Here, There be Dragons
Jane Yolen
Harcourt Brace
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Yolen gathers a variety of her dragon-related short stories and poems, augmented with illustrations by David Wilgus. Some are silly, some are serious, some triumphant and some sad.
REVIEW: I admit that I've read little of Yolen's material. I was unimpressed with her wandering, pointless Young Merlin trilogy, and thus was never compelled to seek out further stories of hers. After reading this collection, found at Half Price Books, I feel I might have to rectify this oversight. Yolen's dragons are not the benevolent, enlightened souls they are in so many modern tales, but hearken back to the medieval tradition of great, scaled marauders who are justly slain by righteous humans. They aren't, however, dumb brutes. It makes an interesting change of pace, and her stories are well-crafted, even if they did mildly annoy the dragon-loving part of me. I also enjoyed Yolen's introductions to her works. The detailed pencil illustrations, though well-done, are peculiar in that they rarely depict dragons, so I was at a loss to explain their presence in a dragon-themed anthology. Overall, however, this is a fine collection of tales from a fine author.
You might also enjoy:
Bruce Coville's themed anthologies (Bruce Coville, editor, YA Fiction - Themed collections of sci-fi and fantasy stories)
The Dragonslayer's Apprentice (David Calder, YA Fiction - A girl trains to become a dragonslayer)
Bruce Coville's themed anthologies (Bruce Coville, editor, YA Fiction - Themed collections of sci-fi and fantasy stories)
The Dragonslayers (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Unlikely heroes set out to destroy a ferocious dragon)
We Three Dragons (Bill Fawcett, editor, Fiction - Three holiday-themed dragon tales)
Dragons: The Greatest Stories (Martin H. Greenberg, editor, Fiction - Stories about dragons by popular authors)
The Hero and the Crown (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - A princess learns to slay dragons)
Dragons - Truth, Myth, and Legend (David Passes, YA Nonfiction - Dragon lore)
Jack Prelutsky's poems (Jack Prelutsky, YA Fiction - Poetry about dragons, gargoyles, and other fantastic beasts)
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Dragon's Blood
(The Pit Dragon Chronicles, Book 1)
Jane Yolen
Dell
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*****
DESCRIPTION: Jakkin has been a bonder, a slave on the planet Austar IV, almost as long as he can remember. When his father was killed by a feral dragon, his mother sold both Jakkin and herself as bonders into the service of Master Sarkkhan, one of the world's most prominent dragon breeders. Bonders are slaves until they can earn enough gold to fill their bond bags and buy their way to freedom. On Austar IV, raising and training pit-fighting dragons is the quickest to fame and fortune - or bankruptcy and ruin. The only way Jakkin will ever fill his bond bag is to raise a champion dragon himself, but to do so, he must steal a hatchling from his master and raise it, in secret, out in the desert. It is a dangerous undertaking. Even if he gets away with the theft, can a fifteen-year-old slave boy really train a fighting dragon well enough to win in Austar's bloody pits?
REVIEW: This is considered a classic young adult dragon story, though it's not as easy to find these days as it once was. Austar IV is very well realized, and Yolen's descriptions of the dragons themselves are wonderfully detailed. Jakkin struggles not only with the young dragon, but with the awkward, uneven growth from boy to man. I do wonder why this isn't considered science fiction instead of fantasy, as there is interstellar travel and no magic to speak of. After all, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books are considered science fiction, and the Pernese dragons' ability to jump instantly between two points of space and time comes much closer to magic than anything Yolen's Austarian dragons do. Yolen also goes much deeper into how her winged reptiles evolved the ability to fly than anything I've read in McCaffrey's works (though I admit I haven't read them all.) I guess it was a marketing move. But, I digress. This is a very good tale. I gave it an extra mark for the depth of description and originality. Even after twenty years, nobody has tried to copy it.... at least, nobody I've read about.
You might also enjoy:
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop)
The Flight of Dragons (Peter Dickinson, Fiction - Speculations on how a biologically plausibe dragon might live)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - A girl raised at a dragon stable is forbidden to ride or fly by her father)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles (Robin Hobb, Fiction - A clutch of malformed dragonlings searches for a long-lost sanctuary)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where dragons have enslaved mankind, an embittered dragonslayer fights back)
The Dragonriders of Pern series (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the planet Pern, genetically created dragons and their bonded human riders fight deadly Threadfall)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - A dragonslayer and the last living dragon must unite to stop an evil king)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor", YA Fiction - Raising dragons as pets, based on real-world dragon lore)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A dragonlike alien recruits a boy thief to help save his species from annihilation)
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Heart's Blood
(The Pit Dragon Chronicles, Book 2)
Jane Yolen
Dell
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*****
DESCRIPTION: Much has changed for young Jakkin since his dragon's first fight. Heart's Blood, still a champion in the pits, has laid her first clutch of hatchlings. Jakkin is now seventeen, a master instead of a bonder, still living at Master Sarkkhan's nursery but no longer a slave. He even bought the bond of Erikkinn, a friend of his from the bondhouse, though the boy's incessantly ingratiating ways soon make him wonder if that was the right thing to do. Yet he does not feel any more a man than he was before he stole his first dragon. Still, he loves his new life as dragon trainer and breeder, so he is rather resentful when interplanetary politics invade his life. Austar IV is in a delicate position, not a part of the galactic Federation, yet no longer a penal colony as it was two hundred years ago. Some would see the world under the distant Federation's rule, and some prefer that offworlders mind their own business (save adding their coins to the pit fight coffers, naturally.) In the middle are growing numbers of rebel cells, dedicated to destroying the master/bond system and building a new civilization, without any vestiges of the old warden/prisoner relationships. Jakkin would just as soon ignore this dull political gaming, but then a Senator from the capital city of Rokk brings a message from a girl he has not seen in ages: Akki, who helped him raise Heart's Blood, then vanished without a trace. She has become entangled in Senator Golden's plot to infiltrate the rebels, and is apparently trapped. The young master Jakkin must learn a game other than the pit fights if he is to save his lost love and the world of the dragons.
