Starlighter by Bryan Davis: Review and Giveaway

(Book Giveaway winner here)
In the first novel of a new four-book fantasy series for young adults by bestselling author Bryan Davis, human and dragon worlds collide when Jason Masters enters the dragon planet and meets Koren, a descendant of humans who were kidnapped and are now the dragons' slaves.

I'm not a huge "dragon person" but when I saw this cover, I just had to have this book.  I contacted Bryan Davis, and Zondervan sent me a copy of Starlighter for review!  I'm really glad they did. 

The story is told from two different perspectives (and actually sometimes another viewpoint is thrown in there).  Jason is from the human home planet called Major Four or Darksphere.  He has been trained as a warrior and sword fighter along with his brother, Adrian.  Adrian believes that dragons came to their planet years ago and kidnapped many people, enslaving them and forcing them to work on the Dragon planet.  Although Jason is a skeptic, when his brother mysteriously disappears, a series of unfortunate incidents force Jason to reexamine his beliefs.  With the help of his friends, Elyssa (a Diviner), Randall (his previously sworn enemy), and Tibalt (a strange old man, who is either brilliant, completely out of his mind, or a little of both), Jason embarks on a journey to find the Gateway to Starlight and save the Lost Ones that were stolen so many years ago.

Koren is a slave on the Dragon planet, Starlight.  She has been told stories about how the Dragons saved them from a horrible life on their home planet, Darksphere, many years ago, but she's starting to believe the stories are a lie.  As she strives to uncover the truth, Koren realizes that she has the ability to tell amazing stories of her own.  But these aren't just any stories.  When Koren weaves a story together, the listener is so captivated that he can actually see the characters as if they were alive.  She begins to understand that this ability sets her apart from the other slaves, and soon the dragons realize this too.  Koren is a Starlighter.  While Koren tries to use her gift to find the human world, and free her people, the dragons try to use her to find the Gateway for themselves.  

As Jason and Koren strive to free the Lost Ones from their bondage, a prophecy and a mysterious black egg may make all their plans useless.

If you like Young Adult fantasy, I think you will enjoy Starlighter.  And although the book cover may scare away some guys, I think they will especially appreciate it.  The worlds that Bryan Davis has created are imaginative, exciting, and full of adventure.  There are dragons, sword fights, prophecies, rebellion, and....litmus fingers (if you want to know what that means, you'll have to read the book).  The main characters each had their own voice and I enjoyed getting to know many of them.  I loved how the story went back and forth from Jason's perspective, then to Koren's on a completely different planet.  Jason, Koren, Elyssa and many of the other characters were honorable, noble, brave, and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the lives and the freedom of their friends, as well as people they had never met.  

There were a couple of things that bothered me, though.  The first was that I thought there were too many characters that had to be focused on.  I had a hard time keeping them all straight.  So many of them played such important roles, and I had to keep going back to try and remember who was who.  The other thing that was distracting was that sometimes I had a hard time visualizing/understanding what was happening.  I don't feel like this took away from the overall story, which was fantastic, but it was something that made me have to go back and re-read some things a couple of times.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to people who like fantasy, dragons, and science fiction.  It was highly entertaining, and I'm looking forward to the sequels!

I'm giving this signed book away to a follower of this blog!  If you would like to enter to win, just leave a comment below!  For extra chances to win:  +1 extra entry for Tweeting/Facebooking/Blogging (post or sidebar) about this giveaway!  Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry and include links.  Good luck!

Contest closed!!  Check here to see if you've won!

4 out of 6

~Andye

Parents should know:  There is absolutely NO sexual content or offensive language in this book.  There is a moderate amount of violence.  For more details, go to Starlighter on Parental Book Reviews.