The Search for the Red Dragon

Owen, James A. 2008. The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica: The Search for the Red Dragon.

Set nine years after the close of Here There Be Dragons, The Search for the Red Dragon continues the story of one magical book and its three incredible caretakers: John, Jack, and Charles. The book opens with the three caretakers meeting for the first time in almost a decade. John and Charles received word that they were needed. Jack had been having some troubles, some troubling dreams. Their meeting, however, is interrupted by a little girl with wings--Laura Glue. She's come for Jamie, for the caretaker. She comes bearing bad news--someone, something, is taking all the children. Laura's grandfather, whom we soon learn is an all-grown-up Peter Pan, has sent her there to get help, to find the caretakers, to right a wrong that someone inadvertently set into motion nine years ago. Time. Time has been losing its structure, its cohesiveness, and strange things are happening--really strange things. Missing children. Missing ships. Can these three--along with the help of the first guide, Bert, find out what's wrong and fix it before these troubled happenings begin to translate, transition, into trouble for the real world, the world as we know it?

The Search for the Red Dragon is rich in detail. Its complex weaving of fantastical mythology and classic storytelling makes this one an enchanting read. Owen has created a world that I enjoy spending time in. Of course, the more experience the reader has with fantasy and mythology with the classics, then the more the reader will fall in love with the story and the backdrop. But I think as a classic, quest-filled adventure story, it can appeal to a wide variety of readers no matter their background and experience.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Shadow Speaker

Okorafor-Mbachu, Nnedi. 2007. The Shadow Speaker.

I've held off on reviewing this one for a few days now. This is one I'm on the fence about. Part of me really likes it. Thinks of it as good-and-pleasant weird. The kind of weird that is fun and enjoyable. Part of me, however, thinks it's just weird weird. Not good, not bad, just weird. (For the record, the two sides of the fence are not like and dislike. Rather, they are like and love.) The Shadow Speaker has an interesting premise. A fun premise. It's a futuristic world. Set in Africa in 2070. It's been quite a few (maybe a decade but not quite two decades) years since the world has been forever changed by nuclear war. But the changes aren't all bad. Around the time the nuclear bombs went off, someone invented a "peace" bomb that was made to counter-act the effects. It was made to create or recreate out of chaos, out of mess. It was meant to make the world beautiful and life-giving again. In a way, it worked, and worked well. It has transformed the world in some wonderful ways. But there were some consequences. Magic. Magic entering the world from other worlds, other dimensions. Magic effecting humans, effecting genetics, creating special powers. Magical animals and magical objects and magical creatures as well. There are now holes, gaps, entrances between several different worlds. Some of the beings entering earth are nice and pleasant enough. Others aren't. Others are more bent on evil; set on going to war with humans. Our main narrator, our heroine, is a *special* human with special powers that set her apart, make her different. These differences make some fear her, some respect her, some hate her. She's a girl with possibilities and potential. If she can survive til adulthood that is. Her name is Ejii and this is her story.

The Shadow Speaker has all the traditional wrappings (or is it trappings???) of your classic adventure quest. It has one main character seemingly going off to do the impossible. The goal--like so many others before it--is to save the world. Along the way, she meets friends, gathers a team together, gets in and out of trouble countless times, and along the way becomes a wiser and better person. So if you like adventure-quests with a strong magical theme, The Shadow Speaker may just work well for you. It's not that I don't like adventure quests. I do. They're not my favorite, favorite, favorite narrative type. But I like them well enough. I guess I just had a hard time fully suspending my disbelief when it came to loving this world, this setting. Not the Africa part, but the magical fantasy worlds.

Still, I mainly only have positive things to say about The Shadow Speaker.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Island of the Blue Dolphins

O'Dell, Scott. 1960. Island of the Blue Dolphins.

If as a child I read Island of the Blue Dolphins, I must have blocked it from my memory. And there's a good reason for that: 1 dead father +1 dead brother +1 dead dog + countless years spent alone on an island trying to survive the elements and cope with the loneliness = 1 book I'd just as soon live without. Sometimes I try to fool myself into thinking that I'm all introspective, that I am happy with my alone time. It doesn't work for long. I need people. Not 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But given enough "alone" time, I start to go crazy.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is about a girl, Karana, and her slightly unusual coming-of-age story. It is based on a true story. Which *should* logically make the dead father, the dead brother, the dead dog, etc. easier to accept because it is so authentic. The author's note says, "The girl Robinson Crusoe whose story I have attempted to re-create actually lived alone upon this island from 1835 to 1853, and is known to history as The Lost Woman of San Nicolas." I cannot imagine, can't fathom, the emotional, mental, and physical strain of such loneliness. To not only have to have the strength and courage and common sense to survive day after day and season after season and year after year, but to have to live with everything psychologically speaking.

