The Dragon Heir (The Heir Chronicles Series #3)

by Cinda Williams Chima

Overview

The third thrilling installment of the Heir Chronicles series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima.

The covenant that was meant to keep the wizard wars at bay has been stolen, and Trinity must prepare for attack. Everyone is doing their part—Seph is monitoring the Weirwalls, Jack and Ellen are training their ghostly army, even Anaweir Will and Fitch are setting booby traps around the town's perimeter. But to Jason Haley it seems like everyone wants to keep him out of the action. He may not be the most powerful wizard in Trinity, but he's prepared to fight for his friends.

Everything changes when Jason finds a powerful talisman—a huge opal called the Dragonheart—buried in a cave. The stone seems to sing to Jason's very soul, showing him that he is meant for more than anyone knew. Moral compasses spin out of control as a final battle storms through what was once a sanctuary for the gifted. With so much to lose, what will the people of Trinity be willing to fight for—and what will they sacrifice?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423110712
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	The Heir Chronicles , #3
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	39,900
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima grew up with talking animals and kick-butt Barbies. She began writing poetry and stories in third grade and novels in junior high school. These days she writes fantasy fiction for teens of all ages. Her Heir Chronicles contemporary fantasy series includes The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, The Dragon Heir, The Enchanter Heir, and The Sorcerer Heir.

Her high fantasy Seven Realms series launched with The Demon King, followed by The Exiled Queen, The Gray Wolf Throne, and The Crimson Crown; she is also the author of the Shattered Realms series, including Flamecaster, Shadowcaster, Stormcaster, and Deathcaster, among other works. She lives in Ohio with her family, and invites you to visit her online at cindachima.com.

Editorial Reviews

"[A] beautifully directed tale of color and character, smells and spells."—VOYA

"A superlative accomplishment."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Gr 6 Up

In this final installment in the trilogy, Chima spins a finely structured tale that roars to a satisfying conclusion. For readers new to the series, there is considerable work to be done sorting out the plot and the relationships among the various characters, but after a while the power of the story takes over. The wizarding world is fractured and at war with itself. The only hope for peace lies in those few unaffiliated gifted ones (wizards, warriors, enchanters) in the sanctuary of the town of Trinity. As the novel opens, one of these characters, Jason, steals into the hold of another faction and walks out with a mysterious magical object that appears to be extremely powerful: the Dragonheart. When he brings it back to Trinity, the town and its treasure become the focus of the other factions. The action is largely propelled by the emotional needs and weaknesses of the characters, and not simply by their magical abilities. Madison Moss, whose ability to absorb magic enabled her to save her wizard boyfriend, is now a danger to Seph because she keeps leaking the toxic magic that she absorbed. Her fear that this will be discovered, along with her family problems, leads to her making decisions that put her and others in mortal danger. Maddie, along with Jason and Seph, is the central emotional focus, and it is the details of their lives that make the extraordinary plot twists exciting and compelling. Fans of the first two books are sure to love this one.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City

School Library Journal

Centuries of wizardly scheming, slavery and slaughter reap apocalyptic fallout in this final volume of Chima's trilogy. As the wizard Houses lay siege, magical refugees flock to the sanctuary of sleepy Trinity, Ohio, where adolescent wizards and warriors assume most of the burden of protecting the town, torn between the savage world of magic and the demands of school and family. Smuggling the immensely powerful Dragonheart talisman into Trinity triggers a cascade of heroism, intrigue, courage, deception, sacrifice and betrayal, as six increasingly desperate teenagers seek to master it before everything they love is destroyed. Heroes and villains alike are swayed by achingly human motivations into disastrous choices with devastating consequences. The graphic violence and the shifting narrative push this into YA territory, but it is anchored there by the agonizing withdrawal of adult support and the overwhelming sense that these young people are abruptly forced to take responsibility for a world they had no hand in creating. The resolution is-like the end of childhood itself-tentatively hopeful, if not triumphant. A superlative accomplishment. (Fantasy. YA)

Kirkus Reviews

A battle is brewing between wizard factions in the final installment of Chima’s well-received Heir Chronicles. At the crux of it all is art student Madison Moss, a teen who is torn between her otherworldly life in Trinity (Ohio) and her mundane family—a selfish mother and two younger siblings, who live a few hours away. As Madison tries to keep her family intact, all sorts of wizardry breaks out around the Dragonheart—an elusive, misunderstood token of power. Chima's story of a present-day fantasy world draws in listeners, but Robert Ramirez doesn't keep pace. With more than a dozen characters in the story, the narration must differentiate voices, and Ramirez doesn’t deliver the goods. Even though he employs a few accents, several characters sound too much alike. M.B. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2010 - AudioFile