Dragonhaven

by Robin McKinley

book data

1,196 ratings, 3.12 average rating, 323 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		11%
4		28%
3		31%
2		17%
1		10%

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published

September 20th 2007 by Putnam Juvenile

details

Hardcover, 272 pages

isbn

0399246754 (isbn13: 9780399246753)

description

Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of t

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,937)

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Nov 05, 2007

Lindsay rated it:

Read in November, 2007

Wow. You never know what you are going to get with Robin McKinley. Sometimes her writing is absolutely brilliant, pulling you into a fantasy world that you wouldn't mind exchanging for your own. Her main characters, usually female, are fully realized characters who you quickly admire and care about. I admit that I have not liked all of her previous work, but I was surpised by how much I disliked this book. It is set in the present (or at least a present populated by mythical creatures) and ...more

Like this review? yes (14 people liked it)

1 comment

Aug 16, 2007

Rachel rated it:

Read in March, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Oh my GOSH this book took me forever. I ended up skipping most of the last quarter of the book, and I couldn't even get through the epilogue. Robin McKinley, what has happened to you? You know, from her very first book, Beauty, I noticed her writing style was interesting in that she likes to interrupt herself in the middle of sentences with tangents and side notes and random thoughts. And over the years this habit has gotten worse and worse and worse, until this book which was extremely tedio...more

Like this review? yes (7 people liked it)

1 comment

Oct 29, 2007

Cayenne rated it:

bookshelves: unfinished

Read in October, 2007

I didn't finish this book. I actually only got 30 pages into it. I love Robin McKinley's other books, but I got bogged down on this one. The story is told from the point of view of a fifteen year old boy, at least at the beginning. I glanced at the end and he does grow up. I could barely stand Harry Potter at 15 and I care about him. Robin just didn't make me care about this boy fast enough. Also, either Robin or just her character has real issues with "dumb" scientists and I go...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

Dec 17, 2007

Jenne rated it:

bookshelves: didnt-finish

Read in December, 2007

blah blah blah zoo blah blah kids blah blah blah intelligent dragons blah blah whatever.

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

4 comments

Feb 08, 2008

Maren rated it:

Read in February, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I really vacillated on what to rate this as. On the one hand, I kept getting bogged down in the main character's wordiness and philosophical ramblings. Sure, they were true to a teenage boy's character, or at least what I think one would do. But they were frustrating and at times I wanted to just scream at him to GET ON WITH IT AND SPIT IT OUT! On the other hand, as mom myself, I found myself sucked in to those feelings of the new baby years: first disbelief, then total sleep deprivation and...more

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Dec 01, 2007

Rebecca added it

Read in November, 2007

Over Thanksgiving, I re-read "The Hero and the Crown" and was inspired to go to Robin McKinley's website to see if she had anything new coming out. When I saw that "Dragonhaven" was on the shelves I couldn't wait to get to the library.

Unfortunately, reading them so close together was a reminder of how different the style of her recent books is compared to her older ones. "Sunshine" went in this direction, with long rambly sections where you realize the a...more

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Nov 26, 2007

Rachel rated it:

Read in December, 2007

There's a comment that I heard Joni Mitchell once say about music (specifically the songs she had written and performed). She says that no one asked Van Gogh to "paint Starry Night again, man".

With Robin McKinley's newer work, I expect it to compare to The Hero and the Crown or The Blue Sword. This book, in particular, doesn't compare very well. It's difficult to comprehend that the books are written by the same author. The story craft (supported by the well-cho...more

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Nov 23, 2008

Trina rated it:

bookshelves: youth-literature

Read in November, 2008

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record at the beginning of my YA reviews. I really enjoyed this book but will not be giving it to my daughter. If I don't think of it as YA, then I have little to complain about. It was very unique. Written from a 15 year old boy's perspective, she does a good job of making it believable (complete with slang and runon sentences). A young boy raises a baby dragon. It is interesting because it has less to do with this adventure than on the impact this has on th...more

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Aug 04, 2008

Elise Schuchman rated it:

I have absolutely loved everything McKinley has ever written and Dragonhaven isn’t bad. It’s just in need of some serious editing.

