My 100th read of 2021 and I couldn't have picked a better book! We, King fans, know that King has a talent for writing great stories no matter the genre (besides romance, but that's like Frankenstein trying to tell a love story). As far as I know, this King's only dive into the world of fantasy and it is unlike any I've read before.

After my initial giddiness of hearing Roland and Flagg mentioned in a story had subsided, I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed. This is a slow moving story and a lot of it depends on the characters' childhoods to make the later story make sense and feel rewarding. I stuck through it and it paid dividends. I loved every character no matter how small of a role they played. I would definitely read another fantasy book by King.

The Dark Tower series isn't purely fantasy, so I'm not including that.

Well, that was different.

Well written of course. It wasn't bad at all....Just not what I was expecting (or really wanted--see King's reaction to that view below--if we all would have loved this one--we would have missed out "miserably"). Perhaps I would have rated it higher if I knew what was coming....or what age group this is really written for? Or if I was extremely ill in bed slurping down chicken soup and my mom came in to read it to me (and blush at the mention of the King's "iron") Hmmmm. And...there is some to learn about the vile Flagg in this. He's very very old.

The most interesting thing about this book was Stephen King's response to it's so-so-reception. He found out most readers didn't want a "fantasy" book from him.

It seems he felt "chained" to his desk to write a certain type of book....namely, horror. So....he immediately wrote Misery, a book about an author being forced to write a type of book he didn't want to. And, ironically, it is one of his most horrific books.....

So, I guess his fans won.....but he certainly didn't lose out either. Misery was one of his best book to film adaptations yet. (And I really hope the writing of it helped release his frustration at the ungrateful fantasy readers!)


One final thing I heard....it's possible the Syfy channel is doing something with this book... could be interesting.... I'd probably give it a try.

Breve Reseña

El libro nos lleva al reino de Delain, el cual se encuentra bajo el mando del rey Roland, quien es un buen rey y es querido por su pueblo, aunque cuenta con una personalidad un poco blanda para un rey. Roland se da cuenta de que necesita herederos para su reinado, así que comienza en la búsqueda de una mujer, algo que a el no le había llamado tanto la atención durante los años. Para conseguir a su esposa le pide ayuda a su asesor de la corte, el misterioso mago Randall Flagg, un ser enigmático y peligroso que se propone ayudar al rey, aunque sus intenciones no son buenas.

Roland tendrá dos hijos, Peter y Thomas. El primero de ellos da la impresión de ser el que reúne todas las condiciones para ser un excelente rey, algo que inquieta a Randall Flagg viendo esto como una amenaza para cumplir sus terribles planes, para ello se acercara a Thomas aprovechando la debilidad del mismo para
llevar a cabo su cometido.

Opinión Personal

Cuando me entere que este libro era una literatura de fantasía y épica me entraron unas ganas tremendas de leerlo, quería conocer esta faceta de Stephen King. Lo comencé a leer y ya me había enganchado desde las primeras paginas, la verdad que me encanto, su mundo, los personajes y la historia. A muchas personas no les parece un gran libro, ami me sucedió lo contrario, me parece un libro excelente. Ademas tiene un plus adicional, complementa muchísimo la historia de La Torre Oscura, ya sabés, si estas leyendo la Obra Magna de Stephen King, este libro te ayudara muchísimo a entender aun mas la historia.

http://balcondeletras.blogspot.com.ar...

The Eyes of the Dragon is in my book a kid’s fantasy tale and one with a merrily joyous feel good factor, it was all just too nice and goodly good for me. If my only way of escape was to fashion a rope out of strands of napkin, worked on a toy and it was going to take over a year, then I'd have thrown myself out of the tower on day 3, fuck it as they say and goodbye happy ending.
 
Flagg is the man in black, the evil magician who's been around for ever, changing faces and involving himself in the running of the kingdom of Delain for generations. He poisons the King and sets eldest son Peter up for the fall. A lifetimes imprisonment in the tower and then it's youngest son Thomas who takes over, subtly prodded by our man in black.
 
Peter is of course a lovely lad who everyone believes is guilty except a few friends, so he sets out to escape using the threads of many napkins tailored into rope, worked on a tiny loom or whatever it was and aaaaaaaah!!!! thunk.
 
Oh noooo, he's had enough after three weeks and chucked himself out, three hundred foot to the cobbles below. Ah fuck I was just getting into that and he's blown the ending, every goody fantasy trope blown to the wind all from a disappointing lack of endurance. Boys and dolls houses never end well, Oh well surprises all round there, totally unexpected and I have to say, well played.
 
Truth? Of course not, it all ends exactly as expected in a well written tale of loveliness.

