Re-reads Archives - Dogear Diary

The Magician’s Nephew

by C.S. Lewis

I decided that since I still struggle with anything beyond a 8-10 year old reading level right now, it might be nice to revisit some old favorites in the juvenile fic and YA range, and see how that goes. I’m happy to say it was delightful. I think just because the narrative was so familiar (I read this one four or five times in my childhood and teen years), my brain didn’t have to focus as much to understand and I could just enjoy it. I found myself getting through multiple chapters at a sitting, liking all the details I had forgotten, and taking pleasure in the storytelling again. The only part that dragged me down was a chapter near the end of the book (pictured on the cover) where the children take a journey and a lot of landscape is described, without much dialog anywhere. I found that mentally taxing and hard to picture. Maybe it is the imaginative things that my mind still struggles with. I think I should try some authors that I used to find dull in the past- because they were all tell, very little show– and it could be that works better for me now. Mercedes Lackey comes to mind . . . .

Anyhow, I am sure there are a hundred blogs and other review places that have noted this story before, so I’ll keep it brief. This book is a precursor to the Narnia series, even though it was published as book 6. In the timeline it comes first, telling how the world was formed. It’s a lively and interesting story, mostly (in my opinion) because the child characters are so very like real children, with their squabbles and their fun and occasional naughtiness and struggles with doing what’s right when the opposite is very tempting. It also has very strong metaphors, symbolism and narrative arc reflecting Christian ideology. Which I never at all noticed as a kid. Now it is so obvious to me, but as an adult reader I didn’t mind.

Two kids live in neighboring flats in London. On a boring rainy day, they start exploring a sort of attic space that spans all the houses in the row. Sneaking into what they think is an empty flat, they’re surprised to find themselves in the private study of Digory (the boy)’s uncle, who is a self-made magician. Needing a guinea pig for his experiments, he tricks them into using magic rings that send them to another world. It’s not actually another world they reach, but a kind of connection place between many worlds. Digory is eager to explore more places, the girl Polly is cautious. Which causes some arguments to arise. They do go into other worlds- one seems ancient and dead, but they inadvertently awaken an old evil there. She follows them back to London (though they try to evade her) and causes all sorts of trouble. Her aim is to take over everything, but before she can manage that, they pull her back into the between place. Leap into the next world thinking it’s her old dead one, but are in a new place entirely- a world just coming into being. Where Narnia is. They witness the lion ruler Aslan creating things and bringing all the animals to life. Unhappily, they have also led the evil woman into Narnia, and so Digory has to go on a quest to procure a magical fruit that will grow into a tree protecting the land from her. However, he is sorely tempted because he wants to take the fruit back home instead, where his mother lies bedridden and terminally ill- he thinks the fruit will cure her. In the end he does make the right choice, and is benevolently rewarded, and anyone who has read the other Narnia books will see in here the origins of the White Witch, the wardrobe that leads other children into Narnia, and the lamp post that grows in a forest.

I’m so glad I re-read this. I plan to revisit more over the upcoming weeks.

Rating: 4/5

168 pages, 1995

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

The Inner Life of Animals

Love, Grief and Compassion

by Peter Wohlleben

This was an unintentional re-read for me. And uncommonly soon, as the previous read was only five years ago! What happened was, I had written the title wrong on my previous post (now fixed). So it didn’t come up in a search, when I thought: this book is so familiar, have I read it before? By the time I realized I had, I was far enough into the narrative to be intrigued by all the parts I’d forgotten, so continued to the end. It really was surprising, what things I so clearly remembered from before (the squirrel mother nearly strangled by young she carried to safety, deer hierarchy changing when the leading doe looses her fawn) and what leaped out at me seemingly entirely new. Did I just forget so much, or did my mind skim over them when I was reading? I wonder if it’s the different voice that made other parts stand out.

Because this time it was an audiobook. Borrowed from the public library. Reader’s voice Thomas Judd. The book is full of examples of animals experiencing emotions and demonstrating thought processes or intelligence. From lab rats dreaming about their tests in a maze to goats and dogs adopting orphaned animals (sometimes of other species). Crows sliding down snowy rooftops over and over again- seemingly for fun. Horses in old age becoming fearful of lying down to sleep- because they’ll struggle to get up again. Hedgehogs apparently having nightmares when too-warm temperatures in winter rouse them from hibernation- but they can’t actually wake up. Pigs running to get their feed when called individually by name. Sometimes the examples are of limitations as well: are dogs really feeling guilty when you scold them for wrongdoing? or is it just an expression of submission that we interpret that way. There was more in here about insects, tardigrades and other tiny life forms than I had remembered. Also some musings on the possibility of plants having some kind of memory or feelings- that causes a conundrum for this author who makes it clear he thinks hunting is abhorrent and we shouldn’t be eating animals at all- but then if plants can feel, is it also morally wrong to eat them. Kind of leaves you nowhere.

