Dragon Keeper
A Dragon Keeper novel, Book 1
Carole Wilkinson
Hyperion
Fiction, MG? Fantasy
Themes: Diversity, Dragons, Girl Power
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Description
The young slave girl at the remote Chinese palace on Huangling Mountain has next to nothing, not even her name. Her only companions are animals: the livestock she takes care of, her pet rat Hua, and the dragons. Once the dragons were kept in the imperial palace at the capital, revered as lucky omens and studied by oracles, but one bit the Emperor when he was a boy, so he banished them to Huangling to live in exile. Now, only one remains... and even he quickly comes under threat. When danger comes to Huangling Mountain, girl and dragon (and rat) make a desperate bid for freedom, taking them thousands of li from the middle of nowhere to the edge of the legendary Ocean. Along the way, she must learn to master gifts she never knew she had in her new and unexpected role as Dragon Keeper.
Review
On the whole, this isn't really a bad book. Mostly, it's a victim of predictability, both within its own genre (orphan/slave child meets a dragon and discovers their destiny), and within itself. The writing made several plot twists transparent long before I reached them. (Hands up those of you who don't suspect that the "dragon stone" the dragon guards so jealously has a special secret...) The girl isn't entirely dense as a protagonist, but she has distinct bouts of Plot-Extending Stupidity... and, for once, the dragon has them too, for all that he's centuries older and wiser. The ending sets up what looks to be either a trilogy or a full-blown series as the dragon stone's "secret" is at last revealed - and, once again, I saw it coming a li away, so rather than being surprised or elated I only felt a twitch of irritation that it took so long to come out. So, while I don't actively dislike Dragon Keeper, I can't think of much to recommend it over dozens of similar young-adult fantasy novels beyond its exploration of ancient Chinese dragon lore. No, I don't expect I'll follow the next books in the series, especially since I was bored to the point of skimming the excerpt from the sequel.