(no subject)

[skygiants]

When 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!

Comments

[i-open-doors.livejournal.com]

Ooo, the Monkey King is in them??? Is he just a character or do you see some of his legendary exploits?
I <3 the Monkey King.

[skygiants]

Not only is he a main character, he narrates the last two books (which is why I am fondest of them.)

Admittedly, this is a slightly AU world so the story is not quite the same as that of the legendary Monkey King, but from what I know of his exploits there are some similar if not identical ones in the books!

[i-open-doors.livejournal.com]

Woot! I should find them. I've been planning on snagging an English translation of Journey to the West as well, but I'm sure those books will give me a Monkey King fix.

One of my artists used to play the Monkey King for the Beijing Opera and he's promised to lend me a...cartoon from China that tells the Monkey King legends!

[skygiants]

You should! They're very quick reads, and Laurence Yep is popular enough that libraries should have them.

Man, I should really read Journey to the West one day, too. Thta is very cool! I think the last place I saw the Monkey King used here was in Gene Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese, which I would also highly recommend.

[i-open-doors.livejournal.com]

There was an Off-Broadway musical of Journey to the West that was done by people from my show. At least I think it went to Off-Broadway. Maybe Off-OFF Broadway. They did go to New York...

They still have the music up on their website. I think it's journeytothewestthemusical.com, but googling it is what I always do.

[skygiants]

Oh cool. (Anywhere in New York totally counts! Um. >.>) *makes sneaky mental note for not-at-work activities*

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I started reading Dragon of the Lost Sea this summer, 'cos I really liked Dragonwings when I was little. I sort of stopped because, er, I am easily distracted. But aren't the human characters white? I seem to recall being startled by a reference to someone's blue eyes -- or maybe the reference was to their brown hair, in which case I s'pose they could be not-white.

[skygiants]

Actually I remember being startled by something like that in Dragon of the Lost Sea too, on this read - I think the reference was brown hair. I don't think it was enough of a change to shake my mental image of the characters or the world as very Chinese, though, and I know that none of the characters are described as having hair color that is not dark - except for the clan of blue-haired people who show up later but if I remember correctly that is dye, and even if not that does not really say much one way or the other . . .

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I decided to retain my mental image of everyone as Chinese too. *g* Helped for once by the book cover, which the human boy whose name I have forgotten looked distinctly Chinese! Well done cover artist. (Though the dragon was hijously ugly: dropped the ball there, cover artist.)

[skygiants]

The cover art was definitely a factor in that too! The cover artist throughout the series continues to do an excellent job with portraying Chinese-looking and relatively accurate-to-the-story human characters (down to the blue hair spikes! though I am not sure what is up with the schoolgirl skirt and trendy jacket) and a terrible job with portraying pretty dragons, alas.

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

oh- wow. I had read the first three books of that series ages ago- and alas, my local library did NOT have the last one, so I never got to find out if they suceeded in the quest or not!

[skygiants]

Oh no, I spoiled you for the True Dragon Love! (It's not really a surprise, though.)

*giggles* Hey, if you want to read the last one, I own it - and since I just finished the reread I doubt I'll need it again for a while . . .

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

naw- its been so long since I've read any of them, I wouldn't have any idea what was happening without reading the other ones first. thank you, though!