553 pages
English language
Published March 3, 2010 by HarperCollins.
Too much time has passed since the powerful dragon Tintaglia helped the people of the Trader cities stave off an invasion of their enemies. The Traders have forgotten their promises, weary of the labor and expense of tending earthbound dragons who were hatched weak and deformed by a river turned toxic. If neglected, the creatures will rampage--or die--so it is decreed that they must move farther upriver toward Kelsingra, the mythical homeland whose location is locked deep within the dragons' uncertain ancestral memories.
Thymara, an unschooled forest girl, and Alise, wife of an unloving and wealthy Trader, are among the disparate group entrusted with escorting the dragons to their new home. And on an extraordinary odyssey with no promise of return, many lessons will be learned--as dragons and tenders alike experience hardships, betrayals . . . and joys beyond their wildest imaginings.
Easy short read. Liked all the new characters, and the change of location. I'm reading the whole series (Rain Wild Chronicles, 4 books) as one large book, so I didn't mind the abrupt ending.
When I started reading this book I had not realized it was really only half of the full story. This book is not a self contained story you can read by itself; I will have to finish book #2 to get the full story. There is a lot of character and story buildup contained within this book. The ending of the book more or less leaves you hanging there wondering "Is this really the end?" It felt weird since most book s have a building to the climax and then the climax; no climax here. Take note this book will move slowly because of all the above mentioned caveats.
I am hoping that book #2 does a good job wrapping all the pieces together and closing this part of the story.