Anyway, this was an odd experience for me in another way because once again I switched technologies, ha. I got into audiobooks a short while back when received one by mistake. Then started having fun listening to more books while doing household chores. But my devices kept failing. First I was using an old boom box my teenager discarded, to play books on CD from the library. The power cord was missing but it had batteries. However when the battery life ran out I didn’t feel like buying more (it need six very large ones). We tend to hang onto lots of old stuff around here so I looked and found an MP3 player (also ditched by a kid years ago- everything is on their phones now). This worked great- except it will only read certain formats, so some of the audiobooks just don’t work. So I gave up on that and popped the audiobooks into the DVD/Blu-ray that’s still hooked up to our TV. That conked out on me entirely just a few days ago. Sound gave out. Popped a movie in there, same problem. Disappointing because I did like borrowing movies from the library now and then, to watch things I can’t find on any of the platforms we use (Netflix, Amazon Prime video, etc). It was a really old DVD player though.

Then my husband said well, let’s just look here- and pulled up the audiobook I was currently trying to finish on Youtube, via our television. I had no idea you could listen to entire audiobooks on Youtube. It’s actually a nicer experience than any of the other devices, because I can use the fancy new headset he got to listen to it anywhere in the house, doing any of my tasks, without disturbing other people. But really it feels so odd to finish the book and not have an item in hand to put back on my shelf, or return to the library. I don’t know how many other books on my TBR (still sticking to nonfiction for listening) are available in this format, curious to see now.

Rating: 4/5

277 pages, 2016

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Re-reads

The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lovely book I remember so well from my childhood. Although the characters aren’t so lovely themselves at first! but that’s part of the charm, seeing how they grow and change. Orphaned Mary Lennox is downright unpleasant when she arrives in England from India, where her parents had died of cholera. She’s to stay with her distant uncle in a huge old house full of unused rooms. He travels a lot and she’s pretty much left to her own devices. Bored and lonely, she wanders the grounds where she finds a gruff older gardener working. Mary discovers that there’s a locked garden somewhere on the grounds, and curiosity drives her to locate it, and find a way to get inside. She wants to know if anything is left alive, since the garden was locked up for ten years. Partly guided by a friendly robin, she does find the garden and its door- and then keeps it a secret as she works to bring it back to life herself- weeding and coaxing the flowers to grow. Of course she can’t hide it forever. Soon she makes friends with the housemaid’s boy Dickon, and lets him in on her secret. Later she makes a shocking discovery (at least, it shocked me as a child) that she has an invalid cousin, who keeps to his room in another part of the house. The boy is just as spoiled as she was upon arrival to the house, but now she wants to help him grow healthier and enjoy life- by showing him the garden. Together the children conspire to keep their use of the garden hidden from adults- while being out in the fresh air, exercising and enjoying other’s company seems to help the sickly cousin Colin grow stronger. Mary is convinced that the garden is magic- that being among the beautiful growing things helped her, and now it’s helping Colin.

It’s hard to argue with that. A lot of the story has some obvious metaphors- as spring unfolds with the growth of plants, Mary gradually blossoms into a lively, kind child (though she still has her moments of sour temper). It seems the author’s message was that attitude can have a huge influence on how one feels, even affected your health- but I think that’s only to a point. Maybe she carries this idea a little too far- especially in Colin’s case. Everyone around him believed he was a sickly baby who grew into a sickly child who might never live. So he believed it himself. Until Mary startled him out of feeling sorry for himself and took him out in to the garden. Nature the great healer. I liked better the beginning of the story when Mary was attempting to clear things in the garden and help the plants even though she knew so little about it, rather than the end when some of the characters got a bit preachy. But overall it’s still a wonderful story.

