Kasey and His Dragon
E. H. White
CreateSpace
Fiction, MG? Fantasy
Themes: Bonded Companions, Dragons, New Age, Portal Adventures, Schools, Spiritual Themes, Wizards
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Description
Since Kasey's father disappeared, things have been rough for him and his mother. He works around the neighborhood to earn money, often with his best
friend Alicia helping out, but it's never enough. Worse, due to a mix-up with his father's military paperwork, the Army denies he even worked for them
and refuses to pay benefits. Just when it things seem worse than ever, Kasey discovers something strange in a neighbor's pond: a glittering diamond orb,
from which a white dragon emerges.
Kasey finds himself whisked away to the world of Onadida, seven galaxies away, where he's enrolled in a special school where children learn to work with
animals magical and mundane. It's a wonderful place, made moreso when his friend Alicia arrives to find her own unique animal friend, but all is not well
here. The other children resent an offworlder getting the privilege of a white dragon; they have to study and compete hard for the few available dragons,
and white dragons only occur once in a generation. Parts of Onadida also seem to be missing, an entire half of the rainbow, but nobody will tell Kasey or
Alicia what happened. The boy soon finds his heart and his skills put to the test as dangers threaten his family, his new friends, and the entire world
of Onadida.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
Having just finished Kasey and His Dragon, I have two burning questions: what did I just read, and who thought it was ready to be published? It
reads like the ill-advised offspring of Eragon and Pokemon, with a touch of Harry Potter, a dash of Dragonriders of
Pern, and a metric ton of New Age energy jargon. Kasey's an empty shell of a protagonist, surrounded by friends and guides... and a host of nameless
children who, despite existing on a planet that prides itself on its spiritual enlightenment, and despite having earned the privilege of great powers at this
special school, behave like jealous jerks because the white dragon chose an Earthling over them. But, it's no wonder the dragon Halyn decided on him. The
whole of the cosmos seems to exist solely to comfort Kasey and teach him about Healing and Enlightenment. Onadida is not so much a planet as a Lesson made
manifest, with less logic and cohesiveness than a three-year-old's crayon scribblings. Animals shrink and grow at will, depending on whether the story wants
to rip off Eragon with a flight scene or Harry Potter with a magical classroom - oops, I suppose animals have to change size, if that
pachyderm and the butterfly with the seven-foot wingspan are going to fit indoors. Similarly, miraculous devices materialize whenever the threadbare plot
decides it's easier to just handwave away something than have the characters deal with it, which is most of the time. Need breakfast? Just wish for it. Want
to explain why a teleporting dragon doesn't escape captivity? Um - there's "some sort of device" to prevent it. Don't ask why or how, there just is. (And, yes,
the narrative does use the words "some sort of device.") People on Onadida can even materialize and dematerialize at will; I want to believe there's a reason
for this, and not that the author just didn't know how to get people to show up or leave a scene otherwise. The story, such as it is, starts out cute, quickly
grows threadbare, then just up and leaves the building in a hallucinatory mess of spiritual lessons before arriving at a climax that seems to have come from
an entirely different draft, if not another story altogether. And then it ends, in a way that dropped the story to the rock-bottom rating.
I looked on Amazon, trying to determine if E. H. White is a teen or preteen who, while possessing a vivid imagination and admirable ambition, jumped the gun on
going public with their work. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. But, unable to confirm my suspicions, I have to treat this story as I would any
other book, by any other author.
(As a closing note, I enjoyed the cover art.)