Here, There Be Dragons
By James A. Owen
A dark and stormy night, three men are brought together, reeling from an unexpected murder. Adventures comes calling when a strange man comes to tell them they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica - a large book filled with maps of imaginary lands. Soon after they are persued by shadowy figures and are forces to board a ship that proves the imaginary lands are anything but.
Having been on my radar for a long while, mainly because of the dragon element, my best friend started reading this and announced I must immediately do so as well.
Every chapter there was a new twist, a new character inspired by age-old stories, and of course, a cliff hanger ending at every end. It is impossible to stop reading this delightful story. Action packed with compelling main characters and hilarious dialogue, I recommend to anyone who wants an old-fashioned, fairy-tale adventure story.
Owen rips off a multitude of stories and, surprisingly, I was bothered not one iota. The author gives us reasons for it and I fully accept them. Because of this reconfiguring of tales I was given that cozy, bed-time story nostalgia feeling the entire time I was reading it. The kind of feeling where you could hear yourself being read to by a beloved family member, curled up under a fluffy blanket, perhaps by a roaring fire.
John, our main protagonist, is fresh from The Great War (WWI) and is plagued by self-doubt and the memories of his fallen comrades. Jack, the youngest, is bright-eyed and energetic ready for any adventure. Charles is our constant - steady and unchanging, quiet and unassuming, but none-the-less important.
Most importantly, this book never lagged. Each chapter was an adventure unto itself. The story is bursting with borrowed and original creativity.
I was lucky enough to read the edition with illustrations, by the author himself. They added that charming old-world element like the old books with illustration plates.
As I read this I thought, this book is perfect for older readers as much as it is perfect for the younger. The older reader can read this and experience the nostalgic feeling as they encounter much-beloved characters and hints at borrowed plot lines from a host of legendary stories. For a younger reader, this may be the first time they are meeting these characters or stories, thus when they encounter the original they might experience a backward nostalgia for this book from their childhood. That is the magic of this tale.
Bring on book two.
5/5 STARS
THERE ARE DRAGONS!
Here, There Be Dragons
