THE DRAGON HEIR

A battle is brewing between wizard factions in the final installment of Chima’s well-received Heir Chronicles. At the crux of it all is art student Madison Moss, a teen who is torn between her otherworldly life in Trinity (Ohio) and her mundane family—a selfish mother and two younger siblings, who live a few hours away. As Madison tries to keep her family intact, all sorts of wizardry breaks out around the Dragonheart—an elusive, misunderstood token of power. Chima's story of a present-day fantasy world draws in listeners, but Robert Ramirez doesn't keep pace. With more than a dozen characters in the story, the narration must differentiate voices, and Ramirez doesn’t deliver the goods. Even though he employs a few accents, several characters sound too much alike. M.B. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2010]