Customer Reviews

The Shadow Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Shadow Dragons is the fourth book in James A. Owen's Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. It follows Here, There be Dragons, The Search for the Red Dragon and The Indigo King. The premise of the series is that all the imaginary lands exist in a place called the Archipielago of Dreams, whose Atlas, the Imaginarium Geographica -and its secrets- has been guarded by famous writers from our world for a millenium.

This time around, the present Caretekers of the Atlas, Inklings Tolkien, Lewis and Williams have to look for help in courageous inhabitants of the Archipielago such as Don Quixote, Hank Morgan and Alvin Ransom; while drawing upon all the accrued wisom of a millenium of Caretakers like Poe, Verne, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Chaucer in order to stop a villain that is about to take over the World... both the Imaginary and our own.

The Shadow Dragons has a great pace, an interesting story, and much inspiration from which to draw in order to continue reading. To me, this series has become the best way to discover many of the classics I did not know or care about.

Do try these books if you like classic literature, fantasy or a good adventure.

Owen's outstanding writing is deeply marred by more careless eBook editing: what follows includes separate comments on the text itself, then on the eBook edition of 1/2012.

This 4th book chronicling the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica is, to me, part of a preeminent series for adolescent (and beyond) readers: I find these stories even more compelling than Rowling's "Harry Potter" volumes. Both create rich imaginary worlds with complex plots, anchored by familiar characters which become more nuanced with time. In addition, the "Dragon" books also draw in other characters and events from throughout history. By doing this, they provide a starting point for young readers to explore other diverse works. Certainly, my 12 year old son has been rapt with attention to them and has been stimulated to pursue a variety of new subjects as a consequence. To me, "The Shadow Dragons" is on the same order of accomplishment as the previous three books.

However, direct comparison of the paperback and Kindle publications astonished me. When our paperback version met an untimely demise in a snowbank, I downloaded the Kindle eBook. I was amazed to find that the download contains no table of contents, making its reading entirely reliant on "location numbers," percentage of text, or bookmarks rather than being informed by the author's intended chapter outline. I don't think I am wrong in assuming this is an error of omission rather than intent, since the 3 earlier hard copy books in the series were published with contents. As was the subsequent volume ("The Dragon's Apprentice") in eBook form.

I find it impossible to believe that a fastidious writer would be pleased by the publication of a hardbound book completely missing a major section (and, yes, I do consider a table of contents a major part of most books) due to either careless or bad editing. If my reasoning is correct, I hope it comes to the attention of the publisher and author as quickly as possible.

Purchased this for a grandson, who loves dragon lore. Haven't heard from him regarding it; but, I am sure he is or did enjoy it. Thank you Amazon for always having what I am looking for.

I purchased this book for my 20 year old son. He liked the book very much, and he said that he would recommend the book to others.

Since I originally started reading the series, I have probably read each book at least twice, and the first three more then that. My hats off to the author for creating a series that combines both myth and modern tales to create a world where real life writers have been turned into fiction characters, and become part of a tale in their own right. It creates an interest in all the stories and myths mentioned and sheds light on forgotten pieces of classic literature.

I read all 4 books. The middle 2 were a bit slow, but this 4th one brought all the intrigue back. Read them all. I loved how authors of the past are all intertwined and interrelated in this series. Was fun to connect other author's stories to what was happening here. Great Series!

With four five-star books in a row James Owen is only bested by the author of one other series, C.S. Lewis with Narnia. James Owen has secured a spot among my favorite authors. This story finds John, Jack, and Charles facing WWII and the mysterious Chancellor. There is only one weapon which may defeat him and his army of shadows. Many old friends from previous books join and the Nameless Isle is full of great historical persons. With a plot as good as its predessessors there is much to be said for the dialogue which is so witty I found myself chuckling quite often.
Eagerly awaiting the next book!

If you liked the previous books in this series, you'll love this one. It's a complex tale that weaves known historical events along with fictional elements from many of the great genre authors. We finally see references to Lewis' space trilogy, as well as characters and events inspiring Narnia as well as LOTR and even callbacks to more modern works. This is somewhat marketed as a YA series and there's plenty there for that market in pure story, but there's a depth and complexity that rivals anything available in 'adult' genre works. In some ways this could again be a fitting end to the series, just as the previous volumes have been, but I think that the plan is for this to be the only the midpoint! I can hardly wait for further installments.

There is a lot to enjoy in this book. The writing is even better than in the previous books, and the story has a much better pace, with little downtime and plenty of action to keep the book moving.

Unfortunately I can't get past the character of Rose. Her origin story is so distasteful to me that it clouds my perception of the entire series. If you've read the third book (minor spoiler coming), you know that Rose is supposedly a descendent of Jesus Christ. I understand that throughout this series the author takes some artistic liberty with real people in order to use them as characters in this story. But he generally tries to stay close to the historic person, only making changes to fit the story. He doesn't make huge changes to the behaviour of the characters, and he doesn't change significant facts about their life, such as whether or not they had children.

So I'm baffled as to why he felt the need to include Jesus, and then make drastic changes to the historical facts about his life. It certainly wasn't essential to the story of Rose, as the power she needed could have come from some other source in this fictional world. Changing the facts about Jesus's life strikes too close to home for me, and prevents me from enjoying the book. It's sad because the books continue to be more interesting, but I can't continue to read them knowing that this character will continue to disturb me for the rest of the series.

the hole series is great all young readers should read this an the hole series