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Me being who I am, this is a book, of course. "Dragonspell" by Donita K. Paul. This is sort of a review, and sort of just babbling.
First: This is a work of Christian fantasy, in the vein of Narnia. Instead of using the device of travellers from our world to trigger all the exposition about the metaphors, however, the author uses a young and ignorant slave-girl from a village who unexpectantly finds herself chosen by Paladin (a divine champion/ruler of the land she lives in) as one of his servants. Along the way, she learns quite a lot about the seven high races of her land that she never knew, and discovers her own unusual and powerful talents.
Normally, I don't read Christian fantasy, because a lot of it tends to be...well, fairly awful. Your opinion may vary. I didn't realize that this was of that stripe when I picked it up at the library, and once I did, I was very pleased to discover that it was not awful. The writer is talented, and some of the worldbuilding details are nifty. The characterization, more than the plot, is the strong point of the book. It's Christian allegory, so the good guys are Good and the bad guys are Bad, and you know who's who right from the start, but the good guys are /not/ paper saints who do no wrong, or only do something wrong or have a less-than-pleasant aspect of their character to get punished or lectured for it later. They feel, mostly, like real, entertaining characters, who sometimes screw up or snap at each other or have bad habits, not out of malice or the instigation of dark forces, but because they're people. The exception to this is Paladin, who is fairly obviously the Jesus-substitute, and is therefore endlessly good, kind, patient, loving, fatherly, joyful, playful, wise, and without noticible flaw (except he does pull a bit of what I consider a bastard trick on the main character towards the end of the book) to the point that I wanted to shake him. It's just one of those things. On the other hand, you kind of have to like a kitten-sized dragon who faints whenever something scary shows up.
( More stuff with spoilers. )
First: This is a work of Christian fantasy, in the vein of Narnia. Instead of using the device of travellers from our world to trigger all the exposition about the metaphors, however, the author uses a young and ignorant slave-girl from a village who unexpectantly finds herself chosen by Paladin (a divine champion/ruler of the land she lives in) as one of his servants. Along the way, she learns quite a lot about the seven high races of her land that she never knew, and discovers her own unusual and powerful talents.
Normally, I don't read Christian fantasy, because a lot of it tends to be...well, fairly awful. Your opinion may vary. I didn't realize that this was of that stripe when I picked it up at the library, and once I did, I was very pleased to discover that it was not awful. The writer is talented, and some of the worldbuilding details are nifty. The characterization, more than the plot, is the strong point of the book. It's Christian allegory, so the good guys are Good and the bad guys are Bad, and you know who's who right from the start, but the good guys are /not/ paper saints who do no wrong, or only do something wrong or have a less-than-pleasant aspect of their character to get punished or lectured for it later. They feel, mostly, like real, entertaining characters, who sometimes screw up or snap at each other or have bad habits, not out of malice or the instigation of dark forces, but because they're people. The exception to this is Paladin, who is fairly obviously the Jesus-substitute, and is therefore endlessly good, kind, patient, loving, fatherly, joyful, playful, wise, and without noticible flaw (except he does pull a bit of what I consider a bastard trick on the main character towards the end of the book) to the point that I wanted to shake him. It's just one of those things. On the other hand, you kind of have to like a kitten-sized dragon who faints whenever something scary shows up.
( More stuff with spoilers. )
