I am trying to read a novel a week in 2015. I’ve made it to five.
James Owens, Here, There Be Dragons: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica
My goal is to read 52 novels this year. But I never said I would have something profound to write about every one.
This book was recommended to me by a young lady because of my love for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. She explained to me that they were actually characters in the story, and that the story provides, perhaps, a fictional backdrop for how they came up with ideas for their own stories.
Anyhow, I read the book with my 8-year-old daughter. She really enjoyed it, and has started reading the second volume of the series on her own. I wasn’t up for the second volume. I simply didn’t enjoy the book very much. The real Lewis and Tolkien are strangely more fascinating than the fictional version. And their own fiction is certainly better by a long, long way. I’d much rather read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Hobbit for the dozenth time than read this book. I’d rather my kids read them too.
My daughter is a big fan of The Sisters Grimm series. She mentioned that the hodgepodge elements of the book, as it blends together a number of myths and fables and characters into one story, reminded her of those books. That was a big plus for her.
I will say that if you plan to read this book with a child, and if that child knows who Lewis or Tolkien is, it would probably be better to keep the identities of ‘Jack’ and ‘John’ a secret until the actual revelation of their true identities at the end of the book. She knew ahead of time, and that took away some of the fun of the big reveal.
