Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

so i picked up this book cheap at a used bookstore coz Robin McKinley has written my favourite books of all time!! The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword!! to hear more about those 2 books, check out the Ode to Robin McKinley link above! :)

but. sigh. coz shes written my 2 favourite books, over the years i’ve picked up many of her other books but have never been overly impressed. (actually Paula Volsky also comes to mind... Illusion is an absolute favourite, but the couple of others of hers that i’ve read were definitely not impressive) and i hate to say it but Dragonhaven’s not super impressive either. sigh. :(

awesome concept, fascinating setting and ideas, but the writing style killed me!! the premise is that in our world some years in the future we’ve discovered dragons living on this earth. but they’re very reclusive animals and are almost exterminated. a few are saved and set up in this national park in the US and the story is from the point of view of a boy who lives there, the son of the head of the institute. its interesting coz it soooo discusses the realities! that there wouldnt be enough funding, that the place would be crawling with tourists, that some groups of people would jump at any excuse to have all of the dragons destroyed etc. and the story begins on his first overnight trip alone into the park and he encounters a dying dragon who’s given birth and one of her babies is still alive. the story goes on from there and it was absolutely fascinating to discover more and more about these creatures. :)

so Robin McKinley writes for young adults mostly. but they’re usually well-written, enjoyable books so a person of any age can read them and like them! except this one. sigh. its written in 2007 and is written how many of us write our emails and online posts these days. SLOPPY!! and i know i’m totally guilty of it. see the way i dont punctuate here? see how i ramble?! and my rambling gets even worse when writing an email to a close friend. almost just a stream of consciousness put down on paper. well i’ve realized i dont mind reading that style of writing in an email or website where it may only last a page or so. BUT reading 338 pages of that style of writing gave me headaches!!!! i tried to read faster and faster, and skim more and more, in the hopes the ramblings and musings of the main character wouldnt drive me as nuts. didnt work. i was dying to find out what was gonna happen, but yet still had to force myself to read it. and i couldnt read a lot at a time either before i’d go crazy! but maybe a younger audience having grown up with sloppy writing (which is truly a shame how bad people are getting) might enjoy this book all the more coz of the writing style. maybe she’d reach kids that normally wouldnt read novels. and thats always a good thing. :)