The Summer Country

Summer Country #1

by James A. Hetley

Growing up poor in Naskeag Falls, Maine, Maureen Pierce finds her life transformed forever by an encounter with Brian Albion, who claims that she has inherited a blood legacy with ties to the fantastical world of Merlin and Mordred. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Arthurian, Paranormal, Magic

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[carol. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely dark and violent, with very little redeeming light. The main character is victim of long term sexual abuse, and its a memory she deals with every day. She also has a very troubled relationship with her sister, a slightly older and sexually comfortable person. The story starts with the heroine being stalked on her way home, and then presumably saved, although that perspective is called into question later. Her rescuer enlightens her to her heritage, but before she can fully come to terms, she is kidnapped and pulled into faerie, or "the old county."

I felt truly uncomfortable in Maureen's narrative, and feel the author pulls out all the traditional female tragedy stereotypes in the bluntest and most obvious ways. It was awkward at times, and she dwells on her abuse in a way that seems unreal and hollow. The frequency and detail felt like someone was imagining what it would be like to live with abuse rather than actually writing about the experience. Her sister and her relationship is immediately portrayed as angry and jealous. The level of mutual venom displayed within pages of meeting her sister makes it hard to believe they would have lived together at all. Add the rape and pregnancy experience at the end, and I started to get extremely annoyed by the man-feminism. Both Maureen and her sister come into their own power in a very bloody way, minimal epiphany way.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad. It read like a Charles de Lint novel with all of the things about de Lint that irk me -- rampant sexual abuse, Girl Power main characters -- and none of the things that make de Lint novels as good as they are. I'm not saying that men can't write about rape effectively, because I'm sure that there are men out there who do. However, men writing about women who have suffered from abuse generally fall into the Girl Power trap; they think that's what women like to read about, and because urban fantasy is a genre whose audience consists of a predominance of women they believe that they're writing to their audience. The fact is, this Super Rape Victim Girl Power cussin' and drinkin' and being all kinds of crazy is not subtle, is not interesting, and makes it very clear that the person writing the novel has no idea how a real woman's mind works, especially a woman who has been sexually abused and is trying to deal with her fear of men.

It was also atrociously written. The sentences were awkward, the author interjected small "clever" remarks into third-person omniscient descriptions that drew away from the flow of the story, and there was a great deal of "showing not telling" in the descriptions of the attitudes of the two women. (i.e., "'blah blah blah,' she said sarcastically, which was something she always did." --not a direct quote, but something this author was prone to doing; I noticed it several times.)

Don't read this book. It was terrible.

[Emily Graves · Rating 1 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD

I first read this book around the time it came out, and I thought it was the worst thing I’d ever read. If I needed kindling for a fire, this was the book I would have grabbed. But I’ll be damned if the story didn’t stick with me, and the general potential for the plot was great. About a year ago I discovered there was a sequel and I couldn’t begin to imagine what it would entail or who would read it.

..but then the world shut down in a pandemic and I had some free kindle books to redeem, so I figured what the hell. I picked them up, started to read this book again, and it was still awful. I’d held some hope that I might enjoy it more as an adult, after all I was now the age of the intended target audience rather than being thirteen or fourteen and truly too young for this book. But I hate it so much more.

No offense to James A Hetley, but I’m not sure he’s ever met a woman or another human being. This reads like the worst fanfiction written by a twelve year old who wants to throw in some big words every now and then to try and impress his friends.


The basic premise is strong. Parallel to our world – just two steps in any direction – is the Summer Country. The Summer Country is a place of old magic where most anything is possible, a magical land dreamt about by old Celtics who sang about the place it never rained. The primary inhabitants of the Summer Country are the Old Ones. Some appear more human, some like gnomes or elves, but they all possess The Blood. The Blood gives them magic and power, lets them commune with nature – or rule over it if that is what they desire.

