Dragonfire

Charles Ashton (author)

Walker Books, UK: 2003; 540pp

ISBN: 0744590612

Note: extension concepts

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: community, friendship, identity

Sparrow is a rather ordinary boy living in a small mountain village where the only variation to routine is when the slightly mad schoolteacher, Mrs Minn, has one of her ‘spells' and disappears for a while.

It is during one of these episodes that Sparrow, hunting for a special stone as a gift for his mother, meets a strange old man. Puckel requires Sparrow's assistance and in return he grants him three wishes. Perhaps if Sparrow had been a stronger person, or if his friend Bull had been less manipulative, then things would have turned out differently. As it is, the wishes are misused and terrible trouble follows: the Dragon has been woken and all those who are living in the Dragon's Dream find that darkness and misery are beginning to haunt their safe little village. To save his friends and family Sparrow must learn the Secret Way of the Mountains and use this knowledge to control the treacherous Polymorphs and build a bridge to the outside world. Only then can the power of the dragon be brought under control and peace and harmony restored to the villages.

Charles Ashton's work tends to be of a somewhat surrealistic nature and this trilogy, originally published as three separate novels, is no different. Although his narratives can be confusing for inexperienced readers, it is worth persevering. His use of language is poetic and his storylines indirect. Readers are required to lose themselves in the writing and allow the kaleidoscope of events and characters spin around in their imagination until they gradually coalesce into a coherent narrative. In these novels, especially, where the characters are themselves immersed in the chaos of the Dragon's Dream, this surrealistic style serves as a wonderful evocative echo of the confusion they experience. This is very much a novel in three parts; one that is to be experienced rather than analysed, and worth reading several times in order to absorb the fairly complex subtext.

Interesting reading.