Recommended Ages: Gr. 8-12

Plot Summary: The Winter King has killed the entire royal family, but before he can become king of Archipelago, he must defeat his enemies (Trolls, Goblins, Elves, Dwarves). He chases John, Charles, and Jack around Archipelago in pursuit of the Imaginarium Geographica (an indistructable book containing maps of Archipelago) and the high ring, thinking those are the key to the silver throne.

Setting: London, Archipelago (fantasy world, main island called Paralon)

Characters: John - primary caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica
Charles - caretaker
Jack - caretaker
Bert - captain of the White Dragon
Aven - Bert's daughter, also captain
Artus (AKA Bug) - rightful king
Winter King - captain of Black Dragon
Shadow-born - soul-less bad guys created by taking the shadow from a person
Magwich - steward for Winter King
Samaranth - dragon
Tummeler - badger, helps caretakers
Professor Sigurdsson - trained John to be caretaker, dies in first chapter
Green Knight - punished to guard the island of Paralon for centuries
Wendigo - most evil bad guys, to become must each flesh of family or friend
Morgaine - three witches on Paralon
Ordo Maas - ancient man, built the ships
Nemo - captain of the Nautilus
Charys - centaur, captain of Green Dragon
Eledir - elf, captain of Blue Dragon
Urek Ko - goblin king, captain of Violet Dragon
Falladay Finn - Dwarf King, captain of Orange Dragon
Violet Dragon - Goblin King
red Dragon - first Dragonship, hasn't been seen since it's creation
Indigo Dragon - destroyed in this book
King Archibald - dead

Recurring Themes: good vs. evil, maps, ships, survival, Pandora's Box, Noah's ark

Controversial Issues: None

Personal Thoughts: I have to admit I'm not a big reader of classic literature, and this book could be compared in terms of the writing style. There are many characters and few seem to be developed enough to me. For example, they mention once that John has a family, but he is taken on this adventure away from his family and they are not mentioned again. I would like to know more about how John feels about leaving his family.

Sophisticated vocabulary is used throughout this book, and there are many literary, historical, mythological, and pop cultural references that make the story more meaningful if you know the reference.

Sadly, this didn't quite work for me. I didn't feel that Owen's characters came alive, and I thought that many of the "surprises" were telegraphed too early and too obviously. I might be optimistic enough to look up the next one, to see if it hits its stride; I normally love this sort of thing! ( )

What a wonderful fantasy story! Here's another one that I can't really say too much about without spoiling the surprise. Let me just say that fantasy fans will find the characters and events a bit familiar, but will be very rewarded for keeping with it. ( )

Centered around an interesting, original idea, this story is a wild ride of a fantasy tale! It is epic and intriguing. And, for many fantasy fans, it's a wonderful homage to the classics of the fantasy genre. ( )

I don't think I can talk about this one without spoiling it, so stop now if you ever intend to read this one and don't want ruined the delight of sorting what's going on here for yourself.

On the night in 1917 when an Oxford professor is mysteriously murdered, three young men who are strangers to one another meet up at the professor's study through a series of coincidences. Shortly they are met by a strange man carrying an important book which he explains is the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the imaginary lands. He claims that the professor was training John, one of the young men, to be the Caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica and that the Archipelago of Dreams is now under threat from the Winter King. The strange man, Bert, takes the three young men (the other two are named Jack and Charles--anyone have it sorted yet?) to his ship, which, by virtue of its living dragon-head mast, can navigate the barrier between the "real" world and the world mapped in the Imaginarium Geographica. Adventures ensue.

Anyone familiar with any works that might be deemed "fantasy" will find the characters, settings, and situations of the adventures in the Archipelago highly derivative--and that is precisely the point. Or rather, the implication is that those fantasy stories arise when Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica return to the "real" world from the Archipelago and share their wonderful adventures there in the only way they believe they can without being made a laughing stock--by turning their adventures into tales. Past Caretakers include Cervantes, Shakespeare, Poe, and Jules Verne, among others. Our three strangers are Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, though the book does not reveal this until the last page. (I was pretty sure before the one-third mark.)

The very delight of Here, There Be Dragons is in recognizing the characters and settings from various myths, legends, and tales and celebrating, along with the narrative, the importance to the "real" world of all that is encompassed in the Archipelago of Dreams. I think the revelation of who the three main characters are must be held until the end in order to achieve the desired effect of an ah-ha moment which confirms and underscores that importance of fantasy. But I wonder if suspicion of their real identity is not necessary as well, for that suspicion, once confirmed, creates a delicious sense of having been "in on it" and of having access to something quite wonderful that not just everybody could understand. People, like Eustace in Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for instance, who haven't read "the right sort of books," here being marvelous tales involving the imagination rather than dull, practical books, might have difficulties.

This is intertextuality at its delightful, gleeful best and anyone who loves imaginative, fantastic stories will love Here, There Be Dragons for its own adventure, yes, but most for the joy it takes in the adventures that have gone before it. ( )