1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Didn't Know What To Make of It, October 4, 2011
This review is from: The Ultimate Dragon (Paperback)
My mom got the book at an author signing at the local Hastings. When she handed it to me, she used phrases like, "best selling author", "great fantasy for teens", "you'll love it!" etc. After I reading it, I came to the conclusion that my dear mother was so hyped from meeting the author she just naturally assumed it was a great book without ever actually looking at it.
The style and vocabulary is simple and easy to read, which is fine by me. The story is about Matthew Wolverine, a Texan who loses his family and, by the hand of God, is transported back in time to Scotland to reestablish himself.
I enjoyed the action/adventure, but the characters are too shallow for my liking. Matthew is a godsend with his modern-day knowledge of combat and health, and so his warriors and servants are eager to adapt to any change he makes. But he seems perfectly fine with the gender inequality, and in fact a little too enthusiastic about enforcing it. His adopted daughter who, for someone previously raped and enslaved, is ridiculously understanding of everything he does.
The Loch Ness monster, which was really the main attraction for me, turned out to be not much more than a pet who fetches food.
I guess it was because of the simple writing I assumed it was for Jr. high to high school aged kids, but then the entire chapter dedicated to sex kind of threw off my notion of who the intended audience was supposed to be.
At the end of the story, God sends Matthew back to the modern day. I jumped a little ahead of myself and assumed he would be able to start over with his original family as well (they died at the start of the story, something Matthew was deeply grieved about because he realized he hadn't paid enough attention to them), but instead he's given the modern-day version of the family back in Scotland. Why bother sending him back at all?
It's not really a bad story, it just wasn't what I expected. When Matthew makes his entrance into Scotland, the word "role-play" crossed his mind a few times. After finishing the book, that was really the only way I could think of to describe my experience: like reading someone's role-play.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Monsters All, April 16, 2010
This review is from: The Ultimate Dragon (Paperback)
*spoilers*
I have to wonder what drug the lovers and ravers of this book were on, especially those who describe the despicable protagonist as "strong" and "tender". Or, perhaps I'm being too harsh; perhaps the lovers of this book were, like me, young at heart when they read this and allowed the fantastic adventure, pathos and incredible monsters to blind them to the horrific sins of the protagonist, Matthew Wolverine. God forgive me for putting up with them for so long.
Matthew Wolverine begins the book as a business man coldly blinded to his wife and daughter, whom he neglects and realizes his fault too late when they're killed in a car crash. Inexplicably, he's transported back to Scotland in the year 999 and finds it ravaged by dragons and brutal, raping and human sacrificing dragon worshippers. He immediately meets the worst of them, a child-rapist battling the father of one of his victims. Matthew gets involved in the fight and kills the rapist, automatically becoming the villagers' new leader. Without further ado, he rapidly takes on the task of whipping the village into shape and ridding it of dragon-scum. The plot is painfully obvious: the bereaved Matthew has a chance, which he grabs like a pit bull, to redeem himself and become fur-wearing and chest-beating king of a village run by corrupt forces. The question is whether our former cold-blooded businessman will succeed in the task and make himself a better man. The answer? No: he becomes a far worse, blood thirsty, tyrannical s.o.b.
Here's a brief list of his sins and domineering spirit: at the outset, he finds out that Robert, the man battling the rapist in the beginning for the honor of his brutalized daughter, actually MURDERED said daughter because of her rape. This was considered perfectly fine; we can't risk the idea of her being pregnant, can we? And who'd want to marry her now? He murdered his broken daughter, his own child, because she'd been hurt by someone else, and he did so right in front of her screaming mother. Matthew was shocked at this at first, then apparently shrugged it off and asked Robert to be part of his newly-developing army!! Robert is treated like a hero for the rest of the book and is NEVER punished for the murder of his child, nor does he ever repent of it. Matthew doesnt bring it up either; apparently it's just a sign of the times to him and forgivable since, unlike the rapist, Robert didn't enjoy doing it.
Next, Matthew adopts a poor little twelve-year-old girl as his own daughter because she, too, was raped and will be slaughtered if she returns to her father. Matthew's just as lovable as he can be with this girl..until he decides to use her brutally as a weapon in war. Later in the book, Matthew and his soldiers must dispose of brutal dragon worshippers and their soldiers. After rescuing his new daughter and four grown women who were kidnapped to be sacrificed, Matthew decides to kill first the soldiers and then the worshippers by means of seduction. He coldly tells all the "females" present (as he calls them) that they will disrobe to the waist, lie on the ground with firelight illuminating their breasts, and make loud noises of passion until each evil man climbs on top of them, at which point one of Matthew's men will come up and kill him. They would do this systematically, with five men at a time, until all were killed. For some reason Matthew had the women disrobe before they were even settled in the place of the woods were the seductions would take place, so the poor women walked around half-naked until Matthew decided where to place them.