However, there is a catch to the power. Over the years with different blood lines mixing, and entering in humans, Old Ones have started to struggle with sterility. This leads those who are not sterile to be coveted. This is where our main character Maureen enters the picture. While she things she is your average schizophrenic human who can talk to trees, with extreme paranoia and PTSD from sexual assaults in her childhood, she is actually a hybrid with The Blood. Her scent can attract others with the blood – particularly males seeking a mate – and it catches the attention of Dougal in the Summer Country. He is more gnome than human, and lacking the beauty of many other Old Ones, has not been able to find a bride (or more accurately a womb) that he can use.

So he goes hunting for Maureen. Other Old Ones end up involved, one of whom is named Brian and falls in love with Maureen, and others that drag Maureen’s older sister Jo and her boyfriend David into the Summer Country as well. Where as Maureen thrives in the Summer Country as her power comes alive, Jo’s own power scares her and she wants nothing more than to go back to being a normal human.

This is the basis to a fantastic fantasy adventure. But what actually ended up happening is not that. The entire story revolves around sex, and not in a good way.

Like this quote about a waitress whose advances were spurned: “Her rump twitched irritation at the wasted effort.” …what?

Or this thought about meeting a man an inviting him home, out of character: “A man she’d known for an hour or so, she was letting him inside her apartment. One step from letting him inside her body.” I think the fuck not.

There were lines like: “She wasn’t equipped for living with a man. Physically, maybe, she had the usual female equipment of tits and ass, but mentally?” WHAT?! Mind you, they were just discussing moving in as roommates. Separate rooms. Out of necessity of not hating each other and each needing a place to stay. The character thinking these things has never willingly slept with a man. She would not think about her tits and ass. This isn’t how it works.

Lines like: “Pig-headed bitch wouldn’t listen to me!” The man who said this, shouted it actually, is referencing the woman he then professes to love like twenty pages later. The woman who was just kidnapped after saving his ass. The woman who every time she says so much as damn he thinks about how unladylike it is. The man who doesn’t curse any other time, because it is inappropriate. Okay.

In general, this book is EXTREMELY sexist and outdated. It’s unladylike for women to swear or get bloody, and the one woman who has a healthy sexual history and respect for her body is labeled a whore and ‘sex hungry’ by everyone, despite being in a committed relationship. The woman who is hunting her half brother to use him as a stud horse isn’t a whore or sex hungry, nor is she labeled as the rapist she is, but the woman willingly having sex with her boyfriend is a whore. Right. Makes sense. -cue the eye rolling-

Then when Maureen is raped – and then has to kind of rape Brian to “break the spell” on him even while nearly having a panic attack herself at having sex – there are lines like these:
“Somewhere deep in her belly, sperm and ova played their game of blind-man’s-bluff with the calendar.”

“’If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it done quickly’, she quoted. ‘But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.’ Then she shuddered at the unintended pun.” WHAT PUN?!

When Jo is reunited with her boyfriend David who was being eaten alive by the forest, THIS is what she thinks: “’Hush.’ She held his head against her breasts. She felt a shivery warmth there, not sex but mothering. She wanted to open her blouse and suckle life back into him.” I swear, no woman has EVER wanted this.

Maureen realizes she is pregnant with twins, one by Dougal and one by Brian, she contemplates using her power to abort one or both. But she is too Catholic to do that…which is ridiculous in the circumstances and the fact she isn’t actively practicing but WHATEVER. This ends up crossing her mind: “And then she let her inner eye wander, through the rest of her belly, the rest of her body, and realized neither baby ever could be born. Her body would reject them. Her body simply didn’t have the strength for pregnancy—didn’t have the fats and sugars and whatever floats through her bloodstream to build placenta and nourish one baby, let alone two.

She’d lost too much weight, between the dungeon and the magic. She’d barely been able to ovulate. Dougal had killed his own son. Brian could try again next month or the next.”
…that isn’t how it works. Yes, you may be starved in this moment, but you were only in the dungeon and starved for a week. The entire damn book covers a max of two weeks by the way they talk (which doesn’t always make sense). These babies are viable. Scientifically.

