The Golden Dragon

Isabel Allende

Set in a remote Himalayan kingdom, probably inspired by Bhutan, this is a book for teenagers. Seán at first found the book a bit simple, or odd, though well written – he's not used to reading books for this age group, and when he realised what it was, all was well. The books' heroes appear to be recovering from theit adventures in the same authors City of the Beasts as the story begins.

The kingdom is ruled by a benign and benevolent King, and the young crown prince is being given an austere Buddhist upbringing to mke him fit to succeed. At times of crisis the King consults the Golden Dragon of the title, and the Dragon's wise counsel has kept the kingdom in good order. The dragon is hidden and protected by all sorts of fearsome traps – reminiscent of those in an Indiana Jones film – and is of course golden, studded with jewels and fantastically valuable. A western ne'er-do-well precipitates a crisis in a bid to steal the dragon, and our two teenage heroes – who just happen to be visiting at the time – save the day.

Not bad at all.
Seán 4/6/06

By the same author

The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.