The Dragon's Apprentice

This post first published June 8, 2011.

Author: James A. Owen
Published: October 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #5
376 pages (hardcover)
 
Okay, for some odd reason, I thought book five was going to be the last book in the series, but based on the ending, it’s obvious that there’s going to be more books, if not several more. Not that I’m complaining — the series may have started out shaky to me, but it’s becoming better and more complex with every installment, so I definitely look forward to reading any and all future books. I was just surprised that it wasn’t the last one because, well, the main characters are getting old by YA novel standards for protagonists.

I’m digressing though. Book five of the Imaginarium Geographica is really superb. It’s another time traveling, mind twisting plot of a book, so if you like that kind of stuff, you’ll love this:
In The Dragon’s Apprentice, the Keep of Time has finally completely and utterly fallen apart. This has caused some major problems in the real world and the Archipelago. Time in the Archipelago has always moved slower, in a ‘different way’ from time in the real world. With the Keep gone, the Archipelago has been separated from the real world, chronically and physically. The Caretakers, John and Jack (something, er, happened to Charles) just so happened to have been in the Archipelago at the time when the rift between the worlds ripped open.

Desperate to find a way to link the two worlds so they can go home, and not fully understanding the extent of the damage, William Shakespeare devises a special bridge that in theory will be able to connect the two worlds. But he realized a miscalculation too late and Jack and John have already crossed the bridge. The other Caretakers quickly fix the problem and cross the bridge themselves to retrieve Jack and John, only to find two years have already passed in what was, to them, a handful of minutes! They realize something terrible has happened with Time.

Bringing Jack and John back to the Archipelago, Caretakers past and present, as well as former enemies, must find a way to get into the Archipelago again and put a stop to the new enemy on the rise — the Echthroi, promordial Shadows — by convincing the dragon’s apprentice to become a dragon. But who the dragon’s apprentice is, nobody knows.

You know the kind of stories where the timelines cause the characters’ lives to start overlapping and becoming almost paradoxical? This is that kind of book. As the reader, you really have to pay attention or just get completely lost. Not to mention all the time travel rules. I know this kind of book (or rather, I should say book series, as that is what it’s shaping up to be) may not appeal to some people, but I thrive on time-loop plots, so needless to say, I loved this one. Not quite as much as I love The Indigo King (which had a much simpler time-travel plot) but this is definitely up there. Although I do kind of wonder, when are we going to start focussing on the Imaginarium Geographica, the namesake of the series, again. It’s always there, in the peripherals of the plot, but it hasn’t been truly “important” for a number of books now. Fixing time seems to be the thing this series is heading to.

Redemption seems to be the key theme to this book. I was feeling kind of, “He’s back again??” when Mordred (or whatever you want to call him by) came back, but at least he wasn’t the main villain. Actually, he wasn’t a villain at all, and when I really thought about it, I have to applaud the author for taking this evil-to-the-bone character and transforming him, bit by bit with each book, into a sympathetic character, and one who becomes arguably good. It’s no small feat to do that, but I think Owen has done it rather successfully, even if not perfectly.

As for the new villains, I’m a bit confused by it, or them. The primordial Shadows. I may have simply just misread a key part or something, but I never fully understood where they came from and what the heck they are doing. Granted, they weren’t the most focal part of the story, so perhaps they/it will grow into its role more so in the upcoming novels. But it does leave me a bit perplexed in that regard. Especially that one scene (which I don’t think is too spoiler-ish; if anything, it’d be abstract to one who hasn’t read the book), where one of the characters runs into him in a dark alley or something, and it’s revealed that the Shadow is not the enemy’s true form, because it says in the book that the Echthros “[changes] back to its original shape”, and is implied that it may be a human shape. Now, this leaves me with all sorts of questions, because not much else is said about the Echthros Shadow afterwards. Hmmm.

I found this book really fun and surprising. Like its predecessors, it’s another adventure fantasy book, and like I’ve been saying, each installment of the series just gets better and better, not only in story but also in writing. Seriously, compare the writing in this book to the very first one — the difference is very noticeable. The fact that each book has been better and better just makes me more excited for the next one to come.

My Rating: 5/5

The Shadow Dragons

This post first published June 6, 2011.

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

The Indigo King

This post first published June 6, 2011.

Author: James A. Owen
Published: October 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #3
372 pages (hardcover)
 
The first two books of this series were averagely good, so when I cracked open book number three, I was expecting something along the same lines. What I got, instead, was something that was so much better. Book number three of this series is, simply put, amazing. I actually couldn’t put the book down and stayed up way too late reading it, wanting to know what happens next on every page.

