Die Drachen der Tinkerfarm

Ordinary Farm Adventures #1

by Tad Williams, Deborah Beale

»Das große Auge des Drachen leuchtete rotgolden wie die Glut eines Feuers«

Eigentlich sollte es ein ganz normaler Ferienaufenthalt auf dem Land werden, aber was die Geschwister Tyler und Lucinda auf der geheimnisvollen Tierfarm ihres Onkels erleben, übersteigt jede Vorstellungskraft.

Als Tyler und Lucinda im gottverlassenen Standard Valley ankommen, entdecken sie dass dies keine gewöhnliche Farm ist. Das Brüllen aus der Scheune stammt nicht von einer Kuh, sondern von einem Drachen. Das donnernde Hufgetrappel im Tal? Einhörner! Aber noch schlimmer, das weitläufige Bauernhaus fängt an sich zu verändern und nimmt immer neue Gestalten an. Ein Haufen seltsamer Knechte und Mägde, unverständliche Sprachen und magische Kräfte halten sie in Atem. Hinter dem, was zuerst noch nach einem harmlosen Abenteuer aussah, lauern dunkle Geheimnisse längst vergangener Zeiten. Werden die beiden Geschwister es schaffen, ihren Onkel und seine Farm zu retten. Ihr eigenes Leben ist in Gefahr …

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Childrens, Adventure, Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the ‘Otherland’ epic relaunches June 2018 as an MMO on steam.com. Tad is currently immersed in the creation of ‘The Last King of Osten Ard’, planned as a trilogy with two intermediary novels. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. @tadwilliams @mrstad

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all I want to ask is it just me or does GR seem to grab the first book cover and details it comes across as I am sure I type in the ISBN number and yet it still looks different - never mind

Anyway on to the book, I have been a quiet fan of Tad Williams ever since I read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and have been reading his books as I came across them. This was a total departure to what I was expecting which is more fool me since I have a lot of his work and it is very varied.

Anyway the book itself is pretty predictable in that kids go to stay with an obscure member of the family expecting boredom and familiarity and end up being part of one huge adventure (which I will say is far from resolved I assume since there is a second book out there as well).

There is however a BUT - and that is because the story also has a number of side adventures which break up the larger story arc and keep the interest going - not surprising the target audience of this book. However it does make for an enjoyable and light read - hence why this one sort of sneaked in under the radar.

Either way Tad Williams still can tell an enchanting story and one which I will happily follow when I stumble across the next instalment.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summer experienced by Lucinda and Tyler would be a dream come true for Fantasy-Adventure fans like me. The authors are able to create this place, completely improbable, seem plausible. That’s what the reader really wants though, to escape to somewhere dangerous and exciting, that they can dream about visiting during the brief moments of free thought between chapters. Ordinary Farm is aptly named. Inhabited as it is by wild, mythical beasts, the children spend their time feeding animals and building fences; doing ordinary tasks. An interesting thought throughout the book, that no matter how fantastic things can be, the ordinary is still there.
As much as I loved the concept of the book, as well as the characters and the mystery of Ordinary Farm, several things come to mind that I disliked. For one thing, I am firmly against curse words being used in books targeting children. For example, Uncle Gideon at one point says, “I don’t give a damn.” For a children’s book, such language is far from necessary, and will keep many parents from supporting the book, or purchasing it for their children. That is my main complaint. For my taste, there were too many allusions. Dialogue between the children was brimming with references to movies and books and songs, to an excess it seems. On the other hand, many of the allusions were to songs and games that do not exist. It seemed inconsistent for some allusions to be real and some not. My final complaint: too many questions, too many mysteries. It seems like the authors were trying to cram more than they could fit. Too many questions are brought up, and too many of them remain unanswered. I understand leaving a story open to a sequel, but this one had very little closure at all.

[Bücherwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spannende Urban Fantasy mit vielen Geheimnissen und Intrigen für alle Altersgruppen!
"Die Drachen der Tinkerfarm" ist einer der ersten Romane von Tad Williams gewesen. Dieser wurde nun neu aufgelegt mit schönem Farbschnitt. Doch tatsächlich merkt man beim Lesen, dass es eines seiner ersten Werke war. Zwar ist die Handlung so gut durchdacht wie immer bei ihm, die Rahmenbedingungen sind jedoch teilweise unlogisch. Es geht um diese Farm, auf der mystische Lebewesen leben und niemand außerhalb dieser Farm darf davon etwas mitbekommen, weil sonst natürlich Wissenschaftler*innen, Politiker*innen, Tourist*innen usw. kommen und diese Farm zerstören würden. Jedoch existieren auch in relativer Nähe andere Farmen und dass diese noch nie einen fliegenden Drachen gesehen haben, erscheint mir unlogisch. Trotzdem hat Tad Williams tolle Fantasy-Elemente eingebaut und so eine einzigartige Welt geschaffen, zu der man gerne wieder zurückkommt.
Doch leider nichts im Vergleich zu der Osten-Ard Saga!
Für alle Urban Fantasy Fans oder für Leser*innen, die einen Zugang in das Fantasy-Genre finden möchten.

