Thursday, April 22, 2010

Dealing With Dragons, April 22

I have just reread an excellent book by Patricia C. Wrede called Calling on Dragons. Although I have already read it, I am still impressed with Wrede's very witty and clever writing style and I am always eager to "wrede" more. I've always wanted to be like the main character, Cimorene, even before I had read the book! I think this is a J-R book because I understand it, but I still can like it without thinking it is too childish.
One of the characters that definitely changed was Alianora, Cimorene's friend. At first, like when he and the other dragons' princesses came to Kazul's (the dragon that kept Cimorene) cave, she was timid. I also thought she was sort of being held back by Keredwel and Hanahh, the other two princesses. However, by the end she was very sure of herself, and helped stop the plot by the wizards. Cimorene changes later on in the series, but not so much now. Someone who really changed was the stone price. He seemed rather silly and didn't know what to do without orders (which I thought weird for a prince) but near the end he showed quick thinking when he melted Zemenar, and he was pretty self-confident (though stuff like that takes time), even when threatened by Antorell.
I liked how the resolution was solved, with Woraug the traitor turned into a frog and the wizards melted but not defeated and everyone living happily ever after. There isn't much I would like to change about the book; it's just too good, but I thought that the court philosopher claiming magic was trickery and smoke and mirrors and the like, given the fact the kingdom was on the edge of an enchanted forest, but I guess some people are like that.
I think the author's message is that rocking the boat is sometimes good.

7 comments:

  1. I really liked the connection you wrote and the author's message, the part about the dragons capturing and the princesses I was a little confused. Overall, I think you did a great post.

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  2. I really like your connection on being like Cimorene because you like the features of this character and you are looking towards it to help you become just like him. I also really like how you said the authors message was "That rocking the boat is sometimes good" this really tells me that you thought very deeply in to the book to come up with and authors message like that. This seems like a very interesting book and I'm hoping to read it one day.

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  3. You did a really good job of writing this blog. I can see that there are a lot of main characters included in this book because you've mentioned quite a few. I would like to read this book because the "prince who can't live without orders" sounds kind of funny. For some reason, it reminds me of when we were reading "The Whipping Boy" at school. Is this the first book because you said the 'weren't defeated' so I'm assuming they rise again somehow in the next book.
    170278, I agree with you about the authors message. I like the way you put it- Rocking the boat is sometimes good-it's deeeep!
    Thanks for sharing this.
    -170133

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  4. I really enjoyed reading your blog. Good job. I like how you like the Woraug turned into a frog and the wizards melted. I wouldn't change anything in your blog.

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  5. This post was very good. Very deep into the book. I got all the details and really knew what this book must have been like. I didn't get why it says dealing with dragons at the top then in the first sentence says calling on dragons but that doesn't really matter. it was great how you explained how you felt about things, putting your opinion into it. The words made it all very descriptive and you said only the stuff that needed to be said. I really enjoyed reading this post.

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  6. i think you did a great job at putting your opinion into words. Because you were very descriptive about how the characters changed and what overall happened like the problem. But I also agree with 170537 because the princess getting captured confused me but then you explained it other than that it was brilliant, pure Genius!

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  7. I really liked how you put everything you felt about this book on this blog because it's never easy and you put it in your own words like you're speaking but I'm reading it. The only problem about this blog entry you might want to work on is the usage of the word "like" because people say that a lot in their sentences but that shouldn't happen on paper. As 170602 said you did great on telling how the characters change along the story which is wonderful and awesome.

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