The structure of the plot is different in this book compared to the previous two. In the previous two, the plot followed a general formula where the Caretakers would enter the Archipelago of Dreams and go on an adventure around the islands in an attempt to stop evil doings. In this book, the plot structure is completely different.

The story begins with Jack and John meeting with their friend Hugo Dyson one evening. The Caretakers would like to bring Hugo into their secret “club” and have him become an apprentice Caretaker, as well as discuss with him a strange book they received as a parcel, in which Hugo has written them a warning message … fourteen centuries earlier. However, before they can puzzle out how that is possible, Hugo disappears through a door in the woods, and falls backwards in time somewhere.

As soon as that happened, Jack and John find themselves in a world completely different from their own. Hugo has done something in the past to alter time drastically. Britain is no longer Britain, but a place called Albion, with monsters and other frightening creatures roaming about. The only way for them to put time back on its proper course is by using a time travel device left to them by Jules Verne, to be used to find the one thing that can fix the world: the identity of the Cartographer.

I loved this book. Reading about Jack and John travel throughout time, trying to collect clues and piece together what has happened and puzzle over how to fix history, it was just a marvelous adventure and it kept me on the edge of my seat. In comparison to the other two books, this book felt very strong: well thought out and well written. You might recall from my post about the first book that the writing was really simple, almost as if it was meant for a children’s book, and I mentioned it improving in the second book. Well, I thought the writing was superb in The Indigo King. With each book in the series, James A. Owen betters his craft and as a result, each book becomes better and better. It seems as if everything that happened in the first two books were just stepping stones to lead to where we are now in the series.

As usual, this book is also riddled with myths and literary allusions. Unlike the first two, I found I understood many of the references better. It may be just me, but in the first book and a bit in the second one, I felt the author assumed a little too much in what his reader may or may not already know, in terms of books and myths. This time around, he offered explanations, particularly on the mythologies, many of which were vital to the overall plot of The Indigo King. As for the literary allusions, well, it doesn’t affect your reading and understanding regardless if you caught it or not, but it sure is fun when you do catch it.

Admittedly, after the first two books, I was sort of ho-hum about reading the rest of the series (and to be honest, the only reason I really continued was because I happened to have the entire series taken out from the library, so they were all sitting in front of me anyway). However, after finishing The Indigo King, my interest in the series has increased tenfold and I’m super excited to start on the fourth book, The Shadow Dragons. I really don’t know what else to say about this book — I have no complaints at all, and I can’t talk too much about the plot because, since it has many mystery elements to it, it would be revealing too much. Just trust me that this is the best book in the series (that I’ve read so far), and it is definitely worth reading the first two books in the series if only to read this third one.

My Rating: 5/5

The Search For The Red Dragon

This post first published June 6, 2011.

Author: James A. Owen
Published: January 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica
368 pages (hardcover)
 
The second book of this series is not really about the search for a The Red Dragon, a ship, as the title may suggest; it’s about the search for missing children.

Nine years have passed since the end of the events in book one. John, Jack and Charles have not seen each other since, but are called together once more because something terrible is happening in the Archipelago of Dreams, and requires the Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica to investigate. They discovered that not only are children missing from all over the Archipelago, but the great dragon ships are all missing, save for The Indigo Dragon. Their only is delivered to them by a little girl with artificial wings: “The Crusades have begun.”

I definitely liked this book and I think it’s better than book one. There is a lot of different stories crammed into this one: Peter Pan, the Pied Piper myths, Daedalus, the Greek Titans, Little Red Riding Hood, the Bermuda Triangle, Dante’s Inferno, and so on and so forth. The story is straight forward enough, but somehow, with all these various stories crossing over one another, I did become a tad confused at times, thinking, “Wait, how does that relate to this again?” Regardless, The Search For The Red Dragon ended up being quite epic in scale.

I guess my only complaint about the story is that it cuts quite close to being unoriginal. A large portion of the plot relied heavily on Peter Pan‘s influences, a reliance that was a little too dependent for my tastes. I realize that it is the nature of this series to borrow influences from other books and turn them into new stories. However, with the first book, I never once felt that the story was just a melting pot of other stories; it did feel like an original story, only with allusions to others. This second book felt a bit of the opposite.

I think the characterization in this book, and the writing, has definitely increased in quality this book. There’s definitely a bit more back story to some of the characters now, or expanded on, so that they feel more like real people with hopes, dreams and motivations. There are more female characters in this book than the previous, which is cool but I think the author can do better. There was only one before (Aven), but this time around, there’s also Laura Glue, the little girl with the artificial wings, and the only other new female character is a very minor villain trapped in a mirror. The writing in this book is much, much better too (not that it was particularly horrible before). While I could kind of tell that the author was not a writer first when reading Here There Be Dragons, the issue never crossed my mind once when reading The Search For The Red Dragon.

