HERE BE DRAGONS Reviews
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They call themselves Dragons. But are really just children. And there is something evil about using children as soldiers. Brainwashed and programmed, even chipped with superpowers beyond their understanding, the children are still mere fodder for the fighting fields. In effect, prisoners of war. Was Tucker Thompson one of them? Had he at one time been embedded with the same superpowers as these children? There were parts of his past he just couldn’t remember, but his mission to Australia, the country he claimed as home, has started to bring some of the foggy patches of his memory into clearer focus. And here he is, in Australia, with another war to fight, this one against children, Dragons.
Readers came to know Tucker in Kadee Carder’s earlier books, “Insurrection”, “Incomplete” and “Indelible”. These books were primarily Saylor’s story, a story of an orphan, lost at sea and found again; one with her own nightmares to overcome and her own superpowers to understand. “Here Be Dragons” is Tucker’s story, one that takes him home, or so he believes, to Australia, only to find a war he doesn’t want to fight and a longing he can’t squelch, a longing for someone half a world a way. As the reader follows Tucker’s journey, his battle, the man behind the Aussie accent unveils his true character. As he learns, so does the reader.
“The answer to life’s struggle isn’t to go kill or be killed,” the main character insists. And he argues his belief in rescuing the child soldiers, the Dragons, instead of fighting to kill, with poignant words that find their target in any of real life’s situations: “This war is for life itself. Life isn’t just a thing. Life is the thing. We take as many alive as possible, no matter how hard they resist.”
Tucker, the protagonist, is challenged with every step he takes towards the ultimate goal of winning this battle against an evil superpower. He is told, and he accepts reluctantly, that he is some kind of Dragon and that every minute of his life is a battlefield. When he confronts the antagonist, Rapton, the evil genius behind the Dragon child soldiers, he is told “Allow what you never thought would change you to change you. Let the light shudder upon your skin. Allow our darkness to heal your scars. Here we raise up, sharp and new. Here we forge new life. Here we eviscerate what once was weak and weave the fire into force. Here be Dragons. Torrent! Welcome to the war.”
Life is all about change, some good, some not so good. Tucker learns, as we all must learn, to “Be powerful. Be consistent. Never quit. Finish the mission.”
Once again Kadee Carder has provided readers with a compelling plot of good versus evil. It is set in a futuristic world, one struggling to regain its technological abilities after a Flare knocked out all the satellites, leaving the planet literally in the dark. But even without technology, there are those who find a way to create superpower advances out of the technology scraps left behind from before The Flare.
On the surface, this novel is a good dose of sci-fi and futuristic drama. Deep down, the realistic characters, with their daily struggle, not only for survival but also for understanding their sense of purpose in life, meets the need of young adult readers who, similarly, are seeking a meaning of life. The message is clear: work hard, stay the course, and look for the good in everyone and everything. Life can be good.
A good dose of drama, suspense mixed with the classic battle between good and evil. Well done!
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
***
If you’re looking for a sci-fi military fiction with an edge of dystopia and a whirlwind of rapid quip volleying, this is the book for you! I haven’t seen quick, realistic dialogue like this since Gilmore Girls.
Aside from the fantastic repartee, Here Be Dragons explores a post-apocalyptic military world. Unlike many similar titles, it confronts total chaos with human efficiency. If anything, the tech-altering event seems a blip in human progress – at least as far as politics and military seem to go. Though there’s a decent amount of appreciation for any individual piece of tech, it reminded almost of the sort of consideration given to such devices in historical fiction.
~ Eli Celata, author of Grimm Remains
***
Readers came to know Tucker in Kadee Carder’s earlier books, “Insurrection”, “Incomplete” and “Indelible”. These books were primarily Saylor’s story, a story of an orphan, lost at sea and found again; one with her own nightmares to overcome and her own superpowers to understand. “Here Be Dragons” is Tucker’s story, one that takes him home, or so he believes, to Australia, only to find a war he doesn’t want to fight and a longing he can’t squelch, a longing for someone half a world a way. As the reader follows Tucker’s journey, his battle, the man behind the Aussie accent unveils his true character. As he learns, so does the reader.
“The answer to life’s struggle isn’t to go kill or be killed,” the main character insists. And he argues his belief in rescuing the child soldiers, the Dragons, instead of fighting to kill, with poignant words that find their target in any of real life’s situations: “This war is for life itself. Life isn’t just a thing. Life is the thing. We take as many alive as possible, no matter how hard they resist.”
Tucker, the protagonist, is challenged with every step he takes towards the ultimate goal of winning this battle against an evil superpower. He is told, and he accepts reluctantly, that he is some kind of Dragon and that every minute of his life is a battlefield. When he confronts the antagonist, Rapton, the evil genius behind the Dragon child soldiers, he is told “Allow what you never thought would change you to change you. Let the light shudder upon your skin. Allow our darkness to heal your scars. Here we raise up, sharp and new. Here we forge new life. Here we eviscerate what once was weak and weave the fire into force. Here be Dragons. Torrent! Welcome to the war.”
Life is all about change, some good, some not so good. Tucker learns, as we all must learn, to “Be powerful. Be consistent. Never quit. Finish the mission.”
Once again Kadee Carder has provided readers with a compelling plot of good versus evil. It is set in a futuristic world, one struggling to regain its technological abilities after a Flare knocked out all the satellites, leaving the planet literally in the dark. But even without technology, there are those who find a way to create superpower advances out of the technology scraps left behind from before The Flare.
On the surface, this novel is a good dose of sci-fi and futuristic drama. Deep down, the realistic characters, with their daily struggle, not only for survival but also for understanding their sense of purpose in life, meets the need of young adult readers who, similarly, are seeking a meaning of life. The message is clear: work hard, stay the course, and look for the good in everyone and everything. Life can be good.
A good dose of drama, suspense mixed with the classic battle between good and evil. Well done!
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
***
If you’re looking for a sci-fi military fiction with an edge of dystopia and a whirlwind of rapid quip volleying, this is the book for you! I haven’t seen quick, realistic dialogue like this since Gilmore Girls.
Aside from the fantastic repartee, Here Be Dragons explores a post-apocalyptic military world. Unlike many similar titles, it confronts total chaos with human efficiency. If anything, the tech-altering event seems a blip in human progress – at least as far as politics and military seem to go. Though there’s a decent amount of appreciation for any individual piece of tech, it reminded almost of the sort of consideration given to such devices in historical fiction.
~ Eli Celata, author of Grimm Remains
***