This is still one of my favourite King books -- a whimsical fairy tale set in a magical landscape; a Dark Tower for younger readers if you will. I couldn't quite give it five stars this time around, since it's not as epic or grand as something like The Talisman, but my sheer enjoyment of the story has not diminished with the years. King weaves a truly engaging spell with this one, which prominently features the uber-villainous Flagg (who has shown up in many King novels, sometimes under other names, but always just as evil). This time he is the King's magician.

I just love the adventure here, and Peter's brave attempt to escape the Needle kept me breathless. While Shawshank will likely always be remembered as THE King prison escape story, there will always be a special place in my heart for the dramatic climax discovered in the pages of The Eyes of the Dragon.

Highly recommended for fans of YA Fantasy.

I first read this about a year after it was published and hadn't thought too much about it since then, but for the young kid I was, it happened to be the first fantasy novel I ever read and the second novel... period.

It shaped my idea of what fantasy was, even if I've reformulated that about a million times since then, but let me be frank: I wasn't all that impressed. SF in all its shapes and forms caught my imagination more. In fact, it took something like a decade and a half before I went off the infrequent perusal of fantasies and did huge binge-reads of the genre.

The old castle, kings, queens, and princes just didn't do that much for me.

On the other hand, Stephen King will not be denied. I enjoyed the characters even tho they seemed to be nearly archetypal templates with hardly any differentiation from the ideals, was amused by the whole handkerchief plot, and was immensely interested in Flagg, that bigger-than-life evil bastard that spans many of King's novels.

This re-read didn't change my initial opinion all that much, but the core is still good if not purely fantastic. And this time, I got to wonder at all the kitchen-sink story elements that had been thrown into this tale, straight out of King's earlier novels. Such as the importance of storms, a-la IT, the incorporation of less than bright characters as extremely important heroes in their own rights, and elements of regret, redemption, and forgiveness for even the greatly-flawed and mostly despicable characters.

I haven't seen but a handful of characters in ALL of King's works that can be described as genuinely decent and/or good, but Peter happens to be one. That's pretty wild. :)

No, this isn't a King masterpiece, but it definitely has a lot of charm.

Can you believe it? It's King's only pure fantasy!

"Did they all live happily ever after?

They did not. No one ever does, in spite of what the stories may say. They had their good days, as you do, and they had their bad days, and you know about those. They had their victories, as you do, and they had their defeats, and you know about those, too."

The Eyes of the Dragon is a young adult fantasy novel written by ::checks notes:: Stephen ::double checks notes:: King?

You may ask yourself if that is indeed possible. I mean.. the man defies genre on any given day, but.. YA?! 

Well, alrighty then!

"That absurd feeling--that feeling that here was a ray of light in hopeless darkness--would not leave him."

The Eyes of the Dragon is a straightforward sword and sorcery fairy tale that features royalty in a medieval setting. Originally having written this for his daughter Naomi so that she would have something of his to read, this feels unlike anything that King has ever written before. However, because this *is* Stephen King, it also dives into the mythology of his other work, like The Dark Tower. The villain of this story happens to be a mysterious sorcerer named Flagg. Yes.. Flagg. This is the second chronological appearance of Flagg in King's work, after The Stand.

King Roland (ahem) is known for killing the last ever dragon. He is also notorious for remaining unwed and having no heirs later in life. That is, until he meets Sasha. They marry and then produce two sons named Peter and Thomas. Prince Peter is set to inherit the realm of Delain, but the king's adversary, the magician Flagg, has other plans.

Murder, bravery, loyalty, vengeance, swords, destruction and a wolf-dog named Frisky! The Eyes of the Dragon is a charming fairy tale that is narrated in such a clever way that only King himself could do. Capturing his voice, it truly felt as though he was reading this story out loud. This was the most special aspect of the somewhat predictable storyline.

With King enjoying renewed success and continuing excitement for his adaptations, it is no surprise that The Eyes of the Dragon is one of the latest said to be in development, this particular series with Hulu. Seth Grahame-Smith is attached to write the pilot and serve as showrunner. Although this certainly wasn't my favorite, I'm anticipating a magical Stephen King fantasy adaptation on our screens!

