Customer Reviews

Whim of the Dragon (Secret Country)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once again, Pamela Dean questions where reality ends and fantasy begins. When The Hidden Land ended, Ted and Laura thought they had finally escaped from the Secret Country, only to discover that they hadn't. This, the final book of the trilogy, begins...Ah, but to tell anything would be to ruin the surprise and pleasure of this book. All that I will say is that the adventures of Ted, Laura, Ruth, Ellen, and Patrick are far from over. They have survived, so far, fencing lessons, unexpected knowledge of magic, the underworld, encounters with unicorns, and war. What other adventures do they encounter? That you must discover on your own. Enjoy!

_The Whim of the Dragon_ is the last book in the trilogy that begins with _The Secret Country_ and _The Hidden Land._ I cannot praise Pamela Dean's unique writing style highly enough. It sings. Magic and poetry are interwoven in a setting in which the mage's talent is essentially poetic; literary allusions, most commonly to Shakespeare, are everywhere. A superlative read for children and adults alike.

The Whim of the Dragon is the final book in an incredible series, and it lives up to the first two splendidly.

In this book the children are forced to grow up, to realize that their game really has affected other people's lives. They have to take responsibility for their Secret. Dean pulls no punches. The book is bittersweet; it made me cry and laugh together, not sure which emotion was in control.

Definitely one of the best things I've read. I would recommend it to everyone, but since it's unavailable that's not very useful. It's now almost impossible to find, a fact which I find frustrating to the point of tragedy.

Review-wise, I can't really add much to those who have spoken before me (see below), but I can pass on that the series is to be reprinted starting in 2003! Great for those of us who were having problems finding all three books!

The Whim of the Dragon is the final book in a trilogy. I would love to see the story continued because there could be so much more of the tale to be told. The series tells about 5 children who find a way into their secret country and must continue their "game" except it has become real life. Reading about their experiences and dreams makes for a fun tale for kids of all ages.

I originally picked up this trilogy because it looked interesting and the other reviewers raved about it. Chapters into the first book, I began to wonder why it was so beloved. More questions than answers swam across the page, drowning me in confusion and frustration. I felt thrown into a sea without a life preserver. The language was too archaic at times, and I constantly felt I was not being given enough information to process the storyline.

I felt like I was plowing through the book with an old, tired horse in a massive field full of rocks while the burning sun beat down from above. Being a complete-ist, however, I trudged on and picked up book #2. Halfway through, I pleasantly discovered that my horse was more spry, the rocks had disappeared from the field, and I was wearing a broad-rimmed hat. I was still plowing, but it wasn't nearly as painful. By book #3, I had a tractor, cool breeze, and lemonade in my hand. The work was no longer a chore but a welcome vacation I found thoroughly enjoyable.

I can hardly account for the transition, but it did happen. I recommend the trilogy to those who are not afraid to persevere in the beginning to achieve a great reward in the end.

I first read The Secret Country shortly after its initial publication in 1985. I was not yet 10 years old, and despite having read no Shakespeare, or Frost, or Keats or any of the other classics Pamela Dean references, I found myself sucked into her world like a mere rowboat into Charybdis. There was much I did not understand. Yet Dean uses her allusions to such profound effect that even without my understanding all of them, her storytelling captivated my imagination.

At the time, as I recall, the book was shelved with the regular genre fiction. Today, it's labelled "Young Adult." This seems to me a grave mistake, because as Dean's own website proclaims, her style is "love and rhetoric, without the blood"--and without the sex, either--which means it lacks the necessary elements to appeal to its proposed audience, since teens these days can't be coerced into reading anything that doesn't contain blood or sex (and preferably both). I know, because I spent six years working at bookstores trying to sell these books to anyone who would listen.

Unfortunately, finding an audience for this trilogy proves difficult indeed, because its main characters are children, but it's written at a level well above that of your average pre-teen reader. In fact, the Secret Country trilogy is some of the most intelligent fantasy writing I have ever encountered. I thought so at age 10, and I think so now, as a well-read adult, going back and re-reading the series for what is probably the twentieth time. Each time I read it, I uncover references I didn't catch before, and am delighted anew at Dean's perspicacity.

It's tragic that these books keep going out of print.

All I can say is, buy the series, read it, and give it a chance to astonish and captivate you like it has me.

The end of this book was terrible. The end of a series should be catacalismic for someone, but in this book everyone, even the bad guys, get what they want. I would not recommend this book to anyone.