Meredith's Book Review

Title: Dragon Rider

Author: Cornelia Funke

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Place and Year of Publication: United Kingdom, 2004

Number of Pages: 523

Where You Found the Book: On the bookshelf at home

Story Review:

This story begins in a valley occupied by dragons who receive the news that humans are moving in to flood their valley. One of the young dragons named Firedrake decides to go out in search of the Rim of Heaven with his cat-like friend Sorrel for a place to stay in peace, but that is believed by many to be nonexistent. Firedrake, on the other hand, has always dreamed of finding that magical place high in the mountains where dragons are said to be hiding in safety from Nettlebrand the Golden One, and where they are safe from humans. Nettlebrand is a mighty creature that appears as a dragon but really was made by an alchemist with a secret recipe. After being created, Nettlebrand ate his master and hunted silver dragons, such as Firedrake. Even though they have tried, the silver dragons cannot melt Nettlebrand’s golden scales, and they have been hiding from him ever since his last huge hunt. They are said to be hiding in the Rim of Heaven, and Firedrake is determined to find them.

During the journey, Firedrake and Sorrel run into a boy named Ben. Ben decides that he wants to go with Firedrake and Sorrel on their journey, and that’s where the title comes from. Ben is believed to be the rider who will fulfill the legends from long ago and who will bring safety for the dragons. After receiving a map from a rat that they were told to visit, they go on their way. Sorrel thinks that he should be in charge of giving directions, but lands in a place that is shaded yellow on the map, which means danger. They happen to land right near Nettlebrand’s castle, and the Golden One sends his armor cleaner Twigleg to spy on the dragon during his journey so that he can give Nettlebrand directions to the Rim of Heaven and so that Nettlebrand can hunt once again. Ben the “Dragon Rider” is a key character in this book and his adventures are a main part of the storyline.

On their journey, the three companions run into many more problems, and meet many new creatures such as a basilisk, a sea serpent, enchanted ravens that are also Nettlebrand’s spies, and a djinn with a thousand eyes. Will Firedrake find the Rim of Heaven? Will Twigleg stay faithful to Nettlebrand? Will Nettlebrand ever be defeated? Will the existence of dragons disappear forever? You’ll just have to read the book and find out! This story will take you through many adventures as you discover hidden secrets and sense a theme of adventure, suspense and fantasy.

Christian Perspective:

I don’t think this book was written from a Christian perspective because it’s a fantasy about dragons and other mythical creatures with no symbolism in it like Chronicles of Narnia for instance. In this book, there is a place called the “Rim of Heaven.” We believe that after you die you may or may not go to heaven and that there is no physical place that takes up matter and space that is heaven, but rather that it is a realm. In the book it refers to the safe place for dragons as the “Rim of Heaven,” and it doesn’t have anything to do with heaven as we know it. I think the reason the term “Heaven” is used is because we think of heaven as a perfect place to live in peace and that’s exactly what is was for the dragons. Even though this book wasn’t written from a Christian perspective I didn’t find it offensive or disrespectful to Christianity at any point.

Personal Thoughts:

I have read this book numerous amounts of times, and each time I discover something new. I chose this book at first because it seemed really interesting, and I chose to read it again because I really like the story line and I hadn’t read it in a long time. Even though the amount of pages may seem intimidating to some, it is fairly large print and the pages are small. Trust me, once you get into this book, you can’t stop yourself. I read it in only a few days, and I never got bored of it. I really liked it because it always left you with a cliffhanger and it always kept you thinking. You had to try to figure out what was going to happen next and had to try to put all the pieces together for it to make sense. I could really picture myself in the scene with the characters, and could also feel what they were feeling. I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy books because this book is all fantasized. The author had a really creative imagination and I think that people who don’t usually enjoy fantasy might even like this book!