Circles of Seven (Dragons in Our Midst, Book 3)

Billy Bannister and his fellow dragon comrades, Bonnie Silver and Ashley, are thrust into another adventure when they travel to England. They soon are faced with new enemies in the deadly New Table Knights and Morgan Le Faye. Billy and Bonnie enter a new dimension called the Circles of Seven- on account of there being seven circles they will be required to go through- while Ashley, Walter, and the Professor do their best to help them from the outside.

In the Circles, things are not always what they seem and danger constantly surrounds Billy and Bonnie. Guided only with the words of Merlin's poems, the courageous duo will face their greatest trials yet.

The third installment in the Dragons in Our Midst series takes the story to new heights with increased intensity as it nears the final book, Tears of a Dragon. I love these books, especially because of the Christian values and themes that are hard to find in most fantasy. This series has exceeded all my expectations and is one of my absolute favorites in Christian fantasy.

Deep characters, different dimensions, allegorical worlds...Circles of Seven has it all! When I read the first book in this series, I was a bit skeptical--I mean, what sane person would read about half-dragon children? I soon found out that it would be insane NOT to!

In this third installment of the "Dragons in Our Midst" series, Billy Bannister, along with his best friend and fellow anthrozil, Bonnie Silver, embarks on a dangerous journey through the circles to rescue prisoners from the the circles' dark mistress, Morgan Le Faye. What Billy and Bonnie don't realize, however, is the amount of danger that their quest holds for them. When Bonnie is captured by Morgan, things start to go haywire, and Billy is thrust into making a decision that could alter the course of his life forever. This book is impossible to put down!

If you enjoyed "Raising Dragons" and "The Candlestone," you won't want to miss this page turner! It's better than the best of Christian fantasy--and it's hard to find a book that good!

Highly recommended.

My 12 year old daughter loved the entire series. I am reading them and am enjoying the fantasy with biblical values. I wonder how much symbolism is intended, which makes me crazy trying to make it all line up.....but when I just take the story as a fantasy with biblical values I enjoy it. There are many layers to the story line and plot. Well developed characters.

This series just keeps on raising the bar. The book starts in high gear and never lets up. The final third of the book is just plain UNPUTDOWNABLE!!! Davis just piles on the tension and always is giving us more details about Dragons, Merlin, King Arthur and Excalibur. He very realistically adds to their Myths and makes it seem like this has been part of the Myths for all times. He is very creditable as he leads us along this fantastic journey! Adults who love the lure of Myths should give this series a try. They won't be disappointed.

As with any series, I don't recommend you pick up the books in the middle-- so I'm obviously going to write this review to people who are already familiar with and have read the first two books.

Plot-wise, this is probably the more interesting of the three books. I mean, it doesn't get any better than descending into the seven circles of Hell and navigating your way through while avoiding the bad guys trying to trip you up. You've got a "witch" who needs a body. And a sudden confusion of who is really good and who is really bad-- and why!

Yet, it seemed like a sloppier writing job, overall. It took me a long time to actually get into the book. The other two, from the first couple of pages, were hard to put down. Yet, until I reached the 1/4th point I had to admit that I just didn't care. After that, things went smoother and was a brisk, nice read.

My biggest complaint, though, is the use of foreshadowing. Particularly in regards to the tempting fruit tree in the begining of the story. It appears as a large temptation for Bonnie-- and later in the story it is referenced again-- yet, nothing ever comes of it. There is no moment of peril where she might pluck the fruit. I was *dreading* that point in the story, yet when it all was said and done, my anticipation was for nothing.

*spoiler in next paragraph! be warned!*

From a storyline perspective, the greatest flaw of the story is the healing of Bonnie. It was pretty well conveyed in the story that Bonnie was dead. We hope and hope for a miracle to happen. However, when it does, there is no real explaination of HOW it happened. Its one of those deals where Billy blanks out, then when he comes to Bonny is staring at him, alive and well. It's a fantasy. I don't mind if the explaination is far fetched. However, *i do want an explaination!* I would have prefered her to stay dead instead of this "oh, hi!" resurection. It doesn't help that the tension throught the last quarter of the book is whether she survives or not. It was sloppy writing.

*spoiler free from here on out!*

Bryan Davis, despite these stumbles, is a good writer. However, for future books he would be advised to take more care in paying attention to the tensions he sets up in the book and not just letting them die (the tree) or being too lazy to think about a good solution and just using a half-hearted one (Bonnie).

Quite honestly, if this was his first book and the first in a series, it would be more of a 3 star books. But based on his past efforts, I could still read it and enjoy it and think it was pretty good. Hence the four stars.

