe in what they are fighting for. This will do well down the road.

However, the book in itself, being introductory, doesn't have much of a point. It is merely an adventure that consists of parachuting off of a crashing plane and then being chased through a forest by black knights. The plot has no substance, therefore causing it to be mindless. The only saving grace it contains is the amount of evidence Bryan Davis has created for his dragon theories.

Raising Dragons

is a fine read when one takes into consideration that it is a debut novel. The near-death experiences at the end were just a bit much for me.

The Dragons In Our Midst has a lot of potential if Bryan continues to strive for originality.

2.5 stars

Starlighter by Bryan Davis

Coming March 2010...

Description:

Jason Masters has heard his older brother Adrian’s tales about dragons kidnapping humans. Supposedly, almost one hundred years ago, a dragon stole away several humans and enslaved them on its own planet. These Lost Ones, as Adrian called them, live terrible lives as cattle. Yet, the Underground Gateway, the portal to the dragon planet, still exists somewhere, and a secret society of the same name has long tried to find it so they can rescue the Lost Ones.

When Adrian leaves to find the portal, Jason takes his place as the Governor’s bodyguard. Although the government has tried to cover up the evidence, he learns that the legends are true, and after being accused of murder and learning that Adrian’s life is in danger, he has to conduct his own search for the portal, a journey filled with danger and intrigue.

Aided by a gifted young lady named Elyssa and an eccentric escapee from the dungeon named Tibalt, Jason ventures into the wilderness to locate Adrian and the Lost Ones. Yet, what he finds on the dragon planet proves to the biggest surprise of all. Koren, a lonely slave girl, is a powerful being called a Starlighter, the slaves' only hope for survival and rescue, though most refuse to believe that their ancestors ever came from another planet.

Preview:

Bryan Davis is really good at coming up with five star ideas. What he needs help with is combining those with five star plots. Once again, Starlighter looks like an extremely original idea. But what will he do with it?

Maybe he's better at the whole dragon theme than other things. Maybe the Echoes From the Edge was a fluke. Maybe he really has originality deep in there. I guess we'll find out next March.

Nightmare's Edge by Bryan Davis

And so we come to the end of the Echoes From the Edge series. When we last left our heroes, the three worlds were propelling toward each other and to the state of Interfinity. Nathan, Kelly, Daryl, and several other copies of people from alternate earths were trying desperately to save the universe and Nathan's parents. Poor Nathan is torn between the two.
The beginning half of this book is basically the same as the second: wasted time. After Kelly disappears in a swirling tornado, they try desperately to find her. This time, to fill the book, Bryan Davis has come up with a new time waster the dreamscape. Apparently, Gordon Yellow developed a system so the heroes could get into people's dreams in order to find Nathan's father and Kelly. This comprises easily half the book.
The other half is comprised of dramatic scenes with Mictar and scenes of them trying to find Felicity, a blind girl.
The plot is a mess. It's hard to point out one meaningless part from another.
I won't even get into the characters I've already talked about. Nathan's mother, when she isn't weeping, which she does most of the book, is saying long sentences of sensationalism. Nathan's father is one of those characters who spouts off unwanted pearls of wisdom all the time (think Clark from Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series). Mictar remains to be one of the worst villains of all time. The only things he says are Literary Trash sayings.
The explanation for Sarah's Womb makes no sense whatsoever.
Nathan spends most of the book bleeding. In pretty much every chapter, one of the characters comments about how his hands are bleeding profusely. He's also constantly complained about how he can't play his violin because of his scarred hands. It's a miracle he didn't need a blood transfusion somewhere in the middle.
Patar is the one saving grace of this series. Not only is he an original speculative character, but his end is also original.
Bryan Davis went the extra mile at making this book perfect at the end. We all knew that they were going to stop Interfinity, but he went too far with the perfection.
This has been a disappointing series with an unsurprising end.
1 star

