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A review by teaandspite
Heroes of Havensong: Dragonboy by Megan Reyes
2.0
This book was trying to be a lot of things all at once and it didn't especially succeed at any of them.
As epic fantasy it's mediocre and rather unoriginal. As middle grade it's a bit too convoluted and slow for most of the age demographic. Any of the individual storylines could have made a decent start to a middle-grade series on its own, but when put together the story becomes...cluttered.
If nothing else, Reyes should have started about 150 pages later than she did. There's far too much set up that could have been put in more concisely later on to keep the pace from dragging. I don't think I know an 8-12 year old who would have gotten through those first 150 pages. They're just not especially compelling and they jump around too much to allow readers to sink into the story.
I do think either Wren or Blue's story could have been made into compelling books on their own. Ideally with the characters aged up slightly (quite a few parts read as if Reyes started with an adult epic fantasy and then aged the characters down for marketability), but neither story is completely unworkable with the characters as they are. The elements of a decent story are there, they're just undermined by the way Reyes decided to put them together.
(That said, I will probably pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to what happens even if the reading experience wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. Reyes is at least doing a little right.)
As epic fantasy it's mediocre and rather unoriginal. As middle grade it's a bit too convoluted and slow for most of the age demographic. Any of the individual storylines could have made a decent start to a middle-grade series on its own, but when put together the story becomes...cluttered.
If nothing else, Reyes should have started about 150 pages later than she did. There's far too much set up that could have been put in more concisely later on to keep the pace from dragging. I don't think I know an 8-12 year old who would have gotten through those first 150 pages. They're just not especially compelling and they jump around too much to allow readers to sink into the story.
I do think either Wren or Blue's story could have been made into compelling books on their own. Ideally with the characters aged up slightly (quite a few parts read as if Reyes started with an adult epic fantasy and then aged the characters down for marketability), but neither story is completely unworkable with the characters as they are. The elements of a decent story are there, they're just undermined by the way Reyes decided to put them together.
(That said, I will probably pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to what happens even if the reading experience wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. Reyes is at least doing a little right.)