How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (How To Train Your Dragon) by Cressida Cowell
| How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (How To Train Your Dragon) by Cressida Cowell | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Louise Jones
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| Summary: Hiccup and his friends search for the Ten Lost Things, but the evil Alvin, the witch Excellinor and th Dragon Furious are all seeking to stop them. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 416 | Date: September 2013 |
| Publisher: Hodder | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1444913989 | |
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Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is on an impossible quest: He needs to be crowned King of the Wilderwest before the Doomsday of Yule, but has a plethora of obstacles to overcome before his mission is complete. He needs to collect together the Ten Lost Things, which have unfortunately fallen into the hands of the evil Alvin and his mother, the witch Excellinor. To do that, he will have to find out the location of their secret lair and overcome thousands of Alvinsmen guards. The Alvinsmen are not Hiccup’s only enemies, however. The dragons of the rebellion, headed by the formidable Dragon Furious are also seeking Viking blood. Hiccup’s obnoxious cousin Snotlout has also appeared on the scene, claiming to be a friend, but can he really be trusted?
How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero throws the reader in directly at the deep end with an action-packed, heart-in-mouth opening sequence that exudes relentless energy. Even when the pace of the story calms down, the story has deep emotional undertones, with characters having to make decisions that will ultimately have profound implications on the success of the whole quest and threaten to shake even the closest friendships to the foundations.
A running theme of the book is loyalty and trust. We see the harsh consequences of betrayal as well as a kind of steadfast fidelity that can inspire one to perform astounding acts of heroism in the face of insurmountable odds.
There are plenty of despicable villains and brave heroes, both human and dragon, with some of the most imaginative names conceivable. Grimbeard the Ghastly, Gobber the Belch, Hogfly, Wodensfang and Valhallarama all have parts to play in the story. Of course, Hiccup’s disobedient, stuttering, pocket dragon Toothless also features prominently in the plot. The pages are embellished with plenty of the clashing fonts, ink blots and scribbly pencil drawings that make this series of books so unique.
My one criticism of the book is that I sometimes found it a little hard to follow. There are a lot of dragon species and they all have different names, so when there is an action scene featuring many dragons in one place, it can get confusing to try and picture exactly what is going on, unless you are familiar with each species mentioned. Although the book can be read as a standalone novel, it makes references to previous books in the series, so it would make more sense to read all of the books in order.
The book ends on a gargantuan cliff-hanger, setting things up nicely for the final book in the series. I cannot wait to see how things work out for Hiccup, as Cowell ends the book by leaving him in an even more impossible situation than the beginning and I have no idea how he will tackle the key obstacles that he now faces in order to complete his quest.
How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero takes the saga to a completely new level and is an enormously enjoyable read.
A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons is perfect reading for further tales of Toothless and Hiccup.
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You can read more book reviews or buy How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (How To Train Your Dragon) by Cressida Cowell at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (How To Train Your Dragon) by Cressida Cowell at Amazon.com.
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