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Pigs Don't Fly #3
Master of Many Treasures
Learning that the man she had thought she loved is not a man at all but a dragon, Summer is devastated when the dragon flies away and embarks on a challenging and dangerous quest to find him. Original.
376 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Mary Brown
9 books73 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 16, 2013
I promised Bookelfe I would read this. Thanks! I think.
She reviewed a remarkable book, Pigs Don’t Fly, in which a rather unlikable heroine goes on a quest with six companions to make the mystical seven: a blind amnesiac knight, a horse princess, a cockney mutt, a Turtle of Love, a farm boy named Dickon, and The Wimperling, a winged pig who flies by farting. I am not making this up. I commend you to her hilarious review before you read mine, since this review is of the sequel, which she challenged me to read. Especially since I am about to spoil the end of Pigs Don’t Fly, since it motivates the entire action of this book.
Pigs Don’t Fly ends with Summer, the heroine, kissing her beloved pet flying farting pig. Poof! He turns into a dragon! Poof! He turns into a man! In a somewhat confusing scene, they have sex. Poof! He turns into a dragon!
He is a dragon who was under an enchantment which made him look like a pig. But since Summer kissed him three times as a pig, though he is now a dragon again, he is also now cursed to periodically turn into a man. He explains all this, then flies off to China, ditching Summer.
Master of Many Treasures picks up with Summer stalking her dragon-pig-not-boyfriend across the world. Occasionally she finds it necessary to justify herself to the reader:
But why fall in love with a dragon? Because I had loved the pig and the dragon wasn’t a dragon all the time.
Summer. Summer. You do not make falling in love with a dragon more acceptable by protesting that you actually fell in love with a pig!
But mostly, she doesn’t think about her dragon-pig not-boyfriend much at all. She’s too busy wandering around collecting plot coupons as she travels around, having basically everyone she meets see through her "boy" disguise and periodically conversing ethnically stereotyped characters speaking in comic dialect. This book is over-burdened with comic dialect. Her own companions include Growch the cockney mutt, a slave boy speaking an unknown language and broken English otherwise, and a developmentally disabled dancing bear. (Yes, really.)
Thankfully, three of Summer’s obligatory six companions do not speak in dialect: Ky-Lin, a magical Chinese stone chimera which she gets literally handed to her for no actual reason other than that the plot requires her to have it, Dickon, and the teeny dragon egg with which Summer was unknowingly impregnated.
Yes. She is pregnant with an egg. She keeps feeling sick in a pregnancy-signalling manner, but thinks that she can’t possibly be pregnant because it’s been a year since she had sex that one time. There are flashbacks to her sexcapade with the dragon-pig-dude, which are written in a manner probably meant to convey that it was all very unexpected and confusing, but really make it sound like the entire thing lasted about fifteen seconds. Which is entirely possible, all things considered.
With the help of Ky-Lin, Summer lays the egg through her belly button. I think. The scene is really vague. It’s possible that she lays it through some other orifice, but it’s then stuck into her belly button. It ends up stuck to her belly button, anyway.
Ky-Lin then helpfully explains that dragons are “bisexual.” He defines this as meaning that they are both male and female, and can fertilize themselves, so… I forget why this was relevant.
I don’t know why an egg that does not speak, telepathically communicate, or hatch counts as a companion, but it does. Mystic seven!
Ky-Lin spouts a lot of Buddhist philosophy which, based on its accuracy, I surmise was gleaned from the author vaguely remembering what she’d read in the Religions of the World chapter of some textbook when she was twelve. That being said, he does not speak in comic dialect and is the only character with any intelligence or common sense, so I cut him a lot of slack.
I barely remember Dickon from the first book, other than as a generic farm boy. In this book, he seems to be running for most unlikable character ever. He spends the entire book stalking Summer because he thinks she’s on a quest for treasure. He steals her stuff, drugs her, insults her and her companions, flees in a cowardly fashion whenever they’re endangered, and drinks all their water when they’re lost in the desert.
They have the same unbelievably annoying interaction something like six times in the book: Dickon shows up and harasses, vaguely threatens, robs, and/or leeches on Summer. She has an extremely bad feeling about him (I wonder why!) but even though she’s not afraid of him and she has a premonition that he will do something horrible, she always feels unable to tell him to get lost. He proceeds to harass, vaguely threaten, rob, and/or leech on Summer until he somehow gets ditched. She proceeds without him, until he turns up again, and the process repeats.