I wanted to read this one again because I watched a recent movie version of it with my ten-year-old. I expected some parts to be different from the book, but I was a little disappointed how different they were. For starters, there’s no dog in the original story. The movie left out the old gardener entirely, and he was one of my favorite characters! I was dismayed at how much the movie emphasized the idea of magic, rather than just wholesome living and positive attitudes, working their cure on Mary and Colin. And the garden was oddly full of tropical plants, not at all like I’d pictured it from the book. I recognize that nowadays people have issues with racist attitudes the book showed- particularly towards people of color, and the servants, and even maybe the Yorkshire accent is offensive? those things didn’t bother me at all on a re-read, I suppose nostalgia let me breeze over them too easily. For all that, I still much prefer the original book to what this movie portrayed. However I found in poking around online there’s quite a few older film versions, some look interesting and closer to what I felt was the original feel of the book. I might try and find a few!

Rating: 4/5

256 pages, 1911

More opinions:
Pages Unbound
Dear Author
Mr. Leeper’s Bookshelf
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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Gardening / Food, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

The White Dragon

by Anne McCaffrey

Sequel to Dragonquest, although I think it falls more neatly into place right after Dragondrums. Another re-read. I remember liking this one quite well in the past, but this time around it started to get tiresome, dragged at the end, and I was relieved to finish it. Doesn’t bode well for continuing in the series, or picking up any of the Pern books I missed the first time around (there’s quite a few that continue events after this book, and many precursors).

The main character in The White Dragon is Jaxom, who’s in training to become a Lord Holder but impressed a small white dragon when he’s not supposed to. The dragon Ruth is a runt, everybody thinks it will die and so Jaxom takes Ruth back to his Hold instead of staying in the weyr where dragonriders live. Ruth not only survives, he thrives, even though he remains smaller than all the other dragons- which happens to fascinate all the fire-lizards- they swarm him wherever he goes. Jaxom knows his duty to learn how to manage the Hold and eventually take his place in charge, but he chafes at not being able to do what other dragonriders do: fight Thread. At first, he’s not even allowed to go between on his little dragon. He teaches Ruth to fly against Thread in secret, until being caught out, is put into a weyrling class for his own safety, but soon finds that boring as well. He shamelessly uses a common girl’s infatuation with him as a ruse for going places on his dragon alone, and ditches her when it suits him. As events progress through the book, Jaxom ends up on the Southern continent, involved in explorations there, privy to meetings between higher-ups on Pern trying to settle conflict between all those who want Southern land (and still dealing with the Oldtimers there), and eventually finding ruins from the ancients which give glimpses into Pern’s past, and might give them knowledge they seek. That should have been more exciting than it was. Jaxom takes some stupid risks, gets deathly ill as a result, has to convalesce in the South, falls in love with his nurse, and stands up to her brother who objects to their union.

Through it all, I found Jaxom himself rather boring. In fact, all the people were. The only character I really liked was Ruth, in spite of the difficulty he put Jaxom in when it turns out he will never mature sexually. Some unpleasant people mock Ruth’s stunted growth, and Jaxom feels guilty about enjoying women in ways he knows his dragon can never share (as they have a telepathic link). He does eventually come to terms with this. Many characters from the previous books make repeat appearances- in fact quite a few chapters are told from other perspectives, which also made me less interested in the story, somehow. Menolly was still an appealing person, everyone respects Robinton, Piemur was alternately cocky and bragging, then avoiding everyone’s company. I don’t get why they all despised Mirrim. I remember puzzling over this before, when I first read this books- and this time I read the scenes that included her several times over, and it just wasn’t conveyed to me, why everyone found her manner so offensive. Oh well.

As I had half-expected, this book dampened my enthusiasm to continue in the series. I have Moreta on my shelf, and there’s plenty available at the public library. But I will turn to something else now.

Rating: 3/5

250 pages, 1978

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads

Dragondrums

by Anne McCaffrey

I remember as a younger reader, thinking this book wasn’t quite as good as Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. However on this re-read, I liked it nearly as much, found the storyline just as engaging even though it has a different main character and a slightly broader outlook. By which I mean, it’s not so focused on one individual point of view, but also has events from the greater world and those impacts on everyone. A few chapters are from the viewpoint of the Masterharper Robinton, or of Menolly and Sebell. Menolly in this book isn’t quite recognizable to me. She’s so self-assured! It took me a while to find the one reference that notes the timeline- three years have passed. So Menolly is well-settled in the Harper Hall now.