None of this is to mention the juvenile references to breasts swaying or being exposed for no reason, the illogical good cop/bad cop method that Dougal attempts on Maureen with the help of his slave Padric (Padric who clearly doesn’t want to be bad cop and Dougal who TOLD MAUREEN HE WAS GONNA BREAK HER), the mentions of butt cheeks ‘clenching with centuries of fear conditioning’ and just..steer clear of this book. Unless juvenile writing style full of sexism, rape, incest, and a character who says ‘love’ in just about every single sentence is what wets your whistle. But I promise, there are better books out there for this.

If you enjoyed this review, I’ll be posting another examining what fresh hells the second book unleashes. So far there is a dragon mourning his mate who was killed in the first book, and he’s already my favourite character of the entire series.

[KelceyTheLibrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

First DNF of the year at 103 pages. I hate when I cannot finish a book, but I tried to read this and I set it down 3 or 4 times. It was not piquing my interest which is weird because I am almost positive we read this in teen book club in high school and I am pretty sure I liked it at that point. I guess this is just proof that tastes change as we go. Nothing about this story was grabbing me. World building was mediocre and I was feeling no interest or connection to the characters and the villains weren't evil and intriguing, they were just weird. I was excited to re-read this as these are usually a sub-genre of fantasy that I enjoy but this one just didn't work out for me.

[PJ Who Once Was Peejay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I resisted reading this book for quite some time because I thought, "The world does not need another modern day version of Celtic myth." I thought it would be a Charles de Lint clone. I could not have been more wrong! It's darker, for one, well-written, and rich with characterization. The heroine is definitely flawed, fighting alcoholism and "mental illness"--which turns out to be a unique psychic power and witch talent which has been repressed and diagnosed as psychosis. The story is as much about her battle to reclaim her true self as it is about the war she fights with a dark and brooding Faeryland living a heartbeat away from this world. Hetley captured me right from the start and kept me with him and his heroine throughout.

[Kirstin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh bother these authors who think that the only way one can have a truly tragic heroine is to make her a rape victim. And that a good story must be steeped in unhappiness and discontent. I didn't like any of the characters and the small bits of goodness that I managed to find was highly overshadowed by tedious misery.

The interesting aspects of the characters, their magic and their powers is ignored over the fact that they're So Tragic! Bring forth the woevolins, y'all. Everyone is so Tragic. Even David the wishy-washy aspiring Celtic music artist is vampired by the land and bleh.

This book left me feeling dirty and tired.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly his first novel, there's blatant use of the old make the main character appeal to the readers by overuse of the "traumatized past" ploy, but that's standard to the genre. It lacks subtlety and nuance and everything resolves too nicely in the end, but it's a fun read and decent (if predictable) urban fantasy.

[Andria Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based off the title of the book, and the brightness of the cover, this is actually kind of a dark fantasy book filled with fae, druids, magic, a dragon, and cats. There’s even falcons and other types of birds listed in the book towards the back half of the story as well. This book has an odd assortmet of animals all around, actually, some that might surprise you in the end.

This book features a young woman named Maureen, who is dealing with a traumatic event from her childhood and trying to get over it and be normal as an adult. She was raped as a child by Buddy Johnson, a boy that her sister had gone out with at the age of fourteen when she was just beginning to understand why she liked boys and why boys liked girls. Maureen still hasn’t gotten over it, and doesn’t trust males with a ten foot pole.

It eventually turns from the normal world to the magical world, where a man is following her and that man-named Brian-eventually brings her into an ancient war of prophecies, women with power, and ancient blood that still sings. This book is a like that of a fine irish whiskey-so says Charles de Lint, and I strongly agree with him, even though I’ve never had whiskey, let alone irish whiskey in my life. It looks like an innocent light-hearted fun book, but there’s a war going on that both sides are determined to win for various reasons.

As to the story itself-its not original in that there’s Pendragons and Merlins and Arthurs type story, but the way its written, and the feel of the story is like a breathe of fresh air in a foreign country that you’ve forgotten about over time. There’s different kinds of magic involved-both good and bad, and there’s all kinds of plot twists that you don’t see coming.