Whoever said the second time wasn't a charm? This fine little book, written some 35 years ago during the time King was writing other stories like IT and Misery, had escaped my attention since first reading not long after IT. You can't compare The Eyes of the Dragon to the books that had come before it (many being big and scary), unless you were King's daughter at the time. I read somewhere that his son Joe had read a couple of King's books by that point, even if he was younger than his sister. But Naomi hadn't (the scary stuff just wasn't for her). So her dad asked her what she most liked, and then wrote this story during the mornings (while working in tandem on Misery), with no intention to publish. King also said, or so I've heard, that when you write you can't write for another person only. You also have to write for yourself. I know that's a big reason why I like The Eyes of the Dragon. Like most good books, this reads for adults as well as the young. The idea of morality is in here. “Good vs Evil” is in here as well, like so many of Stephen King's works. Roland though, he is unlike the Roland of Gilead that I know. Weak and without will, this Roland flounders. So the good is left to his son Peter instead, until he runs into trouble. And of course that's where the evil presents itself. As they say, “Where there is good...”. Randall Flagg. He is the same in name, and almost in persona too - he always seems to change a little with each story, but that's what he does and who he is.

Very glad to have reread this one. It's not something I'd actively planned to do, until I started rereading The Dark Tower Series. It doesn't advance that series, but it has a way of rounding it out with the concept of “other worlds” in ways I hadn't thought about.

3.5 Stars.

n  "Once in a kingdom called Delain, there was a King with two sons."n

Peter, heir to the throne is King Roland's favorite; tall and dark....brave and smart....a good person with a genuine love for the people, and his brother.

Thomas, short in stature (like the King) is sad, weak....and cruel....and is jealous of his brother's relationship with the King as he unsuccessfully struggles to please.

THE EYES OF THE DRAGON is a work of fantasy with a medieval setting. There is good, there is evil, there is magic and there is an unnamed storyteller.

Flagg (no surprise to KING fans) is the evil....a hooded magician with the "white face of a corpse and black holes for eyes" who brings misery and death in his attempt to overthrow the monarchy.

Overall, a bit slow, but a good story. Written for his children, KING originally named it The Napkins....and you will see why. Just wish he would have left out the one horrid act of animal cruelty!

In answer to the unnamed storyteller....Nope, even in the end, don't think Thomas a very good person.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan but nothing is worse than bad Stephen King. As so often happens to ol' Stevie, he took an idea that had enough material for a short story (A prince is wrongly imprisoned for his father's murder and has to escape) and drags it out to cover an entire book. Honestly, the entire book would be the first twenty-five pages of any other fantasy novel.

I read the book because many of the names were the same or echoes of characters in The Dark Tower series. All was for naught, as any of the connections were throw away at best.

For completists only.

This is a pretty big departure from what you'd normally think of as Stephen King territory. It's essentially a fairy tale that combines The Man in the Iron Mask with the Princess Bride. It's different, but I really liked it. I wish that King would have delivered on the teased sequel, because I'd really like to see more stories with these characters in it. Maybe we'll get one somewhere in the future.

Svet kraljevstva, ali ne običan svet kraljevstva, već onaj koji je King zabiberio po svom ukusu - tako je savršeno umeo da me odvuče od stvarnosti, da bi, što bi moja baba rekla, mozak samo otišao na ispašu.

Ovu divnu priču čini jedan prijatan i često uzbudljiv način pripovedanja, kratka poglavlja, likovi koji se lako pamte i brzo prirastu srcu. Priznao je King, a Boga mi i ja ću: volela sam ih sve do jednoga i nisam se stidela te ljubavi. A govori nam.. o svemu. Sa sobom nosi brojne pouke i takva kakva je, definitivno zaslužuje da bude na listi priča za laku noć za možebitno buduće derište.