This book is centered on the mischievous young man, Pieumr. He was a soprano singer but when the story opens, his voice is breaking so he’s no longer part of an upcoming performance. Instead he’s moved to the apprentice dormitory on the drumheights- patterns beaten on large drums being a main way of conveying messages on Pern. Robinton and Menolly have hinted at a special task they would like Piemur to do for them, but only if he can learn discretion. So when he incites jealousy from his fellow apprentices by learning the drum measures super quickly, and being singled out by the senior journeymen for special jobs as well, he keeps his mouth shut when they start to play dangerous pranks on him. Feeling like he doesn’t quite fit into the Harper Hall anymore, he adroitly picks up other opportunities instead and soon becomes involved- in a backstage kind of way- in local politics. Gets himself into an unexpected scrape -of his own making, really- and suddenly winds up in the Southern continent, holdless and on his own. Afraid to be accused of thievery (deservingly) he avoids people for a while, finding ways to survive- remembering well Menolly’s stories about how she’d lived alone in a cave. He doesn’t have a cave here on hot sand beaches flanking the jungle, but he finds ways to live through the dangerous Threadfall, and acquires a few animal companions as well. Then finally reconnects with representatives from the Harper Hall who’ve been searching for him, and realizes he can find a new place for himself, that doesn’t necessarily require returning to where he came from. I’d forgotten how well the details around Piemur’s adventure and survival story fill in the reader on how things work on Pern- from interhold politics, strife between the dragonriders of different times, the scantly described indigenous wildlife and how the fauna and flora vary on northern and southern continents. All this in a coming-of-age story with intrigue, spying and smuggling, dragons and the delightful fire lizards! Good reading.

Rating: 4/5

240 pages, 1979

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads

Dragonsinger

by Anne McCaffrey

Closely following Dragonsong, when this book opens Menolly has just left the sea hold she grew up in, and landed in the Harper Hall. I had forgotten the entire story takes place over just seven days- seven days in which a lot happens. Menolly is tested by the various teachers on her knowledge and skill- in singing, playing a variety of instruments, musical theory and even making the instruments from raw materials. She faces some instant resentment and prejudice from peers- girls sneering at her manners, boys jealous of her fire lizards, even one instructor who disapproves of girls being serious music students (in this world). But she also quickly finds friends, and admirers. She can’t quite believe it at first, not only being allowed, but encouraged to make music (having been punished for that where she grew up) and rather falls all over herself apologizing for everything. Then there’s her slow-healing injuries- her feet are still very sore, and her nearly crippled hand hinders her performance at first. But Menolly literally finds her stride in this book, adroitly showing her natural talent and abilities to those around her, standing up for herself to some nasty girls who gossip and try to ruin her reputation, even learning more about what her fire lizards can do, and coaching the Masterharper and one of his senior journeymen through the impression of their own fire lizards. This one didn’t fade at all on a re-read.

Rating: 4/5

264 pages, 1977

more opinions:
Charlotte’s Library
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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads, Young Adult

Dragonsong

by Anne McCaffrey

This book was just as wonderful on a re-read as when I first discovered it decades ago. I actually savored it this time around, stopping myself at the end of each chapter to continue the next day- when I could easily have finished it in much quicker! Set in the world of Dragonflight, centered around an ordinary and very sympathetic character. Menolly is youngest daughter of a large family in a sea hold- a place very much set in old traditions. Her one love is music- which relieves all the drudgery of cleaning fish, tending her senile uncle and other tasks- but her father disapproves. Life becomes even more unbearable when the Harper who had nurtured her talent dies, and she seriously injures her hand- so her parents tell her she’ll never be able to play an instrument again. Menolly runs away from the Hold and shelters from dangerous Threadfall in a cave on a bluff. She happens across a clutch of fire lizards just as they are hatching- and bonds with nine of the delightful little creatures. The dragonlike lizards seem to like her music, easing her loneliness, and Menolly has enough skills as a fisherman’s daughter to survive there. Until one day she’s found by a dragonrider, running from Thread (having wandered a bit too far from her cave). He takes her to a weyr where she is shocked at the treatment she receives- kindness, understanding, even appreciation for her music when she looses caution and sings in front of others. Her confusion and alarm at being given attention and kindness makes you realize just how badly she’d been treated back home. (Meanwhile, all this time back at seahold, only her brother and the new replacement Harper had continued to look for her when she ran away and was presumed dead!) It’s with relief and gladness that the reader sees Menolly at the end of the book facing a possible new life for herself- one in which she can embrace her talent and grow, instead of feeling constantly squelched and shamed.

