It's Signature Week! This month's Signature Author Background features Dragon's Treasure by Signature Author David McLeod. I always start Signature Week with a review of the story being featured. Lucky for me, Aditus stepped up to do the review for Dragon's Treasure. Take a look and hopefully you'll like the review enough that you go check out the story as well, and perhaps enjoy it as much as Aditus seemed to!

Reviewer: Aditus
Status: Complete
Word Count: 28,591

Four boys—an Empath, an Illusionist, a Druid, and a Thief—encounter a dragon and find much more than treasure.

That's how David summarized his story.

Ever since I watched the movie 'Dragon Heart' I've been hooked on fantasy stories featuring dragons, which of course meant I had to read a story called 'Dragon's Treasure'.

In the style of a classic tale of an epic journey, Ulee, Ian, Jeremy and Thorby leave their home to travel through Eblis. All four boys are magic users, which isn't unusual in this world.

Only they aren't simple craft magic users, they can do great magic,

and this is why the boys are hunted by the Red-Robes, who take children away from their homes on behalf of the Prince of Eblis to bring them to his city, where they are forced to serve him.

The story starts with Ulee and Ian. They encounter greedy boatmen, exploitive farmers, and the Red Robes, but also a wise mentor and eventually Jeremy and Thorby. It is as Ian's Nana has told them.

And of course they meet the dragon.

This is a story of change, of growth, of learning to trust each other, of working together and of making sacrifices to reach the common goal.

With his descriptive writing David made me crouch with Ulee in the muddy ditch and hold my breath until the soldiers had passed, he made me cringe when the boy told about his apprenticeship, he made me love and admire Josephus and yes, he made me sad, several times actually.

Dragon's Treasure opened the door to an interesting and exciting world for me and I plan to read all the other stories which take place there and tell of other places like Arcadia and Elvenhold.

I have one complaint, though: The story ended far too soon. I would love to read a sequel.