PRINCESS ROURAN AND THE DRAGON CHARIOT OF TEN THOUSAND SAGES

Ruckus presents a YA fantasy novel about a modern girl’s adventures in disparate times and places.

Moliis a young girl from Penglai, China. She travels to London for the funeral of her father, Morris, a museum curator. His last work before his death was on the Rouran period—the Rouran ruled a portion of central Asia, part of which is now modern-day Kyrgyzstan. The exhibit on the Rouran era at the British Museum is not exactly popular; nevertheless, Moli and her aunt Edith dutifully attend, and Moli is able to show off her knowledge about a mythical dragon’s nine sons. Later, things take a turn when Moli is awakened in her hotel room by a dragon called Qiuniu, one of those sons, who leads her to a place in an alternate reality called the Corridor of War. Moli’s situation is further complicated when she travels back through time to the Rouran period. The Rourans think she is a shaman and keep her in a cage. Later, the action moves back to contemporary London, where Moli and three others are tasked with an opportunity to save the world. Their main opposition: Adolf Hitler, transported to the modern era. The story is rich in incident and packed with surprises, but a few elements deflate some of the excitement; at one point, James Walker, a boy who joins Moli on her mission to save the world, has to endure a lengthy lecture about where Covid-19 might have originated (“Many epidemiologists and scientists claimed that the virus could only come from nature, and if a quarter of them still stand by their professional code of conduct, what do you make of the situation then?”). Still, the mixture of time travel, mythology, SF tropes, and a spirited youngster in the lead makes for a truly wild narrative.

A fluid and inventive journey with a few dead-end detours.