Cons:
1) It dragged. I'll explain: A lot of readers say Sunshine dragged. I always thought they were full of crap, Sunshine had, you know, Events going on, and the segues into world or character-building were genuinely interesting and not too distracting, for me at least. In Dragonhaven the main character rambles too, but his rambles repeat quite a ...more I have absolutely loved everything McKinley has ever written and Dragonhaven isn’t bad. It’s just in need of some serious editing.

Cons:
1) It dragged. I'll explain: A lot of readers say Sunshine dragged. I always thought they were full of crap, Sunshine had, you know, Events going on, and the segues into world or character-building were genuinely interesting and not too distracting, for me at least. In Dragonhaven the main character rambles too, but his rambles repeat quite a bit so that readers find themselves reading mostly about stuff they already knew. And then there's the whole problem of not having much actually going on in the story to break up the rambles or at least focus them.
2) Dislike the whole premise: Young boy finds dragon, wait, hasn't this been done before? Oh, yeah... it has. In fact, it's was about 25% of the YA section last time checked. Robin McKinley brought it to life in a brilliant way, however, and I guess fairy tales aren't exactly strikingly original either.
3) The 'voice' of the character changed in the novel and, no, he didn't just grow up. The first few pages of Dragonhaven are written almost painfully immaturely and then the voice sort slides into something that resembles and occasionally mirrors Sunshine except with more colloquial 'teenage boy' sayings like "that's cool'. The maturity didn't put me off, I don’t think I could have read the whole book if it was all written like the first few pages, it was just that since he’s telling the story after he’s already gone through everything and after he’s already grown shouldn’t he be speaking more maturely as well, even at first.
4) I didn’t really get a good feel for any of the characters besides Lois and Jake (the MC). The dad seemed a stereotypical widower/workaholic, Martha was Really Nice all the time and everyone else sort of drifted on the sidelines. Eleanor and Ed could have been interesting, but they rarely made appearances . This could all be explained by the fact that Jake himself was detached from everyone and so maybe he didn’t really have a good idea of who they were either.
5) The ending was just too happy and tidy. I know it’s a YA novel, but Hero had some conflict to its ending -some realism- and so did most of her other YA novels. This just seemed a bit contrived to me.
Pros:
1) Really love the descriptions of intense, sleepless motherhood being foisted on a 15-year-old boy. The detail and the emotions and just everything about it is spot-on.
2) Love the world she built, even if it wasn't quite as interesting as Sunshine's world.
3) Love some of the other descriptions and details, both of Lois and... other things (spoilers)
4) Honestly, I love some of the rambles and segues. I just wish she was backing them up with a some real-world interaction.

I'll still give it a 4, though. Because she brought the situation she tackled to life in a vivid way, even if there were some issues along the way.(less)

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

2 comments

May 31, 2008

Marjorie rated it:

Read in June, 2008

I don't know, guys, I'm starting to think I don't like McKinley's first-person narrators. Will give this a fair shot though.
--
Finished it. Didn't like it. In the past I've loved McKinley's depictions of slow, not overly plotty processes of recovery or growing up, as in Deerskin or The Hero and the Crown; someone gets injured, mentally or physically, and it takes a long slow time to get better again. But it's another thing to have the character in question yammer on about how diffic...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

3 comments

May 25, 2008

Maureen E rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy, young-adult-and-childrens

Read in May, 2008

The first new McKinley since Sunshine! Woo hoo! I was definitely excited to read this one because a) it was written by Robin McKinley and b) it’s about dragons. I am fond of dragons—fictional ones that is. So this book already had a lot going for it.

It didn’t disappoint. For one thing, I very much enjoyed Jake’s voice. It is not the one I’ve come to expect from Robin McKinley, but it was true to the character in a way that the voice of, say Spindle’s End wouldn’t ...more

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Dec 27, 2007

Angela rated it:

bookshelves: fiction---fantasy-and-sci-fi

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people who are really into fantasy

There's almost a thud when an outstanding author writes a new book and you tear into it only to find it disappointing and inferior to previous work. The Blue Sword and Beauty are absolutely outstanding; I've re-read them repeatedly. But most of her other work doesn't even come close.

