The Last Battle

by Chris Bunch

Book Overview

In Storm of Wings, the first book of the Dragonmaster series, Hal Kailas grows from a callow 13-year-old, fascinated by dragons living in the crags just above his isolated village, into a battle-savvy Dragonmaster. (Booklist) In Knighthood of the Dragon, the compelling sequel, Hal finds himself pitted against an enemy that not even a flight of dragons may be able to destroy. Now, in this triumphant conclusion to the enthralling Dragonmaster trilogy,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 045146110X
• ISBN13: 9780451461100
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Roc
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

As exciting as a last battle can be

As I liked the previous installations of this series I like this one. It feels both exciting and realistic to me, which is rare. It has a different tone than the previous books because the machinery of war and politics isn't there (much). There is none of the sense of a nearly inevitable horror, where there isn't really any side which seems to be right or wrong, but only people doing their jobs and people trying to be good or people being "bad". This book is about the "good" things of war: trying to take care of your mates be they men, women or dragons and trying to do the right thing without caring too much about how much does it cost to you.

great Military strategy

the military strategy was outstanding and throwing dragons into the mix made it more interesting.

A fitting ending

The first book, Storm of Wings, began with a typical boy-runs-away-from-home-turned-adventurer, except that the boy did not get apprenticed to powerful wizards nor warriors but learned to ride a dragon before getting conscripted into the war. He had enough sense and survived the war to become a veteran. After his unit got wiped out, the second part of the book began with heavy resemblance to WE Johns Biggles stories in the World War One when (military) aviation was in its infancy. In fact, the whole development of the war and the stalemates were lifted almost directly from the events of World War One with disastrous results in attempts of breakthrough. Those familiar with the Great War could identify Somme as well as Gallipoli. The second book Knighthood of the Dragon continued the war between Dermaine (Britain) and Sagene (France) on one side, and Roche (Germany) on the other. Here, the author adapted an episode from World War Two - The Great Escape. Eventually, Hal Kailas's side managed to break through and take the war into the lands of the Roche, despite it being slow going. The change of the nature of warfare in real world history to include destruction of civilian properties in order to starve the enemy into submission was also reflected. Hal Kailas ended the war as a hero and a lord. The final book - The Last Battle, began with the end of the war. Veteran Hal Kailas who found himself enriched and ennobled found frustrations as he could not find a new meaning in his life - leading to the estrangement with his wife. He finally sought to do something - to repay the dragons for their contributions to the war, by finding out what caused the dragons to flee from their original unknown homelands across the Great Sea. In this series, dragons were depicted as little more than aerial steeds adapted for war, with hardly more than animal intelligence. The dragons did not speak, breath fire nor cast magic. In fact, mankind had little fear of them, finding them nuisance to animal husbandry and even bully their youngs. The dragons did not have sufficient intelligence to recognise their innate advantages. Hal put together an expedition to sail to find the mysterious original homeland of the dragons. SPOILERS follows! After some adventures, Hal discovered the dragons were fleeing demons. This could be taken directly from the movie Evolution, whereby an alien entity (the demon) entered the world, and began multiplying itself, taking the forms of the mightiest creature it encountered, through a series of speedy evolution. While there was nothing really original in the series, the author's attention to details and ability to answer questions in the readers' mind through his narration was to be commended. The author indeed convinced us that the "heroes" in the book knew what they were doing instead of being small-minded characters.