Cornelia Funke
The Dragon Rider book series is a fantasy adventure series written primarily for children by author Cornelia Funke but the story inside would be perfectly enjoyable for anyone who likes to read stories about epic dragon adventures, fun and amazing characters, and majestic dragons who live in quite the interesting worlds.
Unique and Thrilling Story
This series consists of only two books, the first one is called Dragon Rider and the second is The Griffin’s Feather, and these books offer unique and thrilling stories for the biggest of dragon-related story enthusiasts. Be sure to check out this review if you are interested in this type of tale and want to learn a few things about the series in general before you start the amazing journey that is Dragon Rider.
Dragon Rider Book Series
Dragon Rider
Firedrake
He is not alone though as other dragons are living there as well but they have all discovered that the humans are planning to flood this valley where they live in and that this is no safe place for any dragon anymore.
The Rim of Heaven
This is the reason that Firedrake and the other dragons must leave this place. After hearing that there is a legendary place that is made for dragons to live in peace and enjoy the rest of their lives, all of the dragons become excited and start their search for this truly fascinating land.
The Rim of Heaven is what this magical place is called and Firedrake begins his search along with the guidance of Slatebeard, the eldest dragon of his clan, as they desperately try to avoid the Golden One, a huge dragon-like monster whose sole purpose in life is to hunt and kill dragons. So the journey starts, but first, Firedrake and Sorrel, his friend, must travel to Hamburg in order to find a rat who specializes in making maps, called Gilbert Graytail.
Firedrake Meets Ben
Soon after landing at the docks in Hamburg, Firedrake sees an orphan boy who is in trouble and in desperate need of help, so he saves him and in return, Ben offers Sorrel human clothes so that she can blend in and find the rat who makes maps. Before leaving, Firedrake and Sorrel decide to bring Ben too as it was his wish and it’s not like the boy has a family to go back to anyway.
Now comes a twist that complicated things a bit for our main characters. While flying through the air, they make a turn too soon and end up in a mountain range full of dwarves.
They present no threat but while Firedrake was sleeping, one of the dwarves runs up into the mountain, and here is where you get to meet the Golden One, also known as Nettlebrand. After finding out about these three travelers, Nettlebrand decides to be on their tail in hopes of killing the dragon and securing his next meal.
Professor Greenbloom
As the characters continue their search for the magical Rim of Heaven, they are swept off by a huge storm and find themselves being forced to land in Egypt. Their own story crosses paths with a team of archeologists and a few characters who definitely catch their attention, a guy named Professor Greenbloom is one of those characters.
The Professor gives them a bit of advice, to look for a character known as the Djinn who has a thousand eyes and sees all, he might be able to help them locate the Rim of Heaven.
The Djinn proves to be very helpful in this situation as he shows them the right path to where they are headed, follow the Indus River until a monastery appears, behind this monastery is the Rim of Heaven, that’s what the Djinn told them.
A Prophecy
This Djinn also tells them of a prophecy that states the following: “When that day comes, twenty fingers will point the way to the Rim of Heaven, and silver will be worth more than gold”. What this means is something that the characters and you will have to discover for yourself as we don’t want to spoil too much of the story.
Soon follow a lot of more thrilling events as you discover what the Golden One, Nettlebrand, has been up to as his evil plans are definitely beginning to catch up to our protagonists. There are tons of new characters to meet along the way as we haven’t even gotten to the middle of the story yet.
Not Getting Any Easier
The characters might now know the location of the Rim of Heaven but they still have a long way to go and a lot of things to overcome before they finally reach it and Nettlebrand is definitely not making things any easier, that’s for sure.
As we mentioned, we don’t want to spoil all of the fun for you here as the story and adventure that follows is just too good to be ruined with spoilers. There are new characters ahead and new places to visit.
And let’s not forget the monstrous Nettlebrand and the fact that he is still hunting our heroes and things definitely get a lot more thrilling as he gets closer and closer to them.
The Griffin’s Feather
Life in Norway
Life in NorwayThe second book of Dragon Rider series is The Griffin’s Feather, a book where you get to read one more thrilling story in the world of Dragon Rider. The story lets you read about the same characters from the first book but a bit of time has passed since you last read about them in Dragon Rider.
This time Ben is 14 and is living with his new adoptive family in Norway. They are Vita, Barnabas, and Guinevere Greenbloom and they offer the perfect life for Ben in which he definitely feels very happy.
