***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star
Tales of Great Dragons
J. K. Anderson
Bellerophon Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Folklore
*****
DESCRIPTION: From the Babylonian dragon-goddess Tiamat to the taniwhas of New Zealand, from peaceable Chinese dragons to the beast Fafnir slain by the Norse
hero Sigurd, there are many great dragons and dragonlike creatures in myth and legend. This is both a collection of dragon tales and a coloring book, with images drawn
from a variety of sources.
REVIEW: For a coloring book, this is an excellent overview of dragon lore. Many dragons are covered here, and some - like the taniwhas - are rarely found in other
dragon-lore books. Not especially in-depth, but the articles are more detailed than some other books I own. I recommend this book as great introduction to dragons,
regardless of whether you want to color the pictures.
You might also enjoy:
The Book of Dragons (Ciruelo, Fiction - Dragon lore and illustrations)
Dragonlore (Ash "LeopardDancer" DeKirk, Nonfiction - Myths and traditions ancient and modern about dragons and their kin)
Step Inside Dragons (Gaby Goldsack, Nick Harris, Richard Jewitt, YA Picture Book - A 3-dimensional picture book about dragons)
Dragons - Truth, Myth, and Legend (David Passes, YA Nonfiction - Dragon lore and myths)
An Essay on Dragons (S. Shana, YA? Fiction - A brief essay about dragons)
Dragons: A Natural History (Dr. Karl Shuker, Nonfiction - Dragon myths from around the world)
The Dragonology books (Dugald A. Steer "editor", YA Fiction - A 19th century "dragonologist" discusses the dragons of the world)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor", YA Fiction - A guide to keeping dragons as pets, based on real-world dragon lore)
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Casting Shadows
J. Kelley Anderson
World Castle Publishing
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: When Edward Kelley's beloved sister Beth died, the last of his humanity seemed to die with her. Already embittered by the deaths of their missionary
parents, his anger at the world and the heartless, hypocritical people infesting it consumed his very soul. How could the same loving God he once prayed to, the God his
ill-fated sister embraced so wholeheartedly, allow such terrible things to happen - and how could the town he grew up in turn their backs on him when he needed them most?
Perhaps he should've been more skeptical when the mysterious envelope arrived on his doorstep, containing the details of a dark ritual to contact the entity known as Seth.
Perhaps dabbling in powers beyond his comprehension was a bad idea, even deadly. But Edward's life wasn't worth living anymore as it was; if he could gain the power to take down
the rest of suburban Hurst, Ohio with him, why the Hell not?
When Edward manages to summon a skeletal servant, doubts begin to plague him. Vincent makes him question his self-destructive hatred, offering him a glimpse of the human heart
that still beats in his own chest. But Seth - and the mysterious stranger who started Edward on the black path - won't let go of their protege so easily... and some paths,
once started down, cannot be lightly turned aside. Suddenly, the angry young man finds himself hunted by a powerful enemy, wielding forces he scarcely comprehends - all to save
not only himself, but the very town he once vowed to see burned to the ground.
REVIEW: Placing ancient magicks in an unexpected contemporary setting may not be new territory, but Casting Shadows makes it feel fresh. Anderson weaves in
threads of Russian folklore as he establishes a magic system that relies more on the caster's own subconscious than any teachable rituals; Edward can be given the tools, but not
the knowledge to use them, and figuring out how his own powers work teaches him nothing of what other casters can and cannot do. Starting fairly quickly, the story moves at a
good pace, establishing interesting characters and the unique magic system along the way without significantly holding up the plot. The troubled, angry protagonist finds himself
transformed from a would-be villain to a would-be savior, but not without some setbacks and sidetracks as he tries to come to grips with his own emotions. His sidekicks - the
skeletal servant Vincent and a jovial, if foul-mouthed, cop friend, plus a mysterious ally who might be more dangerous than his enemy - can only carry him so far; the path of
magic is a path that can only be walked alone. Some distant religious undercurrents threatened to turn the story into a Christian tale of salvation, but - surprisingly - they
stayed distant enough not to interfere with the plot, leaving many gray shades between Good and Evil and no clear-cut answers. The story lost a point mostly due to poor
proofreading; many instances of wrong homonyms and bad formatting in general grew distracting over the course of the book. (I read the Kindle version, so perhaps that explains
the formatting problems, but it wouldn't explain errors such as "hear" instead of "here.") I also thought some elements wanted further exploration. Overall, though, I enjoyed
Casting Shadows, and wouldn't mind revisiting the universe if Anderson chooses to continue it.