I really loved the depth of the characters in the book, the villains were definitely evil enough to be realistic, and the heroes weren’t always brave either which made me happy for variety. There’s also music, and poetry-a lot of Shakespeare mentioned towards the end of the book. There’s a variety of all kinds of magical things in here to tickle your fancy, if you’ll give it a try.

I’m fairly sure that this is the first in a series, but not positive. And I’m currently checking on Goodreads to see if it is or not…and, yes, it is! Book one of yet another series that apparently I’m now invested in just because of how good it is!

4.5 stars!

{This review will also be posted on my blog called Pass Me That Book. Link in my profile page on Goodreads.}

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give a book zero stars I could. This one would definitely get that.

Maureen Pierce is crazy. All her life, she has been hearing voices and talks to trees. On top of that, when she was younger, she was raped by the town bully over and over again so her view of men isn't the greatest. So when she is stalked by a stranger one night after work, she wasn't deterred to shoot the man who is following her. However, when she shot her gun, it misfired. That's when her "knight in shining armor," Brian Albion, showed up to defeat her attacker. In their flight, Brian explains to Maureen that she isn't crazy but instead has the blood of the Old Ones from the Summer Country in her veins, which is why she can talk to trees and hears voices. This is also why she was attacked. Someone from the Summer Country wanted Maureen and they needed to find out why.

Honestly, this book stunk. Maureen is a whiny character that I had no sympathy for whatsoever. She is constantly complaining about life and how horrible men are and how screwed up her life is. If I knew someone like this in real life, I would kick them in the ass and say "pull up your skirt and start acting like a man." I'm not supposed to hate the protagonist in a book. Also, the story was just plain bland until the last 50 pages or so when Maureen is finally captured and brought to the Summer Country. Then, Hetley starts to bring the story alive. Even still, wasn't worth it. It was a waste of $7 if you ask me.

[Stephanie Berth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre dans le genre fantastique qui nous raconte un côté assez brutal du monde parallèle qui fait partie de la croyance des Irlandais. Un monde dangereux et imprévisible, gouverné par des êtres avides de pouvoir et enchainés dans leurs intrigues.
La façon comment raconte Hetley des combats est remarquable. Hetley était vétéran de la guerre du Vietnam et je pense qu’une partie de son vécu dans ces atrocités se retrouve dans son livre.
Pour ma part je trouve cette lecture beaucoup plus intéressante et passionnante car elle parle de la nature humaine tout simplement. Le monde parallèle des Irlandais peut être douce et lumineuse en apparence, mais derrière la façade se cache forcément un grand danger, sinon il n’y aurais pas d’aventure.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't finish his "Stone Fort" series as it failed to hold my attention so I started this book with misgivings. I was wrong. Despite the cutesy YA-style cover this is a raw adult fantasy with teeth and claws to spare. It is also an extremely well written piece of work as Hetley proves to be a master at creating a mood or forming an image with just a few well chosen words. His world-building is culled from the bleakest of Celtic myths while the peculiar magic that dwells therein is both believable and highly visceral. Furthermore the way he incorporates one character's mental health issues into the story---making them both a handicap and an asset----is very well done. I look forward to reading the sequel!

[Nancy S Robison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is mesmerizing. It pulls you in and doesn't let go. I've read it straight through and it's a lot to wrap your head around.

I love myth and magic and otherworldly fantasy. I also know that part of myth is bloody, cruel and dark. And tragic. There is a lot of darkness in this book. There is a lot of courage, too, and love to oppose the darkness. The violence is extreme. The scope is immense. The main protagonist has been damaged and mistreated and has a lot to overcome. Fortunately, she is not alone on her journey to an unexpected future. I'm glad this is a series. I'm looking forward to the next book.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 for this one. I very much enjoyed the fantastical nature of it all. There are some elements of the story I could do without, but overall I think it was very descriptively written and I could picture this world well, and the twists and turns along the way were with it for the ending. I'm not one for endings, but I thought this wrapped up pretty well.

[KateTen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This book was a great surprise. At turns funny and brutal, it made me believe in this world. Highly recommend it. The only reason I'm not at 5 stars is that the amount of internal dialogue was a little hard to get used to at first.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might actually be terrible and I doubt I will try rereading it, but I remember mostly enjoying it when I read it a long time ago.

