Monday, June 12, 2006

Here, There Be Dragons - a note from the author


On May 29, I wrote a post about forthcoming dragon books seen at Book Expo America. One of those books was Here, There Be Dragons, and I wrote this about it: "In spite of the title and picture of a dragon on the cover, I'm not sure if there are actually any dragons in the book."

I received the following reply from author James A. Owen:

There are indeed dragons within the book.

The title comes from the old mariners' map warning; but the dragons part refers to the seven Dragonships, each named for a color of the rainbow, and each with a dragon of some kind affixed to the prow. Or growing out of it. I forget which.

The primary dragonship of the story is the Indigo Dragon, which is a patchwork version of a sixteenth-century Spanish Galleon. And despite the bluish hues of the cover, the dragonship depicted on the book is the Green Dragon, and is mostly wood and organic materials.

And there are other dragons as well, less benign than the ships...

More is on the website here: www.heretherebedragons.net, including art from the book, and the unadorned version of the cover.


So there you have it, straight from the horse's - er, dragon's? - mouth. I haven't read the book yet, but my son David did, and he enjoyed it. He kept reading me passages out of it, until I had to say, "Enough! I want to read it myself!"

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4 comments:

Michele said...

Hmm, that sounds somewhat akin to the premise of Robin Hobb's "Liveships" series - intriguing...

Unknown said...

There's more to it than that, apparently. The three young men who go on the adventure are supposed to be, well, certain famous people in their youth. I won't say who, because I'm a little peeved at the publisher for giving it away on the back of the advance reading copy. I would have preferred to figure it out myself from the story. But suffice it to say that this is one you will probably want to read, Michele.

Michele said...

Oh I wasn't being derogatory - I enjoyed Hobb's books and thought her premise was very interesting. I figured I would probably enjoy this one too ! I must start a "Bookwatch" list to keep an eye out for books published overseas, so I can look out for them appearing over here...

Anonymous said...

this cover reminds me of rebecca barnhouse's "coming of the dragon" cover