Here, There Be Dragons

This series was recommended to me by a good friend and colleague. I started reading it on December 22nd because I had left Breaking Dawn in the car. It started out well but immediately started to feel like the fantasy novel version of Copycat.

The premise for the series is a book that contains maps of all the imaginary lands ever written, depicted, etc. The series is called The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. I liked the "wendigo" in the first chapter, and I was intrigued by the death of the professor that begins the series. However, the book does go through a 'let's show off how many fantasy novels we've read' stage, and it seemed unoriginal at times.

My second issue with the book was its utter maleness. People complain about Tolkien's treatment of women all the time and I love Tolkien, but this was rather silly. The one female character, while strong, was just so underdone. Aven is the captain of the Indigo Dragon, and she is fiesty, but she is also one dimensional until at least the second book. Even then her added characterization feels hollow like Owen tacks on feminine qualities that he pulled out of a fifties self-help book. But, on to more pleasant things.

The ending of the book really picks up, and by the time John, Jack, Charles, and Bert manage to defeat if not destroy the Winter King, I was really engrossed in the story. I liked the bit about the "ring of power," and I loved the fact that John is really J.R.R. Tolkien and Jack is C.S. Lewis. Charles is somebody too, but I am not well read enough to know him that well. Jack's character almost betrays the group to the Winter King just like Edmund betrays his brother and sisters to the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The smattering of literary history and philosophy in the book that becomes so much more important by the time we figure out the true identities of the caretakers makes this book one I will definitely reread. I am really looking forward to rereading to see more of how John's character relates to Tolkien's works.