The Bookwyrm's Review of The Dragon Dreamer by J. S. Burke

 

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Rating: 9.5/10 Stars

Synopsis

A wounded dragon and an undersea misfit.
Bullied as a worthless dreamer, Arak flies away on a dangerous quest and crashes at sea. A fearless shapeshifter octopus heals the young dragon, and an unexpected friendship begins. Arak returns to the dragon clan, but a terrible illness strikes. Then an undersea volcano erupts, which triggers a deadly chain of events! How can two misfits save the dragons?

Review

While I am a fan of dark, complex fantasy, I have a soft spot for creative, all ages fantasy. Series like The Chronicles of Narnia and the Prydain Chronicles helped start my love of fantasy, and J.S. Burke's Dragon Dreamer fits right into that same niche of creative, family friendly fantasy. I can't remember the last time I was so immersed into a strange new world quite like this one.

The combinations of strong world building and wonderful characters just really hooked me. The author's real life experience as a marine biologist shows through in so many ways. We get to see a unique combination of fantasy worlds, the world of the dragons above water, and the world of the marine life, most specifically the octopi, under the water. 

For the dragons, we get to meet Arak, a young dragon who is a bit of a dreamer, but that has to do with his magic, which is stronger than the normal dragon magic, allowing him to remote view at greater distances, as well as use dragon to dragon telepathy at greater than usual distances. When he crash lands on an ice flow looking for the copper dragons need to ingest to survive, he is saved by Scree, an octopus healer, who even though its a risk to her life, is such a good being she uses her healing abilities to help Arak. She even learns to communicate with him using the octopi shape changing abilities. We get to see the two curious and intelligent creatures bridge the gap between their two worlds and species, and it's such a heartwarming story, seeing them adventure together, and even help each other's peoples find solutions to their needs for protection from predators and finding the copper the dragons desperately need. 

They're friendship and bond is one of the best I've seen in a fantasy series, and maybe just in fiction in general. The author's technical expertise and storytelling acumen come together to create something unique, because only someone with her training would have the knowledge to create characters like Scree, with all their wonderful biological oddities, as well as the other marine life, such as giant squids and sea turtles. She brings their intelligence to life without having to make them creature shaped humans, and that's a rare thing indeed. I highly recommend this story for anyone looking for a fun fantasy story, written outside the usual fantasy box, that the whole family can enjoy.