Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Knights of the Silver Dragon: Revelations Part 1- Prophecy of the Dragons by Matt Forbeck

Five years ago, treasure hunters destroyed a seal located in the Dungeons of Doom. The original Knights of the Silver Dragon managed to reseal it, but at a cost. Many of the Knights went into the Abyss, as the seal had to be sealed from both ends to work. One of those Knights was Kellach and Driskoll's mother, Jourdain, and neither she nor any of the other Knights ever returned.

Recently, the seal has been failing, as something went wrong with the original remaking of the seal, allowing evil to start leaking through the cracks. Now, the entire seal is about to fail, and something must be done or evil creatures from the Abyss will overrun the town of Curston.

The Current Knights are summoned to a meeting of the important people in town, who are deciding what to do about the imminent breaking of the seal. To remake it properly will require the key originally used to create the seal, which Kendric originally broke into three pieces to hide it from anyone seeing to use it to break the seal. But Lexos, thought imprisoned at the end of "The Hidden Dragon" returns. Now, he wants revenge on the whole town, and he manages to use magic to imprison Kendric. He says he will find the key.

Kellach, Driskoll and Moyra attempt to find the key before he does, and manage to find two of the parts, one of which is stolen by Lexos. They travel to the Dungeon of Doom to try and protect the seal, and the goblins who once ruled the area have been taken over by Hobgoblins, stronger, more powerful creatures. The Hobgoblin ruler sentences the three to sacrifice to the seal, which the Hobgoblins have taken to worshipping as a God. They descend to the seal and Lexos appears, killing some Hobgoblins and goblins. He takes the pieces to the Key from the Knights, and finds the third piece in the wings of Kellach's clockwork Dragon familliar, Locky. He uses them to break the seal and allow the demons from the Abyss to invade the town, despite the efforts of the three Knights and Kellach and Driskoll's father, Torin, once a Knight of the Silver Dragon himself.

But there is another surprise after the demons. The original Knights of the Silver Dragon that entered the Abyss have mostly survived, including Jourdain, and they return to Curston to help fight the demons. But can they prevail against the might of the Abyss and the evil of Lexos?

This series lives up to its subtitle of "Revelations", as many secrets of the town and the people in it are revealed. The series builds the tension from the revelation of the source of the town's troubles and its coming failure, to betrayal within the town itself. The tension continues to build and build and culminates the with opening of the seal, it then drops a bit with the arrival of Jourdain and the others, and then builds again as the Knights go back to Curston to defend their homes and the people.

I really enjoyed this novel, and the secrets revealed about Curston. Will the Knights be able to prevail over the Demons from the Abyss? You'll have to read the next novel to find out!

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