You might also enjoy:
Devil's Race (Avi, YA Fiction - A boy fights the ghost of an evil ancestor that wishes to consume his soul)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury, YA Fiction - Two Midwestern boys discover a dark secret behind a traveling carnival)
Chamber of Horrors: Amulet of Doom (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A girl receives a pendant that comes with a demon and a curse)
The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo, YA Fiction - A boy's repressed emotions bind him to a caged tiger he finds in the woods)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism plunges him into the unseen war between London's statues and gargoyles)
Magic or Madness (Justine Larabalestier, YA Fiction - A teen girl learns the dark family secret behind her mother's insanity)
My Sparkling Misfortune (Laura Lond and Alla Alekseyeva, YA Fiction - A dark lord accidentally binds a goodly spirit to his service)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where dragons enslave humans, a dragonslayer's rogue strikes may doom his own species)
Song for the Basilisk (Patricia McKillip, Fiction - The sole survivor of a slaughered noble house returns for vengeance)
Sabriel (Garth Nix, YA Fiction - A girl's necromancer father sends an urgent call for help from beyond the gates of Death)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - An embittered dragonslayer must join forces with the last living dragon to topple an evil king)
The Bartimaeus trilogy (Jonathan Stroud, YA Fiction - An angry apprentice summons a djinn for vengeance, setting in motion a chain of events that may topple his magician-ruled world)
Heroes of the Valley (Jonathan Stroud, YA Fiction - Guided by a flawed notion of heroism, a misfit boy sets out to avenge his uncle)
Devil's Tower and Devil's Engine (Mark Sumner, Fiction - The sudden, violent return of magic reshapes America's westward expansion)
The Iron Dragon's Daughter (Michael Swanwick, Fiction - Abducted into the fairy world and enslaved at an iron war dragon factory, a human girl seeks escape and revenge)
Dragon's Bait (Vivian Vande Velde, YA Fiction - Accused of witchcraft, an angry village girl teams up with a dragon for revenge)
Testament of the Dragon (Margaret Weis, YA? Fiction - During the Black Plague, a nobleman sacrifices his soul into the service of the last Western Dragon for power and immortality)
Caliban's Hour (Tad Williams, Fiction - A broken and bitter beast-man tells his tale before exacting revenge)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - An interstellar boy thief reluctantly teams up with a noble warrior-poet alien)
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The X-Files: Ruins
(The X-Files series)
Kevin J. Anderson
HarperPrism
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***
DESCRIPTION: When a team of American archaeologists disappears while exploring the newly-discovered Maya ruins of Xitaclan, FBI agents Mulder and Scully are
called in to investigate. The site, deep in the unexplored jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, is rumored to be under a curse by the elder gods, with stories of continued
blood-sacrifices and sightings of the mythical plumed serpents that figure so heavily in pre-Columbian mythos. The jungle isn't the only hazard, as treasure-hunters,
native practitioners of the ancient gory religion and a local liberation army are already on the scene. To further complicate matters, the Pentagon detects mysterious
signals emanating from the lost city, and sends in a team of commandos whose mission is to terminate them, at any cost.
REVIEW: I guess I should've been suspicious when, instead of praise for the book, the first page of hype lists reviewers' favorable comments on the TV show.
Nevertheless, it was at Half-Price Books (for half price), so I decided to give it a try. In the end, I found it a mediocre read. Especially toward the beginning, I
felt like I was reading a novelization of a "field trip" episode; you know, those annoying episodes filmed on location in an exotic place, where roughly 1/3 of their
air-time is filled with stock footage of scenic views and colorful natives. The plot drug in spots, the characterization wasn't accurate or consistent, and the
ending seemed contrived for the reason of pyrotechnics and the obligatory violent confrontation with the liberation army. Another "finale" scene, just a little later
(which I won't reveal in case you intend to read this book, but I guarantee you'll know it when you see it), felt hokey and tacked-on, as did the whole sub-plot leading
up to it. Still, I liked parts of the story, and some nice ideas were presented. I enjoyed a few scenes, though I didn't quite feel I was reading about Mulder and Scully
except in a few rare moments. Ruins wasn't lousy, it was just uneven and ultimately nothing special. I even found myself thinking that I could've written some parts
better... a bad sign, I think.
You might also enjoy:
The Jaguar Princess (Clare Bell, Fiction - A girl descended from Mayan jaguar gods becomes an Aztec slave and potential sacrifice)
The X-Files: Fight the Future (Chris Carter, adapted by Elizabeth Hand, Fiction - Agents Mulder and Scully investigate the alien-coverup conspiracy)
The Lost World (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction - A professor leads an expedition to a remote South American plateau, where prehistoric animals still roam)
The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes (Phil Farrand, Nonfiction - Humorous reference for the TV series)
The Maya: Life, Myth and Art (Timothy Laughton, Nonfiction - A look at the Mayan culture and history)
The X-Files - The Complete First Season (Slim Set)
DVD
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