Review: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Publisher: Viking (2011)
Format: Hardcover | 650 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy 

Description (Goodreads): "In this standalone sequel to Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Australian author Alison Goodman (Singing the Dogstar Blues) tracks the perilous adventures of Eona, the first female Dragoneye in many centuries. Unfortunately, our heroine finds no time to rest on her laurels: She and her fellow rebels are racing frantically to find a potent black folio while they also attempt to elude High Lord Sethon's pursuing army. Eona: The Last Dragoneye brims with romance, suspense, and surprises. Definitely worth recommending."

Warning: contains some spoilers for Eon.

It's a rare thing for me, but all I really want to write about "Eona" is how much I loved it. I really did. I wanted to continue reading it and at the same time didn't want it to end (so I forced myself to stop reading). For me, that's a sign I'm really enjoying the book.

Still, like most (or all) books, "Eona" isn't perfection in literary form, so there were a few things that I thought needed work. I guess I'll start with those.

As with "Eon" I thought the length of the book was excessive. Again, Goodman dragged the story. The book is huge (almost 700 pages) and not that much happens. I get many of these pages are spent with character development but it's still too long. On the plus side, the pacing was good, so although it's a big book it was never boring.

Another thing that bothered me was the ending. It was rushed and abrupt. I felt like it needed an epilogue or something. It felt incomplete.

These are my two main complaints as, in everything else "Eona" is better than it's predecessor: the story is more intricate and much less predictable with a well-constructed plot and the character development is.... amazing in most cases.

One of the exceptions would be Kygo (the Emperor) who didn't really appeal as a character; his development was weak, he didn't really seem like someone one would like to follow. Yuso's conduct was very blah and Sethon was just evil (minus the evil laugh), which was a surprise since all the other relevant characters were so layered and realistic. That Eona's adversary was a simple cookie-cutter villain disappointed me a bit.

Eona and Ido were two of the best characters ever. They were portrayed realistically and it was amazing how the author made me root for Ido right until the end of the book!

Eona still wasn't your typical selfless heroine; she spent the entire book dealing with lies, half-truths, forbidden feelings and the worst parts of herself. She had to struggle to reach that heroic mindset that comes so easily to most heroes in books. And I loved (I'm saying this world an awful lot) it; the fact that she was human and had her shortcomings.

I was kind of disappointed that, again, there wasn't much information about the dragons. But it was still a great read.

Engrossing, sensual, with great world-building and very human characters, "Eona" is an epic tale of a woman in a world of men, who is given the ultimate power. A different tale in a different fantasy world. Recommended for fans of fantasy and even people who don't like the genre much. :)

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Review: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

Publisher: Firebird (2010)
Format: Paperback | 570 pages

Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy

Description (Goodreads): "Sixteen-year-old Eon has a dream, and a mission. For years, he's been studying sword-work and magic, toward one end. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye - an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured. When Eon's secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne. Eon must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic . . . and her life."

Warning: Contains Minor SPOILERS!

Another book for which I had high expectations, "Eon: Dragoneye Reborn" by Alison Goodman left me somewhat disappointed, although I did enjoy it a lot. Confused? Well, me too.

Originally published as "The Two Pearls of Wisdom" in 2008, this fantasy novel had everything to make me love it: a fantasy world fashioned after the Ancient Civilizations of China and Japan, dragons and some gender bender. What more could I ask? Well, I could ask for a more creative story, that's what.

When I started reading I immediately remembered the Story of Saiunkoku since that anime was also set on a fantastic kingdom based in Ancient China and there were also guardians represented by colors (in Eon you have colored dragons). 

Don't get me wrong, "Eon" was a pleasure to read most of the time. I loved the world building, the careful construction of a fictitious kingdom based on several Eastern cultures (mainly China with some Japan thrown in). The attention to detail was amazing, with all the rituals and complicated court protocol presented to the reader.

I also liked the 'magic system', it seemed to be unusual and I thought it was creative that magic practitioners had to be linked with the dragons. Basically I loved the world Goodman built with it's fantastic mythology and great attention to detail (as mentioned before).

I would have liked to have known more about the dragons, their magic and their personal designs (if they had any). They seemed like mere magical beasts sometimes, but there were glimpses of intelligence. I thought it quite odd that the dragons were basically used to further human ambition when it was clear they were sentient.

So, having established that I loved the world created by the author, what failed? The story, of course. Since the beginning the entire plot involving Eon and the Mirror Dragon was very (and I mean very) predictable, so it was kind of frustrating to see Eon battle for more than 500 pages to understand what was going on when the reader was aware of the solution since almost the first pages. It made me not like Eon very much, I thought he was too clueless and naive at times. He definitely did not enter the role of "hero" from the first which was good because it made him realistic but also bad, because it made him unlikable sometimes.

Another thing I thought deserved a little more 'book time' were Eon's strange powers (as the book opens Eon already knows about the powers and is on his way to be tested to see if he can be a Dragoneye apprentice); they just weren't explored well enough. The author could have focused some part of the book on that instead of trying to drag the story.

As for the other characters, I liked Lady Dela and Ryoko, but the rest weren't that developed and as a reader I didn't care much for their fate.

The ending was a little rushed and unrealistic, especially what happened to Lord Ido. It just didn't seem probable that he would have such a reaction. It was like he was a different person at the end.

Overall, "Eon" was a fascinating read within the fantasy genre mainly because the world was atypical and very well constructed. But I also thought the book was too long and the story dragged a bit too much for the complexity of the plot. Still, I enjoyed this read and recommend it for fans of fantasy looking for something a little different (a crossover of Saiunkoku Monogatari with Mulan, perhaps?). And well, it does have dragons. I am definitely reading the sequel. :)

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