Dealing With Dragons
I am sure that anyone seeing the title of this book is not surprised that it managed to find it's way to my tbr pile.
The fact that it's about Dragons and is written by Patricia C Wrede bodes well with me. This is not the first book I have read by Ms Wrede and I hope to enjoy these books as much as I did the Sorcery and Cecelia series of books she wrote along with Caroline Stevermer.
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Dealing with Dragons / Searching for Dragons / Calling on Dragons / Talking to Dragons [BOX SET] by Patricia C Wrede
Publisher: Magic Carpet Books (July 1, 2003)
ISBN-10: 0152050523
Product Description
Collected together for the first time are Patricia C. Wrede's hilarious adventure stories about Cimorene, the princess who refuses to be proper. Every one of Cimorene's adventures is included in its paperback edition--Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons.
In Reality (that's a strange word for me.. did I spell it correctly? heh) I have a hardback version of all 4 of these books, which I can no longer find for sale to give anyone a link to ..therefore I am linking to a boxed paperback version, and will review each one separately.
My hardback version is the one with the great cover by Gary Lippincott. Boy, how I would like to own a large litho of one of his paintings! Especially one with one of his dragons in the painting!
Book one is Dealing With Dragons and is about 130 pages long. I want to say short and sweet, and I could except for one thing.. small print. So the reading is a little slow.
Dealing with Dragons is a start to a fairytale.. and plops in the mention of a fairytale or two now and then. Re (not an exact quote) : my brother was the one who climbed a beanstalk and killed a giant.
Cimorene is a Princess who doesn't want to be traditional. She likes non traditional things like learning Latin or learning how to use a sword. This does not sit will with her parents and eventually she runs away to the mountain where the dragons live and offers herself to be a dragons Princess and serve the dragon.
Of course part of what follows is the Prince's come to want to kill the dragon and save the fair Princess. (this is a fairy tale) But Cimorene likes living with her dragon. She meets some, not so nice Wizards, a nice Witch, other Princess's and a Stone Prince while living in the caves.
It's a great beginning to a fairytale. This would be a very enjoyable read to young people who like fairytales (they do have their scary parts!).
If this wasn't written by an author that I have enjoyed before I'd say that I've found a new one that I like. Very well written. The hardback version is a bit daunting with it's size of over 600 pages (but it is 4 smallish books) and the print is small... that's the only negative thing I can think of.. so .. the outcome is.. I'm enjoying it anyway! Now on to book 2!
posted by DesLily | 6:23 AM
5 Comments:
I read the first little bit of this book as part of a short story collection, and I've wanted to read the rest ever since. Thanks for the reminder; I'm off to add it to my Tiny TBR wishlist!
memory: not sure you would consider them short stories when each story holds many of the same characters.. it's more like a continuous story (so far anyway and more than 1/2 way thru the second one n ow
I checked the library catalogue for the first book yesterday and, annoyingly, they don't have it. In fact, in the whole of Devon (a very large county), there are only three library books by Patricia Wrede. Hmph! never mind. I've added the series to my (humungous) 'to buy' list and will get it eventually because they sound like great fun.
g'morni' Cath! When I ended this book and began book 2 I thought maybe this was 4 different short stories (that upset me, I don't care for short stories)..but as I read more into book 2, although the "focus" seems to be on a new character many of the characters from book one are in it so it is a "continuous" story of some sort lol.. and definately a fairy tale.. on the order of princess bride.
Oh my, but these sound very, very fun! As in too fun to resist. And resisting is a skill I sorely need to work on. Well, maybe after I get my hands on these.
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