[Branwen Sedai *of the Brown Ajah* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Tad Williams. He writes some of my favorite adult fantasy fiction, but this one just fell a bit flat for me.

[Grumpy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75
« Certaines choses étaient si puissantes que dès qu'elles entraient dans votre vie, elles vous changeaient complètement. Elles changeaient tout, si bien que le vous qui tentait de se souvenir de cet instant était tout simplement trop différent du vous qui ne savait pas encode à l'époque à quoi s'attendre. »

[jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointment is the best overall description of this book. This book had such a potentially intriguing storyline and mystery, but at every turn it ended up a complete disappointment, never living up to its own possible storyline.

The 2 main youth characters were stereoptypical - with the boy being adventureous, rash, unemotional, and the dive-without-thinking type, and the girl being overly emotional, fearful, unadventurous, and the never wants to try anything, always just wants to runaway and hide type. Very bad news. And untrue. Also, the book tried to make the 2 young characters speak and think in "cool" lingo which was trite, unbelievable, and fake. It sounded like a very bad Hollywood movie trying to get young kids to want to see it by trying to sound cool and so instead sounded the opposite - stupid and laughable. Even children would realize this dialogue was forced and contrived. In addition, the mystery and storyline felt underdeveloped. Even with this as the first book in a series, the whole story set-up seemed to take place in this book, but in such small snippets it read as a story with holes rather than one of intrigue.

And finally, the dynamic that is revealed between the adult character who now owns the farm and the daughter of the previous owner of the farm whom he married, was disturbing. It is revealed that he "fell in love" with her when she was "just a girl" and then when she grew up they got married. I have serious issues with that dynamic and do not find it at all romantic or something to be purported as okay. It is beyond me why the relationship was made to be that way. It was enough to make me not read or recommend this book or it's sequel irregardless of the other problems with the story.

So on all counts I would not recommend this book nor would I read the sequel. There are better mysetries and better stories with "magical" farms. If looking for one I'd try Drizzle.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 4 out of 5]

trigger warning
kidnapping, being drugged, grief

Lucinda and Taylor are annoyed at their mother for wanting to spend summer on her own, on a cruise of all things - and are prepared for a very, very boring summer at their great-uncle's farm.

They don't know this uncle Gideon, never have heard about him, yet their mom is tired enough to just trust in a great opportunity. Of course, that could go very, very bad indeed but since it's middlegrade fantasy it just leads to a great adventure.

I had a hard time getting into this since the author visibly struggled with writing from a child's point of view, and I started right after listening to another episode of a Percy Jackson podcast (the Newest Olympian, anyone?), and let's be real, Uncle Rick who writes the PJ books knows his job.
It got better after the siblings arrive at Ordinary Farm.

The pacing was off, but again, I just got the feeling that the adults were struggling so much they were overwhelmed and not in any way able to make plans, and since I am ill and tired myself, I can hardly fault anyone for that.

The villain of the novel felt jarring. Yes, you see it coming, but something doesn't fit.
I got the feeling that the author just struggled with having not enough space, as I know and love series like Otherland and Shadowplay, and adjusting to another target audience range.

Maybe my judgement is off greatly since aforementioned illness, because I had loads of fun anyways and was glad to be taken out of my own thoughts for a while. I probably will read on, and having no great expectations above just wanting to get entertained will help, though I hope that the author found his feet after getting some more experience.

Maybe just this particular brand of happy ending got me. And I have a soft spot for gruff, helpful vikings.