A 2.5* rating.

Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...

Hands down, this is my FAVORITE Stephen King book.
I'm not saying this is his best piece of work, but (personal preferences and all) this is just what I happen to enjoy the most. It's one of those books that I find myself re-reading every few years.
So.
Erica has a stellar review that explains why this book should be revered above all other King books.
The gist is is actually a fairly simple fantasyish tale.

The Fearsome Dragon...



The Wise and Beautiful Queen...



The Evil Sorcerer...



The Decent but Stupid King...



The overlooked, sad, spiteful, kinda stupid, (Baby-Brother) Prince...



Prince...
n  actual size may varyn



Oops! Wait.
The Good and Decent Hero Prince...


The thing that I love about this story is that it has that classic good over evil vibe to it. There are twists, but nothing mind-blowing. It reminds me of the kind of fairytale/fantasy stuff my mom would read to me before bedtime.
Well.
Ok. She never read me anything with adult content in it, but that's not what I'm talking about.
This is just...
Good wins and Evil takes a beat-down.
Sometimes it's nice to pretend that you're a kid, and you still believe that you know?
Be noble, be kind, do the right thing...and everything will work out.
Remember that?
sigh
So, that's why I love this one.
The End.

Re-read 2020 & 2021
I just finished listening to the audiobook and it was amazing. Bronson Pinchot did a fabulous job, and I can't recommend this one enough.

Bronson Pinchot - Narrator
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Edition: Unabridged
Awards:
Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement
Grand Master Award

Probably King’s most atypical novel. A fairytale-style story about two brothers disputing over the throne in a vague Kingdom where the power is manipulated byt the evil wizard Flagg. Not much reminds us that we are reading a book by Stephen King here. There’s Flagg, who is the most memorable part of this book, and then there are of course those boogers… It is told by a narrator from our time which at times feels a bit askew. The story has some nuance and atmosphere. Some parts hold together well, other parts feel jumbled and sketchy. I liked the dollhouse and the bit where the children play pretend games where ”indians” attacks the castle, a detail that throws the whole European fairytale thing off balance, in a good way.

Well, this was a REALLY quick read for me. I remembered liking this one from the first time that I read it, but I didn't remember the storyline at all. It turned out to be one of those stories that I just didn't want to put down for long.

Eyes of the Dragon is very different from most of King's other works. Written for his tween-age daughter because she complained that he had not written anything that she was interested in or felt comfortable reading, the Eyes of the Dragon is basically King's take on a Young Adult level Fairy Tale. The story takes place in the Kingdom of Delain, which is located in In-World, the setting of the Dark Tower series and is told from the perspective of a story teller who is telling the reader a tale of old from his lands.

I enjoyed the perspective that King chose to tell the tale from and the way that the teller poses questions and comments directly to the reader. I think that this method works great especially considering the target audience of the story as the story teller method keeps them a bit distanced from the harsher elements of the story (which isn't entirely pleasant, duh it's King!) while involving them more in the story by asking them to come up with their own conclusions about certain aspects and not entirely holding their hand through the whole thing.

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable tale of suspense with a good mix of emotions brought to the reader from betrayal, redemption, perseverance and yes, even a little love.

Stephen King has been the king of horror for so long, that people always seem surprised when he tries something else. A time travel story? "Can he do it?!?" A crime trilogy? "WHAT?!?!?!" Whenever he tries something different people seem surprised, and it's been that way throughout his career.

King initially wrote this book for his daughter, because she didn't like his "scary" books. As such, this is honestly the easiest to read King novel, it's a short fantasy and it's written in a way that may have some adult material, but is fairly easy for a younger audience to process… in other words, it's a fairy tale.

When initially published, this was not received well by many fans. In fact, I read an interview once where King said how fitting it was that this and Misery (a book where a fan loses her mind at the idea of her favorite author trying something different) came out the same year.

Honestly as fan of fairy tales, fantasy and King, I loved it. It very much is a young adult book, in fact I would honestly say middle grade if not for a few scenes. That said it's not condescending, and is very readable still as an adult. While I can't say it is my favorite of his books, this is definitely not anywhere the worst of King's writing and it would also be my suggestion as a good introduction book to King if you have a younger reader who wants to try him (or for someone intimated by horror but wants to give him a shot)

Also, Dark Tower fans, you need to read this one for a couple of the references. Trust me. 4/5 stars.

I'm feeling a little let down by this story if I'm being totally honest. While I did enjoy it for the most part, I feel like it could have been SO much more! I was expecting an epic fantasy and while it was definitely fantasy, I don't think I'd call it epic.

