Book Report: DragonSpell
Jan. 24th, 2011 07:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlSo I needed something to take my mind off some social worries and beta anticipation and all that, so I sat down and read DragonSpell, by Donita Paul.
You know when I talk about wanting just super-generic fantasy? This is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT, you guys.
Okay, so there's this girl who was a slave but she's free now and she has a DESTINY. She can detect dragon eggs and read minds with her psychic powers. She and a bouncy little not-a-hobbit dude and a stoic-but-good-hearted warrior woman have to travel into not-Mordor and retrieve THE SUPER DRAGON EGG from an EVIL WIZARD, and they have to form up a party with a wizard and a librarian and a bunch of not-kitsune in it, and they go off to the Cavern of Rainbows, and horrible things happen but it's okay, and she's like showered with magical artifacts and she HAS A DESTINY and also she totally becomes BFF buddies with the local version of Jesus Christ, who rides a dragon and gives bad dudes a stern talking-to and who could totally fix all this shit but he DOESN'T becausehumans THE SEVEN HIGH RACES have to do it FOR THEMSELVES. And we have to learn that evil is bad, you guys! We need to learn this! So Paladin Jesus just hangs out with teenage girls and kicks it with wizards while the quest is going on.
I MADE NONE OF THAT UP. If you're sitting there going "lolwut" I cannot blame you, but it was pretty much exactly the kind of thing I want to read when I just want to zone out. Also, very high dragon-quotient. There was dragon-riding and cute baby dragons (one of them faints when danger is near! Eeeadorable!) and stuff.
This was super-fluffy-girl fantasy at a power level even higher than Mercedes Lackey. I loved it. I power-read through it in like four, five hours. It is part of a series and I am going to read ALL OF THEM.
If there's a downside it's that bit in the middle where it went all sledgehammer Christian allegory, but I tolerate Jack Chalker's sledgehammer mind-control-transformation and I have actually READ Christopher Stasheff novels, which were like "whoa, hello Jr. Religious Studies class", so I could totally deal with the power of God being a legitimate anti-magic weapon in this universe where a super old wizard keeps a castle hidden among the feathers of a random bird because otherwise he'd forget where he lives. It is all about perspective and narrative and what you're willing to swallow, I guess.
You know when I talk about wanting just super-generic fantasy? This is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT, you guys.
Okay, so there's this girl who was a slave but she's free now and she has a DESTINY. She can detect dragon eggs and read minds with her psychic powers. She and a bouncy little not-a-hobbit dude and a stoic-but-good-hearted warrior woman have to travel into not-Mordor and retrieve THE SUPER DRAGON EGG from an EVIL WIZARD, and they have to form up a party with a wizard and a librarian and a bunch of not-kitsune in it, and they go off to the Cavern of Rainbows, and horrible things happen but it's okay, and she's like showered with magical artifacts and she HAS A DESTINY and also she totally becomes BFF buddies with the local version of Jesus Christ, who rides a dragon and gives bad dudes a stern talking-to and who could totally fix all this shit but he DOESN'T because
I MADE NONE OF THAT UP. If you're sitting there going "lolwut" I cannot blame you, but it was pretty much exactly the kind of thing I want to read when I just want to zone out. Also, very high dragon-quotient. There was dragon-riding and cute baby dragons (one of them faints when danger is near! Eeeadorable!) and stuff.
This was super-fluffy-girl fantasy at a power level even higher than Mercedes Lackey. I loved it. I power-read through it in like four, five hours. It is part of a series and I am going to read ALL OF THEM.
If there's a downside it's that bit in the middle where it went all sledgehammer Christian allegory, but I tolerate Jack Chalker's sledgehammer mind-control-transformation and I have actually READ Christopher Stasheff novels, which were like "whoa, hello Jr. Religious Studies class", so I could totally deal with the power of God being a legitimate anti-magic weapon in this universe where a super old wizard keeps a castle hidden among the feathers of a random bird because otherwise he'd forget where he lives. It is all about perspective and narrative and what you're willing to swallow, I guess.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 07:41 pm (UTC)That was not something I went into the book looking for, but it's not going to put me off either. I guess to put me off you'd need something even more heavy-handed than making actual Jesus an actual character in your actual novel, and having him actually say that he could just solve every problem the plot has but he isn't going to because it wouldn't teach anyone anything.
Actually.
And that is pretty heavy-handed! So... uh, I am staying OUT of that section of fiction, aside from these novels.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:07 pm (UTC)And Narnia had dragons! But being a dragon was a PUNISHMENT. (Ha, my ass.)
...hey, want a Rift beta code? I forget if you're still doing the MMO thing, but it's pretty.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:50 pm (UTC)Despite my inability to stay invested in 'em, I love poking around MMOs! I'd instantly take you up on that beta offer, but I am sans-PC for the foreseeable future. Video card went kablooey. Sadfase!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:53 pm (UTC)Good luck!