TITLE: Pragamore, A New Beginning (Book One of the Pragamore Chronicles) AUTHOR: M.R. Williamson PUBLISHER: Author House, 2008 ISBN 978-1-4343-3104-5 (364 pages)
In what is clearly the first of a series, M.R.Williamson introduces his readers to an England previously unsuspected, through the eyes of young Richard Alvis, inheritor of an unrealized magical aptitude that would eventually lead him away from his home and into adventures rife with enough legendary creatures and menaces to satisfy any fan of Tolkien.
Leaving his ancestral home at Whitestone, Richard goes searching for his heritage: to be joined to the dragon Pragamore. Along the way he is aided by Yenwolk, a gnome mystic of questionable background whose fairy familiars often provide surprising sidetracks to the main story.
Drawn from the pages of English folklore and cast into a fantasy environment rife with contentious Pookas, mysterious dragons, cantankerous dwarves, and mischievous fairies, Pragmore carries the reader along on an adventure that will enthrall and amuse from the first page. Williamson's writing is easy to read and has a down-home familiarity that makes the reader comfortable with the most peculiar circumstances. Two thumbs up.