Earlier, the world's acceptance of dragonkind crumbled, and the Enforcers took the infant twins born to Billy and Bonnie and stole Excalibur. The Enforcers hoped to develop a weapon to battle the dragons that are sure to try and rescue their allies. All the while, a great secret from the past is being revealed to Bonnie through a dream. Joran and Selah, teenaged children of Methuselah, have been trapped in a strange world for centuries, yet are still able to manipulate certain events in our world during that time.
Walter Foley finds the Bannisters' son and hopes to use his dragon traits to help him rescue the prisoners. In the meantime, an ancient demon locates the Bannisters' daughter and plans to use her to help him discover the hiding place of the most powerful ovulum in the world and squelch its protective song. With that ovulum in his possession, he will be able to conquer and control both Earth and Second Eden.
The fate of two worlds now rests on the Bannisters' two teenagers who must use their dragon traits and their innate courage to battle demons, a sorceress, and enemy soldiers in order to rescue parents they don't even know.
Review: Well.... as you can tell from the synopsis on the back cover, there are a lot of angles being addressed in this novel. Thanks goodness there is a summary of the previous series (which this new books is based on) at the back of this book; I would have never been able to figure out who and what this novel was about otherwise. "Song of the Ovulum" is certainly meant to be read after its prequel series. To truly enjoy this book the reader really does need to have an accurate and fresh memory of the two series 'Oracles of Fire' and 'Dragons in Our Midst' before starting it.
This new series "Children of the Bard, of which Song of the Ovulum is the first book, is geared towards the middle-school to young high-school crowd. The writing style is simple and easy to read and the relationships between characters are straight forward. There is a sweet innocence to the multiple heros in this book and a honest openness. They love so easily and react and speak with child-like simplicity despite the fact that the book portrays them as late teens to adults. Being a bit older than the intended audience, I found the portrayal of emotions from the characters to be unrealistic. However, for the appropriate age group this book offers examples of relationships that aren't twisted into complicated and deceptive love triangles and friendships that come with no ulterior motive.
The multiple plots in this book are cohesive and the timelines, though separated by centuries and different worlds, flow together well. The ideas and fantastical props in this book are imaginative and interesting - who would have thought you could capture a dragon in the string of a lyre with a song? Or that that same song, if reflected badly, could hurtle it's singer into an entirely different world within the lyre? Clever angles such as these really keep the story going and help to hold the reader's interest.
The part I appreciated most about this novel was the joyously spoken love and adoration characters like Bonnie profess towards her Lord and Saviour. The faith message in this book is strong - especially considering it is a fantasy. This is a series I would be very comfortable purchasing for my younger cousins or recommending as a gift to someone between the ages of 11-16 who enjoys fantasy.
"Book has been provided courtesy of Foundation Distributing, Inc and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from AMG Publishers"
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