My kids, ages 5, 7, 8, and 10 absolutely love this series. We've been working through this series as our summer read-aloud. I can honestly say I didn't intend to be reading ALL Dragons in our Midst...but when they loved the first so much, I just ran with it. I love when they love something SO much. It's not the easiest series to understand, and has taken quite a bit of discussion and explanation...but all worth it. I find the Christian/faith aspect to be weak, but as THAT is not the reason we were reading it, I haven't been disappointed. They literally beg for "just one more chapter."

Now, don't think. Do not pass go. Put this book directly into your shopping cart. The series of Dragons in our Midst is by far the best series that I have read, including the Harry Potter books(can't stand them now that I've seen six truly great books, the four in this series and the two Inheiretance books) And this is the best book in the series, by a single scale. This is definitely worth reading again and again and again. THIS BOOK AND SERIES TOTALLY OWNS!!! BUY IT!!!

As much as I love this book, I think the reviewer who questioned the critical action at the end has a good point.

In contrast, however, I thought this was the fastest starter of the three books. From the first page, I was on the edge of my seat. I loved the tension and fast pace which didn't seem to slow down except to let the reader catch his breath.

Bryan Davis has such imagination. His stories are never predictable because he offers twist after twist. And the disasters aren't disasters for the sake of excitement only--they equate with reality, the challenges a person faces in life.

It's obvious Davis has been writing with the big picture in mind, and I anticipate an outstanding conclusion of the Dradons in Our Midst series.

More dragons, more ingenuity, and definitely more pushing of the boundaries of what can be considered Christian and fantasy and fiction. CIRCLES OF SEVEN is Bryan Davis' third book in his series DRAGONS IN OUR MIDST. If you haven't read the first two books, RAISING DRAGONS and THE CANDLESTONE, then I would not recommend beginning here as it will probably seem quite confusing to a newcomer. Go back, read those first two and then come back to CIRCLES OF SEVEN. I had a hard enough time remembering who certain people were from the first two books, and had to go back a couple times to re-read portions of the previous entries in the series to remember who they were and why they were connected to the main characters.

Bryan Davis really opened up the Christian fantasy genre for young adults when Living Ink Books first released RAISING DRAGONS. At that time in 2004, most Christian fiction for young adults was grounded very firmly in contemporary-type stories, whether romantic (a la Robin Jones Gunn) or suspenseful (such as Bill Myers' FORBIDDEN DOORS series). To be sure there was the splattering of fantasy novels for young adults, but not as many as there are now (even still there aren't a lot of them). Davis cleverly used Arthurian mythology, mixed in some dragons, gave Merlin a more Christian-friendly backstory, and blasted onto the scene with that first book.

CIRCLES OF SEVEN picks up the story of Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver, two anthrozils -- part dragons, part humans. Clefspeare, Billy's dragon father, has disappeared or been taken or gone missing. The only lead Billy and Bonnie have is to head into a place called the Circles, where they must battle their way through seven areas to find Billy's father and bring him home. But a strange woman is following their progress with eagerness, because she has her own plans for Billy and Bonnie, and none of it can be good.

The concept behind this third book is so intriguing, I was immediately drawn in. I won't spoil it here, but as soon as you start to piece together what these circles actually are, it's incredibly fascinating and left me wondering what Billy and Bonnie would encounter next in these strange worlds they explored. While those two are on their quest to find Clefspeare, Walter and Ashley are on their own adventure, and the Professor and Mrs. Bannister are also on their own journey. The three journeys come together in the end, but there was some back and forth that made it hard to quite follow what was happening.

Davis brings it all together with a pretty climatic ending that definitely rivals the ending of book two, which I felt had been the strongest so far, and I think even beats out TEARS OF A DRAGON, book four. The villain is fairly strong, but we never really know what her motivations are aside from simply being evil. Her end goals lead to some great plot twists that I didn't see coming for sure. This book pushes some good boundaries within the Christian fantasy fiction genre, really bringing up the question: what exactly makes a book a Christian one? Should there be such distinctions? There's nothing immoral presented here, but the concepts of Heaven and Hell and salvation are brought up many times in some interesting ways. This is a book that might require some discussions about those topics afterwards.

My only problem with these books has been the same as the first two: sometimes the main characters act much younger than they actually are. Some of the ways they talk doesn't feel very authentic and some of the jokes fall a little flat. But the action, plot, and suspense make up for those shortcomings.

All said, CIRCLES OF SEVEN was another enjoyable entry in the DRAGONS IN OUR MIDST series. Plenty of action, surprises, and new ideas. Definitely worth your time.

I love every Bryan Davis writes, he's one of the best authors I know, I work at a book store and recomend his books to a lot of people