Welcome to my newest thread, "The Penny Reviews", my contribution to an already overcrowded field, since I love books and I love yammering about what I think of them. I really don't need a better reason than that, do I?
I thought not.
For my reviews, my grading scale is on a scale of 1 to 4 pennies or the highest rank of 1 nickel (5 pennies put together!... get it? ... Yep, this is me trying to be clever. On caffeine.)
So, if you want to skip my blathering through a review and just get to the verdict, you can scroll to the end any of them and see anything from...
(A.K.A: "don't suffer this book - therapy will be required")
(A.K.A: "exudes awesomeness - prepare to name your next goldfish after the main character")
...or, the ULTIMATE prize of...
Now that that's out of the way, on with the show!
Photo courtesy of georgerrmartin.com/gallery/art/icedragon01
A girl. A dragon for a best friend. Evil-doers with evil-doer acts. Epic dragon battles. Beautiful pencil-sketch illustrations. What's not to love?
That's right: for those of you that didn't know, before the raging storm of awesomeness that is "Game of Thrones"/"A Song of Ice and Fire" really kicked into high gear and eventually got its own TV show, the marvelous George R. R. Martin wrote the kid's book titled "The Ice Dragon".
Who's the Hero: Adara, a young girl "born during the worst freeze that anyone could remember". This has apparently made her not only a tough little thing (immune to most giggles, tantrums, or so much as saying 'ouch' when hurt), but also a fan of all things related to being chilly, including the creature everyone knows as the ice dragon.
What's the Story: At the outset, we're introduced to Adara, born special and cold to the world, and her close bond with the ice dragon that frequents the airs above her village every winter. We come to learn that Adara's uncle Hal is a dragonrider in their king's army, and their king is at war with another king whose forces - which includes dragons of his own - are advancing down from the north. In-between fighting losing battles, Hal tries to convince Adara's father John to move his family south before the enemy reaches their land, but John always refuses, and eventually the first of the enemy and its dragons reaches them. From there, we follow Adara as she stands together with her ice dragon against those that would destroy them.
How's the Aftertaste: This book was quick to get through given the size, but left me absolutely satisfied (if a smidgen sad). Aside from the fantastic story that brought me back to how I fell in love with fiction and fantasy as a kid, the best parts about this work are that it doesn't dumb down its language (thereby keeping it well away from the occasional kid's book syndrome of treating kids like they're idiots) and it doesn't dumb down its subject matter (where there is a war happening, and when Adara and the reader see bits of the gritty details involved in it, it's not inappropriately gory but it doesn't shy away from it, treating kids with refreshing maturity). It brings to mind the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen for its quality and feel, actually.
Basically, the overall effect of reading this was the literary equivalent of napping in a sunbeam and having a great dream: left content, and wishing I had nowhere else to be, because being in this story was ten kinds of fantastic.
So The Verdict Is...
~Aye, there be Brain Candy here~
And look at that, a nickel on our first time out! What can I say? This gem earned it, and then some.
Well, cheers to the maiden voyage of "The Penny Reviews". And if there are any particular books you'd like me to review, feel free to let me know in the comments.Thanks for stopping by!
~\\//~
Photo of Canadian penny courtesy of thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/m/mz7NcaqDSHvFAmM9zm_LihA/140
Photo of Canadian nickel courtesy of thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mZvEpRu1wKTdON7fDb3HZDg
Hi, Celeste: Great rating system, very clever! What genres do you like to review most, and what genres do you not care to review? Nice blog, and thank you!
ReplyDelete--Michael
Thanks Michael! And for reviewing, I probably enjoy fantasy, sci-fi and mystery/thriller the most, though my reading interests are so varied that pretty well anything is good by me! Of course, heh, now that I say that I realize I'm not as big on guts-and-gore-everywhere horror. But aside from that :P. Really glad you like it, and it's absolutely my pleasure!
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