Title: Let Sleeping Dragons Lie (Have Sword, Will Travel #2)
Author: Garth Nix and Sean Williams
Published: November 2018
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Readership: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
RRP: $14.99 AUD
I received a copy of Let Sleeping Dragons Lie from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
From New York Times bestselling authors Garth Nix and Sean Williams comes this funny, exciting fantasy adventure about two friends and a couple of swords with attitude.
Odo and Eleanor are excited to be knights. Only … they’re stuck at home waiting for something bigger to come along. That ‘something bigger’ comes to them in the form of an old man named Egda, a warrior named Hundred and an ancient legend about a sleeping dragon.
Odo, Eleanor, and their trusty and talkative swords, Biter and Runnel, are plunged into a quest that will take them (as all good quests must) to unfamiliar lands, where they will fight unseen enemies and unlock unbelievable secrets in order to prevent an unbearable impostor from taking the crown.
Also, they will need to keep an eye out for dragons.
As they did with Have Sword, Will Travel, fantasy masters Garth Nix and Sean Williams have crafted a tale full of fire, laughs and twists for adventurous readers of all ages.
Let Sleeping Dragons Lie is a delightful middle-grade adventure romp through a fantasy world, where knights roam the land and dragons exist… but they’re not your everyday knights and dragons!
After the events of Have Sword, Will Travel, Odo and Eleanor have returned to their home village and are beset by an attack of Bilewolves. They want to help protect their world from larger threats, but have been encouraged (by all the adults) to not get involved. That is until staying out of harm’s way is no longer an option and the two join the quest of a retired king out to stop a dangerous threat from taking over the kingdom.
Now that Odo and Eleanor’s world has been well-set-up, Let Sleeping Dragons Lie was an easy book to pick up and read. There were new characters, new locations and lots of quests and adventures for the two young knights to overcome. Where Have Sword, Will Travel felt very much like Odo’s story, we learnt a lot more about Eleanor in this book and the struggles she finds herself facing as a young girl who dreams of being a well-respected knight, like her late mother. She really comes to the fore and is a wonderfully strong, female lead who’s not afraid to get involved.
The laughs continue to come, especially from the enchanted swords, Biter and Runnel, who’s sibling rivalry banter is deeply humorous. The introduction of Egda and Hundred as adult companions for the two young knights allowed for an expansion of their knowledge of the world and history as a whole, which in turn opened up the world to me as a reader.
There’s plenty of fun villains, too, which always makes for a good adventure series. And, as always, there are more dragons to explore. I love how the dragons in this series not quite what you’d expect and that their interactions in the world have a purpose.
I loved reading Let Sleeping Dragons Lie straight after Have Sword, Will Travel because it mean I was not fuzzy on the details – so if you can read the two books back-to-back, I highly recommend it.
Noveltea Corner 