Dragon's Fire, Wizard's Flame
The Valley of the Dragons series, Book 1
Michael R. Mennenga
Dragon Moon Press
Fiction, CH Fantasy
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Dragons, Fairy Tales, Fantasy Races, Wizards
**
Description
In the valley of the dragons, hidden home of the last dragons in the world, Zac is an outcast. He, alone of all dragons, has no fire. At first, allowances were made, but soon it became clear that it wasn't a phase or a temporary problem, that he really couldn't spit flames like every other dragon. Tired of being picked on and embarrassing his parents with his weakness, forbidden by the dragon council even to talk to girl dragons for fear that he might start a line of flameless "freaks," Zac gathers his courage and leaves the safety of the valley. The Old One used to tell stories of flameless dragons who went out into the world and returned having "found their fire," and these stories are his only hope, though it has been centuries since any dragon dared even peek at the human-infested outside world. With Abraham the mighty moose, Jo the clever squirrel, and Neft the elven wizard, Zac will discover a power greater than dragon fire, a power he must learn to use quickly if he is to save not only the dragons but the entire world from an evil sorcerer's plotting.
Review
This is what I call a "Fluffy Bunny" story. Fluffy Bunny stories have happy characters who meet nice people, do expected things, face generic dangers, laugh at silly jokes, and go on to live pretty much happily ever after once they learn their warm-fuzzy Lesson, which they can't possibly miss because it's repeated so often it's practically surrounded with flashing lights and honking horns. Despite having never seen moose or squirrels or most any wildlife before (the dragon valley having been ecologically decimated over the years), Zac befriends Abraham and Jo less than five minutes after setting foot outside his hidden home. While one might think that, having been raised to fear the outside world, Zac would be more cautious, this sort of logic-defying trust is to be expected in Fluffy Bunny stories; you are either friends or enemies of anyone you meet within a page or two of encountering them, and only very rarely find out that first impressions aren't always accurate (and then only if there are many red-flag clues.) Peril exists in the form of Erret, a dark sorcerer who was long ago turned into a monkey, probably to take the edge off his dangerous side by trapping him in a silly form; Fluffy Bunny stories avoid creating real danger in the mistaken belief that it might permanently traumatize their young audience. Despite the orders of the dragon council, Zac likes a girl dragon in the valley, and he thinks she may like him back, but, like most "love" interests in these stories, she's just an object for him to admire, even when she's talking. The fact that this is billed as Book 1 of a series should be enough to tell you that nobody dies or has much unpleasant at all happen to them. Challenges hardly manifest before they are resolved, and the best Erret can manage is to inconvenience the heroes. I suppose I shouldn't read too much into the fact that the dark creatures in the "dark-world" whom Erret uses for his evil plans speak in stunted sentences and are portrayed as simpletons, nor should I read too much into there being only one female friend among the heroes and Zac's "love" interest being so distant and cardboard a character (she doesn't even seem to have missed him when he vanished, but then only his father was brave enough to poke his head outside the valley - Zac's mother is an overprotective cliché), but it's a bit hard to overlook. The politically correct theme seems to be undermined by the boys-save-everyone-while-girls-stay-home and dark-is-dumb-or-evil elements. The message of Zac the Outcast becoming Zac the Hero, thereby proving that seemingly disabled beings have great abilities, feels excessively glaring to me even for a Fluffy Bunny story, but then I know that the kids who cheer on Zac in the story are still just as likely to pick on (or at least not stand up for) the disabled or outcast child in their classroom as anyone else, peer pressure and society being powerful forces compared to weak fables. Naturally, I've read worse, but I've certainly read better. It reads quickly (mostly due to lack of substance), and is a safe read-out-loud bedtime story bet if you don't want to think too hard or get too involved. If you need to ask if I'll be following the series, you must not be aware of my own feelings on Fluffy Bunny stories: not only do they insult their target audience, but they're far too bland for my tastes.