Both pirates and dragons continue to be as hugely popular with readers, young and old, as they were when I was a child and here – in the concluding read of Liz Flanagan’s Legends of the Sky trilogy – they are brought together in a story which is fantastical, exciting and filled with credible characters, all brought brilliantly to life by their creator. A fitting ending to the series, this is a book that will be thoroughly enjoyed by those picking it up and one which once again transports its readers to the world of Arcosi – now home to a growing collection of dragons and their riders.
We return several years after the events of Rise of the Shadow Dragons (you can read my review for that here) to join Serina, the daughter of Arcosi’s rulers, as she rushes around trying to find her parents ahead of the Hatching Day ceremony and celebrations that are to take place very shortly. Unable to locate them, she realises that they will be with their own beasts within the palace’s dragonhall and heads there to speak to them and share breakfast. Too excited and nervous to eat, Serina ponders her parents’ clear concerns about their island’s poor harvest and the need to trade with the Norlanders before trying to put these to the back of her mind and heading out to the ceremony.
After joining those also of an age to bond with a baby dragon, Serina watches keenly as Isak – her uncle and Head Dragonguard – unveils the eggs that are just about to hatch and after the first hatchling bonds with one of the boys, is thrilled when she senses that the second – Alden – will be hers. Before she is able to pick up the small creature though, the respectful calm of the ceremony is shattered when a dragon-riding intruder swoops down to steal Alden together with the remaining eggs. Panicking that she will lose him, Serina instinctively hitches a ride on the back of the thief’s dragon and finds herself transported to Skull Island – home of the outsider.
Furious and shaken by what has happened, Serina is immediately made to feel less than welcome by the dragon thief, who is in charge of the small community there, and vows to do all she can to avoid being killed before she can work out a plan to escape. Hiding her true identity, when the remaining eggs hatch she soon becomes friends with new dragon owners Raff and Naomi. But with the three children unsure as to how much they can trust one another, they soon need to come together to protect not just the life of Serina’s captor’s dragon but the lives of those on Arcosi too. Can Serina, Raff and Naomi persuade their peoples to put aside their differences to defeat their common enemy, and if they can’t what will happen to their precious dragons?
Serina’s lifestyle could not be more different from those of Raff and Naomi – a difference that quickly becomes apparent when she tries to make herself indispensable on Skull Island to ensure her survival. While some who have been used to her previously privileged position might find it difficult to integrate, she is not too proud to object to working hard and as a result soon finds herself not just accepted by Raff and Naomi but also their friend – something that is new to her as she has previously been unable to rely on the sincerity of those who have been around her. For Raff and Naomi, who have not been brought up around dragons and who have had no expectation of bonding with ones of their own, their new friend is one that they soon learn to value as she doesn’t let her superior knowledge and skills make her treat them as anything other than equals.
With the gap in time between each of the three books in the series leading to new main characters for each, this again works very well as a standalone novel with the backstory woven through the narrative while some of the secondary characters will already be familiar to those who have read either or both of the preceding titles. A great read for those in upper KS2, I really enjoyed the whole trilogy and am sad to see it come to an end although I know that the author has other reads for me to look forward to coming up in the future.
My enormous thanks go to publicist Antonia Wilkinson and to UCLan Publishing for my gifted review copy. The Pirate’s Dragon is on sale now.
Mrs Sydney's Famous World's Smallest Library 