Dragons of Darkness by Antonia Michaelis

Title: Dragons of Darkness

Author: Antonia Michaelis (translated by Anthea Bell)

Publisher: Amulet Books/Abrams

Published: November 2011

ISBN: 9781419700859

Rating 5/5 with merits

The cover on this is bright, full of colour and eye catching.  It features a really large dragon in mid flight, breathing out colours of the rainbow.

This is a beautifully told story.  It is full of detail, and I felt really close to the characters- so much so that the 540+ pages whizzed by as I was taken on a journey across remote mountains, into forests and snow covered peaks and delved into history, myth and folklore by the characters.  I found it be a very satisfying and complete read.

An invisible prince, Jumar, sets out to stand up and be counted, and to free his country Nepal from rebels.  His story is entwined with that of Christopher, who is magically transported from Germany through a book to try and locate his lost brother who appears to have been kidnapped by the same rebels.  The journey that they take together is filled with adventure, danger and ultimately brings hope and change to a repressed country as well as solving what happened to Christopher’s brother, Arne.

All the characters progress as the story unfolds, so that they become the people of legends and the stuff stories are made of.  Whilst the characters make their journey they are told stories by local people and folklore - this really added to the story in a way I hadn't expected.

I adored reading this.  The story is really magical and intricate, bringing unexpected elements in when you least expect it.  The detail within the first page of each chapter is really sweet – each chapter has butterflies on the chapter header page, which adds a little something to the story as it gets told.  This is storytelling at its best - I think this would make a stunning movie.

Many thanks to Abrams & Chronical Books, a copy was received in return for an honest review.