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Honors and Awards

  • A VOYA Perfect Ten
  • VOYA’s Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Booklist 2008
  • Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
  • Kirkus Best Young Adult Books 2008
  • A New York Times best seller
  • A USA Today best seller

Dragon Heir Reviews

VOYA Review – The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
From Voice of Youth Advocates, Volume 31, Number 4, October 2008

5Q-5P-M-J-S (a perfect score in quality and popularity)

The thrilling Heir Trilogy concludes with this beautifully directed tale of color and character, smells and spells.  The backstory of the Dragonheart and the creation of the guilds are complex. Characters are developed in depth rather than breadth, giving the tale an even greater richness than the first two novels. Some characters surprise with their actions—or lack thereof—giving the tale an unpredictability often not found in fantasy. With almost each chapter comes a change in focus, and yet each thread pulls together from across the globe to center in Trinity, creating a Weirweb destined to draw in readers.— Melissa Moore.

The Plain Dealer, Sunday August 10, 2008
The Plain Dealer says, “The third installment, "The Dragon Heir," finds her "gifted" teens gearing up for apocalyptic battle amid political intrigue, fearsome weapons and warring guilds. All the while, the characters must struggle with their own identities and relationships…The author…is adept with teen culture. She moves effortlessly from slasher-film references to the quintessential fantasy trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings," to the works of Shakespeare. This strengthens both her narrative voice and her characters' dialogue, and adds subtly to the moral subtext of the series. ..The concluding battle is epic, as war engulfs the magical world. After three volumes and nearly 1,400 pages, its length, detail and gravitas are appropriate. ..Let's hope Chima is already back at work.

Kirkus
Starred review
Centuries of wizardly scheming, slavery and slaughter reap apocalyptic fallout in this final volume of Chima’s trilogy… Heroes and villains alike are swayed by achingly human motivations into disastrous choices with devastating consequences…The resolution is—like the end of childhood itself—tentatively hopeful, if not triumphant. A superlative accomplishment.