Author: James A. Owen
Published: October 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #4
414 pages (hardcover)
Book four of this series was really good, I found. It didn’t have me addicted the way The Indigo King did, but I was still very entertained reading this and it only has me loving the series even more. A word of caution though — like The Indigo King, the book involves time traveling and timelines being altered and whatnot; but unlike The Indigo King, the time traveling in The Shadow Dragons is ten times more confusing (to me, anyway). This is the kind of book, I think, that one could benefit greatly from a second reading.
As it has been established already, events that happen in the Archipelago of Dreams affect our own real world as well. Therefore, the happening of World War II surely means a similar great disaster is occurring in the Archipelago as well. The final stones and doors of the Keep of Time, which was slowly being burnt to the ground since book one, are finally falling from the sky. Richard Burton, the leader of the rival Cartological Society, is working with the Winter King’s shadow to take the pieces of the old Keep and build a new tower. For what purpose, our heroes do not know, but it requires all of the Imaginarium Geographica’s past and present Caretakers to take on their foe this time. Unfortunately, there are traitors amongst them, and they have to figure out who is feeding the Shadow of the Winter King their information before it’s too late.
Like I mentioned already, time is an important feature in this book, even more so than the previous one. In this book, our three main protagonists, John, Jack and Charles step through a picture card seven years into the future, where the majority of the novel takes place. They eventually meet up with the other Caretakers and allies, some who are dead and are only present as a spirit of some sort; some who are alive but are time traveling as well. Then of course, with the Keep of Time being burnt up and Time Storms raging as a result from the disaster, well, time is really distorted in this book! That’s not to say it’s impossible to understand, but it did require a great deal of concentration to keep things straight in my head.
Despite the potential confusion that may arise from the complicated plot, I really like this book because of the time travel aspect and it was really cool having John et al. meet the previous Caretakers of the book. Partly because it gives more history to the Imaginarium Geographica and it’s a good story, and partly because it was fun reading about these literary greats in a fictionalized form.
This book does set up for an interesting fifth book though. As is mentioned in the book itself, the Caretakers are quite old by now — it has been twenty years since the events of the first book, and they were already twenty or so when their adventures first began. I wonder if the fifth book will continue having John, Jack and Charles as the main characters, or will someone else take over? If John and them do continue as the protagonists, I imagine the fifth book will be their final adventure. Another thing is, I wonder who the villain will be in the next book? I’m a little tired of the whole bad-guys-won’t-stay-dead thing, so I really hope it’ll be someone new.
Overall, a great read. It may not be the most memorable book of the series in my mind, but it’s definitely a fun read.
My Rating: 4/5
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