REVIEW: This was a longer story than the first book, with many unexpected twists that set the stage for a final book I can't wait to get my hands on. Austar IV continues to be a well-defined and realistic alien world, and the dragons grow more believable and intriguing by the chapter. One warning, however - you might want a tissue or two close at hand when you read.
You might also enjoy:
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop)
The Flight of Dragons (Peter Dickinson, Fiction - Speculations on how a biologically plausibe dragon might live)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - A girl raised at a dragon stable is forbidden to ride or fly by her father)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles (Robin Hobb, Fiction - A clutch of malformed dragonlings searches for a long-lost sanctuary)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where dragons have enslaved mankind, an embittered dragonslayer fights back)
The Dragonriders of Pern series (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the planet Pern, genetically created dragons and their bonded human riders fight deadly Threadfall)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - A dragonslayer and the last living dragon must unite to stop an evil king)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor", YA Fiction - Raising dragons as pets, based on real-world dragon lore)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A dragonlike alien recruits a boy thief to help save his species from annihilation)
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A Sending of Dragons
(The Pit Dragon Chronicles, Book 3)
Jane Yolen
Harcourt Brace
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Jakkin, Akki, and Heart's Blood's hatchlings have cut all ties with the humans of Austar IV. After their inadvertent discovery that gave them dragonsight and telepathy, even the killing freeze of Dark After doesn't affect them. They believe that they are apart from their old lives, the world of pit dragons, breeders, and bonders, not to mention the struggles with rebels and the interstellar Federation... until one day they spy a copter in the mountains and decide to flee deeper into the unexplored hills. Soon, they come upon evidence of a horrible creature or creatures, capable of slaughtering even full-grown dragons. As Jakkin and Akki investigate, they stumble across a secret nearly as old as the human colony on Austar IV, and a danger to human and dragon alike.
REVIEW: I'm not sure why I clipped this one a point. It was a good story, with a completely different tone than the first two books. Maybe that was part of the problem
- after two books in the nurseries and pits, I was just getting the feel of this new and unexplored region of Austar IV when the story ended. I wasn't sure if A Sending of
Dragons was an unnecessary extension of the last books or the beginning of a never-finished new plotline in the dragons' world. It felt a little like both at once. Other
than that, I enjoyed this final visit with Jakkin and his dragons. Incidentally, this is a newer copy, which explains the different publisher.
Evidently, the Pit Dragon series is no longer a trilogy: a fourth book came out in 2009. I'll have to track it down, to see if it wraps up any of the loose threads left
over from this story.
You might also enjoy:
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop)
The Flight of Dragons (Peter Dickinson, Fiction - Speculations on how a biologically plausibe dragon might live)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - A girl raised at a dragon stable is forbidden to ride or fly by her father)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles (Robin Hobb, Fiction - A clutch of malformed dragonlings searches for a long-lost sanctuary)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where dragons have enslaved mankind, an embittered dragonslayer fights back)
The Dragonriders of Pern series (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the planet Pern, genetically created dragons and their bonded human riders fight deadly Threadfall)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - A dragonslayer and the last living dragon must unite to stop an evil king)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor", YA Fiction - Raising dragons as pets, based on real-world dragon lore)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - A dragonlike alien recruits a boy thief to help save his species from annihilation)
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Wizard's Hall
Jane Yolen
Magic Carpet/Harcourt Brace
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Young Henry's life changed forever one morning when, after idly mentioning to his dear ma that he might like to be a wizard, she took him at his word, packed his bags, and sent him out the door with a few kisses for luck. He has more than a few second thoughts, especially as he approaches the forbidding Wizard's Hall itself, but he did promise that he'd try, so try he will. Quickly renamed (as all young wizards are upon entry), Henry-turned-Thornmallow finds himself the last and possibly least student to enroll this year... and the least and possibly last hope of Wizard's Hall when the dark Master and his terrible Beast arrive at the school's doorstep for long- awaited revenge.
