Review: A nice complete story and a fine introduction to more
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2010
The First Dragoneer by MR Mathias, is a fun adventure story for middle-grade and older. Two young boys face that time when the world changes, when they have to grow up; and though their world is very different from ours, their feelings will be familiar to many readers. March will leave to find his fortune elsewhere. Bren will stay to fulfill his family obligations. And each imagines they'd rather be the other.The author creates a pleasing "other world" with words that are close enough to familiar to avoid that sinking alien-ness that so easily alienates readers. March calls Bren a "giboon" and imagination furnishes the image--nicely done. Meanwhile the hunting and tracking skills of our own world work just as well when entering forbidden caves in another.As boys will everywhere, each tries to act unafraid in the quest for just one last adventure. Each sees the other as confident. And each is just a little too curious.The danger, when it comes, is swift and vividly described. The author certainly writes a good fight scene, and an aftermath that's all too plausibly painful.The First Dragoneer is a nicely complete novella in its own right, and a good introduction to the author's Dragoneers Saga; intriguing fantasy, fun characters, and lots of questions to carry the story onward.