The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King Book Review

 The Eyes of the Dragon 

By Stephen King 

Published Year: 1984

Page Count: 430 pages 

Medium Used: Oneplus Nord Ce6 

Genre : Horror, Fantasy, Thriller, Action, Demons, Dragons, Suspense, Young Adult, 2026-read.

Rating : 5/5 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 

This book is just so amazing and gripping that I couldn't put it down. Its fast paced. The character development is just amazing. Only thing is I felt the author has made even 16 - 17 year old teenagers sound like children. He is very good .. no absolutely phenomenal .. in writing young kids going on adventures and if we choose to overlook the ages and such  details, we can enjoy the story thoroughly. Reading from the title, I assumed this story is gonna be surrounding or involving dragons. I postponed picking the book on this account. But now having finished it, I know the title is very misleading. The only dragon in the story is the head of a killed dragon mounted on a hook in the king's private room. The king Roland's son watches his father's poisoning through the eyes of this dragon, from a secret chamber behind the room. 

The king is murdered and his elder son is framed for the murder. The king's magician is the one who actually delivered the poison to the king after his elder son left his chambers. This magician is a ruthless and sly human who perhaps is not human at all. He has been around for centuries and is bent on bringing revolt and civil war within the prospering kingdom of Delain. I didn't understand why he wants the kingdom ruined and the king's sons killed by the revolting mobs? Why does he harbor this hatred? This is not the first stint he has with the kingdom .. he was involved with it at an other time in the past where he tried to stir trouble but apparently failed and slinked away. Now, seeing his chance with a weak king, he has swooped back in. 

The king has two sons - Peter the elder who is conceived on his wife at an auspicious time and Thomas the younger who was conceived when the king was overly drunk and through pain for the wife. The children's disposition is also notable and reflects their conception. Peter is like sunshine and Thomas is like frost and winter. It is surprising that apart from a little jealousy Thomas feels towards Peter for being so well favored by the father, there is no antagonism/hatred between them. The dynamics of their bonding is not shown much except towards the end where they reconcile and choose their destined paths. The magician, Flagg, sees his chance to enthrone Thomas on the kingdom. He murders the king, frames it on Peter and gets rid of these two birds with one stone. Thomas sees his act of poisoning the king through two eye slits of mounted dragon in the king's chamber. Thomas suffers from nightmares and his father's ghost's relentless accusations after that. Peter is imprisoned in a two room tower and over the years he makes a plan to escape. He asks for his mother's doll house and a set of napkins with each meal .. uses them to bring his plan of escape to fruition. 

I wish King writes more fantasy filled with such innocent characters that play both heroes and villains. No one is really bad in this story except perhaps for Flagg. And even he didn't scare me as much. Maybe because I am not physically in proximity to him. I just loved the characters. Even the dog, Frisky, which is only there for like 20-30 pages has a personality of its own. And it is a brave and good dog. No one can inspire hope and faith in good like King can and I just can't wait for a sequel if there is ever gonna be one!! I like how the cogs in King's head work. The way he writes his heroes gives us an idea of what makes good good and evil evil. Here, Peter is all good and Thomas is a mixture. Flagg is the only one from whom everyone cowered and feared and once he is removed, Thomas falls into the line of goodwill and goodness!