The Last Dragon Slayer by Martyn Stanley

The Last Dragon Slayer is high end fantasy and is the first book in the Deathsworn Arc series. It is about a quest to kill a Noble Dragon.

Saul Karza is a wizard and he is travelling with two men from the North, and a dwarf. They have been sent by the Empress Jade to put down a dragon. They are travelling through the land of Torea in search of Silus Mendelson, the last know dragon slayer in the hope he can help them and will join them. The Empress had no warriors, archers or mages to send with Saul instead he must rely on mercenaries.

They find Silus in the village of Trest, sadly he no longer leads the life of a respected hero, but with little else to do each day he reluctantly agrees to join the band. As they leave Trest, they rescue a Gravian or dark Elf who was just about to be be-headed. Dashing from the scene they hope to have escaped but they are followed and face the angry Berger and his men.

There future looks bleak until they are saved by Vashni an elf and a thief. She has magical skills and can whisper into minds when needed. She’s also a remarkable fighter. She decides to ride with the band and meet the dragon they must slay.

Together the band travel to Brunwelt to face the mighty dragon, they’ve become friends and a team whilst travelling and face the danger together. Just when they thought it over Saul tells them they must collect the dragon heart stones, powerful objects which will lead them on to their next adventure.

This is a well written book, with very good character descriptions and dialogue. Vashni quickly became the lead character with her lessons she taught Korhan. I would have liked to have seen more from Saul because he opened the book and was the leader. A couple of points became repetitive Kirkfell was the place everyone hoped to go in the afterlife, too many characters had the same line to say about it and I felt Vashni’s two attempts to decipher Braels’ curse were just a repeat of words the second time, there was a missed opportunity to drip feed us some more information about it.