The Dragon King Trilogy #1: In the Hall of the Dragon King by Stephen R. Lawhead

My name is Quentin. A dying knight gave me a secret message to deliver to the queen saying the king is being held captive by a sorcerer. The king's younger brother, Prince Jaspin, has been plotting to take over the throne, and he is having the sorcerer help him. Or maybe the sorcerer is really using the prince. It's hard to tell with evil men. After delivering the message, I joined the queen and two others in making a hasty getaway from the castle. We planned to help the king escape the sorcerer, but we were attacked by ruthless bounty hunters and became separated. I fear my friends have been captured, while I follow days behind them. The evil sorcerer has powers beyond my knowledge, and I don't know how far his powers reach. However, the god who created all others spoke to me in a dream, and he will support me in my quest for wisdom and truth and will help me save the king. I know my journey will eventually lead to the sorcerer's Legion of Death, but another wizard has said there's something special about me. The quest for righteousness and justice will be dangerous, but I must not give up.


This book will appeal to more mature readers, as it's very descriptive and spiritual. Quentin makes a spiritual connection with the Maker, or Man of Light, who says "gods themselves tremble in my presence." This God Most High becomes the source of all of Quentin's future abilities. I enjoy underdog characters who rise from unimportant pasts to become heroes. The plot slows down in places due to the amount of description and reflection, but it includes enough adventure and action scenes to keep things interesting. The plot builds to an exciting climax. Frequently changing settings can become confusing, but using it in this book allowed me to see the bad guy's plans and then see how the good guys were trying to stop them. However, it bugs me a little when the story changes settings with little warning. I read the story as an eBook, and the author doesn't use any punctuation, symbols, line spacing, or font changes to show the transitions.