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Ha! Something to write about!
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.
It's an entertaining story, in which the need to expound on the author's particular brand of Christian theology does not overmuch hinder the plot or character development. I say the 'author's particular brand' because it's firmly of the nondemonimational 'love thy neighbor', 'forgive thy enemy' brand, which will make the rabid types denounce it as the work of Satan in disguise. The world, although small and insular, is intriguing, especially the apparent work that went into the dragonlore. We only see a small part of it, because the main character only learns a small part of it, but what's there is interesting. There are three broad types of dragons: minor dragons, who are the size of kittens and each different color has a different power (some heal, some sing, some are warriors, some are invisible). Major dragons, who are quite large enough for riding, and tend to come in two-tone scale colors. Greater dragons, who appear to be about the size of airplanes, and can carry lots of people, or lots of cargo. All are intelligent to certain degrees, and are telepathically connected to the people who hatch them. Some are evil, but it appears that most are naturally inclined to be good.
There are wizards, of course. Good, and evil. The major good wizard we are exposed to appears to be heavily inspired by Fizban et. al. for the doddering, crazy-but-not-really persona. In a way, his keeper, a grouchy librarian who makes sure he stays on-target is a bit more interesting than the wizard himself. The major evil wizard we are exposed to, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like Paladin and is smooth (but not too smooth), charming (but not too charming), and witty. As the good wizard serves Paladin, the evil wizard serves the Satan-analogue, who is known only as Pretender.
(For the record, this is one of the things I've never really 'gotten', and probably never will. Pretender's crime is attempting to create life. He tries to form, by magic, seven new races to match the seven high races that Wulder (the God-analogue) made. Of course, he fails because only Wulder can presume to create new life, resulting in the seven 'low' races, which are broken and twisted and evil. And thus is evil released into the world. The message is, of course, anyone who tries to ursurp God's appointed place is doomed to messy failure.)
Very little is dealt with about magic...it appears to be simply a function of will and occassional prepared spells for major things. We learn a little bit more about the telepathy that the main character starts to exhibit. The author goes over the traditional talk about probing and shielding and defending onself from unwanted intruders. Instead of the visualization techniques common in fantasy explanations, though, the main character simply calls on Wulder to shield their mind, allow them into another, or whatever.
That small lesson is, notably, about the only formal lessoning the poor main character recieves in the whole book. Other than that, most of the other characters just let her blunder into using her powers wrongly, and then glaring. You'd think they'd learn after she accidently brings down half a mountain on them. Twice.
Actually, that happens a lot. The author needs a mostly-ignorant main character to provoke the allegory about Wuldarian precipts, and thus no one ever sits the poor girl down and /explains/ what's going on. It's not until the end of the book that Kale learns that what she's been calling half the people in the book have not been their first names, but rather their ranks in Paladin's association, for instance. To the author's credit, Kale is pissed about this for most of the book, since she asks the questions, but doesn't get answers. But it's still annoying.
The plot is quite good, engaging and with enough action and risk to keep you guessing at some points. It feels a bit rushed, however. The requisite 'Redemption' and 'Temptation' subplots especially could have been enhanced by making them longer and the outcomes a bit farther in doubt. In the 'redemption' subplot, one of the good dragons has her human family murdered by bad guys, who then imprison her in a barn and regularly shoot her with poisoned arrows to keep her weak until she can be broken to their use. Kale and her companion, on their way to rescue a companion who was kidnapped, detour to help her when she makes mind contact. Kale sneaks in, heals the dragon, and frees her, but instead of fleeing as the plan calls for, the dragon allows her rage to overwhelm her, and slaughters the bad guys who destroyed her family. Kale's companion, a more seasoned servant of Paladin, now wishes to abandon her and leave her where she is, because she acted out of rage and not a desire for justice, which means that they can no longer trust her in situations where it might happen again. Kale intercedes on the dragon's behalf, feeling that the bad guys pretty much deserved it, and that the circumstances demand mercy. The companion bends only enough to stop from driving the dragon away, and the dragon follows them until she can make repentance to Paladin himself. While an interesting idea, it was a little too simple to really be moving, especially since the dragon never has another temper outburst.
The temptation subplot is similar: a good idea that would benefit from having been just a little more elaborate and close to the edge. Kale is trapped, alone, in the stronghold of the evil wizard. She's got a magic cape which is hiding her from the troops that are scouring the tunnels for her and the item she liberated, but the cape doesn't hide her mind from the wizard's. He chats with her, despite her best efforts to block him out, as she scrambles around in the dark. The conversation is amusing, although obvious enough that no one would fall for it. Likewise, the final confrontation, when the wizard gives her information about her long-lost family (which might even be true) it's well-done enough to enjoy, but not quite enough to believe that there was ever a threat of the main character succumbing. Drawing it out some, playing on the flaws that the main character had so far exhibited, would have increased the impact of both the wizard's power, and the final triumph over it.
All in all, a well-written juvenile fantasy, unless you're violently allergic to Christian themes. It also appears to the be the first in a series...and I probably /will/ read at least the next one, just to see where the author goes with the ideas from here.
