The Dragon Orb, by Mike Shelton, 326 pages.
Some books are a slow burn – which is why I rarely stop
reading a book, even if the beginning is a bit iffy.
That’s the case with Mike Shelton’s The Dragon Orb, a book
that starts out with a klunk (with some wonky writing) but ends with a flourish
of storytelling that made me glad I didn’t give up.
A few of the characters are a bit too perfect, but that’s
okay.
The writing, especially at the beginning, is stilted, but
that’s okay.
Why okay? Because the story pulled me through. As I read I
began forming visions in my head of what the characters looked like, and began
placing them in bits of geography I’ve visited as Shelton told his story. To
me, that’s a sign of a good book.
I think part of the klunk came from the king-men and other
vocabulary borrowed from the Book of Mormon. Not that it’s terrible the author
did that, but the familiarity had my head hollering “B of M” every time it came
up. Nevertheless, I got used to seeing such wording in the book, so that
passed. To anyone not familiar with the borrowed vocabulary or concepts, there
won’t be an issue.
Shelton’s characters are prefab, and we only get to see one
of them grow as the story progresses. The rest are driven by the narrative and
the (obvious) roles they’ll play in future novels. Shelton suffers the same
characterization affliction I do – his characters pretty much sound the same.
The book might win the award for Least Likely Poisoning –
I’m not sure anyone could successfully lunge up to someone and force them to
drink out of a little glass bottle without the victim vigorously fighting back
and succeeding. But I’m not a poisoning expert.
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