ves on a dragon refuge. The narrator, who is an18 year-old boy, writes like a believable 18 year-old and the italics, caps and "duhs" become annoying; the climax drags on and and there are almost 100 pages (out of 338) beyond it; and the romance was awkward and forced. My biggest issue was though, was that Dragonhaven is no The Blue Sword and I had purchased it largely to recapture the magic of my favorite* book. Despite the issues, I found Dragonhaven absorbing. At one point the narrator mentions that we (the readers) know about an incident because it was all over the news and I thought, "I missed that one, must have been during the dissertation," before I thought, "Oh yeah, this is a novel about dragons. That incident was not actually in the news in this world," so McKinley must be doing something right forcing the suspension of disbelief. The narrator's storytelling quirks made me upset with him rather than with McKinley, and I fully bought that he understood having parenthood thrust upon him, even if it were a dragon he was raising. Altogether, I'd recommend The Blue Sword and McKinley's re-written fairy tales (Beauty and Spindle's End, both of which I recently re-read and still love) before Dragonhaven, but Sunflower Spinner, Beth, Abby, Irene and all would find Dragonhaven enjoyable. Of course, many of them would read it just for the science geekiness: the full phylogeny of dragons is discussed, and I believe the word phylogeny is used in the conversation*One of several favorites, but I think that The Blue Sword always makes the list.
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I do need to read that. Also, I had thought that Robin was female not male. hmm - I shall had to look it up. I like the retellings as well. A door in the hedge is still one of my favorites. We "had" to read The Blue Sword in middle school for the summer reading book. I think I was the only one that liked it.
Beth- Robin M. is very definitely female (her blog about roses and writing is fascinating). It's the narrator of this story that is amazing and I found myself annoyed with him (the narrator) rather than with the author on several occassions.
I need to reread The Blue Sword. I remember loving the strong heroine and her development as a warrior but being irritated at the ending. I can't remember what happened or why I didn't like it. Sometimes I appreciate things more the second time, anyway. Of course, I loved the horses...
I'll put this one on my list... I haven't read The Blue Sword, so maybe that one should get higher priority.
For books that are annoying and endearing at the same time, have you ever read any of Cecilia Dart-Thornton's work? It's very much Romantic Fantasy, both in the sense that romantic relationships between characters are a central part of most plots, and also in the older sense of the term.
I should check it out - seriously, Dragon Phylogenies?
No cladograms given, but seriously, phylogeny of genus Draco is discussed. Premis is that the narrator lives on a dragon reserve that gets its money by tourists coming to the zoo and seeing examples of other Draco species, even though they are not the REAL dragons. He has to explain why they all ended up being classified together in Draco.
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