The Dragon Keeper Chronicles is a Christian fantasy series by Donita K. Paul concerning the life of the Dragon Keeper, Kale. The series is set in a world with several fantastic races, many of which fit fairly comfortably into certain stereotypes.
The series consists of DragonSpell, DragonQuest, DragonKnight, DragonFire and DragonLight. As you may have guessed, quite a lot of the characters are dragons.
Donita has written another series set in the same world, but at a different place and time. This series follows the adventures of Tipper, a young Emerlindian girl. Three books have been published so far, Dragons of Chiril (previously titled The Vanishing Sculptor). Dragons of the Valley, and Dragons of the Watch.
Not to be confused with the Dragonkeeper series by Carole Wilkinson.
This work contains examples of:
- Always Chaotic Evil: The lower races all first appear to be this, but as the series goes on we see more and more sympathetic characters from these races. It's actually discussed several times, particularly in reference to a Bisonbeck who is working with the good guys.
- The Assimilator: Lord Ire, a being created by Pretender stealing a meech's body and 'absorbing' several others.
- Aura Vision: Regidor and a very few Minor Dragons have the ability to see people's souls. Paladin probably has something like this, too. But ordinary Wizards, such as Kale, occasionally can see darkness coming off of sufficiently evil characters.
- Beneath the Mask: Bardon, who at first looks stuck up, self-righteous, arrogant, and a jerk. Not entirely false, actually, but his heart is a whole lot better than his face. He still wears a stoic mask on occasions where he's likely to be judged for his parentage.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": A bizarre variation involving fantasy creatures. Also, Grawligs are clearly ogres, with a hint of troll. God is called Wulder and Satan is called Pretender.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A minor dragon's color indicates their magical talent. Green dragons can heal, purples can sing, red and yellow dragons inspire mirth, mottled grays glow in the dark, and so on.
- Cool Old Guy: Fenworth and Librettowit.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Fenworth. "How do you do the water spell, again?" "Is it one part hydrogen to two parts oxygen?" And then he drowns all the enemies. Taken up to eleven when he kills Wizard Risto, absentmindedly remarking "I've never liked him, Thorp." Kill It with Fire Ensues.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most dragons, especially Greer.
- Gentle Giant: Brunstetter. And pretty-much every other urohm.
- Humans by Any Other Name: There are only two noticeable differences between humans and o'rants - the gestation period and the fact o'rant sweat smells of citrus.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Holt Hoddack. At first, also Bardon.
- Last-Minute Hookup: Dar/Suddenly-Adult!Toopka.
Don't think about it. Just don't. - Lightning Bruiser: Regidor. The Meech Dragon. The first time anyone sees him fight... they realize how glad they are not to be his enemies. Kale: "He moves like a lizard." Bardon: "Agile like a lizard!" Toopka: "Don't say that: he might not like it!" Regidor is about seven feet tall, incredibly muscular, has a tail as a fifth limb, is an absolute genius who thinks faster than you ever could and could probably learn everything there is to know about fighting in a week, and breathes fire. Oh, and he later learns to fly. He's also something like this as far as Magic-use is concerned: most wizards have one tallent; Regidor has them all.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Fenworth half-averts it, half plays it straight. While he does die, it's not in a battle, he just sort of... turns into a tree.
- Official Couple: Kale and Bardon, adult!Toopka and Dar.
- Older Than They Look: Toopka.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Not all breathe fire. Some of them can heal people. Some of them can sing. Some of them glow in the dark. Some of them make people impulsively laugh. Some of them are humanoid and talk.
- Our Elves Are Different: Their skin, hair and eyes gradually darkens as they age and gain wisdom.
- Parental Abandonment: Several characters are missing one or both parents (Kale, Bardon, Toopka), or have been estranged from them (Beal). A large chunk of the series is actually spent dealing with all of the various emotional issues and other things that arise because of this.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "I never liked him, Thorp." Made better since it's being said absent-mindedly to a bird.
- The Red Mage: The Red Mage + One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce + Lightning Bruiser = Regidor. Most wizards have one tallent: Light Magic, Swamp Magic, Sound Magic. Regidor has them all.
- The Reveal: Toopka is much older than she seems; she's been aged down.
- The Starscream: Starting from book 2, Wizard Risto to Pretender. You get the feeling Burner Stox and Crim Cropper would have become this to Wizard Risto, except that Wizard Fenworth took Risto out a book or two too early.
- Tsundere: O'rants are like this when pregnant. Either that or it's a family trait.
- Time Skip: The series covers twelve years. In five books. One year, then three years, then three years again, then five years...
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: At the end of both DragonKnight and DragonFire, Pretender has to pull this one.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed in the case of the quiss. The heroes initially have no moral problem with exterminating the quiss migrations, precisely because quiss are non-sapient beasts and cannot be negotiated with. When they discover a strain of quiss modified to have sapience by a Mad Scientist villain, they specifically decree that those quiss are not to be wiped out without at least giving them the option of returning to the oceans. (Since most of the heroes are telepaths, they can tell if a quiss swarm contains any of the sapient kind before ordering it wiped out).
- Wizard Classic: Wizard Fenworth fits this to a T. Robe and Wizard Hat, Magic Staff, Uses Wizardry, quite eccentric, male, 72 centuries old(according to him, but of course, he's at least a few millennia old, and his mind isn't what it used to be)... Quite a few of the other Wizards fit this, too, to varying degrees. Even Kale, given long enough.
