Customer Reviews

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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The husband-and-wife team of Tad Williams & Deborah Beale publish the first volume in their Ordinary Farm series (which will eventually run to five volumes). THE DRAGONS OF ORDINARY FARM is aimed at a somewhat younger audience than Tad Williams' other books, but his adult readers will probably like it just as well.

The two main protagonists Tyler and Lucinda, who are unwillingly sent away to the suppossedly boring farm of a very distant relative to spend their summer there, are quickly drawn into the many secrets of Ordinary farm, its strange inhabitant and its even stranger livestock.

The book is fast-paced despite the large cast of characters and the plot thickens quickly. The tone is modern (think of "Otherland for kids") and the story is less straightforward fantasy but rather science fantasy. Many secrets are revealed and some mysteries solved, but although the first book offers closure, the story is far from over and many mysteries remain intact to be solved in future volumes. Perfect summer book for kids and parents alike.

Authors Williams and Beale deftly mix action, adventure, mystery and humour in this perfect-for-summer read. The young protagonists, Tyler and Lucinda, are believable and engaging. The antagonists are plausibly motivated rather than gratuitously evil. The fantastical creatures are realistically dangerous, not fairy-tale idealizations.

Best of all, the conclusion is exciting and satisfying, yet leaves plenty of mysteries to delve into in the next volume. Much fun!

I have enjoyed Tad Williams books ever since Tailchaser's Song. Can't wait for the next book in this series. I wish Amazon would get the complete Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series available to us fans of Tad Williams.

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm (2009) is the first Fantasy novel in the Ordinary Farm series. It is set in California within the current era.

In this novel, Tyler Jenkins is a preteen who likes to play video games. He also plays lots of heavy metal music.

Lucinda Jenkins is a teenager and the elder sister of Tyler. She has been temperamental and argumentative since the divorce.

Gideon Goldring is the owner of Ordinary Farm. He is the great-uncle of Tyler and Lucinda.

Patience Needle is the housekeeper at Ordinary Farm. She is the mother of Colin. She has a rather sadistic personality.

Simos Walkwell is an overseer at Ordinary Farm. He walks funny.

Ragnar Lodbrok is another overseer at the farm. He comes from somewhere around Denmark.

In this story, Gideon invites Tyler and Lucinda to the farm. Their mother doesn't remember a great-uncle Gideon, yet has a retreat to attend. She had been planning to leave the kids with a neighbor, but a visit to Ordinary Farm would be even better.

Tyler and Lucinda take the train to a town near the farm. On the way, they read a pamphlet about cows sent to them by Uncle Gideon. Tyler also sees a flying animal outside their window. It looks like a monkey.

When they reach Willowside, Walkwell meets them and takes them to the farm in a horse-drawn wagon. They ride along for a quarter hour before turning onto a dirt track. Then the wagon takes them over the hills into a valley.

The farm has a huge house and many outbuildings. It is located in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately for the kids, the farm does have electricity for hair dryers and game chargers.

Colin meets the Jenkins kids at the front door and takes them through the house to the kitchen. He introduces then to his mother and then takes them to their rooms. They immediately lose their way in the confusing corridors.

The house is strange, with many rooms and stairwells everywhere. One grand staircase leads to a blank wall. The rooms seem nice enough, but a little old fashioned.

Colin tells them to stay in their rooms until someone is free to show them around. Naturally, Tyler goes exploring. Then he sees the flying monkey outside a window. Tyler runs in the direction that the monkey flies and finds stairs leading to the outside.

Later, Ragnar comes for Lucinda and tells her that Tyler is in trouble. Lucinda follows him to the Sick Barn, where she finds Tyler and Uncle Gideon. She also finds herself confronting a sick dragon.

Gideon hadn't planned on showing them the farm animals quite yet, but decides that chance and Tyler have forced his hand. Walkwell and Ragnar take them to see the unicorns. Then Gideon shows them the cockatrices, griffins, and other fabulous beasts. The place is more like a zoo than a farm.