Summer is one of the stupidest protagonists I have ever encountered. Whenever someone acts suspicious or threatening, she assumes they can't possibly have bad intentions, and is amazed when they do. Whenever a clearly friendly person warns her of something, she is suspicious and ignores them. My very favorite instance of this was when Ky-Lin is leading her through a marsh full of quicksand and rotting corpses, and says, "The left path will dump you in quicksand. Take the right path."
Summer: "I'm tired of people bossing me!"
Summer: [Takes left path.]
Summer: [Is dumped into rotting corpse-filled quicksand.]
And then the true WTF begins. Even more WTF than the belly-button dragon egg.
This all seems even more WTF than it would anyway because there has been no set-up that would make any of this make sense, thematically or any other way. The entire book is Summer's first person POV, except for the two epilogues.
I don't think I've ever read a book which was improved by two epilogues.
I think there’s a third book that explains what happened to the egg. I’ll pass.
She reviewed a remarkable book, Pigs Don’t Fly, in which a rather unlikable heroine goes on a quest with six companions to make the mystical seven: a blind amnesiac knight, a horse princess, a cockney mutt, a Turtle of Love, a farm boy named Dickon, and The Wimperling, a winged pig who flies by farting. I am not making this up. I commend you to her hilarious review before you read mine, since this review is of the sequel, which she challenged me to read. Especially since I am about to spoil the end of Pigs Don’t Fly, since it motivates the entire action of this book.
Pigs Don’t Fly ends with Summer, the heroine, kissing her beloved pet flying farting pig. Poof! He turns into a dragon! Poof! He turns into a man! In a somewhat confusing scene, they have sex. Poof! He turns into a dragon!
He is a dragon who was under an enchantment which made him look like a pig. But since Summer kissed him three times as a pig, though he is now a dragon again, he is also now cursed to periodically turn into a man. He explains all this, then flies off to China, ditching Summer.
Master of Many Treasures picks up with Summer stalking her dragon-pig-not-boyfriend across the world. Occasionally she finds it necessary to justify herself to the reader:
But why fall in love with a dragon? Because I had loved the pig and the dragon wasn’t a dragon all the time.
Summer. Summer. You do not make falling in love with a dragon more acceptable by protesting that you actually fell in love with a pig!
But mostly, she doesn’t think about her dragon-pig not-boyfriend much at all. She’s too busy wandering around collecting plot coupons as she travels around, having basically everyone she meets see through her "boy" disguise and periodically conversing ethnically stereotyped characters speaking in comic dialect. This book is over-burdened with comic dialect. Her own companions include Growch the cockney mutt, a slave boy speaking an unknown language and broken English otherwise, and a developmentally disabled dancing bear. (Yes, really.)
Thankfully, three of Summer’s obligatory six companions do not speak in dialect: Ky-Lin, a magical Chinese stone chimera which she gets literally handed to her for no actual reason other than that the plot requires her to have it, Dickon, and the teeny dragon egg with which Summer was unknowingly impregnated.
Yes. She is pregnant with an egg. She keeps feeling sick in a pregnancy-signalling manner, but thinks that she can’t possibly be pregnant because it’s been a year since she had sex that one time. There are flashbacks to her sexcapade with the dragon-pig-dude, which are written in a manner probably meant to convey that it was all very unexpected and confusing, but really make it sound like the entire thing lasted about fifteen seconds. Which is entirely possible, all things considered.
With the help of Ky-Lin, Summer lays the egg through her belly button. I think. The scene is really vague. It’s possible that she lays it through some other orifice, but it’s then stuck into her belly button. It ends up stuck to her belly button, anyway.
Ky-Lin then helpfully explains that dragons are “bisexual.” He defines this as meaning that they are both male and female, and can fertilize themselves, so… I forget why this was relevant.
I don’t know why an egg that does not speak, telepathically communicate, or hatch counts as a companion, but it does. Mystic seven!
Ky-Lin spouts a lot of Buddhist philosophy which, based on its accuracy, I surmise was gleaned from the author vaguely remembering what she’d read in the Religions of the World chapter of some textbook when she was twelve. That being said, he does not speak in comic dialect and is the only character with any intelligence or common sense, so I cut him a lot of slack.