[Rainbow007 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a waste of time. It's so boring. How did the author make a farm where unicorns, griffins and dragons are cared for boring?!
I am not exaggerating here, every single chapter follows a pattern, every time, in the exact same order. Here, this is the formula:
1. Some kind of scene where the kids learn how to care for one of the mythical animals, fail horribly.
2. Try to find out what the farm staff is hiding from the kids, fail horribly.
3. Wonder why a creepy black squirrel with glowing red eyes is following them around.
Rinse and repeat. I am not joking you, this is how the first 15 chapters play out. All of the characters are cardboard cut outs, nothing about any of them stands out. I can't remember anyone's names. So by the time the mold is finally broken and some semblance of a plot is introduced, no one cares! I certainly didn't care that some fairy tale IRS was trying to shut down what's his face's farm.
Seriously, don't waste your time with this trash.

[Gesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drachen stehen (leider) gar nicht so sehr im Fokus. Die Geheimnisse der Farm sind viel größer und man möchte sie einfach nur gemeinsam mit den beiden aufdecken und ich habe die ganze Zeit mit überlegt. Sehr spannend ohne zu stressig zu sein und Pluspunkt gibt auf jeden Fall die Geschwister-Story 🥰

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining blend of the modern and mythological, right up my street. Best thing Tad Williams has done since War of the Flowers.

[Auralia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm is a story of a brother and sister that are shipped off to their Uncles farm for the summer. They are given a book to prepare them for their visit to Ordinary Farm which tells them about cows that breathe fire and do other strange things. The kids discover during their summer that there is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Farm. They are set down in the middle of a farm that does not have a single cow, but it does have dragons and other fantastical creatures.

I started out kind of liking this one and ended up really liking it. There were parts that were a bit slow, and there were parts that were a bit creepy. But overall this was a good book. I would recommend it to kids that enjoy fantasy, dragons, and adventure. The best part is that the ending was written in such a way as to leave room for more Ordinary Farm adventures. I can't wait to see if there will be another one!

[Raul Santiago Almunia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una lectura muy agradable. Es una obra que está por encima de la Baja fantasia, pero realmente muy poco ya que se desarrolla en el mundo real y los dragones. Me resultó muy entretenida sin llegar a despuntar como obra muy remarcable. Para algunos podría resultar literatura juvenil.

[Monica Edinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ordinary Farm is ironically named as it is far from ordinary in every sense. This book is a very entertaining page-turner and I suspect young readers will enjoy it.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

My granddaughter was reading this book so I decided to read it with her. I enjoyed this fun adventure.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about a farm with secret magical creatures. Kind of similar to Brandon Mull's Fablehavens series.

[Caty Studios1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una gran mezcla entre ciencia ficción y fantasía

[Leia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encanta, con los niños se puede empatizar mucho y las aventuras que viven son increíbles.

[Buchdrache · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es gibt Kombinationen, die einfach geil aussehen. Von Tad Williams hört man ja ohnehin manch Gutes, und Kerem Beyit auf einem Cover zu sehen, ist so oder so einfach klasse. Leider stellten sich »Die Drachen der Tinkerfarm«, der erste Teil der Tinkerfarm, von Tad Williams und Deborah Beale als nicht ansatzweise so deliziös heraus, wie sie sich präsentierten.

Die Geschwister Lucinda und Tyler werden von ihrer Mutter in den Sommerferien auf die Farm des verschrobenen Großonkels Gideon auf dem Land abgeschoben. Die beiden Kinder sind nicht sonderlich begeistert, erst recht nicht, als Gideon ihnen ein Buch über feuerspeiende Kühe schickt. Das kann ja nur schrecklich werden, denken sie. Was sie dann jedoch auf der Tinkerfarm antreffen, übertrifft ihre kühnsten Erwartungen. Die feuerspeienden Kühe waren wohl doch keine Kühe …

Vielleicht nicht unbedingt das beste Buch, um Tad Williams kennenzulernen. Vieles im Roman wirkt überzeichnet und karikierend, und das in einer Art, dass es eigentlich gewollt parodiert aussieht. Leider karikiert es nicht wirklich und ruiniert damit das ganze Buch. Denn gewollt ist dann doch nicht gleich gekonnt.

Das einzig wirklich Positive sind die schönen Innenillustrationen von Jan Reiser und das umwerfende Cover von Kerem Beyit (alles von Kerem Beyit ist der Hammer!). Dann hört es eigentlich schon auf.

