Dragon Mage: A Sequel to Dragon Magic [Mass Market Paperback]

Following the heart attack death of her forty-nine year old father, Shilo's paternal grandparents take the teen from Marietta, Georgia into their home in Slade's Corner, Wisconsin. Shilo is grateful because she knows she has no place else to go except perhaps her older brother's Atlanta apartment; but between him and his pregnant wife there is no corner for a fifteen year old. However, she is also bored as she feels she landed in Hades as life in a small town living above an antique store is not very exciting.

Her kindhearted grandmother encourages Shilo to look at her late father's stuff that they stored in boxes as a means of learning more about his childhood. In all the cartons the most interesting items are very old puzzles with each different yet containing the picture of a dragon. Her grandmother explains that Shy's dad had quite an imagination as he would tell his parents about his adventures in another realm where a dragon ruled. Unable to put any puzzle totally together as pieces seemed missing, Sly finally realizes that this is one master puzzle not multiples. When she finishes assembling the giant puzzle, Shy finds herself in ancient Babylon serving an ancient dragon and studying to be a DRAGON MAGE just like her dad did as she must complete his work to simply save the world.

In spite of a Forward explaining how the sequels to Andre Norton's classic DRAGON MAGIC came about, I am not sure how much the late Ms. Norton provided (beyond a needlework depicting the four dragons). My previous impression was her last work was A TASTE OF MAGIC in which Jean Rabe used Ms. Norton's writings notes to complete the fantasy. Regardless, DRAGON MAGE is an entertaining young adult fantasy that readers of all ages will enjoy as the modern day heroine goes back several millenniums in her father's footsteps to become an American in a dragon king's Babylonian court.

Harriet Klausner

Dragon Mage (2007) is the second fantasy novel in the Dragon duology, following Dragon Magic. In the previous volume, four boys assembled pieces of four dragon puzzles and then experienced the past to observe a dragon from their own legends.

Sig followed Sigurd King's-Son in his venture against Fafnir the Wurm. Ras was taken to Babylon with sirrush-lau, the swamp monster. Artie worked to foil a conspiracy against King Arthur, the Pendragon. Kim helped Shui Men Lung -- the Slumbering Dragon -- win a wager.

In this novel, several decades later in present time, Sig has a heart attack and dies. His daughter Shilo is taken to Slade's Corners in Wisconsin to live with her grandparents. She is under the impression that Wisconsin is cold, but she discovers that the summers can be very hot.

Shilo is living in a three story building that is now an antique store and the home of her grandparents. The building had once been a stage stop and had rooms upstairs for travelers. It still doesn't have air conditioning and Shilo keeps telling herself that she is within Hades (for more reasons than the heat).

One night Shilo hears someone calling for Sigurd Clawhand. She starts looking for the source of this voice and then the lights go out. Shilo keeps telling herself that she is smarter than the normal horror movie victim, but she goes up into the attic anyway.

Shilo can't find anyone up there. Then the lights come back on and she looks around some more, but sees no one. She notices an old trunk that supposedly contains some of her father's old belongings and opens its lid. She notices only toys and playthings within the box.

One thing catches her eye. A wooden box with an illustration of four dragons upon the lid. She opens it and discovers wooden puzzle pieces that seem to match the pictures on the lid. When she leaves the attic, she takes the box of puzzle pieces with her.

In this story, Shilo finds that pieces are missing for each puzzle, but she can put the parts together to form a fifth dragon. Then suddenly she is somewhere else facing the resemblance of the dragon upon a gate. She is standing in a large plaza filled with people who are staring at her and making sounds that she cannot understand.

When the guards appear, Shilo runs away from them. She soon observes that the people have brown skin and are wearing a completely different type of clothes. She ducks into a room off the street and steals a robe; well, she does leave a gold bracelet for it, but she doesn't bother to ask for permission to take the clothing.

Wearing the robe with the hood up to hide her red hair, pale skin and freckles, Shilo walks among the city folks without attracting further attention. She comes to a river and follows it to a temple building. It is getting dark and she would like to find a place to sleep, so she enters the temple from the back.

When she wakes up the next morning, Shilo sees that the statues around her are all of the same person. Then she is discovered by a young priest and, despite their language gap, Shilo learns that she is within the temple of Shamash in the city of Babylon. The young priest is named Nadintulugal.

Shilo's father had an interest in history and Shilo has inherited this affection. She had learned some things about Babylon in a class on Middle Eastern Conflicts. Since the current ruler is Nebuchadnezzer, Shilo realizes that she must be about 2500 years in the past.

This tale also concerns a dragon -- Ulbanyu -- who has lost her four eggs. The dragon has divined that her eggs must be discovered soon or dreadful things will happen to dragonkind and maybe to mankind as well. She is the one who has been calling Sigurd Clawhand, but now she knows that Shilo is his daughter. Ulbanu expects Shilo to help recover her eggs.

The story leads Shilo into a confrontation with another person from the future who is breeding demons. Shilo also receives some help from an unexpected source. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Norton & Rabe fans and for anyone who enjoys tales of historical dragons, ancient history, and a determined yet moody young woman.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I loved Dragon Mage from the very first page. I got the sense that alot of research on ancient Babylon was done in preparation for this book. It has suspense and humor along with solid believable characters. I especially liked Nidin. If you are looking for a good read you won't be disappointed with any of Jean Rabe's books but especially this one.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars