Book Review: In the Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

The book I want to talk about today is one that I just finished rereading for about the fourth or fifth time. It is my personal Stephen King favorite - In the Eyes of the Dragon. This book is a blend of fantasy, horror and fairy tale. It is unlike any other Stephen King book and according to Stephen King; there is a good reason for that. He wanted to write something his daughter, who was not into his icky horror novels, could enjoy. She did and I am sure that made Mr. King immensely happy. I wish I could thank her because In the Eyes of the Dragon obviously helped Stephen King break free from his usual plot-type and write something different, but that still tied in with his other stories.

In the Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King takes place in a fictional version of Earth. More specifically, it takes place in the Kingdom of Delain. Delain is a nice place to live, but there is an evil at work there. An evil whose main goal is to see Delain in ruin and its people dead. That evil is the court magician - Flagg. Flagg is a masterful, though shortsighted (in some respects), villain. In fact, he is the villain lurking in the shadows of nearly every Stephen King book. You can even find him in books where he is not specifically mentioned, if you care to look. He is apparently such a part of Stephen King's imagination that he does not have to write about Flagg to write about Flagg.

In the beginning of In the Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King introduces his Readers to the Kingdom of Delain, the King of Delain (Roland, but not the Roland that you may be thinking of) and Flagg. Flagg controls Roland as much as he can, coaxing him to choose a wife, though the king is disinterested. Flagg winds up hating the wife Roland chooses and has her killed during the birth of her second child with Roland. As the story unfolds, the Reader begins to see just how evil Flagg is and just how susceptible the two princes - Peter and Thomas - are to his wicked plans.

In the Eyes of a Dragon is packed with intrigue, magic, goodness and evil. There is murder, weakness, redemption, love and power. Basically, there is everything you would want from an Arthuresque novel. The only other bit of Stephen King writing that can compare is the back-story of Roland of Gilead, found in the Dark Tower series.

Shelly Barclay

6 comments:

  1. I loved this, especially with it's connection to "the Walking Dude" Randall Flagg from the Stand. Flagg is one of my favorite literary villians

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  2. I have not read this one yet. Looks like it's time to!

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  4. Dixie, I loved this too, but I was not my favorite.

    jasSolutions, you should if you are familiar with the rest of Stephen King's books.

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  5. It's been a while since I've read it, but... I remember this being an easy read, with a smoothly flowing story-line. However I also remembering being upset and dissapointed by plot holes and inconsistencies later in the story (just one example: a powerful wizard who could demolish things with a word or thought, suddenly hindered by a mere door?) I understand that certain aspects in the later chapters were done to build suspense, conflict and intrigue, but they just didn't mesh with the purported abilities of the wizard throughout the first 75% of the book. The book had potential, but for me it just didn't live up to it.

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  6. I have to agree with you there. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it otherwise.

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