Also by this author: The Promise, The Drummer Boy, Sinner, Green, The Dream Traveler's Quest, Into the Book of Light, The Curse of Shadownman, The Garden and the Serpent, The Final Judgment, Millie Maven and the Bronze Medallion, Nine, Millie Maven and the Golden Vial, Millie Maven and the White Sword, Millie Maven, And They Found Dragons
Series: And They Found Dragons #2
Published by Scripturo on November 9, 2021
Genres: Children's
Goodreads
It is said a child will lead them. But lead them where?
Jack is just 12, born on an Ark orbiting Earth among 169 survivors of a global apocalypse who eagerly await the planet's restoration so they can return to the surface. With supplies dangerously low, the time for waiting is over. Humanity must return now or die among the stars.
Unfortunately there is a problem. A big one. Dragons have inexplicably risen from Earth's ashes. Worse, they emit a global toxin deadly to all over the age of puberty. After much debate, the Ark's leaders realize that humanity's only hope is to send teams of specially trained children to hunt and eliminate the dragon queen.
But Jack is frail and deemed unworthy for the dangerous mission.
So begins a tale leads readers, young and old alike, on a journey with Jack, the child who will lead them all in the most unlikely of ways. A journey to an Earth they could not have imagined. An Earth where humanity's fear takes physical form as dragons that can only be defeated through a love that casts out all fear.
Jack Solomon is on Earth for the first time in his life and he’s dying. Everything is wrong. The impossible mission they’d been sent to complete seems more impossible than ever. And did I mention he’s dying? The team is broken. Half are assumed dead. The other half—Jack, Sammie, Miguel, and Marco—are being quickly affected by the dragon toxin that’s making earth unlivable. Their comms system is down. They’re fighting. There’s absolutely no way they’re going to survive. That’s when they find they aren’t the only humans on Earth.
Scalers. That’s the name for the humans who somehow survived the nuclear fallout, then made an alliance with the dragons. Dragon milk in exchange for obedience. They serve the dragons and the dragons provide the substance that counters the toxic effect of their breath. The Scalers live in loyalty and fear with the dragons. It saves them, but unto what? Jack and Sammie—maybe the only survivors—were found by a couple of Scalers and given the milk to survive. It feels…weird.
The central premise of Journey to the Silver Towers is the difference between the dragon’s milk—which save from the toxin but binds the person mentally to the dragons—and Jack’s blood, which provides immunity without binding. How can they kill what they are bound to? Sammie is taken in almost immediately. She needs the milk to live. Loyalty to the dragons is the only salvation. You can see where the imagery is going. The two are sent to the Scaler village, where Jack is confronted by a people physically blinded by their devotion to the dragons. It’s a path marked by fear. Can he escape the Scaler village, save Sammie, and destroy the dragons? It’s all too much—but help comes in an unexpected fashion.
The second book in the And They Found Dragons series moves the conflict from space to earth, expanding the world to show two different races of dragons, two different types of salvation, two very different paths. One path lies in submission to fear. The other is a life lived without fear or judgment in the light of love. Like the previous book, there are elements that seem a bit rushed for my taste. The Dekkers have developed a compelling world, so much of which has to go unexplained due to the constraints of space. Writing to a young audience should be that way so that’s not a criticism, but…yeah, I still want more. I have so many questions about the Silvers, their mission, and how the plan to save humanity that they put Jack on is supposed to work. Maybe some of that will be answered in the series finale, Rise of the Light Bringer.