[Crymsyn Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had issues with the book's over all plot and character development mainly with Maureen and her sister. I liked the magic and the idea behind the book, but yeah not one of my favorites.

[Truthmonkey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the details were interesting but overall a man writing a woman poorly.

[Lindsey (Bagel) · Rating 1 out of 5]

random find from a thrift store. reminded me why I don’t usually read books written by men.

[Roseanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eerie, violent yet beautiful.

Made me feel like I was reading a modern-day Grimm's Fairy Tale. Really loved this book, and loved the character's struggles and trials.

[MMLZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave it three stars because the premise was interesting, but the book begins to fall apart about a third of the way through and by the end, things are rushed and disjointed. Somethings are over explained and somethings are under explained.

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't decide whether to give it a 1 or a 2, even thought about a 2.5* because I liked the story idea. However, I had a difficult time with this book. I was really intrigued with the plot, especially from the book description, but I just couldn't stand all the foul language from two of the main characters who are the supposed to be the heroines. I can't even count the number of times the f-bomb and b**** was used... more than all the fingers AND toes in my house! I'm not into foul language at all and I tried my best to read past it but 5 times in one paragraph is a bit hard to skip. And then while I don't mind light intimacy or even reading about the memory of abuse, this was just overkill. There was sex mentioned, alluded to, thought/dreamed about, described, and rape/torture almost every other page of the book. Fortunately, there really wasn't much in-the-action/in-detail sex scenes, but enough of everything else that there might as well have been. I realize part of it was to explain part of the Fae world's obsession with sex and perfect blood matches as well as the help the reader really feel the main character's fear of intimacy due to past experience (aka-abuse), but this was a bit much. I've read several books dealing with the Fae and none of them were this obsessed with sex. Also, I found 4-5 spelling or grammar errors which were actually noticeable, but didn't bother me too much. The only redeeming features to me were the heroines are able to overcome difficult challenges and discover the strength within themselves, and a generally interesting plot idea which I would have enjoyed more without all the major grit. I felt dirty reading this book. Otherwise it was fairly well-written. I wish I could like it more and would be willing to read the sequel to this if certain that there wouldn't be as much foul language and sexual themes. If you like this kind of thing, then go for it, but it just wasn't mine as much as I wished I could enjoy it.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Hetley's The Summer Country comes with some high praise in its review blurbs, breaking out names like Charles de Lint to sing its praises--which is, I must admit, impressive for a debut urban fantasy novel. With that kind of cred out of the gate, I had high hopes for a substantial and entertaining read. I am not, however, entirely convinced that I got it.

On the one hand, I must give Hetley props for a highly flawed and very human heroine, as well as a certain primal flavor to the Summer Country and its inhabitants, the Old Ones. On the other hand--and this may be the jaded palette of a reader of many, many fantasy novels talking, but still--I half-felt like the characters were never entirely real to me, and that several of the conflicts set up between them never quite properly paid off. For example, there's a subplot involving the heroine being angry at her sister for "stealing" the man she was trying to work up the courage the romance--while all the while, the man really liked the sister instead, and both he and the sister were aghast that Maureen had been "psychotic" about obsessing about him. Yet they never actually confront her about this. A similar lack of substance was displayed by the bad guys as well; all we are told about them is that the Old Ones as a rule have no conscience and that they are perfectly willing to mess with each other as well as mortals. All well and good, but without some rock-solid individual characteristics to back that up, most of the time Dougal and Sean and Fiona came across to me as evil just because "the Old Ones are like that", which wasn't satisfying.

And yet, I felt like I saw enough there that I'd like to check out the second book, so I'll give it a go. For this one, two and a half stars.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't terribly bad. I did like the concept of the book, which is what got me to pick it up in the first place. It seemed like an original thought: to take the world of Arthur, the fantastical world of the Summer Country, set it in modern times and throw in modern characters. It kind of gave it a "this just might actually happen" kind of mindset that made the story appealing.

