Reviews

The Dragon's Apprentice by James A. Owen

yuzureads's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

bookworm_with_a_dragon's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

tmleblanc's review against another edition

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4.0

A great setup to what I hope will be a spectacular conclusion!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few years ago I discovered the novel Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen. This is the first book in the 7 books series known as the “The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica” which follows the lives of Jack, John and Charles as they battle the forces of evil in an effort to save the World. Quite a tall order for three unknown gentlemen from Oxford.

This is a wonderful series of books that draws on many of the known myths and histories laid out in our most treasured stories. The books mix elements of time travel and fantasy to produce a rich and dense forest of interconnected story lines–both real and fictional–that keep you moving forward to discover the Grand Reveal at the end of book seven, The First Dragon. The artwork at the start of each chapter is also stunning! That’s right, each chapter in every single novel of this series is illuminated. Each image is hand drawn by the author himself.

By the third book in the series, The Indigo King, the plot gets a bit complicated and becomes one of those time travel books/series that will keep your mind spinning and trying to work it all out. The shear number of the characters with their similar names and the overlapping, intertwining timelines also cause the mind to spin a bit. However, I stuck it out after a confusing third book and thoroughly enjoyed book 4, The Shadow Dragons, and book 5, The Dragon’s Apprentice, which set the series up for the what I hoped would be a fantastic finish. Book 6, The Dragons of Winter was once again just a s complicated as book 3 and once again confusion set in. However, all was made clear with book 7, The First Dragon. The conclusion was satisfying even if it felt a little rushed with some of the true historical background about the three main Caretakers not being fully fleshed out and shared with the readers.

Overall, I liked “The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica” by James A. Owen. The world he creates is partially known and brand new. The illustrations provided in each book at the start of every chapter are amazingly detailed. “The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica” series by James A. Owen gets a thumbs up.

This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews.

heatherday916's review against another edition

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4.0

This series is fabulous, but has definitely become a bit complicated in this book and the previous one. Lots of characters to keep straight and goings-on and timey-wimey stuff to keep track of. But that's all part of the fun. I've read some of the books and listened to audiobooks of the others and I have to say that the audiobooks (read by James Langdon) are fabulous with helping to keep characters straight as he does a nice job of creating different voices for each character.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was the Epilogue. It did TOO good a job setting up the mysterious cliffhanger/lead-in to the next book. I don't want to have to be patient and wait for #6 to arrive.

auora1484's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

leonidaz11's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

spaceyacey's review against another edition

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5.0

This series is like comfort food for me, I love diving back into the the beautiful world that James A. Owen has created. The fifth installment kept up the tradition of things I didn't quite expect, tear jerking scenes as well as lines that actually made me laugh out loud.

paula12's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

snowlilly's review against another edition

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4.0

The best one so far

lara_lleverino's review against another edition

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4.0

I love this series and think the author ranks up with CS Lewis...not quite Tolkien but this book moved him further in that direction!