Back when I read Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, I said it was the best YA book I’d read since The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. Since that time, I have read her latest to be published in English translation, Dragon Rider, and it’s much better than either.
One thing that’s particularly impressive about Ms. Funke’s stuff is how she makes the fantasy world coincide with our current world, so the book isn’t set hundreds of years ago, or in some other land. This is conspicuous in Inkheart, where the whole point is that fantasy literature is drawn into the nonmagical modern world. In Dragon Rider, it’s done more subtly. The bulk of the story takes place in uninhabited areas, and many of the bits in cities and villages are in The East, so there’s a romance to them as well. Still, our hero starts out as a homeless kid in a small city; there are modern boats and cars and airplanes, and if there isn’t much modern technology, it’s because they haven’t any money to buy it, nor is it absolutely necessary to the point where they would go to much effort to get it. For instance, one of the Companions could give the Protagonist a mobile phone, which would help them stay in touch, but there’s no reason to believe anybody would have an extra lying around, and it would be out of range much of the time, anyway. A thermos of hot tea, on the other hand, comes in handy.
As a result, the story seems more magical, somehow, than a story set in yet another pseudo-Middle-Earth or wizard’s archipelago kingdom. And, of course, it’s a pretty magical story, with dragons, brownies, dwarves, elves, enchanted ravens, wise Nepalese monks, distilled moonlight, talking rats, sea serpents, a Quest, a Prophecy, a djinn, an homunculus, a roc, and the Rim of Heaven. And I’m sure I’ve missed stuff. Oh, yeah, there’s a toad in there somewhere.
Gentle Reader, if you like this sort of thing at all, this is exactly the sort of thing you like. If you don’t, well, you may not like this either, but you might. It’s that good.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.
If I were going to read the three books you mentioned here — or if we were going to on SFDT, for example, which could be fun — what order should I (or we) read them in?
In case it wasn’t clear—and it wasn’t—Eye,Ear,Arm is by Nancy Farmer, a different person than Cornelia Funke, as far as I know. Also, it’s specifically science fiction, so if the S is for Science, that’s a better bet. If the S is for Speculative, specifically meaning that the tablers like fantasy, I’d go for Dragon Rider first.
The other thing to remember is that these are books intended for eleven-year-olds, more or less, and are suitably short and swift. Well, Inkheart is a bit dense, but if it’s just you reading for fun, you could well read two in a week.
How’s SFDT these days? What have y’all been reading lately?
Thanks,
-V.
I discovered that the three books were written by two authors when I noodled around, but didn’t mention that I had realized that, or that I knew that they weren’t necessarily part of a series or anything.
The S allegedly stands for Science, but we’ve read fantasy stuff before I think.
It’s been pretty quiet lately, but people talk about reviving it from time to time. You should join the list, and revive it! http://www.swil.org/lists/sfdt.html has some info about past books.
c x x
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this book was awesome!!! dragon rider was ace!