By Patrick Ness
This book is about dragons, religious zealots, and interdimensional travel. It is a great story about righting wrongs and doing what is right. In the dimension we open on, dragons are normal beings who can be hired to do jobs, like say clear land on a farm. There is also a human cult devoted to them, convinced the world would be better without humans, only dragons enjoying their god-like stature uninhibited.
This philosophy comes to a crisis point randomly (or is it?) on the farm of Sarah Dewhurst, inciting global chaos and decimation. As key players escape to a different dimension, it remains to be seen if they can save this world before it too is left to Burn.
I liked this book’s creative exploration of prejudice, morality, and family identity. I also liked the overall message that we are never too far gone for redemption, that it is never too late to ask for forgiveness through better actions and rejection of ignorance. Also, it seems poetic real that there is a dragon burning inside of some people.
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- Redemption and forgiveness are prevalent, but not easy to achieve – hardfought and earned
- The whole idea of dragons: their motivations, appetites, and ideology
- Infinite universes changed by a single choice – a mass scale butterfly effect
Cons
- Military and police forces are represented in realistic ways, and therefore make large blunders in the name of “mitigating risk” – what’s easy is often not right
- Some characters die that you really don’t want to – and it is hard to understand why others live (makes it a compelling read tho)
- Kazimir doesn’t have as big a role as you would like in the first half and then isn’t really himself for the second