I've grown used to a certain calibre of writing from King and while I did catch glimpses of it, I mostly felt like he was dumbing himself down so the reader could understand him. I know it is technically a YA fantasy and so naturally it can't be on the same level as his adult works. But I still felt cheated in a way, if that even makes any sense...

I know I'm making it sound like I hated this book but I swear I didn't! I really loved the storyline, it captured my attention from the start and held it throughout. I also really enjoyed the characters, especially Flagg! Getting to see more of his background was a real treat after meeting him in previous King works.

I think what it comes down to with this one is that I was expecting something along the lines of King's usual work and this is definitely very different than his usual. And if this had been written by anyone but him, I think I definitely would have given it five stars!

"He knew as well as we in our own world do that the road to hell is paved with good intentions--but he also knew that, for human beings, good intentions are sometimes all there are. Angels may be safe from damnation, but human beings are less fortunate things, and for them hell is always close."

It was hard to choose just one single quote to represent how I felt about this book but I have tried. The medieval them to this book was so enjoyable and each and every character was someone you either rooted for or hated. I fell in love with this book and I would read it over and over again.

Un libro escrito para su hija, por ende, es más bien infantil: para chicos.



King trató un tema de reyes y magos, de conspiraciones y secretos, de tragedia y traición de una manera soberbia. Es una novela que no tiene escenas macabras, ni sexo ni vocabulario burdo; es una obra para todas las edades. Porque, si bien está dirigido a los niños, no es tan infantil.

Un relato excelente, que disfruté muchísimo. En este el autor demuestra que su imaginación no tiene límites. Personajes bien desarrollados, sentimientos profundos, buena creatividad, punto álgido logrado. Si quieren una historia con una fantasía suave, una prosa exquisita y una forma de narración hermosa, al viejo estilo de los cuentacuentos, este libro es para ustedes.

Audiobook – Narrated by Bronson Pinchot – Outstanding narration.

This is the first audiobook book I’ve listened to by Pinchot, and he really is excellent.

If you liked the book, and enjoy audios, this one is a must.

If you didn’t like the book then maybe the audio will change your mind. It did for me.

Thanks to Edward Lorn for the heads up!


Ebook:

This is a first-time read for me. When The Eyes of the Dragon was published in the eighties I wouldn’t even open the cover. King wrote horror, and he wrote it very well. I wasn’t interested in a story about Kings, Princes, Dragons and Magicians, even if the magician was Flagg!

This year I started a King re-read (as many Constant Readers are doing) and I promised myself I’d read every one of his books, even those I’d never wanted to read, and even those I didn’t like.

So, with loins girded, I started reading, and after fifty brain-numbing pages I quit.

I was bored and I was also disappointed. One thing King does extremely well is write kids. In this case he missed the mark. I felt no connection at all to Peter and Thomas.

In desperation I turned to the audio. To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. This is probably one of the best narrations I’ve listed to considering what the narrator had to work with.

2** stars for the story and 4**** for the audio. Overall rating 3***


***

CONNECTIONS:

The dedication reads, "This story is for my great friend Ben Straub, and for my daughter, Naomi (Rachel) King." In the book Ben and Naomi Reechul are Peter's loyal subjects.

The dreams that Ben, Naomi and Dennis had of Flagg reminded me of similar dreams in The Stand.

Roland (Insomnia, The Little Sisters of Eluria, The Dark Tower series)

Flagg (The Stand, DT2: The Drawing of the Three, DT4: Wizard and Glass, DT5: The Wolves of the Calla, DT6: Song of Susannah, DT7: The Dark Tower)

The Grand Featherex – The cousin of the Phoenix (DT2: The Drawing of the Three, DT4: Wizard and Glass)

Delain (The Little Sisters of Eluria, The Dark Tower 7)

Dennis and Thomas (DT2 - The Drawing of the Three) Randall Flagg was pursued by Dennis and Thomas.

Two-headed Parrot (The Talisman) Jack comes across a two-headed talking Parrot in market-town in the Territories.

DIM: To Dim yourself makes you difficult to detect.

DIM (Hearts in Atlantis) Carol Gerber tells Bobby Garfield “I'm good at not being seen,” she said. “It's a trick someone taught me a long time ago. The trick of being dim.”

Garlan (DT2, DT3, DT6, DT7)

The White:

“In him, they saw again the coming of the White, that ancient, resilient, yet humble force that has redeemed humankind again and again and again.” Speaking of Peter.

“It’s the White!” he exclaimed aloud. “The coming of the White!” “Yes; the voice of White; the voice of Always.” Jake (DT3: The Wastelands)

“The white! The coming of the white!’ Alan Pangborn (Needful Things).