Dragon Dance [Hardcover]

John Christopher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 1986

Simon and Brad's fireball adventures take them to ancient China where they are exposed to incredible practices of mind control.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Christopher's Fireball trilogy, cousins Brad and Simon were thrown into an alternate world where the Roman Empire still held sway. From England they journeyed to and across a primitive America of Algonquins and Aztecs. This concluding volume (the first two were Fireball and New Found Land finds the boys staying with a California tribe, from which they are captured and brought to China. There they are befriended by the lonely teenage Emperor, but palace intrigue soon sends them away to the mountain religious retreat of Bei-Kun, a sect with unusual mental abilities. While grappling with this new discipline and their own beliefs, they unthinkingly propose mechanical concepts that help overthrow the Emperor. This is vintage Christopher; he introduces provocative ideas and their practical consequences in the course of a lively, colorful adventure.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8-10 Brad and Simon, from Fireball (1981) and New Found Land (1983, both Dutton), now journey across the Pacific to China. The medieval scholar Roger Bacon has emigrated to China and developed a philosophy of psychic powers. American-born Brad and British Simon are caught up in palace intrigue, bring down another empire, and, at last, are offered an opportunity to get home. The science-fictional concept of different Earths diverging from critical historical moments has been explored by many authors. Poul Anderson in Operation Chaos (Doubleday, 1971; o.p.) uses it to develop a world in which magic is a science. In The Homeward Bounders (Greenwillow, 1981), Diana Wynne Jones conveys the alienation and desperate hope of teenagers trapped in an infinity of such worlds. In this trilogy Christopher plays with some interesting alternatives to the way our history turned out, but the two lost boys are not engaging characters. They not only slide through each danger but also manage to meet all of the important people and start most of the action. They do not suffer from homesickness or family loss, and their Laurel and Hardy dialogue prevents any depth of character from showing. Christopher did an excellent job in his "Sword" trilogy of involving readers in the fate of an unlikable protagonist, but Brad and Simon simply don't have enough dimension to their characters. That and the far-fetched string of coincidences keep this a shallow adventure story worth acquiring only to complete the trilogy. Carolyn Caywood, Virginia Beach Public Library
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 139 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (June 25, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525442278
• ISBN-13: 978-0525442271
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,554,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did John Christopher Get Bored With Writing This Trilogy?, August 8, 2004

By 

Doug Riddell (Wellington, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dragon Dance (Hardcover)

This is the last book of the "Fireball" trilogy.

Don't get me wrong, I have been a huge fan of John Christopher most of my life. I started with The Tripods and The Prince In Waiting trilogys, and later on I read "The Guardians" and "Empty World" and my respect for this author did not diminish.

Likewise I read "Fireball" and "Newfoundland" (the first two books of the trilogy) and got very into the story. Two boys find themselves on a parallel earth with the Roman Empire still ruling Britain in 1981 A.D which takes them prisoner. But I don't think this last book was as good as its prequels.

Now "Dragon Dance" tells of Simon and Brad being kidnapped by Chinese slave-traders (along with Red Indians in California whom they were staying with). They're taken to China, which turns out to be more industrialised than any other country on this frightening primitive "If" world. The two of them once again have to use their wits and knowledge of their own science to escape, defeat enemies and change this world for the better. Maybe.

As I said I do think this was a very good fascinating concept for a trilogy, but the last book was not as good. The writing and events often indicate the author was eager to get the story over and done with, and so the events and some of the dialouge don't seem to have been "perfected".

Also I must say it's a bit unrealistic in parts i.e. the two friends help the inhabitants of this other earth manufacture weapons and technology quite quickly. And, without giving too much away, at the end they meet a strange magic man who can possibly show them a way home. But he turns out to be someone from our history who I find hard to believe would have been born in this alternative timeline, let alone have the same name, even if his Buddhist meditation kept him alive all these centuries!

While I do recommend you read this book to find out what happens to our heroes, I caution you to not be too disappointed by it. I was told I am the first one to review this book and I can see why.