Tyler learns that the flying monkey is named Zaza. He finds a library and explores the room. In an attached tiring room, He discovers a mirror that reflects a different scene. Tyler gets the impression that there are even more secrets at the farm.

Meanwhile, Colin secretly contacts a man who buys antiques from Gideon. Colin has a plan to take care of the money problems that plague the farm. He will show that bumpkin Tyler how things are done.

This tale involves the Jenkins kids in the many secrets of Ordinary Farm. They learn about Octavio Tinker, who founded the farm. And they find out about Grace Tinker -- Octavio's granddaughter and Gideon's wife -- who had vanished.

This story starts out slow, but by the middle the reader is struggling to keep up with the pace. It ends with solutions to the immediate problems of the farm, but leaves more mysteries unexplained. The next installment in this series -- The Secrets of Ordinary Farm -- is now available, but only in the Kindle version.

Recommended for Card & Beale fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of fabulous beasts, occult investigations, and cheeky kids. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

A joy to read. It was a lovely children's book to cleanse the palate after reading heavy, dreary adult stuff. Everyone needs a happy ending every once in a while and the resolution to the dragon problem made this old dragon dreamer very happy.

Tad Williams and Deborah Beale have created a young adult novel that transcends all ages - much like Clive Barker's Abarat series. What starts off as what you believe is going to be yet another typical children's fantasy adventure (with all your standard magical beasts making their appearance) quickly turns into a fantasy novel of high adventure, daring plot twists, and even a tug or two at your heart! I would highly recommend this novel - to kids of all ages!

Two thoroughly modern tweenagers are invited to spend a summer in the country, at a farm ruled by a distant relative and an eldritch assortment of folks who are not all they appear to be. A termite-riddled hanger to potentially drape an even creakier story upon, to be sure. But then, Tad Williams is not your average fantasist. Between Williams and co-writer/spouse Beale, they fashion a tale that draws upon creatures of myth, time travel, folklore, Gothic intrigue and steampunk-imbued science. In this way, 'Odfarm' effectively shakes out all cobwebs of cliche to present a story that doesn't condescend to its intended YA audience, while laying out enough detail, drama and a snowballing forward propulsion to hold an older reader's interest. A fine opening taste for what will hopefully be a series, tracking the adventures of the intrepid Jenkins kids and the inhabitants of a most extraordinary homestead.

I loved this book! It's such a fun read. I truly enjoyed it, and can't wait to give it as a gift to young friends and relatives.

Dragons of Ordinary Farm starts with a great premise - who wouldn't want to go to a farm full of magical creatures? - and delivers with an exciting, page-turning story. Everyone wants an adventure at least once in a while, and summer is the perfect time - both for the reader, and for the book's frustrated siblings, the latter who are facing a summer with Star-Wars-obsessed cousins (but wait, what's wrong with that....?) while their mother escapes to a singles' retreat.

Fortunately for all, along comes an invitation from a mysterious, unknown relative, bringing the children to this farm full of magic and mystery. The story is told with a pleasant humor, as well as an easy touch with a multi-layered plot. In addition, the array of human characters rivals the creatures for being varied and captivating.

Overall, Dragons is a delightful read, and I highly recommend it!

While it isn't literally true that I couldn't put the book down anymore, I did read it all in one day. I can't wait for the next books to come out!

This book was OK. I liked the premise of the "Ordinary" farm which had extraordinary animals and

farm hands. Like all fantasy, you had to pretty much buy into the explanation of why there were

extraordinary inhabitents without necessarily really understanding it. But thats OK. The only

thing that bothered me, paticularly in these enlightened times is that the main characters, a brother

and sister, are typically old-school American cliches. The boy is inventive, curious and brave while

his sister is emotional, cries a lot and is pretty cowardly. I didn't have a problem with the way the

boy was written at all, but why was the girl portrayed in such a largely negative manner? By the way,

if it matters, I am a male.