Calling on Dragons
I'd been hoping that this book, the third in the series, would be narrated by Morwen, and I was so excited when that turned out to be the case. That alone might be enough to solidify this one as my favorite of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Morwen is as practical as Cimorene, but with more hands on experience. And tons of cats.
These books are the tiniest bit forumlaic in that each plot basically hinges on the wizards finding a new way to steal magic and the heroes finding new ways to thwart them. But both the books and the series are so short that I wasn't really bothered by that. It was fun to see more of the Enchanted Forest, to meet some new characters and learn about new magic.
I really liked that one of the main villains in this book was obsessed with tradition. It's not the the main characters are against all tradition. But they're practical, forward thinking people. Tradition for the sake of it isn't so great. And I was even more pleased when the book kept revealing that the perceived traditions never seemed to take reality into account. Sure, most people view witches as old and crooked and in possession of a single cat. But since there aren't actually any witches like that in the book, it's a foolish standard to try and enforce.
I'm a little torn about Telemain. He was annoying in all the ways that he's meant to be annoying. But the execution of his foibles was a bit annoying, too. I understand getting technical about your particular field of study and alienating people with specialized language. But in practice it seemed to be an exercise in using a thesaurus to replace words with longer words.
But that's a minor quibble in a lovely, magical book about teamwork and practicality and upending tropes.
These books are the tiniest bit forumlaic in that each plot basically hinges on the wizards finding a new way to steal magic and the heroes finding new ways to thwart them. But both the books and the series are so short that I wasn't really bothered by that. It was fun to see more of the Enchanted Forest, to meet some new characters and learn about new magic.
I really liked that one of the main villains in this book was obsessed with tradition. It's not the the main characters are against all tradition. But they're practical, forward thinking people. Tradition for the sake of it isn't so great. And I was even more pleased when the book kept revealing that the perceived traditions never seemed to take reality into account. Sure, most people view witches as old and crooked and in possession of a single cat. But since there aren't actually any witches like that in the book, it's a foolish standard to try and enforce.
I'm a little torn about Telemain. He was annoying in all the ways that he's meant to be annoying. But the execution of his foibles was a bit annoying, too. I understand getting technical about your particular field of study and alienating people with specialized language. But in practice it seemed to be an exercise in using a thesaurus to replace words with longer words.
But that's a minor quibble in a lovely, magical book about teamwork and practicality and upending tropes.
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