THE DRAGON TOKEN

Second of Rawn's Dragon Star trilogy, which itself is a sequel to her paperback saga of the Dragon Prince. Pol, now High Prince following the death of his father Rohan, determines to stand and fight the mysterious, powerful Vellat'im invaders from across the sea; Pol's sole advantage seems to be that the invaders are terrified of dragons. Pol's cousin Andry, Lord of Goddess Keep and Sunrunner religious leader, has been gathering power and experimenting with ancient magic—a source of tension between Pol and Andry. Now, Andry has set his own agenda for protecting his Sunrunners, as yet unaware that the real motivation behind the Vellat'im invasion is the desire of their High Warlord to dominate and possess the magical Sunrunner women. Pol, meanwhile, is beset by treachery, as some of his supposed supporters scheme for personal advantage by seeking alliances with the invaders. The burning question, then, is whether Pol and Andry will be reconciled in time to avoid defeat. Well plotted and appealingly written, with some useful character development here and there. But the overriding assumption is prior involvement: even the introductory synopsis Rawn thoughtfully provides is impossible to follow without knowledge of the previous trilogy. Leave this one to find its natural audience.