The Dragon Quartet
(Books 1 and 2)
Marjorie B. Kellogg
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: When the world emerged from Chaos, four dragons emerged with it: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. As soon as the world was formed, they thought to sleep until
it ended, but something has awakened them. Some Purpose awaits them... but to do anything, they need to find their Dragon Guides, a human chosen by Destiny to help them.
This book was originally published as two volumes:
The Book of Earth - Erde, daughter of a minor baron in 913 Germany, sees her power-hungry father corrupted by a fanatical priest, a priest driven by visions of foul dragons and
a passion for burning supposed witches. In this time of unseasonable famine, the people long for an explanation, a target, and the priest's ravings give them plenty. Erde herself
comes under his scrutiny for noticing too much, and as she flees from her ancestral home she encounters Earth, the first of the dragons to awake. He hardly knows who he is, but
he does know that he and Erde are bound by greater forces than either of them understand. As the barons of Germany revolt against the fading power of King Otto, and as the priest
becomes a force of fear and superstition to eclipse all titled men of the land, Erde is drawn into both the struggles for power among powerful men and the dragon's growing
awareness of its own Purpose.
The Book of Water - Drawn by forces he can hardly explain, Earth takes Erde to drought- and war-torn Africa in 2013, when pollution and global warming have turned the world into
a place quite unrecognizable to the baron's daughter. The skies are yellow with toxins, the oceans are full of diseased and dying fish, and the only reasonably safe food is
whatever people grow themselves - in locked and barricaded gardens. They find Earth's sister dragon, Water, who knows little more of why the dragons were wakened than Earth but
nevertheless is determined to perform whatever Purpose that is. Water's guide, N'Doch, has spent his whole life simply surviving, scoffing at his grandfather's tribal lore and
the oft-repeated tale of finding a dragon and saving the world. The jaded young man resists the notions of magic and Destiny, which seems to negate his long-held dreams of
turning his music into vid-star fame and fortune, but forces more powerful than even the dragons control events now.
REVIEW: Yes, I bought it because of the dragons on the cover. I like them, okay? That said, I enjoyed this story, though I thought it took a little while to get off the ground. The characters and dragons are unique enough to tell apart, each a product of their own time and talent but capable of understanding the larger problems that threaten the existence of the whole world, not just the place and time they came from. The dragons themselves nicely blend elemental magic with dragon lore. I only wish I'd bought the second volume - containing the last two books in the quartet - at the same time, though I've been burned often enough by intriguing-sounding series that fizzled to justify caution.
You might also enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker, Fiction - A company from the future uses immortal cyborg agents to manipulate history for profit)
The Ancient One (T. A. Barron, YA Fiction - While defending a redwood grove from loggers, a girl is pulled back in time to face an even greater threat)
The Last Dragonlord (Joanne Bertin, Fiction - Shapeshifting, immortal weredragons are both revered and hated)
Dragon Companion (Don Callander, Fiction - A modern librarian finds himself in a world of elves and dragons)
The Book of Dragons (Ciruelo, Fiction - An illustrated guide to dragons)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop, which unexpectedly hatches to produce a real dragon)
Timeline (Michael Crichton, Fiction - Archaeology students must rescue their professor from the past)
The Dragon and the George (George R. Dickson, Fiction - Seeking his missing wife, a man finds himself in a magical medieval world... and trapped in the body of a dragon)
The Fire Within (Chris D'Lacey, YA Fiction - A college student receives a clay dragon which seems to come alive in his mind)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - At a riding academy where children fly dragons, the stablemaster's daughter is forbidden to fly)
Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke, YA Fiction - When Man's encroachment threatens the last European dragons, one brave drake sets out to find a legendary sanctuary, accompanied by an irascible brownie and an orphaned human boy)
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the world of Pern, fire-breathing dragons and their bonded human riders fight deadly airborne Thread)
The Temeraire series (Naomi Novik, Fiction - In an alternate Earth, the Napoleanic wars feature sapient dragons as airborne warships)
The Glass Dragon (Irene Radford, Fiction - The invisible dragons, source of the land's magic, are being exterminated by unknown forces)
Testament of the Dragon (Margaret Weis, YA? Fiction - The tale of Justinian Sterling, who sold his soul to become the immortal servant of the last Western Dragon)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - On the planet Austar IV, men breed native dragons to fight in deadly pit matches)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A fugitive teen thief, on the run from an interstellar megacorporation, forms an alliance of necessity with a dragonlike alien)
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The Dragon Quartet, Volume 2
(Books 3 and 4)
Marjorie B. Kellogg
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: In the beginning, the world was created by four dragons: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Their work done, they thought to sleep until their creation ended...
