It's nice to return to the 'Realm of the Elderlings' and continue the story of the dragon’s restoration into that world. I enjoyed this story and am looking forward to book two. This book seems to take a similar route as the Soldier Son Trilogy and 'The Dragon Keeper' being book one sets up the main characters, their backgrounds and motivations and then ends as the 'Quest to find the Elderling city of Kelsingra' begins. There are some compelling characters and a few nasty ones as well. A theme which runs through this book seems to be how the various female characters deal with and try to overcome the male bullies who have through various means manipulated their lives. Not too gritty but sometimes a little disturbing. Update: 17th July 2016 I've since read all four books in the Rain Wilds series, and enjoyed them all.  While interesting to see the Elderlings and Dragons restored to this world I didn't enjoy the characte...

A Classic '60s pulp fiction novel which looks at the theme of  ‘What constitutes a sapient creature’? The last half of this book goes into a detailed discussion between the characters, in and out of the courtroom, about this subject and then the repercussions it will have on the company owned planet of Zarathustra. Greed is the secondary theme as we follow the machinations of the company trying to keep its grip on the lucrative sunstone market. I particularly liked the technology of the book, it was vague enough in some areas to pass as a modern book and then quirky in the spots where it was a bit more detailed, like using audio tape to store information. I guess some of the tech in today’s modern sci-fi books will seem obsolete in 20 years time as well. This book can be read at two levels. When I read it twenty years ago it was an exciting story, after finishing it again at this later stage in my life the philosophical discussions where more interesting than the act...