Wilkinson, Carole - Dragon Keeper

The emperors of China have imperial dragons, but one was bitten by a dragon when he was a child, and as such, he demanded that the dragons be kept far away from the palace. Ping is a slave of the current Dragon Keeper, who doesn't so much keep the imperial dragons so much as abuses them. Eventually, Ping, her pet rat Hua (rattie!!!), and one of the emperor's dragons escape. They try to find their way to the ocean while also escaping the clutches of evil dragon hunters, who want to sell dragon organs on the black market, along with other perilous things.

I think this book is more on the children's side than the YA side; the language is very simple and plain, and all in all, the book isn't very complicated. I was a little surprised by a few things, but not by much, and while Ping does grow and change, it's in a fairly standard fashion.

Nothing about the book's China made me want to throw anything, but on the other hand, it didn't quite feel real, if that makes any sense. I keep thinking back to ktempest saying that sometimes she could tell what race an author was at Wiscon -- again, not as race essentialism! But something about the book's China is... it's not even off, because it's not. It just doesn't quite feel full and fleshed out somehow. It's like how I really don't think Wilkinson ever had a pet rat before, from Hua.

Uh, not to compare China with rats, because not the same!

Anyway. Hua the rat did not quite feel rat-like either. Don't get me wrong, he is a cool rat, and I am extremely happy to see pet rats in books! Because rats! Are always of the good! But he doesn't really scritch himself or do rat-like things, and it's nothing I can quite pinpoint, but I can tell.

So, not a bad book, but not awesome either. I think younger kids will enjoy it more, since they're have less of an idea of where the end is going (and it did surprise me a bit, so yay for that).

Sundry linkage

1. Some spoilers for PotC3 in the first two links!
   
   Pam Noles and Angry Asian Man perfectly articulate why I will not be watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, particularly after the welcoming and inclusive comments from fandom the last time around.
   
   (Dude, I so just broke Vee's Law! 'Elp, 'elp, I'm being oppressed!)



2. For anyone interested, I've been updating my Wiscon reports with additional links to other write ups and transcripts when I can find them. I think I am also done writing up panels; there are one or two more that I went to, but I didn't take notes and don't have much to say about them.



3. Also, here's more on Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan. My bad; I had it down as Genghis Khan. Note also how there is an Asian actor in the film, but only as a sidekick.



4. In more fannish news, kate_nepveu has started watching Princess Tutu! Well, that and some others, but I am most excited about my dancing duck. Spoil her and die!



5. And! sophia_helix has started to watch Honey & Clover!!!! I think my squeeing last night may have woken some people up! Some day I may be less excited when people watch H&C, but apparently today is not the day.

McKinley, Robin, ed. - Imaginary Lands

It's funny, I remember enjoying this anthology a great deal, but story-by-story, I think I only really liked two or three. But I really liked those. Also, even if I hadn't, it would have been worth it just for a McKinley story I hadn't read before.

I read James P. Blaylock's "Paper Dragons," Robert Westall's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" and Patricia A. McKillip's "The Old Woman and the Storm" around when I first got home from Wiscon, which means that I now don't remember them at all. I vaguely remember liking the McKillip but not being blown away by it, but that's it.

I wasn't very impressed with Michael de Larrabeiti's "The Curse of Igamor," which felt a little too self-satisfied and smug, despite the humorous tone, and I downright disliked Joan D. Vinge's "Tam Lin" (I suspect this, coupled with my dislike of The Snow Queen, means I am probably not a Vinge fan). Her Jennet/Janet flounced and described her own looks to me and defied her father's wish for her to get married by going to the fair; basically, she reminded me of every "spunky" romance novel heroine ever.

Jane Yolen's "Evian Steel" was a somewhat more interesting than usual take on Excalibur and Avalon, but a) I've read it before in another collection and b) so sick of Arthurian legend! Also sick of Celtic mythology and Welsh mythology! Have read entirely too many!

And despite completely not getting God Stalk, I still liked Hodgell's "Stranger Blood," which is odd and disturbing and has a whole background and world that I continue to not understand.

I loved Peter Dickinson's "Flight," which was the only story in the book that didn't feel white. I can't exactly pinpoint why it didn't read as your standard Eurofantasy to me (though Westall and Blaylock's stories aren't Eurofantasy either, from the little I recall). Possibly it was the mention of the World Elephant. "Flight" isn't really a story, and I could not for the life of me keep track of the timeline or the general narrative, but I loved loved loved the tone and the world and all the fun little details Dickinson puts in for his narrator, a historian of that world.

I loved Robin McKinley's "The Stone Fey" as well, though I am now completely confused about Damar. The Damar of "The Stone Fey" and The Hero and the Crown both read like the same country, but they don't feel anything like the Damar of The Blue Sword. I'm thinking about this mostly after having a few discussions post-Wiscon on Damar and the White Savior trope and all. Because the Damar of "The Stone Fey" reads very much as Eurofantasy (the dog's name is Aerlich, for example).

Aside from that, I really liked that McKinley subverts the standard "human lured by supernatural lover" trope, and, like almost all her things, I love the sense of the every day, of details like that of sheep and doggy mannerisms and farming.