Dragon's Tooth
Author: N.D. Wilson
Series: Ashtown Burials (#1)
Publisher: Random House Childrens Books
How Received: BookExpo America 2011
Comes out August 23.
For two years, Cyrus and Antigone Smith have run a sagging roadside motel with their older brother, Daniel. Nothing ever seems to happen. Then a strange old man with bone tattoos arrives, demanding a specific room.
Less than 24 hours later, the old man is dead. The motel has burned, and Daniel is missing. And Cyrus and Antigone are kneeling in a crowded hall, swearing an oath to an order of explorers who have long served as caretakers of the world's secrets, keepers of powerful relics from lost civilizations, and jailers to unkillable criminals who have terrorized the world for millennia.
Buy OR Borrow | Brush Off
Fast paced and exciting, Dragon's Tooth offers a whirlwind of adventure for any age. And I'm not saying that just because the title involves dragons - there are, in fact, no dragons in the story.
Sad face.
However, Dragon's Tooth does deliver one helluva fantastic story. Though the ages of the protagonists designate the book as middle grade, there's no reason at all for us YA lovers not to take a peek. The world that Wilson's created is fantastic - I love the way everything works and I can't wait to learn more. From the lighting bug right at the beginning to the challenges that the kids had to deal with as they arrived at the "lost civilization" - I don't want to give away more than the summary describes! - was just fantastic. I think I've abused the word fantastic. I'm going to stop using it now.
I liked the characters a lot - though some of the things they said and did occasionally got on my nerves, it just made them seem all the more real to me. (If they behaved perfectly, they wouldn't be realistic, now would they?) My favorite character is the (minor spoiler) boy they meet when they end up in the crypt. I kind of wanted to be him, and then I found out his backstory and just ADORED him. I do hope we get to see more of him in the next book.
The only thing I really didn't like was the end part - I kept expecting Cyrus to use a certain... living... thing... that had been given to him and I wasn't really pleased with how the villain had his powers. I need to see more of that in the next book before I'll really like that, I think.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10. I'm trying not to spoil anything for you, so all I'll say is that it's well written, the world is fantastic (damn it! There I go, using it again) and the characters are likable and interesting.