How I loved this book as a teen. I came across a piece of it when I was in fourth or fifth grade- in a school volume with selected short stories, poems, and excerpts. The piece of Dragonsong in there wasn’t assigned reading, I was intrigued by the illustrations and read it on my own- having no context of the world it was set in, or the background- it started in the moment when Menolly pushed open the heavy seahold doors to leave home right before Threadfall, and wrapped up right after the momentous scene where she impressed the fire lizards. I read it several times over- fascinated, but didn’t realize it came from a full-length book. Years later, at an event with my family which I found boring, I wandered the building and discovered a small library- and of course I browsed the shelves. Dragonsong was there. I may have read the whole thing in one sitting, or found it at the public library later to finish it- I don’t recall now- but I immediately recognized it as the story I’d enjoyed in the school volume- and was so thrilled. Even more so to find it had two sequels. I like the illustration I’ve put to head this post, but the first copy I picked up had the whimsical artwork here to the left. Can’t decide which is my favorite now.

Rating: 5/5

202 pages, 1976

more opinions:
Charlotte’s Library
Martin’s Booklog
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Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads, Young Adult

Dragonquest

by Anne McCaffrey

Major spoiler alert if you haven’t read the first book in this series. So, what saved the day in Dragonflight was that Lessa travelled back in time to contact the weyrs that in her time had been empty for ages, and brought all those dragonmen forward to her own time to fight Thread. This worked well at first because at the point she travelled back to, the “Oldtimer” dragonmen had been done fighting Thread for a while and were feeling bored and antsy (the Red Star having moved on in its orbit). They were eager for action and to help out. But now, living in a new time, conflicts arise as the Oldtimers have different notions about everything. Traditions chafe with newer ways of thinking and innovation. Arguments and outrage spring up between everyday people, leaders and dragonmen alike. Discoveries are made of rooms in the back tunnels of weyrs with preserved instruments, one is a telescope which gives them a good look at the Red Star for the first time. Someone comes up with the preposterous idea of travelling to the Red Star’s surface on dragons to get rid of Thread at its source. Uh, no. Disastrous notion. But ordinary folk demand things be done, that they try. There’s another means of protection against Thread that turns out to be biological- and it’s not flaming dragons, but something much smaller that eats it. Nobody believes this, even when they see it. (I’m not sure I do, either.) There’s lots of tedious pages in the book of tiresome conversations and meetings and arguments between all sorts of characters I cared little about- but it’s all made bearable by the charm of the fire lizards.

Another new discovery- that these tiny indigenous creatures – which look exactly like miniature dragons and can also wink between– can form a similar bond with humans. Nobody knew because nobody could catch one before, because they always nervously disappeared on approach. But someone stumbles across a nest of fire lizard eggs as they’re hatching, and suddenly has a tiny gold companion (as well as his regular dragon, who views the little flying lizard with something like fond amusement). There’s a huge uproar over the fire lizards, which suddenly become popular and in-demand. Everybody wants one. Some just view them as pets (or annoyances), others think they could be trained to do useful tasks, like carry messages. And some of the dragonmen think that if commoners had fire lizard pets they’d understand the weyrs’ views on things better.

This is big stuff that happens in the book! Meandering through all that are smaller individual storylines- an insufferable man named Meron trying to control other people, a flirtatious nasty woman Kylara irritating everyone she meets, F’lar trying to placate everyone and find ways for the weyrs and holds to better communicate, F’nor getting injured and falling in love, a quiet self-effacing responsible woman Brekke finally getting something she deserves, then facing a terrible loss. There’s a young man who flaunts custom, people puzzling over old scientific instruments they don’t understand and figuring out new technologies, and a spectacular (and terrible) fight between two queen dragons. And that’s just a little bit of it all that I’m mentioning. It’s really quite a lot stuffed into just under 250 pages!

Rating: 3/5

248 pages, 1971

More opinions:
SF Mistressworks
Martin’s Booklog
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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads

Dragonflight

by Anne McCaffrey

It has been several decades since I read any Pern books. This was the first one- handed to me on a birthday in my teen years, and I was enthralled. I realize now on a re-read that back then my mind must have readily filled in gaps with active imagination, as now it seems that the descriptions are scant and the storyline skips through events rather quickly. But I still find the premise of this series really intriguing. You might think because of the dragons this is fantasy but nope, it’s actually sci-fi. There’s no magic. Pern is a planet once colonized by humans and long since abandoned or forgotten by Earth. The early inhabitants- explorers and scientists- genetically engineered an indigenous species to become the huge dragons, capable of breathing fire and forming a telepathic and emotional bond with human riders. Their importance is to save the planet from Threadfall- noxious acid spores that cross the gap of space from a satellite planet with an erratic orbit, when it approaches close enough. Thread destroys nearly everything it touches. Traditions and social rules built up to support the dragonriders who protect the planet, with Holds providing goods and supplies to the dragonmen who live in rocky caves on cliff faces (the Thread spores can’t harm rock).