I barely remember Dickon from the first book, other than as a generic farm boy. In this book, he seems to be running for most unlikable character ever. He spends the entire book stalking Summer because he thinks she’s on a quest for treasure. He steals her stuff, drugs her, insults her and her companions, flees in a cowardly fashion whenever they’re endangered, and drinks all their water when they’re lost in the desert.
They have the same unbelievably annoying interaction something like six times in the book: Dickon shows up and harasses, vaguely threatens, robs, and/or leeches on Summer. She has an extremely bad feeling about him (I wonder why!) but even though she’s not afraid of him and she has a premonition that he will do something horrible, she always feels unable to tell him to get lost. He proceeds to harass, vaguely threaten, rob, and/or leech on Summer until he somehow gets ditched. She proceeds without him, until he turns up again, and the process repeats.
Summer is one of the stupidest protagonists I have ever encountered. Whenever someone acts suspicious or threatening, she assumes they can't possibly have bad intentions, and is amazed when they do. Whenever a clearly friendly person warns her of something, she is suspicious and ignores them. My very favorite instance of this was when Ky-Lin is leading her through a marsh full of quicksand and rotting corpses, and says, "The left path will dump you in quicksand. Take the right path."
Summer: "I'm tired of people bossing me!"
Summer: [Takes left path.]
Summer: [Is dumped into rotting corpse-filled quicksand.]
And then the true WTF begins. Even more WTF than the belly-button dragon egg.
This all seems even more WTF than it would anyway because there has been no set-up that would make any of this make sense, thematically or any other way. The entire book is Summer's first person POV, except for the two epilogues.
I don't think I've ever read a book which was improved by two epilogues.
I think there’s a third book that explains what happened to the egg. I’ll pass.
July 20, 2017
Having read Pigs Don't Fly, I was ready to move on to the sequel. Overall, I think it's better than the first, as Summer's journeys take her west after her dragon-man lover Jasper. Once again, Summer collects stray companions, and once again, her quest story is a lot of little encounters strung together, but as Summer has a direction of her own in this book, the plot has more coherence. I especially liked her magical friend Ky-Lin, companion of the Buddha and provider of a lot of necessary plot movement without feeling like a deus ex machina.
Unfortunately, the book loses a full star for the presence of Dickon, who was an ass in the first book and shows up again in this book. And again. And again. What's truly frustrating is that Summer knows he's a danger, feels it in her heart, and yet does nothing to kick him to the curb permanently. And it turns out he does ruin everything, repeatedly and finally at the end when Summer is about to get her heart's desire. I hated it every time he reappeared and hated his presence in the story. The revelation of what he did to ruin Summer and Jasper's chances with the dragon council comes at the very end, in the form of a deathbed confession, and it's so infuriating it tainted my pleasure from the rest of the book. The epilogue was not enough to redeem it, as it raised too many questions.
I also wasn't happy with the romance, which suffered from Jasper concealing his true feelings until he just suddenly comes out and tells Summer that he was only pretending to be indifferent to her. His seeming indifference fit with how he felt in the two short sections from his POV earlier in the book, so I wasn't satisfied with his change of heart.
There's still a lot to enjoy about this book. Brown is excellent at evoking the past without being too anachronistic, Summer's companions are delightful (except for that ass Dickon), and Summer herself has mostly grown up, though there's one moment where she reverts to being an idiot and Ky-Lin has to rescue her. But I can't recommend it whole-heartedly, and I have to say I'm not eager to read the next book.
Unfortunately, the book loses a full star for the presence of Dickon, who was an ass in the first book and shows up again in this book. And again. And again. What's truly frustrating is that Summer knows he's a danger, feels it in her heart, and yet does nothing to kick him to the curb permanently. And it turns out he does ruin everything, repeatedly and finally at the end when Summer is about to get her heart's desire. I hated it every time he reappeared and hated his presence in the story. The revelation of what he did to ruin Summer and Jasper's chances with the dragon council comes at the very end, in the form of a deathbed confession, and it's so infuriating it tainted my pleasure from the rest of the book. The epilogue was not enough to redeem it, as it raised too many questions.
I also wasn't happy with the romance, which suffered from Jasper concealing his true feelings until he just suddenly comes out and tells Summer that he was only pretending to be indifferent to her. His seeming indifference fit with how he felt in the two short sections from his POV earlier in the book, so I wasn't satisfied with his change of heart.
