Have I mentioned
That you MUST MUST MUST all rush out and read Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley?
I read it. Then I went out and bought a copy, in hardback, because I had to have it. It's delicious. It's tightly written, the loose ends are nicely marked as Deliberate Loose Ends Thank You Very Much.
The main character, Jake, is believeable while still allowing for a certain amount of MarySue on the part of the reader. It's not cute. It's dense. There's lots of suspense and subtle character development. There are dragons and politicians and reserved Native Americans and cranky people and baby animals and it's still not cute.
The blurb from Robin's website:
Jake Mendoza lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. Smokehill is home to about two hundred of the few remaining Draco australiensis, which is extinct in the wild. Australiensis has always been controversial: its detractors say it is extremely dangerous and unjustifiably expensive to keep and should be pre-emptively destroyed. Its friends say there are no records of it eating humans and it is a unique example of specialist evolution and must be protected. But it is up to eighty feet long and breathes fire.
On his first overnight solo in the park, Jake finds a dying dragon. A dragon dying next to the human she killed. Jake knows this news could destroy Smokehill - that the dead man is a poacher and had killed her first will be lost in the outcry against dragons.
Then he notices that this dragon had just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive.
And it is a federal offence to assist in the preservation of the life of a dragon.
I read it. Then I went out and bought a copy, in hardback, because I had to have it. It's delicious. It's tightly written, the loose ends are nicely marked as Deliberate Loose Ends Thank You Very Much.
The main character, Jake, is believeable while still allowing for a certain amount of MarySue on the part of the reader. It's not cute. It's dense. There's lots of suspense and subtle character development. There are dragons and politicians and reserved Native Americans and cranky people and baby animals and it's still not cute.
The blurb from Robin's website:
Jake Mendoza lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. Smokehill is home to about two hundred of the few remaining Draco australiensis, which is extinct in the wild. Australiensis has always been controversial: its detractors say it is extremely dangerous and unjustifiably expensive to keep and should be pre-emptively destroyed. Its friends say there are no records of it eating humans and it is a unique example of specialist evolution and must be protected. But it is up to eighty feet long and breathes fire.
On his first overnight solo in the park, Jake finds a dying dragon. A dragon dying next to the human she killed. Jake knows this news could destroy Smokehill - that the dead man is a poacher and had killed her first will be lost in the outcry against dragons.
Then he notices that this dragon had just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive.
And it is a federal offence to assist in the preservation of the life of a dragon.