|
|
Title | Ben the Dragonborn
| |
Author | Dianne Astle
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | 2013
| |
First Printing | Createspace - 2013
|
|
|
|
Title | Ben and the Watcher of Zargon
| |
Author | Dianne Astle
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | ---
| |
First Printing | ---
|
| |
|
|
Title | Moses and the Dragonborn
| |
Author | Dianne Astle
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | ---
| |
First Printing | ---
|
|
|
|
Title | Charla Visits Earth
| |
Author | Dianne Astle
| |
Cover Art | ---
| |
Publisher | 2017
| |
First Printing | 2017
|
| |
|
Category | Middle Grade
| |
Warnings | None
| |
Main Characters | Ben Taylor, Charla, Jared
| |
Main Elements | Dragons, Mermaids
| |
Website | ---
|
|
 Ben the Dragonborn
Ben’s father has disappeared. He never knew his mother. There is no one to help fourteen year old Ben understand the memories that are surfacing through his dreams. The principal is about to expel Ben, but instead sends him through a portal to another world. Ben is chosen by the Guardian of the Six Worlds to stop a war between humans and mer. Ben’s only chance of success depends on discovering the secret of his own true self in a terrifying world where nightmares come to life.
Charla Visits Earth
Ben learned mermaids can be annoying when he travelled to Lusaka. Now the most annoying mermaid of all has come to Earth for a visit. Charla reminds Ben that she saved his life and says he owes her big time.. She wants Ben to take her for a visit to the city of Vancouver where she wants to go up to the top of Grouse Mountain. This is a short story for those readers who said they wanted to see more of Charla.
Sometimes a free book is free because, well, you get what you pay for. Other times, like with Ben the Dragonborn, you get a special treat. In this story Ben, a boy terrifies of drowing, is sent without any warning or training to save a world he didn't even know existed, a world consisting mainly of water and inhabited by mermaids and where dragons have been spotted.
Ben may have no idea what is going on, nor does he know how to save a world, but he's been Chosen and he can't let the Lushakans go to war with each other, it is his duty to prevent it, notwithstanding the fact he only got two of the three powers a Chosen is usually given. But at least he doesn't have to go alone. Along with a couple orca-like fish, a mermaid and a Lushakan human (keep in mind humans and mers HATE each other) he heads out to accomplish what no one else could, for those that have tried to retrieve the Mer-King's crown don't return. But he has to try, or else forget about ever being chosen again!
It was written decently well and the plot never let me get bored. The worldbuilding was good and the characters interesting. And of course there's the mystery as to Ben's true nature (not exactly a secret given the title of the book, but Ben himself has to figure it out still). I don't know if I enjoyed it enough to pay between $6-8 for each of the next two books in the trilogy, much as I would like to see the world Zargon, however the short story Charla Visits Earth was free and fun to read as a mermaid from another land tries to make sense of our human world without having anyone figure out her fish-tailed secret.
|
