Dragonsdale
(Dragonsdale series, Book 1)
Salamanda Drake
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: The Isles of Bresal teem with wonders and dangers: secretive merfolk, deadly feline pards, predatory firedogs, and more. But Bresal's greatest claim to
fame by far are the local dragons, with which the islanders share a special bond. Not tame in the sense of oxen or hounds or wyverns, dragons can be Trustbonded to people,
permitting them to ride the beasts and defend their fellow islanders from Bresal's many dangers... but only so long as the human honors the Bond, for dragons are still very
wild at heart. Of course, you don't just become a dragon rider overnight. Both dragon and human must be trained to earn the Trustbond and learn how to work together. For that
honor, island boys and girls flock to Bresal's many dragon stables and the annual show competitions, where dragons and riders compete in everything from grooming and showmanship
to obstacle courses and racing. To ride a dragon of Bresal, to earn a Trustbond with the great beasts and take to the air, is a wonderful thing, but with it comes great
responsibility... and danger.
Cara's father runs Dragonsdale, one of Bresal's leading dragon stables. Here, boys and girls come to learn about riding and showing dragons... but not Cara. After her mother died
in a training accident, her father Huw has forbidden her to fly. She can work in the stables, she can help the other students tend their charges, but never follow her friends or
her heart into the clouds. Despite his decree, Cara forms a bond with Skydancer, a rare Goldenbrow dragon rescued from the wild as a hatchling, considered intractable by
Dragonsdale's trainers. If only she ever got the chance, she knows Sky would fly for her... but training him in secret would shatter Huw's trust, and may destroy her dream
forever. Besides, there's a world of difference between dreaming of flight and actually controlling a dragon on the wing, and for all her years in Dragonsdale stable Cara's
never even sat in the saddle. Is her mother's blood strong enough in Cara's heart to break through her father's blinding grief, or is he right that flying a dragon will be her
death?
REVIEW: If you read the Description and thought it looked a bit familiar, you're not imagining it. The heart of this story comes from the quintessential girl-and-her-
horse book: the girl who loves to ride, the loss of a parent (usually the mother) which leads the remaining parent to forbid riding, and the wild stallion who refuses to obey
anyone else. Such books often have similar characters, especially when set in a stable, and Dragonsdale doesn't disappoint here, either. We have the nervous yet
good-hearted chubby girl (Wony), the steadfast best friend (Breena), and the nasty rich girl who can't ride worth a darn but knows how to apply a whip (Hortense, daughter of the
local lord.) There's also the new stable boy, Drane, who starts out largely as a proxy for the audience; he comes from a farm and knows nothing of dragons, so as Cara shows him
around Dragonsdale, she explains her world to the readers - a world with more than passing similarity to show horse circles, but which incorporates the unique problems
and abilities of dragons to become something bigger and bolder. As the tale progresses and the need for a handheld walkthrough of Dragonsdale lessens, Drane comes into his own as
an ally of Cara in her secret mission to train up Skydancer. Originality in plotline and depth of character doesn't count for much in this kind of story, and again
Dragonsdale adheres to the formula of no unhappy endings and no unexpected character development or growth: Wony's still chubby and nervous, Breena's still her best
friend, and Hortense is still an irredeemable shrew at the end. There's also a preview of the sequel, implying a series of adventures to come for Dragonsdale stable, not to
mention the return of Hortense the Horrible.
So, you might be asking yourself, if it's such a predictable story, why did I give it a Good rating? Because, predictability aside, it's still a fun read, and I enjoyed the way
Drake tweaked the horse show base to accommodate dragons. She obviously put more thought into Bresal and its dragons than simply making them oversized horses in a generic
countryside; there's a good enough foundation here to support a light series, which looks like what she had in mind. I also read this right after Robert Asprin's atrocious
Dragons Wild, so perhaps I was predisposed to love any dragon with any semblance of likeability, and who didn't bore me to tears by knowing nothing about its own species.
(I also found myself thinking that Dragonsdale would make a great dragon-sim computer game, along the lines of horse-sim games, especially now that 3D gaming technology
would allow for realistic runs through flying lessons and aerial show courses. Well, I'd certainly look at it if I saw it on the shelf, at any rate...) Also, while it is
admittedly only a few steps away from a Fluffy Bunny story, the author follows the horse-girl book formula enough to make Cara and Sky truly suffer for their cause, and anyone
of the target age will likely suffer along with them.
One thing that almost cost this book another point in ratings was the illustrations. I'm not sure what was going on, as they appeared to all be by the same person, but the
dragons went from two-legged to four-legged, sometimes within the space of a page (the book clearly states that Bresal dragons have four legs and two wings, and gives them no
shapeshifting skills, unless that bit was cut out in editing.) The dragon tack - described quite specifically in the book - was even inconsistent from one drawing to the
next. If there ever is a Dragonsdale game, I hope they hire a new concept artist to design its dragons.
You might also enjoy:
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon egg in a mysterious magic shop)
Hatching Magic and The Dragon of Never-Was(Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A modern Boston girl meets a medieval wizard's escaped wyvern, who came through a magical portal to lay her egg)
Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke, YA Fiction - A dragon searches for a lost sanctuary with a brownie and an orphaned human boy)
The First Dragoneer (M. R. Mathias, YA Fiction - On an ill-fated hunting trip, a peasant boy discovers his destiny)
Eragon (Christopher Paolini, Fiction - A farmboy finds a dragon's egg)
The Dragons Are Singing Tonight (Jack Prelutsky, YA Poetry - Dragon poems that sing)
Dinotopia: Hatchling (Midori Snyder, YA Fiction - In the land of Dinotopia, an apprentice at a dinosaur hatchery runs away after her negligence endangers one of her charges)
The Dragonology books (Dugald A. Steer, editor, YA Fiction - Notes on dragon species from around the world)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor", YA Fiction - The art and science of dragon ownership)
Voices of Dragons (Carrie Vaughn, YA Fiction - A teen girl befriends a young dragon while their races prepare for war)
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm (Tad Williams and Deborah Beale, YA Fiction - Two children discover a magical secret at their great-uncle's farm)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - A slave boy on Austar IV, young Jakkin steals a new-hatched fighting dragon from his master)
Wizard's Hall (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - A boy of questionable talent finds himself enrolled at a wizard school)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
Return to Brightdreamer Books Home
Brightdreamer Books is created and maintained by TBW, a.k.a. "Brightdreamer."
E-mail: tbweber AT comcast DOT net. (Remove spaces, replace AT with "@" and DOT with "." - please put "Brightdreamer Books" in the subject line, or your e-mail may be deleted as
spam! Thank you!