but something awakened them prematurely. Now, they and their human dragon guides seek through the centuries to find each other and the one who Summoned them from their slumber,
the one who may explain for what Purpose they are called. First wakened was Earth, beneath the mountains in 913 Germany. With his guide Erde, a baron's daughter driven from her
home by cruel circumstance and lies, they traveled to 2013 Africa. Here, they picked up Water and her initially reluctant guide N'Doch, a survival-hardened city boy. The quest
to find their remaining two siblings, and understand why and where they are Summoned, continues...
This was originally published as two books:
The Book of Fire - In a future with little land and less hope, the dragon Fire has become a self-styled God of the Apocalypse, ruling over a dispirited population that
struggles to pull life from a dying, polluted world. His High Priestess Paia comes to question her God's fierce, seductive command when strange visions of the green past intrude
on her dreams. Fire hears the Summons as his brother Earth and sister Water do, but unlike them he refuses to obey, determined to let humanity destroy itself.
The Book of Air - After being denied victory, Fire rages off through the centuries to wreak revenge on the dragon guides' most loved places and people. Torn, the dragons
and their human companions, guides and friends, must decide whether to continue searching for the dragon Air, entrapped by Fire by unknown means in an unknown place and time, or
to go back and warn their allies in other eras. But Fire may well have a reason for his rebellious nature - it is possible that he, alone of the free dragons, knows what their
Purpose is, and understands its implications more fully than they would wish to.
REVIEW: This is a fair followup to the first volume, though I'm just as glad I got these books as two rather than four. I started getting just a little impatient with Kellogg's habit of jumping scenes and wandering for chapters and chapters between relevant, plot-advancing moments, especially her habit of having one character just about to reveal some Vital Truth - only to leave them (and the reader) hanging for several chapters while she visited some other place and time. I wonder if perhaps the four books would have been better as three, or simply four somewhat shorter volumes. That said, the story itself was nice, with a sci-fi/time-travel twist on dragon lore and mystic forces. Her increasingly bleak and lifeless futures look all too possible at this point...
You might also enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker, Fiction - A company from the future uses immortal cyborg agents to manipulate history for profit)
The Ancient One (T. A. Barron, YA Fiction - While defending a redwood grove from loggers, a girl is pulled back in time to face an even greater threat)
The Last Dragonlord (Joanne Bertin, Fiction - Shapeshifting, immortal weredragons are both revered and hated)
Dragon Companion (Don Callander, Fiction - A modern librarian finds himself in a world of elves and dragons)
The Book of Dragons (Ciruelo, Fiction - An illustrated guide to dragons)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop, which unexpectedly hatches to produce a real dragon)
Timeline (Michael Crichton, Fiction - Archaeology students must rescue their professor from the past)
The Dragon and the George (George R. Dickson, Fiction - Seeking his missing wife, a man finds himself in a magical medieval world... and trapped in the body of a dragon)
The Fire Within (Chris D'Lacey, YA Fiction - A college student receives a clay dragon which seems to come alive in his mind)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - At a riding academy where children fly dragons, the stablemaster's daughter is forbidden to fly)
Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke, YA Fiction - When Man's encroachment threatens the last European dragons, one brave drake sets out to find a legendary sanctuary, accompanied by an irascible brownie and an orphaned human boy)
The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the world of Pern, fire-breathing dragons and their bonded human riders fight deadly airborne Thread)
The Temeraire series (Naomi Novik, Fiction - In an alternate Earth, the Napoleanic wars feature sapient dragons as airborne warships)
The Glass Dragon (Irene Radford, Fiction - The invisible dragons, source of the land's magic, are being exterminated by unknown forces)
Testament of the Dragon (Margaret Weis, YA? Fiction - The tale of Justinian Sterling, who sold his soul to become the immortal servant of the last Western Dragon)
Dragon Keeper (Carole Wilkinson, YA Fiction - A slave in ancient China finds herself both guardian and student to the last imperial dragon)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - On the planet Austar IV, men breed native dragons to fight in deadly pit matches)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A fugitive teen thief, on the run from an interstellar megacorporation, forms an alliance of necessity with a dragonlike alien)
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