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Sep. 22nd, 2008 11:42 amWhen I was sorting through the books I have at home this summer (note: past tense is deceptive; project still unfinished) I rediscovered my copy of Laurence Yep's Dragon of the Lost Sea. I had completely forgotten about these books, but flipping through I remembered that I had loved them lots when I was little and decided on a reread of the series.
The four books, to be specific, are Dragon of the Lost Sea, Dragon Steel, Dragon Cauldron, and Dragon War, and are a decent example of your standard YA quest fantasy with the significant difference that instead of doing a remix of European mythic elements, Yep uses Chinese mythic elements to create his fantasy-land. This was pretty new to me as a small thing - actually I think these books were my first introduction to the character of the Monkey King, which is what stuck with me best - and I enjoyed them muchly on the reread too, though I would not necessarily recommend them for an adult first-read. There are strong female characters, lots of banter, one or two tragically noble sacrifices, a secret identity that is no secret at all to anyone who has read a quest fantasy before, and redemption for everyone except the Ultimatest of Ultimate Evils. There is also a hilarious (to me, because I am a bad person) scene in the last book in which one of the human sidekicks proclaims that the titular dragon is the only person they have ever loved and she will never leave her, which I still thought was in a platonic way until it was followed up by comments like "well, I guess you can fall in love with anyone!" I had forgotten about True Lesbian Dragon Love!
The four books, to be specific, are Dragon of the Lost Sea, Dragon Steel, Dragon Cauldron, and Dragon War, and are a decent example of your standard YA quest fantasy with the significant difference that instead of doing a remix of European mythic elements, Yep uses Chinese mythic elements to create his fantasy-land. This was pretty new to me as a small thing - actually I think these books were my first introduction to the character of the Monkey King, which is what stuck with me best - and I enjoyed them muchly on the reread too, though I would not necessarily recommend them for an adult first-read. There are strong female characters, lots of banter, one or two tragically noble sacrifices, a secret identity that is no secret at all to anyone who has read a quest fantasy before, and redemption for everyone except the Ultimatest of Ultimate Evils. There is also a hilarious (to me, because I am a bad person) scene in the last book in which one of the human sidekicks proclaims that the titular dragon is the only person they have ever loved and she will never leave her, which I still thought was in a platonic way until it was followed up by comments like "well, I guess you can fall in love with anyone!" I had forgotten about True Lesbian Dragon Love!
