A fantasy series installment that effortlessly informs as it entertains.
Stevens’ (Dragon Lad: The Thirteenth Egg, 2015) middle-grade fantasy sequel finds young Dirk searching for the truth about his past.
In Roman-ruled Britannia, Dirk looks like an average 12-year-old boy, but he actually hatched from a dragon’s egg just seven months ago. Leaving behind his friend, Galinda, on the island of Codhaven, Dirk is searching the lonely, mist-ridden lands for the home of Beldor, High Wizard of the West. At the wizard’s cave, he encounters Ydda, once a “grandmotherly female dragon” and now a human woman, as well as Beldor, who’s merged his consciousness with the dragon Fearclaw’s, with whom he shares a human body. Dirk reveals to them a blue stone talisman that may once have belonged to Gruffen, the Red Dragon of Greenwild. When the boy learns that Gruffen guards a horde of riches, he thinks that acquiring some of it will help him win the acceptance of Galinda’s family. Dirk also thinks that the old dragon may have information about his parents. To outfit this quest, Fearclaw provides the boy with a magical map and a ring that allows him to change between human and dragon forms. As Dirk heads north, he inadvertently loses the ring in the sea while in dragon form. Can he retrieve it and become human again before reaching the town of Isca, where humans may try to kill him? In this rollicking sequel, Stevens combines elements of real-life English history with a shape-shifting–oriented adventure for middle-grade readers. For example, Dirk witnesses the brutality of slavery as Roman soldiers lash Briton workers, but he also teams up with fanciful people such as Leonis, a sea lion who transforms into a human sea captain. Stevens often crafts casually amusing moments, as when Ethelda, the evil woman who raised Dirk, seemingly can’t remember his given name. The protagonist’s dreams and visions frequently guide the plot, which sometimes feels a bit heavy-handed. Still, Stevens’ warm black-and-white illustrations bolster important scenes, as when Dirk meets a mermaid, although truly surreal moments, such as one creature’s transformation from a fly to a dog, remain for audiences to imagine. A joyous ending leaves the cast on a fine footing for the next installment.
A fantasy series installment that effortlessly informs as it entertains.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9963839-3-6
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Dragon's Egg Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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