I have read most of Cornelia Funke’s top writings and I think this is her worst work so far. The book could use a little more cheerfulness and got very boresome.

I intend to read it again in the future, maybe I will like it if I read it over.

I don’t know why jobiv and Lauren on All Consuming panned this book. I loved it! This is my first Cornelia Funke book so if her others are better then I only have more too look forward to.

I listed to the audio version of this book, read by Brendan Fraser. He is an amazing reader, particularly for this type of fantasy story with a large cast of characters. He did a huge number of distinct voices with impressive personality and frequently included side effects mentioned in the text, such as the dragon’s roar, the raven’s crow, and so on.

I highly recommend the audio book to adults who enjoy juvenile fantasy and all children and families who are okay with the material. It says it is recommended for ages 8 and up, but I didn’t think it had anything really scary in it so it may be fine for younger children as well.

Interesting side note: in the copyright info at the end they mention the translation to English. I didn’t know this while I was reading it, but the original is in German (as are all Funke’s books). According to About.com, some call her “Germany’s J.K. Rowling.” :-)

Cornelia, what the Funke? In her defense, she wrote this one before The Thief Lord, so maybe it was just a warm-up exercise. Or maybe it’s not boring in German?

The beginning of this book was so boring that I just stopped reading it.

11.2004
6/10 Stars
Decent fantasy about a Dragon who searches for a new home.