Die beiden Protagonisten nerven einfach nur. Sie sind verzogene Stadtgören, die allen auf der Farm auf der Nase herumtanzen und nie das machen, was sie machen sollen. Sie wittern sehr schnell, dass auf der Farm nicht alles mit rechten Dingen zugeht. Hinzu kommt, dass ihnen ständig gesagt wird, dass sie dies und das nicht machen sollen. Das soll sie davor schützen, zu schnell die Geheimnisse der Farm zu entdecken. Das ist ein vergeblicher und ziemlich lahmer Versuch, Spannung aufzubauen, da der Leser dank der Paratexte ohnehin schon alles Notwendige weiß und sich den Rest zusammenreimen kann. Hinzu kommt, dass die Kinder damit erst recht versuchen, dem selbst auf die Schliche zu kommen, und sich dabei, salopp gesagt, ständig ordentlich in die Scheiße reiten. Kurz: Es war doch einfach so klar, dass sie ständig Probleme bekommen und ihre Nasen in Zeug stecken, das sie nichts angeht! Kann man »Spannung« noch billiger aufbauen? Auch ein Kinderbuch sollte so etwas besser können.

Apropos nicht vorhandene Spannung: Oh! Wie unerwartet! Da will ein böser Geschäftsmann an die Geheimnisse der Farm! Hätte ich ja nie gedacht! Ach herrjemine! Auf der Farm gibt es nicht nur Fabeltiere! Die Farmmitarbeiter sind ja auch ach so besonders! Der hinkt, um zu verbergen, dass er ein Satyr ist? Wär‘ ich nie drauf gekommen!

Jetzt mal ehrlich …

Gut, immerhin war das mit den feuerspeienden Kühen eine wirklich witzige Idee. Man schreibe ein Fachbuch über die Haltung und Zucht von Drachen und ersetzte jedes »Drache« durch »Kuh«. Fällt auch gar nicht auf! Was zu wirklich skurrilen und lustigen Sätzen führt. Die Idee mochte ich wirklich.

Am Ende des Romans bleiben etliche Fragen offen, die zu beantworten nicht Aufgabe des zweiten Bandes sein sollten. Wie ist zum Beispiel der Weg des gestohlenen Dracheneis zu verstehen? Und warum läd Onkel Gideon sie überhaupt ein, wenn er erstens eigentlich nur eine blasse Figur im Hintergrund ist und zweitens eigentlich eher genervt von den Kindern wirkt? Weil sie zur Familie gehören? Weil Keks? Fragen über Fragen und keine Antworten …

Eigentlich ist man für Kinderbücher ja nie zu alt. Eigentlich … Ich bleib dann wohl doch lieber bei Narnia und Puh der Bär. Denn das hier war trotz der von der Grundidee her coolen Farm ein eher lahmer Roman voller Humor, der auch mit Drachen einfach nicht zündet und dessen Plot absolut vorhersehbar ist. Wenigstens am tollen Cover kann man sich erfreuen.



Mehr von mir auf meinem Blog: http://buchdrache.blogspot.de/

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucinda and Tyler Jenkins go to spend the summer holidays on their great uncle Gideon's California farm, but they find it has weird animals and even weirder workers.

The book has some quite interesting ideas, but many of them are hardly developed, and there are too many inconsistencies in the plot, characters and dialogue.

In children's books, the age of child characters is often quite significant. The story opens with a boy called Colin eavesdropping on his elders. From his behaviour it seems he is about 7-8 years old. The great niece and nephew, we are told, are about his age. But when they arrive, it seems he is much taller than them, and to them he seems almost grown up. So physically his age moves to about 14, but mentally he still seems much younger. Lucinda therefore must be about 12 and her "little" brother about 9 or 10. Except that Tyler, we later discover, was given a watch for his 12th birthday, so that bumps Lucinda up to 14 or so, and Colin to about 16 or 17, especially when he starts pretending to be a businessman.

Lucinda and Tyler later meet three children from a neighbouring farm, the older two are about the same age as them, but the third is younger. But when they appear in the dark, they can't be adults, because they are small children. In my experience, 14-year-old girls are often as tall as or taller than their mothers. If, as in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland growing and shrinking children is part of the plot, fine. But if it isn't, it's just a distraction.

The characters are inconsistent in other ways, too, almost manic-depressive (or whatever that is called nowadays). The farm has secrets, like the origin of the weird animals, which the visiting children are supposed to be told some time, but have to discover for themselves, and at times are kept almost as prisoners. Sometimes interesting information is revealed about the characters, in a way that looks as though it is going to be significant for the plot, but it is then never mentioned again.

One of the characters is revealed to be a tutelary spirit, the genius loci of the farm. Lucinda and Tyler do not question this, or ask what it means. Presumably they know already. Perhaps that information was put in for didactic purposes -- get the readers to look up "tutelary" in a dictionary, or Google for genius loci. But there's little point in doing so, because no more information is imparted, and no use of it is made elsewhere in the story.