Eternity's Edge by Bryan Davis

Bryan Davis is trying desperately to make Echoes from the Edge a trilogy. It would have done better as a standalone novel. But for some reason, all speculative books belong in trilogies.
The biggest problem with these first two books are their length. There is lots of wasted time in both books.
Eternity's Edge picks up where Beyond the Reflection's Edge left off-in the hospital. After a suspenseful scene with Mictar, Kelly is checked out, miraculously healed so they can continue their mindless adventure. After that, they proceed to waste some more time with their new friend Daryl, the token computer geek who can do anything technical. Her wisecracks are unbearable.
After accidentally creating a misty veil, they walk through and find themselves in world where the people talk in musical notes. This is one of the highlights of the book because no one has ever done such a thing before. But the idea is quickly ruined when the reader finds out that Kelly is the only one who can understand them. How she can understand them, I have no idea. This is just giving her a point to the series besides the romantic subplot. Even though Nathan is perfect, he can't do everything, you know.
After visiting that world, Patar pops up again and tells them they need to find Sarah's Womb (whatever that is) in order to find Nathan's mother and the giant magical, I mean, healing violin that will fill in the holes of the universe.
If I may pause for a minute, I must say that Patar is the best characters of the series. He's not your typical benevolent otherworldly guide. Nathan and his parents take up all the perfection in the series. Patar is a bit belligerent at times with his advice, mostly because he wants them to stop his brother Mictar.
Anyway, before getting around to Sarah's Womb, Nathan and his two servants, I mean, friends enter a dream world to talk to a girl named Scarlet. She is a supplicant (whatever that is) who is trapped under a glass dome.
Also, they take their time jumping between the earths to pick up Francesca again and attempt another tragedy prevention on Yellow-the space shuttle Challenger.
Davis covers for his key characters deaths conveniently. Though a key character may die on Earth Blue or Red, they can always go find the other one.
As it turns out, Mictar is building the Lucifer machine, a machine that converts light into dark energy (whatever that is). With this he will destroy the universe.
How juvenile.
This series has the two pieces of literary trash I hate the most-sensationalism and perfect characters.
But I could ramble on and on about the abused originality of this series, but I would run out of room on the post. Thankfully I only have one book left.
2 stars

Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis

While I ignored the Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series by this author, the Echoes from the Edge series caught my eye in a good way.
Nathan Shepard is a teenager who has been surrounded by music all of his life. His mother is a famous violinist, and he is trying to follow in her footsteps. His father is an investigator.
But then, one night after a concert, both of his parents are murdered by a strange scientist whom his father was investigating. All that's found on his father's body are the notes for the case and a strange mirror.
Nathan goes to stay with one of his father's friends as he tries to unravel the clues to his parents' deaths. Along with the help of Kelly, his new girlfriend, they discover something very dangerous and life threatening.
Three dimensions are being propelled toward each other because of holes in the dimensions. These holes are created by people traveling between the dimensions. If there are too many holes, than the whole universe will collapse into itself and be forced into a state called Interfinity.
Earth Blue is our world, and Earth Red and Earth Yellow are both behind in time. All three dimensions are virtually identical in their pasts, presents, and futures except for the staggered time lines. But the holes are making it so that things in Earth Red and Earth Yellow are happening differently than it did on Earth Blue.
The whole idea behind this book sounds creative, so the plot content is what keeps it from being Elite.
First of all, Nathan is a completely perfect character. The teen "everyone wants to be." The rest of the characters are also lacking for a personality.
Second of all, the villain is absurd and stereotypical. There's nothing that can make me believe it is real or plausible. It's just another one of those alternate world villains.
Third of all, this book is hardly spent working on the central task: mending the holes in the dimensions. it's mostly spent on street chases, emotional scenes, information dumps about Interfinity, and scenes showing how perfect Nathan is.
Fourth of all, the end of this book does not make me want to finish the series. But I will do so just so I can finish reviewing it. The end shows nothing of them trying to solve the problem; it consists of the characters sitting in a hospital room crying.
Fifth of all, the title makes no sense save for the sentence Bryan stuck at the end containing the title just to make it work.
I wish I could make this book Elite, but I really cannot because I can't do it in good faith. Perhaps the rest of series will utilize this original idea correctly.
2 stars