Saturday, August 13, 2011

Review: Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

While David and I were visiting our good friends, Lyndsey and Joe, the other night (the same two people who taught us how to fire spin), I was looking over Lyndsey's book collection and realized that she had allll four of the books of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles!  Having read only book one (Dealing with Dragons) before, I asked if I could borrow book two.  Lyndsey was kind enough to lend me the remaining three books of the series.  Since they are short and snappy, I started and finished book two today!

Searching for Dragons takes place one year after Dealing with Dragons ends.  Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest, is fed up with royal protocol and being nagged to marry.  So he takes the day off and escapes into the Enchanted Forest, only to discover that someone has been stealing magic from the Forest itself, and framing the dragons of the Mountains of Morning for the theft.  When he goes to ask the King of the Dragons, Kazul, for advice, he encounters the Cimorene, the most unlikely princess in the world, who tells him that Kazul is missing.  Together, Mendanbar and Cimorene take an adventure through the Enchanted Forest itself, to find Kazul and the thieves before the magic is sucked from the Enchanted Forest forever.

Maybe it is my extreme devotion to Dealing, but I didn't like this book half as much.  I think it might be because Mendanbar is the star of the story, and not Cimorene, the heroine of book one.  Mendanbar is a nice enough guy, but he's not as gutsy and plucky as Cimorene, and he doesn't appeal to me as much.  The plot of the story moves faster than Dealing did, as well.  It's not difficult to follow, it's just not as interesting IMO, especially since you know from the get-go (especially if you read the first book) who the culprits are, whereas in Dealing, the perpetrators remain a mystery until the end of the book.

It's a good second novel, and I'm planning on reading books three and four shortly.

Rating: ***

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