This rather weird action of Matthew's might have been forgivable, if he hadn't included his TWELVE-YEAR-OLD daughter as one of the "females" to lie half-naked on the ground, making loud noises of lust, and letting a man climb on top of her so another man could knife him. He forced a CHILD, a little girl to do this! His own daughter, as he called her, who'd already been brutalized by a heartless man. Our pathetic "hero" ordered all the women to shame themselves and risk their lives in a cold tone, ignoring his daughter's shock and even her heartfelt greeting when she first tried to embrace him for rescuing her and the adult women. When she later confronted him for forcing her to disrobe as though she were a grown woman, he gave her some crap speech about how she needed to be "transformed" in order to view freedom and her countrymen above her own life and how her humiliation and his "anguish" in causing it were a small price to pay. Author Daniel Jason said at this point that the poor child agreed with Matthew and decided he was justified in using her as a virtual prostitute!! How DARE he? Matthew's sick dismissal of the girl's trauma and his absolutely ludicrous argument that using her thus was the only way to save them and have a free Scotland (I can't believe I read that) are unforgivable. And asinine: he didn't "need" to use her thus, there were four other grown women! He should have hidden her, protected her from this horror. Besides this you are never, EVER justified in violating a child or putting them at risk. Sacrificing the innocent to save the innocent is immoral and fallacious morality. The girl could have been easily raped again or killed, not having the strength of a full-grown woman! Besides, how far are we going to go? Would Matthew allow her to be raped if he thought it was the only way to save them all? Sick, selfish ba*tard. And he's supposed to be a father?? Author Daniel Jason has VERY little idea, it would seem, of humanity, manhood, or the female heart, especially the child's one. This is very sick stuff folks, and dangerous because it's done in the name of heroism and rescue. This man is no soldier and no hero.
Matthew's macho cruelty doesn't stop there: when a grown woman, Shalee, later refuses to start another errand at his request until she's finished with the task at hand, he grabs her wrist, forces her to the ground and tells her she's risking her life by disobeying him. When she whimperingly leaves, Matthew's daughter is again shocked and questions her father's behavior. He tells her that if he let anyone defy him in public, chaos would prevail among his followers. So, threatening, hurting and risking women's lives are okay if our delusional "hero" thinks the world or his reign will end otherwise. Unbelievable. Who wrote this again?
There's almost nothing but raw male violence called "manhood" throughout the book: later, Matthew nearly kills a man for sleeping with the woman he wants, after which his poor daughter again gets to hear a lesson about his weirdness, this time lust (hey, I get that men have aggressive lust, and women can get pretty nasty too when a competing female grabs the male they want, but this constant train of Matthew's almost lethal violent streak is getting ridiculous). Every time doltish Matthew has some big speech to make about "heroism" or "manhood" (as he sees them) his kid is the one who gets to hear it. Yes, it's natural that he was angry about another man taking the woman he wanted, and this aggression is part of manhood, but never once does Matthew act like a single act he does is wrong. It's clear that the author used the little girl as his own moral earpiece for broadcasting his views to the reader; how lovely that we get to hear about how he thinks it's justified to abuse a kid and threaten an innocent's life, in order for his character to show all the other dumb bulls in the vicinity that he thinks he's the baddest cat around. Near the end of the book, a Viking friend of Matthew brings in a horde of gorgeous Viking women and assures Matthew that they've all been "checked" and are virgins. Again, women treated like cattle, no one correcting the boorish men, and another lovely description of Matthew's lust. This is supposed to be a CHRISTIAN book! Matthew's supposed to be a Christian hero from modern times, where we know that it's not all right to abuse children, use women as sex objects and let daughter-killers get away with their crimes and be treated as heroes. Instead of being a good example, Matthew has the exact same spirit as his enemies, just filed down to a less bloody degree. Of course there aren't just scenes of his mindless and brute force; there are also all the lovely, corny rutting scenes between Matthew and his beloved, where we get to find out what a great lover macho Matthew is.
I can't believe I ever tolerated this book in my home, but I hope you won't do the same. The sadistic dragons and clever lochness beasts are a very small price to pay for refusing to absorb the sickness of this book. And it is NOT for children!! The violence and sex would earn an X-rating if this were a film. It's worth noting that writer Daniel Jason has never been married or had a daughter; never been called on to protect a woman or girl. No wonder he has no clue, though even this is not remotely an excuse.
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