Dragon Rider - Cornelia Funke

[Mark Robson]

Despite being quite a long book, this is a story for the younger end of the young adult market. To give you an idea, having read the story, I now intend to read it to my six year old daughter as a bedtime story!

The story follows Firedrake, a (relatively) young silver dragon, together with Sorrel (a brownie) and Ben (a young human orphan) who try to find the lost group of dragons in a hidden valley in the himalayas. They travel together from the valley of dragons in scotland, across Europe, the Middle East, the Arabian Sea, India and into the heart of asia in their quest. Along the way they meet seemingly endless magical and mythical creatures, some hostile, and others benign, but hounding their steps always is the feared golden dragon, Nettlebrand. He wants nothing more than one, last, glorious hunt to kill and eat the remaining dragons who have been hiding from him for hundreds of years.

I enjoyed this book more in anticipation of reading it to my daughter than for my own pleasure. I can see why it is popular. The writing is straightforward and the characters are all well conceived. It is an attractive story for the younger reader.

Has anyone read Inkheart, or the recently released sequel? I was just wondering if these had been written for slightly older readers.

[Elphineas]

Inkheart is written for slightly older YA's, but it's probably for the 13-16 age group. Though I'm 22 and I enjoyed it, so... I guess it depends upon you.


There's a sequel to Inkheart?!? Woo Hoo!

[Mark Robson]

Great! Thanks, Elphineas, I might give that a go. I liked Cornelia Funke's writing style (though it may be that I should praise her translator). I believe Cornelia is German. She certainly lives in Hamburg, Germany. What I don't know is whether this story was originally written in German, or whether she writes in English.

[dwndrgn]

I read Inkheart and definitely enjoyed it. You would probably like it.

Cornelia Funke writes in German, not English. Here is a bio from before Inkheart was published:
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-funke-cornelia.asp

I've read The Thief Lord and wasn't too taken with it. Perhaps because it is much less a fantasy than a 'knowing oneself' kind of story. It may be that because this was the first of her books translated into English that the feeling of her writing didn't come through properly. Who knows. In any case, I did like Inkheart, but have yet to have the chance to read the sequel.

[Alia]

I've done a little on Cornelia Funke and found several websites, one in which Dwndrgn has mentioned above... the other site is: http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0439554004.asp
A review of inkspell...

Cornelia Funke has written 40 books. I found a list, but unfortunatly it's in German and I'm not able to read it. I suppose I could ask Gollum.

[hypocriticHarkonnen]

I've read Inkheart and I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel! Apart from the beautiful plot and marvelous portrayals of characters, I enjoyed those quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Simply adorable!

[Alchemy_Girl]

Yeah, Dragon Rider was awesome. I also liked Inkheart/Inkspell. I just finished Inkspell.... Farid and Meggie belong together ^-^