Dragonhaven is in the latter category, complete with "thud". It's creatively conceived, but the style of writing, while perhaps believable (she writes as a teen-aged boy), does not make for...more

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Mar 12, 2008

Greta rated it:

bookshelves: juvenile

Read in March, 2008

Okay, in the past I have loved Robin McKinley's books, but I really struggled with this one. I didn't like the voice at all so that made it really difficult for me to get into the book. I never turn to the back of the book to find out the ending first, but in this book, I found myself skipping pages to try to get to something interesting and yes, I turned to the back to see if it would be worth it to get to the end. It didn't grab me so then I read the front cover to see what the book was sup...more

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Feb 27, 2008

Ellisa rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy, young-adult

Read in February, 2008

I wish I could give this book a higher score. Robin McKinley is one of my all-time favorite authors and I was hoping for more from this book. The story is pretty good, but I just never really got attached to the characters, and I wasn't a big fan of the writing style. It's told in first-person almost like a stream of consciousness and I just felt it was too repetitive. Like, I GET that dragons are big and that the boy has a headache. Stop already. Having the story told by teen probably did...more

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Dec 26, 2007

Deb rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy-sf

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: only the most fanatical of dragon story lovers

This book is supposedly written by Robin McKinley, but reads absolutely nothing like her earlier prosey work. I understand that she's writing from the first-person perspective of a character that's none-to-comfortable with the writing process, but the book is painful to read at times. The phrase "I'd've" is used more than once, and grammar goes out the window.

Aside from butchering the English language, the book starts out reading like a writer's block exercise. I plugged al...more

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Nov 08, 2007

Rachael rated it:

I can't believe I'm giving 2 stars to anything by Robin McKinley, but I was just horribly disappointed. My gripes? Well, first of all, the book's written in a very distracting stream-of-consciousness type thing, fun of phrases such as "and I was, like, scared" or things like that. Secondly, the "plot" of the book was one that would have taken about twenty pages to describe, if it wasn't for the obnoxious stream-of-consciousness style. This would have made a fun short stor...more

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Apr 07, 2009

Tiffany rated it:

Read in April, 2009

recommends it for: Anyone who doesn't mind long drawn out descriptions of headaches.

The sort of book that you just have to skim and you only get about three words from every sentence.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

Mar 17, 2009

Denae rated it:

bookshelves: dragons, fantasy-present-day, sci-fi

Owns a copy — Read in March, 2009

So, the first 2/3 of the book was pretty amazing. Sure, the teenage writing style was often hard to get through (with runon sentences and overuse of the word "like"), but fun in a lot of ways (sarcasm, capitalizing words of a phrase, use of parentheses). Jake skipped over stuff that didn't need to be said, too, which was nice, but he delved deeper into philosophical wonderings and pessimistic attitudes. And his omnipresent Headaches were getting annoying to read about (bad, then wor...more

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Jan 29, 2009

Cake rated it:

Read in January, 2009

This book is about Jake, a kid down on his luck. He lost his mom and dog within a short span of time of eachother. He lives at Smokehill National Park, a place where they have a rare species of dragon, extinct except in captivity. He goes on his first over night camping "solo" trip, at age 14. He is walking deep into the park when he stumbles across a rare find - a dragon. Except for 2 problems - the dragon's dieing, and she killed the human that shot her. Jake weeps for the dieing dra...more

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Sep 02, 2009

Sandra Strange rated it:

(review of isbn 044101643X)

bookshelves: fantasy, young-adult

What an interesting premise: scientists have discovered that dragons (flying, fire-breathing dinosaurs), along with a lot of other different kinds of lizards, really still exist, and that they’re marsupials. However, owing to a craze for dragon blood remedies, they are almost extinct, except in well guarded preserves, one of which is in the Rocky Mountains of the US. The preserve is the setting of this sci-fi (though it sounds like fantasy) adventure. Though it is illegal to raise a dragon,...more

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quotes from this book

"It wasn't so long ago when all the so-called scientists said that humans were intelligent and that animals weren't, humans were the solitary unchallenged masters of the globe and probably the universe and the only question was whether we were handling our mastery well. (No. Next question.)" — 8 people liked it

""So when a dragon is directly over you, well, even if you're me and you're kind of used to it, your medulla oblongata is still telling you 'the sky is falling, you're about to die, run like hell.'" — 7 people liked it

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