Dragonsdale: Skydancer
The Dragonsdale series, Book 1
Salamanda Drake
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Bonded Companions, Dragons, Girl Power, Schools
****
Description
The Isles of Bresal teem with wonders and dangers: secretive merfolk, deadly feline pards, predatory firedogs, and more. But Bresal's greatest claim to fame by far are
the local dragons, with which the islanders share a special bond. Not tame in the sense of oxen or hounds or wyverns, dragons can be Trustbonded to people, permitting them
to ride the beasts and defend their fellow islanders from Bresal's many dangers... but only so long as the human honors the Bond, for dragons are still very wild at heart.
Of course, you don't just become a dragon rider overnight. Both dragons and humans must be trained to earn the Trustbond and learn how to work together. For that honor,
island boys and girls flock to Bresal's many dragon stables and the annual show competitions, where dragons and riders compete in everything from grooming and showmanship
to obstacle courses and racing. To ride a dragon of Bresal, to earn a Trustbond with the great beasts and take to the air, is a wonderful thing, but with it comes great
responsibility... and danger.
Cara's father runs Dragonsdale, one of Bresal's leading dragon stables. Here, boys and girls come to learn about riding and showing dragons... but not Cara. After her mother
died in a training accident, her father Huw has forbidden her to fly. She can work in the stables, she can help the other students tend their charges, but never follow her
friends or her heart into the clouds. Despite his decree, Cara forms a bond with Skydancer, a rare Goldenbrow dragon rescued from the wild as a hatchling, considered
intractable by Dragonsdale's trainers. If only she ever got the chance, she knows Sky would fly for her... but training him in secret would shatter Huw's trust, and may
destroy her dream forever. Besides, there's a world of difference between dreaming of flight and actually controlling a dragon on the wing, and for all her years in
Dragonsdale stable Cara's never even sat in the saddle. Is her mother's blood strong enough in Cara's heart to break through her father's blinding grief, or is he right
that flying a dragon will be her death?
Note: the author on some editions is listed as "The Two Steves", Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore, who use the pen name "Salamanda Drake".
Review
If you read the description and thought it looked a bit familiar, you're not imagining it. The heart of this story comes from the quintessential girl-and-her-horse
book: the girl who loves to ride, the loss of a parent (usually the mother) which leads the remaining parent to forbid riding, and the wild stallion who refuses to obey
anyone else. Such books often have similar characters, especially when set in a stable, and Dragonsdale: Skydancer doesn't disappoint here, either. We have the nervous yet
good-hearted chubby girl (Wony), the steadfast best friend (Breena), and the nasty rich girl who can't ride worth a darn but knows how to apply a whip (Hortense, daughter
of the local lord.) There's also the new stable boy, Drane, who starts out largely as a proxy for the audience; he knows nothing of dragons, so as Cara shows him around
Dragonsdale, she explains her world to the readers - a world with more than passing similarity to show horse circles, but which incorporates the unique problems and
abilities of dragons to become something bigger and bolder. As the tale progresses and the need for a handheld walkthrough of Dragonsdale lessens, Drane comes into his
own as an ally of Cara in her secret mission to train up Skydancer. Originality in plotline and depth of character doesn't count for much in this kind of story, and again
Dragonsdale: Skydancer adheres to the formula of no unhappy endings and no unexpected character development or growth: Wony's still chubby and nervous, Breena's still her
best friend, and Hortense is still an irredeemable shrew at the end. There's also a preview of the sequel, implying a series of adventures to come for Dragonsdale stable,
not to mention the return of Hortense the Horrible.
So, you might be asking yourself, if it's such a predictable story, why did I give it a four star rating? Because, predictability aside, it's still a fun read, and I
enjoyed the way Drake tweaked the horse show base to accommodate dragons. She obviously put more thought into Bresal and its dragons than simply making them oversized
horses in a generic countryside; there's a good enough foundation here to support a light series, which looks like what she had in mind. I also read this right after Robert
Asprin's atrocious Dragons Wild, so perhaps I was predisposed to love any dragon with any semblance of likeability, and who didn't bore me to tears by knowing
nothing about its own species. (I also found myself thinking that Dragonsdale: Skydancer would make a great dragon-sim computer game, along the lines of horse-sim games,
especially now that 3D gaming technology would allow for realistic runs through flying lessons and aerial show courses. Well, I'd certainly look at it if I saw it on the
shelf, at any rate...) Also, while it is admittedly only a few steps away from a Fluffy Bunny story, the author follows the horse-girl book formula enough to make Cara and
Sky truly suffer for their cause, and anyone of the target age will likely suffer along with them.
One thing that almost cost this book another point in ratings was the illustrations. I'm not sure what was going on, as they appeared to all be by the same person, but the
dragons went from two-legged to four-legged, sometimes within the space of a page (the book clearly states that Bresal dragons have four legs and two wings, and gives them
no shapeshifting skills, unless that bit was cut out in editing.) The dragon tack - described quite specifically in the book - was even inconsistent from one drawing to the
next. If there ever is a game, I hope they hire a new concept artist to design its dragons. Otherwise, though, it's a fun read.