REVIEW: A very quick read, with certain hints reminiscent of Rowling's (later) Harry Potter series, though considering the relative publication dates I doubt it's anything other than artistic coincidence. Yolen's tale has a lighter feel and different lessons for the protagonists to learn. It's fun, if not especially deep or uniquely memorable.
You might also enjoy:
Bruce Coville's Magic Shop Books (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Children in trouble find magical gifts at a mysterious magic shop)
The Lives of Christopher Chant (Diana Wynne Jones, YA Fiction - A boy has a knack for traveling between worlds in his dreams)
The Merlin Conspiracy (Diana Wynne Jones, YA Fiction - Unexpectly pushed into a parallel world, a boy finds himself involved in a plot to corrupt the magic of the multiverse)
The Seventh Tower series (Garth Nix, YA Fiction - In a world of light magic and shadow servants, a boy works to earn a sunstone to heal his mother - and finds corruption gnawing at the foundation of his castle home)
The Diadem series (John Peel, YA Fiction - Three children from different worlds are united by untapped magic and an unknown destiny)
The Circle of Magic books (Tamora Pierce, YA Fiction - Four children must learn to trust their elusive magical gifts)
Percy Jackson & the Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A boy learns that being the son of a Greek god brings great danger in addition to powerful gifts)
The Harry Potter series (J. K. Rowling, YA Fiction - Kept ignorant of his magical heritage by his guardians, young Harry receives an invitation to a wizard school)
A School for Sorcery (E. Rose Sabin, YA Fiction - A farmer's daughter gets a rare chance to develop her magical gifts at a specialized boarding school)
The Septimus Heap series (Angie Sage, YA Fiction - A seventh son becomes an apprentice in a world where the reigning monarch is trying to undermine the traditional wizards)
A Plague of Sorcerers (Mary Frances Zambreno, YA Fiction - A young mage's new skunk familiar does little to convince others of his gifts)
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The Young Merlin Trilogy
(Passager, Hobby, Merlin)
Jane Yolen
Hyperion
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**
DESCRIPTION: This is the story of the boy Merlin, from the time when he is abandoned in the woods to his discovery of the boy who is destined to be king.
Passager: Merlin, a nameless wild boy, is found by Master Robin and slowly returned to the world of humans. He also becomes aware that he is different from other people,
and that his cryptic dreams have a way of predicting the future - if he can figure out how to read them.
Hobby: Four years after his salvation from the forests, Master Robin's family has been wiped out by a fire, and the boy sets out on his own to find out who he is. He
falls in with a disreputable spy and a pair of crafty traveling performers.
Merlin: The boy Merlin has returned to the woods from whence he came. Here, he finds a tribe of wild people and starts upon the path that will lead him to his place in
history.
REVIEW: I reviewed these books together partly to save space, but also because none of them has enough plot individually to be considered a story. Even taken all
together, there is no recognizable pattern of beginning, middle, and end, a pattern I have come to rely upon in my reading and writing endeavors. They read like fragments of
Yolen's telling of the King Arthur tale, and, like everyone over the past few centuries who writes the story, she has altered elements to suit her own particular fancy. It might
have been interesting to see how she worked the tale to account for these creative alterations, but she ends the story long before Arthur pulls the sword from the stone. I
wonder if she was intending to write a series, following some of the other characters, and perhaps even an adaptation of the whole King Arthur story cycle, but for whatever
reason stopped after this tale. Actually, it reads more like a few stray chapters than a complete story, let alone a trilogy. It assumes that you know the Arthurian legends
well enough that this can be just a companion piece. Maybe it's because I don't know the whole story too well (I've never had much interest in the convoluted King Arthur cycle
for some reason) but I don't think it works. Various characters come and go in young Merlin's life, bringing with them various good and bad events (mostly bad), but none really
has a reason for being, let alone being in the trilogy. Yolen seems to take great pleasure in the fact that she conducted research on the matter. These books are littered with
stuff about the subject of falconry and the medieval concept of the Wild Man of the Woods. The names are all falconry terms: a passager is a wild-caught immature bird, a hobby
is a young hawk, and a merlin is a species of hawk (in case you didn't know.) In fact, she fills the books with references to research on all manner of time-period-relevant
topics. Too bad there wasn't any room left for a plot.
I didn't despise it enough to brand it with the lowest rating level; that honor is reserved for those Very Special books that are so atrocious that they make me furious that I
wasted irreplaceable time reading them. Her writing itself wasn't horrid; she just never finished anything she started. One-star books make me feel royally hacked off at
the universe and the author. In finishing these books, I just felt cheated, bored, and a little confused.
There's a reviewer quoted somewhere (I can't recall where) who claims that the Young Merlin trilogy is "great," that it "leaves you wanting more." The former is a
mistake, but the latter is a serious understatement.
You might also enjoy:
The Lost Years of Merlin (T. A . Barron, YA Fiction - The turbulent and dangerous youth of the boy who will become Merlin)
The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling, YA? Fiction - The tale of the jungle boy Mowgli and other stories of the Indian wilderness)
The Earthsea books (Ursula K. LeGuin, YA Fiction - A boy grows from untested youth to potent wizard)
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