George Grove and the Dragon
The George Grove series, Book 1
LJ Lawry
The George Grove Project
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Dragons, Fantasy Races, Hidden Wonders, Portal Adventures, Witches
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Description
Roddy and his two best friends, Dex and Gaz, have been inseparable since primary school... but, if Roddy's posh mother has her way, this will be their
last summer together. She enrolled Roddy in St. Jude's, where he might make some worthwhile acquaintances to raise the family's status, while Dex and Gaz
- both from "disadvantaged" homes - will attend the notoriously troubled George Grove school. The boys already have plans to work around that obstacle,
utilizing Dex's peculiar ability to make others see what he wants them to see and Gaz's uncanny skill at slipping in and out of the most unusual places.
In the meantime, they have another, far more interesting summer project to keep them together: a very strange egg, which hatched into a very strange
lizard. It only eats petrol and other combustibles, and it has strange winglike growths on the back of its glittery-scaled body... but surely it's just
some sort of exotic gecko. After all, dragons are like magic: neither exist in modern-day South London.
Or do they?
Meanwhile, among the hidden community of witches, elves, and other supernaturally-inclined people, a political schism moves toward outright war. The ICE
has monitored and regulated travel between the mundane realm and the magical "third realm," source of ideas and inspiration for all Mankind, but squabbles
over who should be permitted to cross - or even if the portals should remain open - threaten to tear the community apart. The harbingers of DoOM seek to
stamp out the so-called "ordinary" magic that crops up in London's populace, refusing to contact (let alone train) new talents, and separate the third
realm from humanity's corrupting influence. But doing so would plunge the mortal world into a death spiral, denying it the new ideas and opportunities that
make life worth living.
Before long, Roddy and his friends - and their secret, special pet - find themselves at the heart of the struggle for the future of London... and the
world.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
What can I say about a story whose three main characters are so utterly, unsympathetically stupid that they cannot recognize a fire-breathing dragon when
it's sitting right in front of them? How can I possibly describe the mind-melting agony of a book that explores the stark, soul-crushing depths of inner city
youth, then cheerily suggests that even the most abused and hardened soul can instantly blossom into a wonderful and loving human being after a plate of warm
cookies and a nice heart-to-heart chat with a friendly face?
I don't know if I can, but a vague sense of duty compels me to try.
Roddy and his pals prove themselves, time and again, too dirt stupid to actually have a magical adventure. When they read that one of the only ways to control
a growing dragon is a siren - which their sourcebook quite clearly describes as the beautiful singing woman of legend - they nevertheless persist in their
delusion that only a police car siren will do the trick... a delusion that persists because Lawry practically breaks his back twisting the plot so that there's
always a siren of some sort around whenever their dragon needs taming. As ridiculously dumb as they are, I don't suppose I can blame the story when it tires of
them and wanders off down the street. By turns, it peers into the world of two dimwitted police officers, visits several teachers at George Grove (both magical
and mundane), delves into the hellish worlds of several students, dawdles about in the downright silly "third realm" visiting the beings that live there... in
short, it wanders all over South London and beyond, as though it had forgotten all about three boys trying to keep a growing rogue dragon under wraps in the
heart of London. In the end, what started as a light modern fantasy about three boys raising a baby dragon had degenerated into a sledgehammer-subtle Message
about the evils of modern education systems that value statistics and meaningless regulations over learning and imagination. Lawry cannot even bring the tale
to a proper conclusion, leaving the whole story dangling on a cliffhanger.
When I finally reached that ending, after subjecting my poor and protesting brain to page after page of thick London slang, wondering just who had edited this
atrocity and if they actively hated the reading public, I almost laughed out loud. I'd just about clawed my eyes out trying to finish this book; for what possible
reason would I torture myself with a second one?