Book Review - EON: RISE OF THE DRAGONEYE

Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Eon is set in the fictional world of the Empire of Celestial Dragons, based on the cultures of Ancient Japan and China. In this world, dragons exist: they number twelve, according to the Animal Cycle. The dragons are each bound to one person, a Dragoneye who can see his dragon and harness its power. The Dragoneye changes every twelve years; the old Dragoneye will be replaced by his apprentice and a new apprentice will be chosen by the dragons. The Year of the Rat approaches, and the Rat Dragon is preparing to find a new apprentice for the new Dragoneye; the protagonist, Eon, is one of the competitors for the apprenticeship.

*Spoilers ahead*

As a protagonist, Eon is a strong, respectable character. Of course, he has his flaws – he is a cripple, unable to use his left leg, and thus considered less worthy than any of the other eleven competitors. However, he does not merely sit around lamenting his weakness – he actually tries to do something about it. When he realizes that he cannot do one of the performance sword forms because of his leg, he tries to find and do a substitute sword form in place of it. Despite his weakness, he is also very powerful: he can see all the Dragons, whereas most Dragoneyes can only see their own. All this makes Eon a likeable character worth rooting for – we cheer for him when he wins, we feel sad when something bad happens to him, and we feel alarm, even horrified when Eon’s many secrets are in danger of being revealed.

Another thing I enjoyed about Eon was that the story was not predictable. Goodman was able to write Eon in such a way that it was very thrilling, full of fast-paced action that made us constantly stay on our toes. One example would be the selection of the Rat Dragoneye: we think for sure that Eon will be chosen, since he’s the only of the competitors who can see the Rat Dragon and hence will almost definitely be chosen. But then Eon’s best friend Dillon is selected instead – and Eon ends up being chosen by the Mirror Dragon, a Dragon that has been missing for the past five hundred years. All this comes as a shock – we have been informed beforehand of the Mirror Dragon’s disappearance, and the fact that Dillon is the only other one of the competitors who can sense the Rat Dragon (although not see it), but we do not expect the pieces to come together like that.

On the other hand, I felt that Eon had too many characters that were not very important. Goodman provided us names for a number of servants and other Dragoneyes who only appeared once or twice and did not appear again – this made it very difficult to remember the names of all the characters, and this made Eon a little confusing to read at times. A bigger issue is that many of the characters are not well fleshed out.

All in all, I think that Eon is a well-written, well-paced book, full of action and thrills. It may be confusing at times, but it is definitely a book worth reading.

Rating: 4/5

For ages 13 and above.

By TCH