Monday, June 27, 2011

Review of Eona by Alison Goodman

Goodman, Alison.  Eona. Viking, 2011.

In this sequel to Eon, nasty High Lord Sethon has taken, by brutal force, leadership of the Empire of the Celestial Dragons.  16-year-old Eona, a Dragoneye bonded with the almost mythical Mirror Dragon, and her companions Ryko and Lady Dela, join up with the rebels to find the exiled young Pearl Emperor Kygo and help him take the throne from Sethon.

Eona is a young woman who has lived much of life disguised as a young boy.  Kygo is not only the astoundingly gorgeous Pearl Emperor, but he also has a huge pearl embedded in his throat that is dangerously attractive to Eona; she keeps wanting to rip it out of his throat, an impulse that is apparently caused by a rather strong-willed ancestor of Eona's.  Is it any wonder that Eona is conflicted?

And then there's the nasty, immoral, powerful, smokin' hot and sexy Lord Ido, who is apparently under Eona's power - or is she under his?  The rebels need Lord Ido's mastery of his dragon to help their cause, but no one trusts him, so it's rather dismaying to Eona that she's so drastically attracted to him.

Although there is more to the plot - plenty of dragon lore (including a revelation about the tie between human and dragon that will surprise no one), battles, and so on - it's this love triangle that takes up much of the book.  Unfortunately, the plot drags whenever Eona is agonizing over Ido or Kygo.  The same conversations, recriminations, quarrels, and kisses happen over and over, and it got a bit dull for this particular reader.  Granted, I'm no longer a teenaged girl and had to do quite a bit of eye-rolling at all the self-inflicted drama - still, this book could have done with a judicious trim to make it a leaner, more intense and forward-driving story. 

The last climactic scene is a doozy, though - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Oh, and "contraire" Lady Dela (a biological man who lives as a woman) is as captivating as ever.

Definitely recommended for fans, ages 13 and up, of the first book, who will eat this one up despite its length.  If those readers love the Twilight triangle dynamic, so much the better.

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