Overall, this is a great second book to the series. It not only expands on the first book, but makes it so much better. James A. Owen is showing that he definitely has what it takes to write books. I liked the story a lot, and the direction the series is heading in, although a part of me feels that there’s still a bit of oomph! missing, the missing factor that separates the good stories from the great stories. Anyway, I happily look forward to reading book three. My only question is how far the time gap will be between book two and three, given that book one and two had a time gap of nine years. The main trio of characters are middle aged already, I can’t imagine book three aging them another nine years …

My Rating: 3/5

Here, There Be Dragons

This post first published May 31, 2011.

Author: James A. Owen
Published: September 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #1
336 pages (hardcover)
 
I saw this series at the bookstore and, reading the summary on the inside flap, became really interested in it because it sounded to me, like a mix of stories. Based on the summary alone, it kind of reminded me of The Game by Diana Wynne Jones, where all the worlds any story has ever taken place in exists in one universe. After reading Here, There Be Dragons, it’s clear it’s nothing like The Game. Instead of all the story worlds existing in one place, it is, instead, a place that inspires all the world’s greatest stories. The place of imagination.

John, Jack and Charles are called to the scene of the murder of Professor Stellen. While Jack and Charles have never met the professor, John knows him — he is his mentor, whom he was going to visit that day. The three men, a bit nervous over the murder, decide to go to an Oxford clubhouse together to relax. As if their day can’t become more strange, they meet a man named Bert who insists they are in great danger and hurries them out of the house, to the docks, where a great ship, The Indigo Dragon, awaits to take them to the Archipelago of Dreams. Bert explains that the Winter King and his wendigos are the ones who killed Professor Stellen, and now they will try to kill John, and by association, Jack and Charles as well, for John is now the Caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica, and atlas of the imagination.

The world of the Archipelago of Dreams is not really what I expected. I guess I kind of expected some dream-like quality to it, as it is a place of imagination, but while there are oddities, I didn’t really feel like it’s ‘dreamy’. It is a world where there are four major races — Elves, Dwarves, Trolls and Goblins — as well as Men. There is one throne, the Silver Throne, which all of King Arthur’s descendants have been kings. King Arthur was the first king, who ruled both the Archipelago and our real world at one point in time, and commanded dragons. Anyway, it all sounded like … pretty normal to me, for a fantasy. Almost like a kingdom. So, the world was okay, but a bit underwhelming.

The beginning of the story is rather hard to get into. It most certainly gets better by the end though. As I was reading I was thinking this is a two or three star book, but by the end, I was thinking this may just be a four star book. (I settled for the middle of the road, haha). It’s hard to get into because, the beginning at any rate, moves very, very fast with little to no explanation as to why the characters go along with everything. Oh sure, they are bewildered, but they more or less just go with the flow. I’m sorry, but if I was taken into a whole ‘nother world with talking animals and witches and trolls, I would think I was going crazy. The characters themselves are, well, characters. They are funny but there’s no realism with the characters. No back stories. The relationships between them simply appear; John, Jack and Charles start off as perfect strangers, but by the time they board The Indigo Dragon, John is already calling him his good friends.

The writing, in this book, is really mediocre. After realizing the author is first and foremost, a graphic novel writer, it makes sense why his writing is sparse and not really descriptive. While it wasn’t bad writing, it certainly made me feel like I was reading a children’s book, as opposed to a young adult book.

The last half of the book and the ending were really good, in my opinion. It was exciting and quite a few twists occur; who doesn’t love a good twist? At the very end, it is revealed that all the previous Caretakers are famous authors of some sort, and that the novels they wrote were inspired by their adventures in the Archipelago of Dreams, protecting the Imaginarium Graphica. So at the very end, you find out who Jack, Charles and John really are. Some people say they didn’t see this coming at all and seemed kind of left field for them, but I think if you got all the literary allusions and references, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise at all.

Speaking of literary allusions, there are a lot, and it is what I really like about this book. I love it when I catch books alluding to other books, and because of the nature of this one, Here There Be Dragons is chock full of them. All the allusions are to pre-1917 books because that’s the time period John, Jack and Charles are in, in their real world. The thing is, I haven’t read that many books that are, well, that old, but I think if you have at least heard of them, you will understand the allusions as well. For example, we have 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea, Alice In Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, and those are only the ones I got; there are probably tons more I missed. You don’t need to understand a single allusion to read this book, but it sure makes reading it more fun.

My Rating: 3/5