Review - In The Hall of The Dragon King

[wilderthan]

In the Hall of the Dragon King is pretty much typical fantasy. I like Stephen Lawhead's writing, and in terms of my synesthesia this tastes good, but it reads like amateur fantasy. It's a really typical, predictable plot with an evil-for-the-sake-of-evil character and a young "chosen one" type character, the characters are generally archetypes or not well developed. The references to Christianity don't even attempt to be subtle. The Big Bad is defeated too easily, everything is resolved very quickly...

I'm not sure where the scope for a sequel is, since I think this simplistic world doesn't provide a good foundation, but I'm going to read the other two books of the trilogy. It's fun mindless fantasy.