Christina W. (CuriousChristina) reviewed on 4/18/2008 + 5 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I have to admit--there was a time when the genre had become so saturated with mediocre knockoffs of the few truly great dragon tales that I shuddered to see even one more book with dragon in the title taking up shelf space at the bookstore. Robin McKinley, on the other hand, can write books of such immediacy and elegance of prose that I rushed home from the bookstore with her newest book clutched in my hands and glee in my heart. Alas, in this book RM seems to have suffered some injury rendering her writing all exposition, all the time. I kid you not. Only my faith in RM kept me slogging through page after page of exposition 'til when about halfway through when, despite my distaste for the tell, tell, tell mode of writing, the story engaged me. What a relief for I was truly afeared. And what a relief to find a dragon tale that grapples with the rude and crude realities of grasping for connection between two very disparate creatures. And what a relief to encounter no destined heros, magic swords, or damsels in distress though there was a clear struggle against evil...by the reader in enduring the unending exposition. Setting the story in the near future/alternate contemporary reality is a feat worthy of RM.

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