There's still a lot to enjoy about this book. Brown is excellent at evoking the past without being too anachronistic, Summer's companions are delightful (except for that ass Dickon), and Summer herself has mostly grown up, though there's one moment where she reverts to being an idiot and Ky-Lin has to rescue her. But I can't recommend it whole-heartedly, and I have to say I'm not eager to read the next book.
October 8, 2024
this is a sequel to "Pigs Don't Fly" and while not as funny it still has a lot of humor to it. It wraps up the story well and leaves the ending with enough to speculate - just like a proper fairy tale that may - or may not - have ended happily ever after for the main characters. =D
Apparently there are two others in this series now
Dragonne's Eg
and The Unlikely Ones
Which must continue the tale for those other than Summer and Jasper. =)
Apparently there are two others in this series now
Dragonne's Eg
and The Unlikely Ones
Which must continue the tale for those other than Summer and Jasper. =)
October 22, 2021
The main character, Summer, goes on a quest to find the man-dragon / dragon-man who was her lover for one brief night. She leaves behind a man who loves her, and goes with false credentials on a quest as a boy (not too believable to me). As she travels she meets up with a a variety of characters who somehow join her on her quest, heading always towards the dragon mountains to meet her lover. There are multiple encounters in different towns/cities strung across what sounds like several thousand miles, but with Summer's focus mostly on the dragon she hopes to catch at the end.
There are multiple people who call out her fake persona, letting her know that they know she's female, but this doesn't deter her from her quest. These travels, taken together, can be a bit slow reading, especially when it gets into pages and pages of detailed descriptions of the area.
There were multiple characters that were relevant to the book, others that could have been left behind, and one that should have been. Altogether, Summer and her group comprise 7 travelers (and if I remember who the 7th was, I will add it/him/her to the review).
I'll add a counter beside each trail companion, with Summer being (1). Among the relevant is Ky-Lin (2), a kind of archangel among his belief system. Ky-Lyn is a type of magical creature, a servant of Buddha, and his healing, and other, powers provide focus and at times other assistance to the motley crew that wanders steadily onward, now south, then east, then west and north, all following a mythical beast.
The formerly enslaved dancing bear (3) was a fun creature, although it was pitiable the way his mistreatment caused what appeared to be mental issues. Also fun was the young prince (4) who appears and adds character to our main character, Summer, who for the first part of the book has none. I did like the dog (5), at times. Although his focus was on his sexual exploits, he curtailed his base desires when necessary to fulfill his role as a protector and traveling companion.
The worst character of all was a former horse caretaker, a farm boy named Dickon (6). He is a totally unlikable character, assuming everything is for and about him, and that he should always get what he wants. Several times, the group leaves him behind but he always catches up, stealing from the group, infringing on their time, and just in general being an ass.
I could not understand why Summer, knowing he's a danger and a thief, always buckled and let him rejoin her group. Apparently he is bigger than her, which could be part of the problem. He knew her before and knows she is female, which he threatens to reveal, but that was just ridiculous since it is RARE that a grown female could hide in the revealing clothing it appears she wears, as her legs are fully visible.
Other than the final consequence of his continual attempt to find out where she is going - and to rape her multiple times - and to steal any treasure she might find - there was nothing he did to add depth to the story except possibly to point out that the pretty girl is an idiot.
I was not happy with what he did.
I was not happy with the end of the book.
I was not happy with her thoughts - really in love or just determined to catch her man?
The final reveal was after the final page, with an epilogue where you close up the "whatever happened to..." lines. It was an infuriating end and even though this was my first read, all I could think was, why didn't they see it coming? Was that the only outcome the author could picture?
I loved the ants. I loved the various characters that helped along the way. I love the sea travel, the desert, the snow and the various foods that are inadequately described. I enjoyed the traveling companions (except for Dickon), and improbable as the conceal was, it seemed to work so it was mostly fun.
Overall a good read, in parts exceptional, but I would suggest it for something that needs to be studied not a fluff piece or a quick read.
There are multiple people who call out her fake persona, letting her know that they know she's female, but this doesn't deter her from her quest. These travels, taken together, can be a bit slow reading, especially when it gets into pages and pages of detailed descriptions of the area.
There were multiple characters that were relevant to the book, others that could have been left behind, and one that should have been. Altogether, Summer and her group comprise 7 travelers (and if I remember who the 7th was, I will add it/him/her to the review).
