4 out of 4 stars
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Becoming the Dragon is book one of the five book Dragon Inside series written by Alex Sapegin. The book cover first drew my attention, as it is very artistic and colorful. The title also seems to infer that there is a dragon in all of us.
The story begins by introducing Andy, a Russian boy, and his family. He has two sisters. Andy thinks it is amusing that his older sister, Irina likes to role-play the lives of elves with her friends. Because Andy has been struck by lightning on a school field trip, he no longer can be around electrical appliances. He finds other interests and spends time doing sports, reading, cooking, and learning things. He learns archery from a neighbor Sergey. His father is an experimenter and wants to invent teleportation.
By accident, Andy is teleported to a new world, Ilanta. Andy is challenged to stay alive from encountering the new and strange animals, as well as, the people and other mystical creatures. Andy is a brave teenager, who seems to have a strong sense of survival. After being captured, hunted for sport, and tortured, Andy escapes with a dragon, Karegar. With the special rites of Jagirra, a magician, Andy transforms into a dragon, named Kerr, the Crystal Dragon. You will have to read this book to find out the adventures of Andy, the teen, and Kerr, the dragon. What will happen next? This book has plenty of suspense, action, and mystery to keep one reading it.
I least liked the many different strange names of a seemingly endless number of characters. It was a challenge to follow some of the stories in the beginning, but it worked itself out in the end. There were a lot of details to get through. Those things did not take away anything, as to rate it 3 out of 4 stars, however. There was also a glossary at the end of the book to help with all the new vocabulary.
I liked the introduction the best, as it described Andy’s family life and background in the “real” world. It was a nice setup for the new world. Some of the descriptions given were quite funny. There was a lot of imagination that went into creating a new world, with different animals and magical beings. The transformation of becoming a dragon and having the power to fly is imaginative. Therefore, I rate this book Becoming the Dragon 4 out of 4 stars. The book was written first in Russian and then translated into English very well.
Because of some of the graphic scenes, this book may not be suitable in its entirety for young children. People, who are not interested in fantasy and science fiction, may not like this book.
Older teens, who like to read about dragons with lots of action would like this book the best. People who like stories of magic, fantasy, science fiction, and a mixture of modern and ancient days would also like this book and series. I look forward to reading the other four books in the series.
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Becoming the Dragon
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