Series: The Dragonslayer #3
Publisher: Mundania Press
Publishing Date: May 29th 2012
Source: review copy offered by the author
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb: (from Goodreads)
In Book 3 of the Dragonslayer series, Astrid accepts her duty and follows the winter route--until she's bitten by a dragon. Everyone knows dragon bites are poisonous and deadly, so she reluctantly accepts her impending death. In a twist of fate, she survives. Desperate for an explanation, Astrid believes she has somehow been protected by the black stone she keeps with her at all times, a stone that emerged from the sole of her foot a year ago. Determined to find out what the stone is and what kind of powers it possesses, Astrid begins a journey that leads her to alchemists and an army of men under the rule of the powerful warrior, Mandulane, the acting lord of the Krystr army. Mandulane's mission is to spread the word of the new god Krystr, which preaches the evil intent of women and the danger they pose to all men, who are entitled to dominate the world. Rumors about this new god and army have spread, but Astrid is the first Northlander to encounter them. Soon, she stumbles upon a secret of a far-reaching and mind-numbing plot that will impact the entire world. Astrid must find a way to spread the news of this threat and protect her people and everyone else at risk. She's convinced the answer lies inside the Stone of Darkness, and she must find a way to understand the stone and the powers she's convinced it must hold before it's too late.
If I loved the first two books in this amazing series, let me tell you that I adored The Stone Of Darkness. I feel like I can't actually describe how much I loved this book.
I loved how we get more subplots at the same time. There aren't too many though and they don't take up much time, but they do keep the reader wanting to read and needing to know more about them. We get to see the dragons again and we get to understand more about them, about their ways and about dragonslayers in general. One thing that I loved was getting a little bit of the history of dragons and I understood them a lot better than I did in the previous novels.
Astrid is changed. While more mature and more used to her role as a dragonslayer, she still has a lot to learn about herself and about her family history and about people in general. I think there were things that happened in this book that she needed to go through in order to understand herself better. There are a lot of questions that find answers in this third book and there are so many more new and old questions that need answers, not only about Astrid, but about anything I thought I new about this world.
There's action, suspense, humor, a little bit of romance, mystery, anything I could have wished for. And the one thing that made me completely adore this book was that I was so focused on what was happening, I never imagined the ending was going to be like that. I have no idea what I was thinking the ending was going to be like, but I was surprised. Now, of course, I'm sitting here biting my nails, waiting for the next one.
Anyway, if you haven't checked this series out (shame on you!) do it now!!! It is good :D
