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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