First Mission

 

The fifth entry of Ramy Vance and Michael Anderle’s Dragon Approved series opens the weekend after protagonist Alex Bound becomes a dragonrider cadet, becoming used to her recently-acquired vision and receiving an invitation to a walk by fellow pupil Jim. Alex receives an outfit from the school tailor and embarks on her first mission with Team Boundless, going to a flaming mine and rescuing whatever laborers are trapped. Several chapters occur with Team Boundless battling trolls and flying creatures called vrosks, after which the book ends with an obvious cliffhanger where Alex vows to rescue imperiled companions. Both authors give postscript notes, with Vance focused on dragon mythos and Anderle on the writing business.

Overall, this was another enjoyable entry in the authors’ Dragon Approved series, which like its precursors is a widely-accessible story given the minimal temporal investment to read it, along with plenty of good fantastical dragonriding action and combat. There are minor issues with the vrosks scarcely receiving any description aside from being aerial, an issue that not even internet searching could resolve, given the absence of illustrations within the anthology or on the worldwide web. There’s also still similarity to the Pern book series, though it’s not a major issue. However, I’m definitely not hesitant to recommend this fast and fun novella, which should definitely be a treat for fantasy genre aficionados.