Using core 'fairy tale' features such as medieval like settings, Kings & Queens, castles with moats, peasants etc. Stephen King creates a delightful young adult fantasy of a dispossessed (of his kingdom) prince and how he set about righting the injustice; and the villain? You'll have to read it to find out who it is :) And increasing a point after each reread, this is now a 7 out of 12 in 2018 for me :)

2018 read; 2006 read; 2003 read

When I was a little girl my mother and father would tuck me in at night and read me a bedtime story. At Christmas and Easter- I would have the pleasure of listening to bedtime stories made-up by my father, just for me- Delee. The Adventures of the Pink Kitty...about a very special kitten making his way to a very special child.....and his adventures along the way trying to find a home with the perfect little girl. ME!!! It wasn't a logical story...it probably wasn't the best story out there- but to me it was magical.

THE EYES OF THE DRAGON is another kind of bedtime story. A bedtime story KING style!! Noooo pink kitties here.



In a fairy tale past- there is a relatively happy Kingdom of Delain- with the dragon slaying King Roland, his young wife Queen Sasha, and their sweet, perfect, little boy Peter...but there also is evil in Delain-a magician by the name of Flagg. Who is also unfortunately...Roland's adviser.



Flagg's goal is to make this Kingdom...less happy- and he comes up with a plan. A plan that doesn't involve Queen Sasha...or a sweet, perfect, heir to the throne. So he schemes...

...and he schemes. Sasha dies in childbirth- and Thomas is born. A not so perfect child- who Flagg takes under his wing...

...and when the time is right- all the pieces fall into place.



...but there are a few snags in his wicked plan- Flagg is not aware of- that may or may not come back to haunt him later.



This is one of my Favorite King books. It speaks to my inner child..and from time to time SHE still enjoys fairy tales and bedtime stories.

i need to preface this by saying that this was the first stephen king book i ever read. he is my father's favorite author, and i grew up staring at the dozens of hardback books all in a row on the shelves of his office, all with king's name on them. i really wanted to read one, see what it was dad read, and the reason he handed me this one was the same reason king wrote it: so his kids could read something he had written. in other words, it's kid-friendly, and actually written as a children's book (don't be fooled, though. there is plenty of poisonings, death, betrayal, etc, and the villain is flagg, of the stand fame). that said, it could be that my love for this book the second time around as an adult is deeply rooted in that first reading as a kid, meaning it could be that if you read it for the first time as an adult you might not feel the way that i do about it. think reading the hobbit vs. reading lord of the rings, and that's about the comparison to it and normal king fare.

the story itself could almost be considered stock fantasy, but the characters are brought to life with the amazing skill that you come to expect from stephen king. you have the kingdom of delain, ruled by king roland. roland has two sons, peter and thomas. the elder peter is the golden child, with thomas always living in his shadow. roland himself is a weak king, a virtual puppet of his adviser, flagg. with peter poised to take the throne after roland dies, flagg must see to it that somehow thomas, the weaker son who more resembles his father, is the one actually crowned king. this doesn't sound to original, does it? but i doubt you can find a story in which you feel such compassion for the spineless king roland, awe and respect for the venerable prince peter, and sympathy blended with shame for thomas. it's a quick read, engaging, and skillfully told. if you want a fantasy story that will bring you back to your childhood, this is it.

Napkins?

Napkins.

And more than enough (too much) nose picking and boogers.

Stephen “I dressed up like Jack Vance for Halloween” King made a noteworthy switch from straight up horror to a better than passable high fantasy in his 1987 novel The Eyes of the Dragon.

The King of American horror, though, is also a better than average writer and knows a thing or two about moving some copy and though this is a little out of character (like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West) it is also entertaining and delivers a fantasy gem.

Vaguely reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, in tone if not in theme, this change of pace, to this humble reader at least, most notably features his epic villain Randall Flagg, in this work simply Flagg, the king’s magician.

King has created in Flagg a universal boogeyman, a timeless and undying human darkness that plays in a score of nefarious roles. But more than just a plug and play antihero, Flagg becomes a recurring evil in a mythos built on bad.

A good fantasy.