Larger	The Ring of Five Dragons (Pearl, Bk 1) Author: Eric Van Lustbader
	Book Information Publisher: Tor Books Book Type: Hardcover Rating: 8 ISBN-13: 9780312872359 - ISBN-10: 0312872356 Publication Date: 5/11/2001 Pages: 576 Book Reviews

Eric Van Lustbader launches a towering epic of fantasy, The Pearl Saga, with The Ring of Five Dragons. This astonishing first volume opens as the Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically superior V'ornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faith--why hasn't their goddess Miina saved them?--Kundalan religion has fallen under the control of evil forces from within who forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery, pretending to have no magic of their own. The V'ornn's mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, know better and search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well.

But misused, the Ring is the trigger of seemingly inexorable annihilation for V'ornn and Kundalan alike. Now from among the oppressed must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world.

Thus begins a huge epic rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological cultures. The twisting plot raises difficult and provocative moral questions in the course of a constantly surprising, sometimes shocking, fantastic adventure that will transport fantasy readers to new heights of enthusiasm, and make them ask for more.