Book- The Dragon Charmer

The Dragon Charmer (Legends of Tivara, Daughter of the Dragon Throne Book 2) by J.C. Kang (2016)
Kaiya, princess and a singer with untapped magical depths, helped to put down a rebellion and awoke a dragon.  Now she is just the last unmarried daughter of the emperor.  Plots swirl around her, including one that seeks her death.  In her heart, Kaiya yearns for the one prince who loved her for her musical gifts, rather than her ability to bear a child that might one day sit upon the Dragon Throne.  Oh, and the dragon she awoke?  It has plans for her too.  She will have to continue to master her gift with the help of an unusual band of mentors if she is to survive.

J.C. Kang blew me away with the first book in this series.  I gave it my highest praise.  It was a book that made me want to get back to reading it.  In The Dragon Charmer, he picks up where left off.  Bringing a little something different to fantasy by placing the story in the court of an “oriental” culture, rather the default “western” one, he gives us the chance to experience the familiar tropes of fantasy novels in a new setting.  I come away feeling like I have experienced something new.

Kaiya is a very real young woman.  She doesn’t have some intrinsic inner compass that always allows her to make the correct decision.  Sometimes she goes very wrong and has to work her way back to where she needs to be.  Her mentors (everything from an elf lord to an evil wizard) are not always helpful in the manner she would prefer.  I think a lot of female readers will appreciate that so many of the primary characters here are women who take control of the action around them.

I had kind of walked away from a lot of fantasy a couple years ago.  I just found too many authors trying to show off either their knowledge of the story’s chosen culture (I’m not interested in ethnography) or the erroneous idea (in my opinion) that complexity equals good storytelling.   Overly complex stories too often are simply camouflage for poorly conceived stories.  The truly complex tale requires a mastery of storytelling that very few writers ever achieve.  Here, Kang manages to walk that tightrope beautifully.  The story is robust but never exceeds the needs of the tale itself.

Once again, I got to the end of the book and was unhappy that I had to wait for the next book.  At least Kang’s tempo is much faster than a certain other, more famous, fantasy writer.

The book is available now in e-book and paperback.

Rating – **** Recommended