The novel begins with the arrival of the Aleuts. Karana's tribe welcome halfheartedly these strangers onto their shores. These hunters are here to kill sea otters. They agree to pay for this privilege; however, there is some distrust. Her family, her community, are unsure about the trustworthiness of these men, these strangers. But what can they do? If they don't allow them to hunt, won't that be challenging them and provoking a war? If they do allow them to hunt, and they don't get what has been promised, that is a challenge or threat of war as well. But there is a small chance that they might actually be honorable. I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to go about it. What is, is.

As you might have guessed, these men are not honorable. And the community is practically slaughtered. By the time these strangers leave, the tribe is down to fifteen men--most of them old men or young boys. There are only a handful of men physically and mentally capable of leadership. Karana's father, the chief, is one of the men that died. She does witness it--from a distance I believe.

The people then decide, over the next few years or seasons, that the island has too many bad memories. That they should try to move to another island. One man goes off in search of a new home, and he later sends a ship back for the rest of the tribe.

The problem? Karana's brother misses the boat. He went back home to get his spear despite Karana having told him NOT to go because there wasn't enough time. She's safely on the boat, but her brother isn't. As they're leaving, she realizes that he is not there. She even, I believe, sees him on the shore. She jumps into the sea and swims home. The tragedy of it all? Within a few days--maybe even that same day--her brother is dead--mauled by a pack of wild dogs. So her brave attempt to be a good big sister is all in vain. Now she's alone, alone, alone.

Perhaps some people love the Robinson Crusoe of it all. I'm not one of them. I didn't like Robinson Crusoe in school--hated it in fact. And this doesn't really read like Swiss Family Robinson. For one thing, it's realistic. But another thing, it's the story of one person's isolation. Maybe the book doesn't focus on the alone-ness of it. But as a reader, it was something I couldn't escape. How do you keep your sanity when you are all alone for years and years?

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She is eventually rescued. But she is never reunited with her community, her tribe. What is perhaps sadder is that she could only communicate with others in signs. No one understood her language, and she couldn't understand other languages. So even supposedly-rescued, she remains isolated in a way. I can't imagine being unable to communicate fully and freely. To be alone in your own little world. There is something so troubling about this whole mess. People need to be heard, be understood. They need to connect.

I think there are many many people who love this book. I don't know that I can grasp the why of that love. But it's there just the same. I am not one of them. This book has a haunting sadness, a heartbreaking melancholy that I just DON'T want to experience again.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Greetings From Nowhere

O'Connor, Barbara. 2008. Greetings From Nowhere.

Greetings From Nowhere can be described in many ways: charming, delightful, satisfying, sweet, and a general all around feel-good treat. It's a story told by many narrators. (Aggie, Willow, Kirby, Loretta) Each voice is unique and just right. This isn't a story of one person, it's a story of a whole community of characters. It's a story about humanity, about life. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're a fan of Because of Winn Dixie, I think you'll just love this one. It just resonates with rightness.

This one would make a great read aloud to share with the whole family.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Here There Be Dragons

When Professor Sigurdsson is murdered on the fifteenth of March 1917, it is up to three Oxfordians--John, Jack, and Charles--to complete the professor’s unfinished business. Their task is to assume the role of caretaker to perhaps the world’s greatest literary treasure: the Imaginarium Geographica. Pursued fiercely by Sigurdsson’s murderers, the three are led by a mysterious guide, Bert, to the relative safety of his ship the Indigo Dragon. But the adventures are just beginning as they set sail for a land most mortals would never dream of reaching: the Archipelago of Dreams which “all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale, can be found within” (21).

As our young heroes find out, however, these imaginary realms are just as real--and just as much in danger--as their own. Are these raging wars a mere coincidence or are these ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ worlds irrevocably tied together? These mysteries and more lie at the heart of James A. Owen’s novel Here There Be Dragons. Their shared adventures sailing the seas, meeting dragons--along with plenty of other memorable characters--might just inspire each to pen their own unforgettable stories one day for these three are none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams.

Whether you’re a fan of the Inklings, or just love fantasy and adventure in general, Here There Be Dragons, the first in a new series entitled The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, is too good to miss.

For more information on the book, go to the official book site. There you will be able to find out more about the background of the Imaginarium Geographica AND you will also be able to read the first few chapters of the novel.

http://www.heretherebedragons.net/