Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (Eagle and Jaguar, #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 28, 2020 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: transl-spanish, author-woman, zchallenge-2020-reading-women, genre-childrens, z-read-gelesen-2020, a-reviewed, world-chile

I didn't really see the point of this book beyond the fact that it ticked one of my Reading Women Challenge boxes. I read Allende's House of Spirits way back in the 80s when it impressed me with its description of torture. Being young, I found such gritty realism to be a marker of seriousness and high literary fiction. So when I saw that Allende was part of the RWC this year, I was wary; these days, I don't want torture in my fiction. So I was pleased to find this children's book for 40 pence in I didn't really see the point of this book beyond the fact that it ticked one of my Reading Women Challenge boxes. I read Allende's House of Spirits way back in the 80s when it impressed me with its description of torture. Being young, I found such gritty realism to be a marker of seriousness and high literary fiction. So when I saw that Allende was part of the RWC this year, I was wary; these days, I don't want torture in my fiction. So I was pleased to find this children's book for 40 pence in the Sally Ann charity shop. It's for children so I was hoping: no torture. In this I was satisfied. In little else, though.

It was published in 2004 but it reads like something written in the 1930s. It is full of unreconstructed colonialist attitudes and exoticising othering of pure, innocent and spiritually advanced yet technologically primitive cultures. The protagonists hie themselves off to adventures in the Himalayas where they encounter a civilisation that has been protected from the West's corrupting influences by a mixture of religion, magic, ancient tradition and pure goodness in the heart of the just male ruler. And of course, our Western protagonists are the first ever to be allowed to enter into the secrets of this realm.

The 1930s ideology is not mitigated by any fun twisty plot or any thoughtful characterisation. Or any characterisation, for that matter. Cardboard cut-outs abound, from the wise teacher and spiritual guide to the pure-of-heart prince, via the graceful but also plucky local maiden and the straight-out-of-Disney comedic monkey pet. The final scenes in the secret chambers of the king's palace where our protagonists must find the hidden Golden Dragon are plagiarised directly from the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Prose-wise this is fair to middling, with rather a lot of info dumps and 'he explained' speech tags (almost always it's a 'he' who does some explaining). Most incredible is the speedy treatment of the way two of the characters fall in love; the whole thing gets dealt with in barely two sentences and happens within half a page of them meeting.

All in all, considering this author is so famous, this was surprisingly amateurish.

What redeemed it from one-star-territory was the setting of the Himalayas. It is a setting I particularly love (Tintin in Tibet, I'm looking at you [colonialism and all]) so I enjoyed spending time there.

Format: Hardcover. An unusual, almost square format, and quite the hefty brick, with thick pages, generous margins and wide line spacing (I suspect this could be republished in paperback at one-fourth the size). Not made for lugging about in your knapsack but fine for reading while in pandemic lock-down at home.

Read for the Reading Women Challenge 2020, bonus book by: "Isabel Allende". ...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: 0t-magic-realism, young-adult, translation, young-adult-fantasy-and-sf, cover-brown, year-2003, series-2nd, series-next, title-has-city-name, title-has-5-words-or-more

Lexile 1080L
IL: UG - BL: 8.3 - AR Pts: 17.0

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Jun 03, 2007 Haya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Sep 22, 2008 Pao marked it as to-read

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Jun 14, 2009 Isabel added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

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Dec 12, 2015 Soelo marked it as to-read-series-new

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Dec 08, 2020 Anne marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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Jan 02, 2021 Tammy Grimm marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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Dec 18, 2023 Wanda marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy, romance, children, young-adult, magical-realism, adventure, 0004-next-in-series, 0006-jacksonville, 0007-alachua, series-less-than-5

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Mar 05, 2025 Lorri rated it liked it

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