Not a book that I would excited to re read multiple times, but I am glad that I read it at least once. Many reviewers didn't like the way he wrote, but that didn't really personally bother me too much. Apart from his fascination with Gaelic that did make parts of the book a little difficult to understand. Small parts, but still, I generally just skipped over them.

One thing I was critical about was his actual description of the Summer Country. He took such care in making it seem like you were actually experiencing the awful snow and slush of Maine, but that same fervor just didn't happen in the second half of the book when the scene changed. The Summer Country is supposed to be this amazing, brilliant and gorgeous place. But the way he wrote it, it just seemed like a place I would like to stay as far away from as possible.

That being said, the beginning of the book was absolutely amazing. I sped through the first 100 pages because the characters just seemed so compelling and I genuinely had no idea what was happening or what was *going* to happen. Past that, and well into the second half it just failed to live up to my expectation. I still give this book a 4 star rating, because I think that anyone into Arthurian legend would probably get a kick out of it. I liked it. Didn't love it, but I liked it.

[Jacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Jim Hetley's debut novel when it first came out and again for review purposes and I have to say that I'm still in awe of his characterisation skills.

OK, briefly: Maureen Pierce works a dull job (the night shift in a convenience store), is paranoid (but not without reason), and talks to trees. She thinks she's mad, and her sister Jo agrees. And she does, indeed, have some serious mental health problems – most of them stemming from the fact that she doesn't fit into the world – or, at least, not in this world.

Her heritage (and nefarious magic) drags her from Maine to a mythical land, once full of warmth and sunlight, but now Dark and Dangerous (capital Ds intended), along with Brian Arthur Pendragon Albion, a Templar of a race of Ancient Ones, her sister, Jo and Jo's boyfriend, David. There are twisty plots afoot as dark witch Fiona and her brother get to work.

The characters are darkly flawed but Hetley makes you care. The world is richly drawn. Yes it's violent and sometimes brutal, but Hetley draws on the darker side of Celtic myth for his inspiration and it works.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was yet another random pick from the New Fiction section at the library. Generally I love a good modern-day crosses paths with Irish Fae-lands story, but in this case I did not. The main female character was an idiot, all the other characters were flat and unconvincing, and the 'love' story had no depth or believability. And while I don't need my fantasy to be clean and prim, not by a longshot, this was unnecessarily brutal in parts, in ways that didn't serve the story. I kept reading because I hoped the book would eventually redeem itself... but it didn't.

[Jeffree Itrich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading the description on this book I expected to love it. I wanted to love it, but I didn't. I kept at it hoping it would grow on me and while I finished the novel it never grew into love. I suppose the violence, blood and guts got to me. Wasn't prepared for that. At times it seemed gratuitous, as though the author included every gory detail just for shock. I don't think he realized that he had a basic good story that didn't need that kind of minutiae detail. People who like fantasy in all its forms, regardless of gore, will probably like it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and surprising for a darkish urban fantasy. The author has come into his own, giving the characters psychological realism and depth. He describes a gritty dangerous modern world where 'The Summer Country' where the Old Ones, hybrid fey-humans, mold the world to their will. If you liked early Laurell K. Hamilton, you'll like this book. These are fey so scary, they outstrip the vampires and werewolves so populating the bookshelves of late.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved every single screwed up character in this book, but strangely enough, it was the heroine's sister I admired the most. Maureen often refers to her sister as a lowly whore, but the sister is just a modern woman who is resourceful and clever. But I definitely enjoyed being inside of Maureen's schizophrenic mind. The internal dialogue was pretty diverse, which made it that much more enjoyable.
Also, Summer Country was filled with gratuitous violence. Which made me kind of happy.

[Andrea Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Summer Country started off a little too slow for me - and the writing was so descriptive/flowery and filled with imagery that I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to a conversation or some type of action. The prose was a little over the top for my taste, at least for the first 1/3 of the book. It certainly improved for the middle and latter parts of the book.
I also found seven errors - which are always distracting.
Overall, it is a good debut novel - plus there's a dragon!