Last October 21, I had one of my bookbuying sprees at the 4th floor of National Bookstore Cubao, which you would know, if you're an avid book fan, to be the pre-owned and surplus section.

Books in this section are cheaper, and most of them are in really good condition.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Anyway, I picked up this children's book called Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. It's from the Magic Shop series written by Bruce Coville. It's a small book, around the size of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books (remember those?) and targets the same age range, around 8-10.

The Magic Shop series is about this shop of magical things like talking skulls and dragon eggs that appears in different towns from out of nowhere. And disappears again! This shop is run by one Mr. Elives.

In Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, Jeremy stumbles into the magic shop while running away from school bullies and finds himself the new owner of a dragon egg. He doesn't really believe that it's a dragon egg, thinking that Mr. Elives was pulling his leg, until it hatches.

The story revolves around Jeremy's attempt to balance his school and family life while raising the dragon on the side.

I really enjoyed it, it's a quick read and very entertaining.

And while I was reading it, I came across this portion that reminded me a lot of another dragon book I read recently, Eragon . The scene was just so familiar.

Jeremy was trying to name his dragon and was firing dragon names from literature at it: Fafnir? Smaug? (I laughed out loud here) Ouroboros? And the dragon would decline each of the names. And then Jeremy tries another name -- Tiamat? And baby dragon likes it! Then, Jeremy realizes that he had been suggesting masculine dragon names, and that his dragon was female!

Does that sound familiar? If you've read Eragon (this portion isn't in the movie), this is how Eragon names his dragon Saphira. By suggesting a string of dragon names, all masculine, until he realizes that his dragon was female.

Jeremy and Eragon
Now, I know Eragon was influenced by a lot of scifi and fantasy stories. The plotline follows the Star Wars formula (a formula not only used by Star Wars, of course), and the fantasy elements ring of Tolkien (pun intended).

I've been very forgiving of these similarities (considering how much of a Tolkien nut I am). My approach has always been: Christopher Paolini is a young writer and has the rest of his life to enrich his writing. His first work, Eragon, is clearly the work of a boy in love with the modern world's best fantasy stories. And it's not surprising that this would reflect in his story.

Paolini filled his world with races familiar to a lot of fantasy readers -- elves and dwarves; ascribing cultures to each of them that are already sort of standards in fantasy. Elves are of incredible intelligence and are attuned to the world and the life or magic that binds them together. Dwarves live under the mountain and are crafty with their hands. They can create intricately beautiful pieces of art with gems and alloy.

Paolini also have orc-ish characters called Urgals. But, I was pleasantly surprised at how he developed this race in Eldest. I will say no more lest I spoil any new readers.

I don't see anything wrong with Paolini using these fantasy standards. Sure, they're LOTR-ish, but even Tolkien himself borrowed a lot of ideas (A LOT!) from the ancient Norse heroic epics. How he did it -- much more creatively, and cleverly -- is another matter. The result was a mythology that rang so true and so fresh. Readers who dig deep into Tolkien's works and unearth references to the old sagas are not likely to say "rip-off!" but, "damn clever!"

Paolini doesn't have this skill yet. But then again. Tolkien WAS a professor. And he had much more experience in general (with literature, with life). And he had this amazing way of tying up his modern fantasy with the real world's old stories.

So, I see Paolini's first effort as a good one.

But here's the thing.

I've chosen to ignore most of the things a regular fantasy fan would cite as a rip-off.

But, I just can't ignore this similarity to Jeremy's dragon-naming scene. Right after reading that portion, i leafed back to the copyright page to see the publication date.

1991. WAY ahead of Eragon. And bringing it up with my friend Lau on chat, she informs me that Paolini DID cite Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher as one of his influences.

I knew it. I knew it.

I am much more disappointed with this than with all of Paolini's other 'borrowings.' Because the other elements he had used only to develop his plot or the cultures of his races -- but this was just too similar a scene. And from a modern children's book. The source is just too mainstream, obvious, and new. It's less of an homage to heroic epics than a outright copy.

Makes you wonder, what was his editor thinking?

I like Eragon a couple of notches less. But who knows, maybe the third book will be better. The author is maturing, maybe he's learned some.

Oh well, who can say where referencing ends and a ripoff begins?

To wrap up this longwinded rant on Eragon...I shall point out something Paolini and I have in common. Love for dragon lore. And for Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.

Good one, Mr. Coville. :-)

Labels: books