Tigerpetal Press : Book Review: The Fire Ascending

The Last Dragon Chronicles Book 7: The Fire Ascending by Chris D’Lacey

I liked it; it was good

Final book in the Last Dragon Chronicles! This whole series was a wild ride, but I’m glad to have read it.

Read: December 18 – December 22, 2023

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Audience: Children
Book contains: character death, fire, battle, physical abuse, torture, dark elements, confusing time travel shenanigans

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

Fixing the Whole World Via Time Travel!

One event at the beginning of time changes everything, and with the interference of Gwilanna, the world is thrust into darkness. The Shadow has won, and David and Rosa must join forces with allies from throughout time to fix the world. Will their Travelling through time be helpful, or will their interfering change things for worse?

I started this book a little sad that the series is ending, but also joyous that I’ve made it to the final book. I was surprised, actually, that this book is a lot different from the previous books. Like book 6, it starts in something almost completely new. We’re back on Earth, but we’re following an unknown character. Since it’s in first person, we only get this characters name a little later (perhaps a few pages in), and it’s quite surprising who it is and how he fits into the wider world as a whole.

This book was one of the longest in the series, but I added a few extra reading sessions here and there and couldn’t get enough of the story! The one problem while reading was that the first few parts of the book were super long with very few breaks in between.

The Fire Ascending, as opposed to every other book in the series, is written, for the most part, in first person point of view. It’s split into 10 parts, and only in part 7 does it switch to third person so we can follow other characters. Also in part 7, we get multiple chapters. The story mainly follows a new character who we only hear about in book 6, and whose story is laid out here.

As I mentioned, a lot of the book is written in the perspective of a brand new character, but we also get some old characters returned to us, such as David (combined Earth and Co:pern:ica consciences) and Rosa (who has flashes of Zanna’s memory).

David and Rosa are still close in this book, but there comes the issue between her and Zanna, and which of them David loves more. Their relationship with our new character, and the complex webs between the past, the present, the future, and all the different timelines makes the story itself quite a strenuous task to follow along with. It’s not so difficult to understand, but just to keep everything in mind as they keep alternating the timeline is a hassle.

That being said, D’Lacey’s style is so interesting to follow. At the end of the book, it plays with the idea that David, as an author, has written all these books himself and how, while they are enjoyed by children, they all carry deeper messaging than most people can understand. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment in the context of D’Lacey’s writing, since it’s both a fun adventure, but also much deeper at second glance.

This finale in the series was definitely worth reading, though it got quite dark at times. Reader’s discretion (and certainly parents’ discretion) is advised before beginning this book.

The Last Dragon Chronicles Book 7: The Fire Ascending by Chris D’Lacey

Fixing the Whole World Via Time Travel!

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