I'm always looking for a new series to read, and I love when I can hop aboard as a new set of books launches. You never know what you are getting and you never truly know what to expect. It can be a great experience or one you regret buying into. Well, sadly, The Summer Dragon fits into the latter category. And, though there are hints of brilliance along the way, no doubt due to the fact that illustrator Todd Lockwood is the author, it inevitably has too many flaws and attempts to cater to a more marketable group Reading through The Summer Dragon, I couldn't help but feel that it had been rewritten at some point. There is a lot of evidence that points towards the book either originally being in a third person perspective, rather then the highly constrictive first person narrative presented here, or being for a much older audience. You see, it's mostly YA, but it doesn't feel like it should be. The book opens, for instance, with a third person perspective prologue, then abruptly throws readers off when it switches to the perspective of Maia. Initially, Maia is a completely incompetent and insufferable character, the first chapter paints her as a run-of-the-mill snappy female lead, destined for adventure. I got to say, for how brief the first chapter is, it took me a long time to read. Maia is annoying, her brother is annoying, her father is the typical gruff-yet-knowledgeable sort of father you see in these types of books, and her friends are flat, just there to express that there is some small community around dragon breeding. They, ultimately, prove to just be flat names and their dragons are given one character trait each to define them; compliment their given owner. I must point out, as well, that Maia inadvertently almost kills a family friend in this chapter - you'll see why I bring this up later. After the first chapter, the whole book wildly changes in both style and quality. Explanations and descriptions go from short, brief, and almost dumb - to well done and almost poetic. Maia's view of the world also shifts entirely, as if shes someone else completely. No longer is she snappy, but instead she's a little young minded, yet, but earnest and understandable. You can see how she views the world around her as a beautiful place and genuinely loves the work she does with dragons, they are more to her then just vehicles or weapons. It's great, for a bit, and I couldn't help but feel like this was some remnant of what the book had initially been - because this Maia is a better character, and this Maia makes sense. However, this Maia also doesn't seem to care enough to regret almost killing her family friend. She doesn't even bring it up. The gore described from the incident, she could care less, and the incident just passes her by without her caring. She does seem to care about ancient, mysterious, ruins that coincidentally skirt a buried city, which is coincidentally near where she lives, and, coincidentally, one of the legendary dragons that is described almost instantly shows up. Of course, Maia and her brother are surprised, but instead of caring that a legendary dragon of myth, the real Summer Dragon, has presented itself to them - they are just concerned about themselves. Oh, is this good luck? Maybe that means we'll get Dragons now, what we want. Then there is a dead dragon, possibly poachers and - it utterly ruins any wonder, becoming tedious, as the book hops from scene to scene ad nauseam. Further in the book, when he does decide to commit to a scene or idea, it is entirely too drawn out. And he just keeps stacking things on - including a side character that is just there to segway the story into a second book. It's a mess, and though the ideas may be good individually, they make for a confusing spotty story-line when placed together as they have been. Worse yet, it's all YA. Trying to cater to a scene that people make more money from in the short-term and it further harms this book. As I mentioned, there are times when the writing breaks through into more mature prose, but other times it seems dulled or dumbed down for a younger audience. It made me feel a little alienated as a reader, confused as well. We already had the Eragon series for YA Dragon stories, and no one has been asking for them since. So, why bother? The content here demands a sprawling, massive, fantasy world - not a forgettable, by-the-numbers first person YA fantasy. I yern for what could have been. -L. BROOKS
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