I'll add a counter beside each trail companion, with Summer being (1). Among the relevant is Ky-Lin (2), a kind of archangel among his belief system. Ky-Lyn is a type of magical creature, a servant of Buddha, and his healing, and other, powers provide focus and at times other assistance to the motley crew that wanders steadily onward, now south, then east, then west and north, all following a mythical beast.
The formerly enslaved dancing bear (3) was a fun creature, although it was pitiable the way his mistreatment caused what appeared to be mental issues. Also fun was the young prince (4) who appears and adds character to our main character, Summer, who for the first part of the book has none. I did like the dog (5), at times. Although his focus was on his sexual exploits, he curtailed his base desires when necessary to fulfill his role as a protector and traveling companion.
The worst character of all was a former horse caretaker, a farm boy named Dickon (6). He is a totally unlikable character, assuming everything is for and about him, and that he should always get what he wants. Several times, the group leaves him behind but he always catches up, stealing from the group, infringing on their time, and just in general being an ass.
I could not understand why Summer, knowing he's a danger and a thief, always buckled and let him rejoin her group. Apparently he is bigger than her, which could be part of the problem. He knew her before and knows she is female, which he threatens to reveal, but that was just ridiculous since it is RARE that a grown female could hide in the revealing clothing it appears she wears, as her legs are fully visible.
Other than the final consequence of his continual attempt to find out where she is going - and to rape her multiple times - and to steal any treasure she might find - there was nothing he did to add depth to the story except possibly to point out that the pretty girl is an idiot.
I was not happy with what he did.
I was not happy with the end of the book.
I was not happy with her thoughts - really in love or just determined to catch her man?
The final reveal was after the final page, with an epilogue where you close up the "whatever happened to..." lines. It was an infuriating end and even though this was my first read, all I could think was, why didn't they see it coming? Was that the only outcome the author could picture?
I loved the ants. I loved the various characters that helped along the way. I love the sea travel, the desert, the snow and the various foods that are inadequately described. I enjoyed the traveling companions (except for Dickon), and improbable as the conceal was, it seemed to work so it was mostly fun.
Overall a good read, in parts exceptional, but I would suggest it for something that needs to be studied not a fluff piece or a quick read.
June 8, 2017
Not as good as the first one in so far that the character's development does not continue, and the formula of adding companions on her "quest" feels perfunctory. The romance element is also a trope that I have never really enjoyed in these sorts of tales, unless it is ironic or a funny parody of conventional romances.
I will say that the end did redeemed, to an extent, a book I was getting tired of reading. Without revealing any spoilers, the tone change was much welcome.
I will say that the end did redeemed, to an extent, a book I was getting tired of reading. Without revealing any spoilers, the tone change was much welcome.
March 16, 2025
The characters really aren’t likable, except for Growch. I found myself really not caring about Summer’s journey & any misfortune that fell on her was really her own fault because the ring would warn her & she would just ignore it. 👎🏻
March 10, 2010
Toward the end of this book a comment is made to the main character that she has grown up. And really, after all of her travels and adventures you would have expected her to have done so. But she almost seems like she was more grown up at the beginning of this book, as far as her planning and decision-making skills go. In the first book you expected her to make poor decisions because of her inexperience, but even by the start of this book she had months of travel/adventure experience under her belt. Actually her planning at the beginning of this book when she starts her journey seemed pretty good, so I think that's why some of her idiotic decisions later in the book were so annoying.
June 9, 2016
I couldn't engage with this book as well as I did with "Pigs Don't Fly". The story was a little slow-moving and there wasn't much to the overall story. It still contained the charm that only Mary Brown can deliver, so that eased the slower storyline.
I'm still a little confused on how the book concluded, but since I've read "Dragonne's Eg" already, I can piece together what I know of that tale to figure out what exactly happened at the end of this one.
I'm still a little confused on how the book concluded, but since I've read "Dragonne's Eg" already, I can piece together what I know of that tale to figure out what exactly happened at the end of this one.
October 6, 2012
A very solid follow up to Pigs Don't Fly with just as much adventure and romance. I loved it just as much as PDF. I should mention that I read Pigs, then this one, and only then did I read the chronologically first book - The Unlikely Ones - to this series. I think the series is stronger that way.
April 21, 2015
The interaction between the heroine and the other characters was fun to see unfold. I was disappointed with how this portion of the story ended, but I wasn't the author. It will be interesting to see what the next in the series brings.
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