Another rather annoying thing is that though the book is obviously set in America, the British publishers have rather insensitively and inconsistently changed the language and spelling for British readers -- rather as the Harry Potter stories were changed for American readers. So there is lots of schoolkid slang that sounds horribly inauthentic because it has been changed in this way and so belongs to neither one place nor the other. There also references to computer games and the like which will probably make the book appear dated in a very short time. Too much use of contemporary slang can make a book quite unreadable after a few years.

So I can liken the book to a partly complete jigsaw puzzle, which has quite a lot of pieces that belong to a different puzzle altogether -- the things, like the genius loci that are introduced in the story, but not subsequently used.

[Aimée · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tyler und Lucinda Jenkins sind normale Geschwister in einer Stadt; sie tratscht am Liebsten mit ihren Freundinnen, er spielt nur mit seiner Konsole. Ihre Mutter ist nach der Scheidung verzweifelt und fährt alleine in Urlaub. Deshalb müssen die beiden ihre Sommerferien auf einer Farm bei einem bisher unbekannten reichen Verwandten verbringen. Der reine Horror: am Ende gibt es da keinen Strom, um die Spielekonsole aufzuladen?!

Doch bereits die Zugfahrt ist mysteriös: der Onkel hat ihnen ein Buch zur Aufzucht von feuerspeienden Kühen geschickt und Tyler sieht ein affenähnliches Wesen am Fenster vorbeifliegen.

Auf der Farm selbst gibt es zunächst nicht viel zu entdecken, alle Mitarbeiter halten sich bedeckt und die Kinder sollen ihre Zimmer nicht verlassen. Doch nach und nach entdecken Tyler und Lucinda die Geheimnisse der Farm und kommen dabei nicht nur ihrer Familiengeschichte auf die Spur, sondern nähern sich einander an und werden noch richtige Freunde.



Ein wunderschönes Buch, das nicht nur von Freundschaft und Neugier erzählt, sondern auch alte Fabelwesen wieder erweckt, wodurch es einerseits zu absurden Situationen kommt (feuerspeiende Kühe??!) andererseits phantastische Szenen vor dem inneren Auge entstehen lassen (eine Horde Einhörner). Jedes neue Kapitel ist mit einer hinweisenden Zeichnung versehen und auf dem Schutzeinband sind die Drachenschuppen mit Glanzlack versehen. Die Aufmachung zeigt eine schöne Detailverliebtheit, das mag ich sehr. Das Buch ist der Auftakt zu einer neuen Serie Williams' und ich bin gespannt, was Tyler, Lucinda und die anderen Farmbewohner noch für Abenteuer erleben.

[Inga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook-Rezension:

"Ohhh! Drachen!", dachte ich, und "Oh, Andreas Fröhlich!" und war schon halb überzeugt. Tad Williams als bekannter Fantasy-Autor wird auch nicht schlecht sein, so mein nächster Gedanke, und so begann ich das Audiobook mit durchaus positiver Grundeinstellung.
Doch Die Drachen der Tinkerfarm konnte leider nicht überzeugen. Die Story in Kürze:

Die Geschwister Tylor und Lucinda werden auf die Farm ihres Onkels Gideon eingeladen, ohne zu ahnen, dass dieser statt normaler Tiere Drachen, Einhörner und andere Fabelwesen hält. Auch die Bewohner dort sind alle ein wenig seltsam und nicht ganz von dieser Welt. Die beiden Kids versuchen, den Geheimnissen auf die Spur zu kommen.

Im Grunde keine schlechten Zutaten für einen Fantasyroman, aber irgendwie springt die Geschichte ständig zwischen irgendwelchen Teilaspekten (die verschwundene Frau des Onkels, die Drachen, die Nachbarskinder, Gideons missliche wirtschaftliche Lage, der durchgeknallte Colin und seine Machenschaften, die Zaubertussi und ihr Schwarzhörnchen...) ohne wirklich einen Erzählstrang befriedigend zuendezubringen. Vielleicht ist hier beim Audiobook auch zwischendurch ungünstig gekürzt worden, aber irgendwie hat mich die Geschichte nicht einfangen können, obwohl Andreas Fröhlich sicherlich eine gute Interpretationsleistung abliefert. Das Werk motiviert mich jetzt nicht für weitere Bücher von Tad Williams, ich nehme aber gern Vorschläge entgegen, was denn vielleicht den ersten Eindruck dieses Autors verbessern könnte.

