Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, but tough prose for adults!, 8 Dec 2008
I wanted to give this 4 stars because it is by Robin McKinley, but I just couldn't because the teenage boy prose style was a continual barrier between me and the world of the story. I really enjoyed the way McKinley used the dragon reserve to highlight issues of species conservation versus human rights, but I couldn't immerse myself in the book the way I do in her other works because Jake's voice was just too dominant. I wasn't sure that a teenager would be quite that over-articulate anyway, and the constant asides and parentheses just annoyed me.
I would recommend reading an extract from this book before buying it, to see if the style suits you. The characters, story and themes are all good as you would expect and deserve 4 stars (because even with a different narrator, this book still would not be Deerskin or The Blue Sword :-))
I've lent my copy to a friend, and shan't chase her if it doesn't come back to me. I'd give it another try, but am not sure I'll finish it a second time ... we'll see.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 12 Feb 2008
For his entire life, Jacob Mendoza has lived in Smokehill National Park, one of the last and largest wildlife preserves for Draco australiensis in the world. His father, who heads the Institute dedicated to the study of the endangered dragons, has kept a tight leash on him since Jacob's mother died while on sabbatical a few years ago. Finally, though, Jacob's father has agreed to let him finally go on his first solo overnight stay deep in the park.
Although not as excited as he probably would have been about it before his mother's death, Jacob hikes out on his own, determined to cover some good ground before he has to meet up with the head Ranger the following morning. However, his plans for doing so are cut short when he comes across a horrific site.
A wounded mother dragon who has just given birth lies next to the remains of the poacher who presumably attacked her. Jacob creeps up to the massive creature and finds himself drowning in her eyes before she dies, leaving him with strange sensations of anger, despair, and hope swirling inside him. Stunned and crying, he begins to stumble away, passing by her babies who are now scattered on the ground...and he notices that one is still alive.
Instinct takes over, and Jacob now finds himself a surrogate mother for a creature that nobody knows how to raise. What's worse is that, now that a dragon has killed a human, all of Smokehill may be gravely in danger, for, not only is it against the law to kill a dragon, but it is also against the law to save one's life.
Although I enjoyed watching the bonding of Jacob and his foundling, and the descriptions of some of these otherworldly sensations impressed me, I found this book very difficult to read. Jacob as narrator tends to ramble a lot, and he "speaks" in an extremely informal manner. However, some readers may find this style more appealing and easier to understand than traditional narration. The idea of a dragon preserve is nevertheless an appealing one, and I think that any fans of dragons may find this story fascinating if for that reason only.
Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose
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14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, 21 Oct 2007
This story is written in a slightly different style to most of Ms McKinley's previous ones but once one has got used to the narration style of the main charactor - a teenager, then young adult, named Jake - it flows well. The story itself is both interesting and enjoyable and brings in a range of situations and characters. It's maybe not quite as magical as some other of Ms McK's books but it's still well worth reading and keeping to savour. As a long-time admirer of this writer, I have happily added this to my collection.
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