Book Review: EON: THE LAST DRAGONEYE by Alison Goodman

“Twelve-year-old Eon has been in training for years. His intensive study of Dragon Magic, based on East Asian astrology, involves two kidns of skills: sword-work and magical aptitude. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye–an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune.

But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a boy for the chance to become Dragoneye. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured.When Eon’s secret threatens to come to light, she and her alies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne. Eon must find the strength and inner poewr to battle those who wnat to take her magic…and her life.”

This book is amazing, but very long. A little warning is there is a HUGE cliffhanger at the end and I can’t find a possible release date for the second book (Eona: The Last Dragoneye) anywhere. I read somewhere that it may be released in 2010, but that was all.

Eon (Eona) lives under her master as she trains as a candidate in the hope of being chosen by the Rat Dragon, the dragon that is ascending that year to choose a new apprentice Dragoneye. Eon is not only a girl in disguise, but also a cripple. Her master intentionally caused her hip to be shattered when she was younger to help disguise the fact that she is a girl. Eon knows that if she is not chosen by the Rat Dragon, her master will be ruined, she will be sold back to the salt farm to work, and her friends, Chart and Rilla, will be sold as slaves. She does have a special advantage over the other competitors: she can see all the dragons when she enters the energy world; a gift that is very rare.

When the Rat Dragon ascends, despite attempted sabotage by Lord Iro, the current Rat Dragoneye, and Ranne, the swordmaster who Eon has been training under, she is not chosen. Instead, she is chosen by the Mirror Dragon (Dragon Dragon) a dragon that hasn’t been seen for 500 years. When the dragon attempts to join with her and get her to shout her name to the sands, Eon refuses to shout Eona as she knows her real name means certain death. By doing so, she pushes her dragon away and spends most of the book trying to bring the Mirror Dragon back.

As Coascendent, Eon is tossed into a deadly struggle for power. Lord Brannon (Eon’s master) and Eon are supporters of the current emperor and his son. But Lord Iro and several others are on the side of High Lord Sethon, the emperor’s brother and leader of the military. When Lord Brannon dies of poison, Eon is alone and the race for power struggles on as Iro challenges her to a challenge that even Dragoneyes struggle with: she must turn the King Monsoon away from the village to save the new year’s crops. But Eon can’t even call her dragon and if she can’t call the Mirror Dragon, she can’t stop the Monsoon.

Tension is at it’s peak when the ailing emperor dies and Sethon seizes his chance to take the throne.

This book is amazing with plenty of action. The only complaint I have against it, is some things towards the end are a little unclear. But I shall anxiously await the next installment nonetheless. Oh and towards the middle when Eon is getting more and more desperate to find her dragon’s name, she does get a little annoying with her attempts. Trying things that in the end are really the cause of her failures.

-Rachael