About the Book
-
Author:
- Cornelia Funke
Cover Story: Ready For This Jelly
BFF Charm: Mixed Bag
Talky Talk: G-Rated Cursing
Bonus Factor: Merpeople, Siblings
Relationship Status: Go The Distance
Caution: This review contains spoilers for Dragon Rider (Dragon Rider #1) and The Griffin’s Feather (Dragon Rider #2).
Cover Story: Ready For This Jelly
That’s no island floating in the background – that’s Aurelia the jellyfish. Ben and Firedrake look very fierce watching over her, which is exactly as it should be.
The Deal:
Dragon rider Ben Greenbloom and his family, guardians of the world’s magical creatures, are preparing to welcome their most powerful visitor yet: a landmass-sized jellyfish named Aurelia who could either heal the world or destroy it, depending on how she’s received. The Greenblooms aren’t the only ones expecting her, however. Cadoc Eelstrom, an old enemy of Ben’s parents who exploits magical creatures for wealth and power, is out to get Aurelia first, no matter the cost.
BFF Charm: Mixed Bag
Ben’s dragon traits are getting stronger, including immunity to fire and empathy with Firedrake’s emotions. It’s not easy when they’re both angry at the same time, especially around Eelstrom, who – being a lot like Ben, just without a conscience – is easier to hate than any magical creature they’ve ever fought.
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
Once again, there’s not much romance to speak of, although we do see signs of happy, healthy partnerships. When Barnabas Greenbloom has a breakdown, his wife Vita coaxes him out of his room with blueberry pancakes. When Firedrake leaves his mate Maia and their dragonets to travel with Ben, they negotiate about it, and Maia tells him that next time, she’ll be the one to have an adventure while he stays home with the kids.
Talky Talk: G-Rated Cursing
Eelstrom is a 45-year-old man who uses fairy dust to make himself look like a 14-year-old boy. Leaving aside the inconveniences (how does he live alone without Social Services showing up?), I think it’s funny how he can spend literal hours cursing out the Greenblooms in completely child-friendly language. Granted, “I’ll give a basilisk the scent of your sister” is a pretty good one, if you know what basilisks do.
Bonus Factor: Merpeople
Laimomi, a Hawaiian mermaid, her formerly-human friend Lizzie and their six adopted merling children are the first to see Aurelia. I could have read a whole book about them alone: the kids and their mischief, the way they speak to each other by flashing lights along their scales, their adorable pet lantern fish, and (although it’s downplayed in the book) the huge adjustment it must have been for Lizzie, to be saved from drowning at the cost of having to change her entire species.
Bonus Factor: Siblings
Ben and his adopted sister Guinevere love and respect each other despite – or because of – being very different people who thrive in opposite environments: a dragon cave in the Himalayas for him, the Pacific Ocean for her. The same goes for Twigleg and his brother Freddie, getting to know each other all over again after a separation of over three hundred years. Twigleg is an anxious intellectual, Freddie a dancer and an adrenaline junkie. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
Relationship Status: Go The Distance
While there are several characters in the story who choose to live apart for their own and each other’s good, I have no intention of leaving this book behind.
Literary Matchmaking
The Griffin’s Feather (Dragon Rider #2) by Cornelia Funke is the prequel to this story.
A Language of Dragons (A Language of Dragons #1) by S.F. Williamson is another book in which dragons make everything hotter (literally).
Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige is another fantasy adventure set partly in an underwater world.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received no compensation for this review.