Missing His Friend
Although Ben is happy to have found a new family where he can feel loved again, he deeply misses his friend Firedrake and the outstanding adventures they went on. Speaking of Firedrake the dragon, his story now takes place in the Himalayas where he finally feels safe and has the most wonderful and joyous life in his new home.
The story finally approaches to some of the more thrilling events when Ben and the Greenblooms discover that the last few eggs of the winged horse known as the Pegasus are in danger as they have fallen ill and are in desperate need of help. They have something in mind that just might be able to save the foals in the eggs in time and save the Pegasus species as these eggs are the last of their kind.
The Griffin, Dragons’ Worst Enemy
The Greenblooms know of a cure that can be made specifically for what the Pegasus eggs are suffering from and this cure involves a feather from the Griffins, deadly creatures who have the appearance of lions with wings and the head of an eagle, a dangerous combination which absolutely hates dragons and loves to hunt them down.
This is the biggest reason why Ben decides to lie to Firedrake for the mission that he is about to go on which involves finding a Griffin and securing a feather. He is concerned for his dragon friend and definitely doesn’t want him in the middle of all that danger where Firedrake will definitely be the number one target for the deadly Griffins.
Characters
The characters who set off on this dangerous journey are Ben, Barnabas, homunculus Twigles who you know that is friends with Ben now if you have read the first book all the way until the end, aviator-rat Lola Graytail, and the troll known as Hothbrodd.
If you really love reading adventure tales such as this one then you are probably starting to get super excited about the book even from reading this review as the adventure that awaits these characters is definitely something to get your adrenaline flowing.
So the Journey Begins
All of the characters but Ben decide to take the troll Hothbrodd’s wooden plane to Indonesia where they will start their search for the Griffins’ lair. Ben actually accepts Firedrake’s offer to fly on his back only to Indonesia as Firedrake is flying back to the Rim of Heaven and they are both flying in the same direction, this offers Ben and Firedrake a chance to catch up as they haven’t seen each other for a few years.
Along the way, Ben receives wonderful news that Firedrake and his mate Maia are expecting their own children and that the eggs should hatch in about three months. This means that Ben is, of course, excited but he also won’t be able to see Firedrake for a long time after that, so he plans to find a way to go to the Rim of Heaven after they get the feather so that he can spend more time with his best dragon friend.
Danger Ahead
The characters then say goodbye to Firedrake and start their search on an island that is believed to inhabit a few of these majestic and very deadly lion-birds. One more thing that we definitely need to mention in our Dragon Rider review is that just before Firedrake leaves, he gives a special locket containing one of Firedrake’s scales and he tells Ben to just touch the scale if he ever needs his help and he will fly straight to him.
The characters are guided by a parrot named Me-Rah as she takes them through the wilderness closer and closer to where the Griffins live but they soon discover that this land has many more dangerous threats that will definitely slow them down on their quest.
Life-Threatening Situation
After being ambushed and captured by a band of primates, Firedrake senses that Ben has gotten into a life-threatening situation so he takes a younger dragon named Tattoo with him and they fly straight to their rescue.
After arriving, Firedrake manages to save the others from the primates and poachers by scaring them off but Firedrake also discovers the true purpose of their quest so they encourage the dragons to leave before the Griffins discover they have come so close to their home. You can imagine how angry Firedrake is at Ben to hear this news and to find out that he lied to him but they still decide to stay and help even though they are badly outnumbered by the Griffins.
Suspense Building Up
This is exactly where the story starts to get super juicy as all of that suspense and waiting to finally encounter the Griffins is almost here and you can’t really expect for us to spoil everything in this review, can you? There is no chance that such an exciting ending to this beautiful and heartwarming story will be ruined by a couple of spoilers, no matter how tempting it is so you can rest assured that all of the excitement of reading the last few pages of the book is totally yours to keep and enjoy.
This is our review and the two books in this amazing series as the story inside is truly a touching one that talks about honor, inseparable friendship, love, a lot of thrill and danger, and so much more that is definitely something to get excited for if you are a huge dragon and adventure enthusiast.
Robert Hazley
Robert is a science fiction and fantasy geek. (He is also the best looking Ereads writer!) Besides reading and writing, he enjoys sports, cosplay, and good food (don't we all?). Currently works as an accountant (would you believe that?)
