Dragon Keeper
(Book 1 of 3)
Carole Wilkinson
Hyperion
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: The young slave girl at the remote Chinese palace on Huangling Mountain has next to nothing, not even her name. Her only companions are animals: the livestock she takes care of, her pet rat Hua, and the dragons. Once the dragons were kept in the imperial palace at the capital, revered as lucky omens and studied by oracles, but one bit the Emperor when he was a boy, so he banished them to Huangling to live in exile. Now, only one remains... and even he quickly comes under threat. When danger comes to Huangling Mountain, girl and dragon (and rat) make a desperate bid for freedom, taking them thousands of li from the middle of nowhere to the edge of the legendary Ocean. Along the way, she must learn to master gifts she never knew she had in her new and unexpected role as Dragon Keeper.
REVIEW: On the whole, this isn't really a bad book. Mostly, it's a victim of predictability, both within its own genre (orphan/slave child meets a dragon and discovers their destiny), and within itself. The writing made several plot twists transparent long before I reached them. (Hands up those of you who don't suspect that the "dragon stone" the dragon guards so jealously has a special secret...) The girl isn't entirely dense as a protagonist, but she has distinct bouts of Plot-Extending Stupidity... and, for once, the dragon has them too, for all that he's centuries older and wiser. The ending sets up what looks to be either a trilogy or a full-blown series as the dragon stone's "secret" is at last revealed - and, once again, I saw it coming a li away, so rather than being surprised or elated I only felt a twitch of irritation that it took so long to come out. So, while I don't actively dislike Dragon Keeper, I can't think of much to recommend it over dozens of similar young-adult fantasy novels beyond its exploration of ancient Chinese dragon lore. No, I don't expect I'll explore the next books in the series, especially since I was bored to the point of skimming the excerpt from the sequel.
You might also enjoy:
Tales of Great Dragons (J. K. Anderson, YA Nonfiction - An introduction to world dragon lore, with pictures to color)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop)
Hatching Magic (Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A medieval wizard's tame wyvern travels to modern Boston to lay her egg)
The Dragonling series (Jackie French Koller, YA Fiction - A boy finds a newborn dragon in the pouch of the Great Blue his brother has just slain)
Dragonsong (Anne McCaffrey, YA? Fiction - A girl stumbles upon a nest of near-legendary fire lizards on the world of Pern)
Eragon (Christopher Paolini, Fiction - A farmer boy discovers a dragon's egg, changing his life and his world forever)
The Dragon of Lonely Island and The Return of the Dragon (Rebecca Rupp, YA Fiction - Three children find a three-headed dragon in a cave on their grandmother's island)
The Five Ancestors: Tiger (Jeff Stone, YA Fiction - In ancient China, a young kung-fu master bonds with a tiger cub)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - A slave boy on the world of Austar IV steals a hatchling dragon from his master)
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Eyewitness: Mythology
Phillip Wilkinson
Dorling Kindersley
Nonfiction, YA Mythology
*****
DESCRIPTION: Long before they learned to write, almost as soon as they developed language, our ancestors wove rich, powerful, and complex tales about the world around them, that which had been, was, and would be. Gods and demons, spirits and magic, angels and beasts, all became part of the global mythological base that this book attempts to cover.
REVIEW: This is yet another young adult book from the ever-popular DK Eyewitness series. For what this is, this is an exceptionally good book. It covers many cultures, popular and obscure, and with some measure of depth. To be sure, a real dictionary of every mythological person, place, and thing would be immense, but this is a good effort to boil it all down into bite-sized chunks. A nice introduction to world mythology, and a handy spark for the imagination.
You might also enjoy: Everworld series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - Four Chicago teens find themselves in a world where elder gods and mythic figures still reign)
Mythology: A Visual Encyclopedia (Jo Forty, Nonfiction - An introduction to mythology)
Eyewitness Books: Mythology (Neil Philip, YA Nonfiction - Myths from around the world)
Percy Jackson & The Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A modern boy learns that his father is a powerful Greek god)
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