[Chip Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tyler and Lucinda Jenkins are typical teens, cynical and skeptical, especially about the prospect of spending their cherished summer vacation at some long-lost uncle’s farm. It doesn’t long, however, before they start to observe strange occurrences at the inappropriately-named “Ordinary Farm”, which turns out to be one of the most magical places in the world! Needless to say, the reluctant guests Lucinda and Tyler quickly fall in love with the people and mythical animals of the farm, and engage themselves with investigating the myriad of secrets that surround the place. They soon find themselves embroiled in dangerous and mysterious plots involving missing brides, stolen dragon eggs, and corporate villains.

THE DRAGONS OF ORDINARY FARM is definitely a light read, apparently intended for ~pre-teen reader, but enjoyable for anyone. There are some scenes that could be a bit scary for very young children, including some violence and near-death experiences, but I wouldn’t hesitate to offer this to anyone with an understanding that fiction is fiction. It is definitely a different experience compared to Tad Williams’ more popular works, all of which are complex and mature, but I enjoyed this short foray into the lighter side of his imagination. And it is cool that he was able to co-author a book with his wife. I’m on the fence about continuing the story with THE SECRETS OF ORDINARY FARM, but I’ll most likely wait until my own kids are old enough to enjoy it with me.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sucked into this world so much when I read this book as a kid. Sure, I thought the characters were lame, stupid, and stereotypical, but that meant that if I was in their place, I would do things so much better. That just made this book some good wish fulfillment for me.

Ordinary Farm is certainly no ordinary farm. It contains dragons and other mythical creatures, such as the interesting amphisbaena, which I had only read about once before and thought was a fever dream. But those mythical creatures are actually just a cover for something even weirder. Ordinary Farm contains a way to travel to other dimensions and times. It really starts picking up when Tyler and Lucinda pick up a cave girl and it is revealed that the farmhands are from those other places. It’s pretty neat and the implications are really scary.

The twist really made the book for me. It lent it a creepier edge. While it made me want to go to Ordinary Farm less, it improved the book as a whole. And that’s what Kid Me thought of this book.

[Magsteriniv · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. However, there are still a bunch of unsolved questions. Like, do they ever get grace out of the mirror? How is Lucinda able to talk to the dragon, or hear her thoughts? How is Tyler able to navigate the fault? It never explains it. Is there a second? Also, some thoughts. When I first read about the squirrel on the tree, and that Ragnar is a old Norseman from the fault, is the demon squirrel the one in Norse mythology that guards the tree with the nine works on it? If you’ve read magnus chase or any Norse mythology you know what I’m talking about, like maybe Ragnar brought the squirrel along with him? Random thought. and honestly, I thought the fault was more interesting than the dragons. Overall, it was good.

[Sirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the first 150 pages or so were a confusing tangle of the main characters not getting any information. As an artistic piece, it was effective at causing me to feel the frustration the characters must have felt, but such a lack of real information is difficult to get into as part of a narrative. I appreciated the depth of character that the protagonists displayed, and the plot as a whole was likable once I got through the first half. It really picks up toward the end. I'm not sure if I'll be reading the sequel though.

[Ramona · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many surprises in this story! I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. The characters, including mythical creatures, are intriguing, and the inclusion of other time periods reachable through a portal adds to the great storyline. The story could be included in so many sub-genres of young adult reads. I am looking forward to finding the next book in the series.

[Augustus · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow start.
The surprises the author was leading up to weren't surprises at all as they had been telegraphed so blatantly.
Only really got going 3/4 of the way through when it did get exciting and surprising.

[Oreocryptophis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eigentlich 3,5 Sterne. (aber da rundet man ja auf 😅) - die Erwachsenen bleiben bis zum Ende komisch. Nicht alles ist logisch und einiges wirkt überhastet. Mag aber die Storyline an sich und so ein bisschen auch die Hauptcharaktere. Werde Band 2 noch lesen. Möchte schon wissen wies weitergeht.

[Veryimportantbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre très sympa qui traite de façon très sympa du thème. Il n'y a pas tant de dragons que ça. Le titre crée de fausses attentes dans ce sens et certains mystères ne sont pas résolus, mais l'histoire reste très sympa. C'est un bon jeunesse où les ados se comportent comme tels.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine nette Geschichte für Kinder, die genug von Harry Potter haben.