Some days ago, I picked up these books by Donita K. Paul: Dragonspell and Dragonquest. I liked the cover and I figured that since it had dragons, I'd like them. After all, that reasoning has worked for me in the past.

I just finished Dragonspell. It's not a thick book, only 300 plus pages, but it took me more than a week to finish. Lately I've been averaging 3 books a week, but I got stuck with Dragonspell.

It wasn't a difficult read at all, as far as the writing goes. The landscape was fairly interesting, filled with interesting races. I was glad that it didn't have the usual dwarves or elves. The dragons were interesting as well. They come in different shapes and sizes and capabilities.

It was going along well until it started preaching.

You'll recognize that the whole story wraps around the central theme of God and the God-send. You'll see a Jesus-character (Paladin) to whom the main characters pledge themselves in service. The God-Creator in the story is called Wulder, which was distracting for me because it sounded too much like Mulder.

It's not uncommon for stories to be patterned after (and used to promote) Christian beliefs. But, stories fail when writers are too caught up in their agenda.

The writing in Dragonspell could do with a bit more subtlety. It preaches Christian values in a very cliche manner. When talking about the greatness, the righteousness of Wulder, the writer forces the emotion on the reader, rather than gently leading you to feel something. Wulder and Paladin are the least developed characters in the book, too. All we know about them is that they're uhh great.

The writer relies on the fact that readers will recognize God and Christ in the characters and apply the real-world characterizations to the book. She forgets that her book is still a book, and all characterizations must be contained within. I mean, I know what Christ is like. But tell me what Paladin is like. Nevermind that you patterned Paladin after Christ. Don't cut corners now. And show, don't tell. It's such a cop-out.

And it's a major turn-off.

I rarely diss books because I'm really not hard to please. But, with Dragonspell, while reading it I kept thinking that I'd rather be reading something else.

Give me credit though. I did finish it, just to be fair.

Having said all that, I did like Gymn the little dragon and the concept of hiding a castle in a bird's feather. Pretty cool, that.

Labels: books