In the setting of the story, four hundred years have passed since the last Threadfall. Civilization regressed to a medieval state, much technology and knowledge has been lost, and dragonmen are no longer honored, the common people chafe at having to support them. The Weyrs (where dragons and dragonmen live) have dwindled in number to only one. Many believe that Thread will never fall again, and the ancient warnings are just stories. When Thread does threaten there is a sudden desperate scramble for survival. One of the main characters is Lessa, last survivor of her bloodline living disguised as a kitchen drudge in her Hold which was taken over by an usurper. She is waiting for a chance to take revenge, but is suddenly whisked away to the Weyr by dragonmen searching for a strong-willed woman who can bond with the last remaining queen dragon. They need this dragon to repopulate the weyrs so they have enough numbers to fight Thread. Lessa is suddenly in a new environment, and nobody really explains anything to her including that when her dragon is taken in mating flight by F’lar’s dragon, she and F’lar will be compelled to become partners. When I was a teen reading this I breezed past mentions of the uneven relationship Lessa and F’lar have, more interested the details about the dragons and how people live on this alien world. Reading it now I’m discomfited by it- the society on Pern as a whole is very sexist. I had forgotten how much time travel became a crucial part of this story- the dragons can ‘wink between‘ to teleport- and Lessa accidentally discovers that if given the proper references, dragons can also move through time. It takes the characters a while to figure out how this can work to their advantage against Thread, though I saw everything a mile coming. Enjoyable regardless. While some of the writing and characterization feels a bit stiff, and the main romance (you can barely call it that) is objectionable, I remind myself how long ago this book was written.

Younger me read this followed by Dragonquest, The White Dragon, Moreta, Dragonsdawn and Nerilka’s Story. My absolute favorites though were the Harper Hall series: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger and Dragondrums. I really want to re-read that trilogy but felt need to remind myself of the world and its events first. I think l also once tried to read The Dolphins of Pern and All the Weyrs of Pern but never finished- and there’s so many more books now! (the author’s son continued the series). I wonder how far I’ll get into the Pern books this time around, before I feel like moving on to something else.

Rating: 4/5

188 pages, 1968

more opinions:
Charlotte’s Library
Literary Omnivore
At Home with Books
SF Mistressworks
Martin’s Booklog

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Re-reads

Dragon of the Lost Sea

by Laurence Yep

Another re-read from my gradeschool years- I distinctly remember discovering this book at my public library, and its sequels. It really fired my imagination at the time. Images instantly sprang up in my head as I came across familiar scenes again- human features from ancient statues sticking out through trees grown over an abandoned city, the hero and heroine trudging across a vast salt flat bickering and reconciling at turns, the final tense scene when it seems all hope is lost but the younger, smaller of the two pulls a marvelously clever trick to attain their goal. The unlikely pair are Shimmer- a haughty dragon princess who’s been living in exile- and Thorn, an orphan boy who wants to join her quest. She reluctantly accepts his help, thinking that his smaller size, physical weakness and total lack of magical ability (the dragon can shapeshift, among other things) make him more of a liability than an asset, but the boy soon proves he can be useful and loyal. Shimmer may be a royal dragon, but she’s actually quite young as far as dragons go in this story world (where they live for centuries) and her personality is grating- she’s smug and conceited for starters. She has a lot to learn from Thorn about just being a good friend.

Well- the main storyline is an adventure as they journey to find a witch named Civet that basically stole the inland sea where Shimmer’s people used to live, and locked all the water up in a magic pebble. Along the way they meet other allies and enemies- quite a few of them also magical- there’s a wizard and a trickster Monkey. I felt like I ought to recognize the Monkey character from somewhere- but I couldn’t quite place him. Lots of the story has roots in Chinese mythology which I know very little of. I really liked- both as a child and now- that the dragons in this world are aquatic creatures- they don’t breathe fire and their home is in the sea. It’s a very different take on dragons and the description of how Shimmer can move effortlessly through water, how she misses certain aspects of the sea that is no longer there- were really vivid to me. My public library has lots of other books by Laurence Yep but not this particular series- I’d like to read the rest of them over again but will have to find some used copies to acquire.

Rating: 3/5

211 pages, 1982

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

Tag: Re-reads

Love, Grief and Compassion

RATINGS / SUBJECTS: