I’ve been waiting so long for this book to be released. I read the description and saw the cover and I really, really wanted it.
When 12-year-old Billy Chan finds out his parents are sending him to a summer camp in middle-of-nowhere China he doesn’t know what to expect. There he meets fellow campers Dylan, Charlotte and Ling-Fei and together they stumble upon an age-old secret: four powerful warrior dragons, hidden deep within the mountain behind the camp. They have been trapped since an epic battle with the Dragon of Death and need the children’s help to set them free before terrible evil is unleashed on the earth. Billy and his friends must set off on a dangerous adventure that will take them to the heart of the Dragon Realm. But can they save the dragon and human worlds from destruction?
I love books with dragons. They are always especially full of adventure, danger and friendship. This was one of the reasons why I really wanted to read this book.
Adventure, danger and friendship I got. I liked the setting and the idea behind the book, the dragons and the old stories, Old Gold would tell Billy and his friends. I liked the idea of the bond and the enhanced abilities and the battle that was brewing in the land of the dragons for a long time. I especially like the lead up to the point where the children actually go through Dragon Mountain and was very curious about what would happen. Everything seemed mythical and magical and secretive and I felt satisfied with what I got.
I always get this special feeling when I read books that take place in the backlands of China. It’s this feeling of serenity and secrecy and that everything that has to do with it is peaceful and grand and mysterious and dangerous. It’s a sense of wonder and I also got it when reading this book.
What I didn’t like too much, unfortunately, were the characters. They seemed to fall a little too flat to me. Especially Billy seemed to worry a lot, which was understandable to a point. However, it seemed a lot like he would worry himself and then decided that he had to be strong – which in itself would be great if it didn’t happen in such quick succession: there would be a problem or he would have some doubts and he would worry. Then a paragraph or even just one or two lines later he would decide that he had to be strong. It happened every other page, it happened so often that I got irritated while reading. Also, his other human friends seemed a little one-dimensional to me.
The dragons on the other hand were great. They all had different personalities like their human counterparts but seemed somehow more rounded.
In a way I wished I liked this book more but maybe I’ve just hyped myself up so much that my expectations were far to high to ever be met. I’m still interested in the rest of the series. I will perhaps be more patient the next book around but still I want to continue with the books to see were the story leads.
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