Haldi is an orphan, his parents killed by raiders, living on the streets of Astur in the far north of the land. Tormented by some of the local children, he is rescued by a strange man, who gives him warm clothes and an opal before telling him to head to the north. Leaving the city behind him, Halvi starts walking only to ambushed by a pack of garms, large wolf-like creatures. But while trying to fight them off, he falls into a frozen lake. Rescued by a dragon called Valza, he is then taken across the land on it’s back and being shown the sights of the lands he is flying over. But over one land, Valza is forced down when his wing is wounded. Separated when they crash, Haldi is rescued by an Elf of the forest and taken to one of the mystical creatures that lives there, that gives Haldi a Seed of Mercy capable of healing any injury. After meeting again, Valza flies off with Haldi across several lands until they attack by a war band looking to kill any dragon they come across. Unable to flee Valza must fight while Haldi can only look on and hope they can survive.

This is a fantasy story set in the land of Eryad and, I will be honest, it took a few attempts to get through the book to the end. I found the book slow to begin with and even when the pace picked up, this feels like a road trip of places in the world given a brief mention and then moved on from. they story feels like a prequel fleshing out details while the real story concentrates on what is supposed to be told. That aside, the world building is good and gives a wonderful idea of the scope and size of the lands and races they are passing. There are a couple of maps at the front which help to give more perspective on their travels. The characters of note in the book are intriguing and the encounters they have help to brighten the book and give a bit of life and action to the story.

The formatting for the book is very good and there is brief preface on the book and the pronunciation. There are a couple of minor errors, but the book is very easy to understand. It is descriptive and treads a thin line begin telling about the world and showing some of the wonders around. But my main problem is that it is a lot of description and the plot doesn’t feel as if it is going anywhere other than to give the reader an idea of what to expect in the future, which never really happens.

Overall, if you enjoy fantasy stories you should pick this up, but I don’t think it has wider appeal and it really needed a better ending for me, though it is just my opinion.