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.
It's an entertaining story, in which the need to expound on the author's particular brand of Christian theology does not overmuch hinder the plot or character development. I say the 'author's particular brand' because it's firmly of the nondemonimational 'love thy neighbor', 'forgive thy enemy' brand, which will make the rabid types denounce it as the work of Satan in disguise. The world, although small and insular, is intriguing, especially the apparent work that went into the dragonlore. We only see a small part of it, because the main character only learns a small part of it, but what's there is interesting. There are three broad types of dragons: minor dragons, who are the size of kittens and each different color has a different power (some heal, some sing, some are warriors, some are invisible). Major dragons, who are quite large enough for riding, and tend to come in two-tone scale colors. Greater dragons, who appear to be about the size of airplanes, and can carry lots of people, or lots of cargo. All are intelligent to certain degrees, and are telepathically connected to the people who hatch them. Some are evil, but it appears that most are naturally inclined to be good.
There are wizards, of course. Good, and evil. The major good wizard we are exposed to appears to be heavily inspired by Fizban et. al. for the doddering, crazy-but-not-really persona. In a way, his keeper, a grouchy librarian who makes sure he stays on-target is a bit more interesting than the wizard himself. The major evil wizard we are exposed to, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like Paladin and is smooth (but not too smooth), charming (but not too charming), and witty. As the good wizard serves Paladin, the evil wizard serves the Satan-analogue, who is known only as Pretender.
(For the record, this is one of the things I've never really 'gotten', and probably never will. Pretender's crime is attempting to create life. He tries to form, by magic, seven new races to match the seven high races that Wulder (the God-analogue) made. Of course, he fails because only Wulder can presume to create new life, resulting in the seven 'low' races, which are broken and twisted and evil. And thus is evil released into the world. The message is, of course, anyone who tries to ursurp God's appointed place is doomed to messy failure.)
Very little is dealt with about magic...it appears to be simply a function of will and occassional prepared spells for major things. We learn a little bit more about the telepathy that the main character starts to exhibit. The author goes over the traditional talk about probing and shielding and defending onself from unwanted intruders. Instead of the visualization techniques common in fantasy explanations, though, the main character simply calls on Wulder to shield their mind, allow them into another, or whatever.
That small lesson is, notably, about the only formal lessoning the poor main character recieves in the whole book. Other than that, most of the other characters just let her blunder into using her powers wrongly, and then glaring. You'd think they'd learn after she accidently brings down half a mountain on them. Twice.
Actually, that happens a lot. The author needs a mostly-ignorant main character to provoke the allegory about Wuldarian precipts, and thus no one ever sits the poor girl down and /explains/ what's going on. It's not until the end of the book that Kale learns that what she's been calling half the people in the book have not been their first names, but rather their ranks in Paladin's association, for instance. To the author's credit, Kale is pissed about this for most of the book, since she asks the questions, but doesn't get answers. But it's still annoying.
The plot is quite good, engaging and with enough action and risk to keep you guessing at some points. It feels a bit rushed, however. The requisite 'Redemption' and 'Temptation' subplots especially could have been enhanced by making them longer and the outcomes a bit farther in doubt. In the 'redemption' subplot, one of the good dragons has her human family murdered by bad guys, who then imprison her in a barn and regularly shoot her with poisoned arrows to keep her weak until she can be broken to their use. Kale and her companion, on their way to rescue a companion who was kidnapped, detour to help her when she makes mind contact. Kale sneaks in, heals the dragon, and frees her, but instead of fleeing as the plan calls for, the dragon allows her rage to overwhelm her, and slaughters the bad guys who destroyed her family. Kale's companion, a more seasoned servant of Paladin, now wishes to abandon her and leave her where she is, because she acted out of rage and not a desire for justice, which means that they can no longer trust her in situations where it might happen again. Kale intercedes on the dragon's behalf, feeling that the bad guys pretty much deserved it, and that the circumstances demand mercy. The companion bends only enough to stop from driving the dragon away, and the dragon follows them until she can make repentance to Paladin himself. While an interesting idea, it was a little too simple to really be moving, especially since the dragon never has another temper outburst.
The temptation subplot is similar: a good idea that would benefit from having been just a little more elaborate and close to the edge. Kale is trapped, alone, in the stronghold of the evil wizard. She's got a magic cape which is hiding her from the troops that are scouring the tunnels for her and the item she liberated, but the cape doesn't hide her mind from the wizard's. He chats with her, despite her best efforts to block him out, as she scrambles around in the dark. The conversation is amusing, although obvious enough that no one would fall for it. Likewise, the final confrontation, when the wizard gives her information about her long-lost family (which might even be true) it's well-done enough to enjoy, but not quite enough to believe that there was ever a threat of the main character succumbing. Drawing it out some, playing on the flaws that the main character had so far exhibited, would have increased the impact of both the wizard's power, and the final triumph over it.
All in all, a well-written juvenile fantasy, unless you're violently allergic to Christian themes. It also appears to the be the first in a series...and I probably /will/ read at least the next one, just to see where the author goes with the ideas from here.