Kephas4 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 are you watching Merlin at the moment, do you like the dragon? John Hurt's voice is pretty good, although perhaps the humour that Sean Connery brought to Dragonheart might be better. Any predictions as to who should voice Smaug in the forthcoming film version of The Hobbit? Obvious contenders might be James Earl Jones or Tim Curry...place your bets... For dragon books I'd recommend 'The Iron Dragon's Daughter' by Michael Swanwick (a sci-fi slant on alchemy, folklore and fairytales with an interesting twist on dragons).'Tea with the Black Dragon' by R.A. MacAvoy is also quite brilliant in portraying a 'different' kind of dragon.Another one to look out for - though you may have to hit e-bay as it's been out of print for a while - is 'The Flight of Dragons' by Peter Dickinson; he puts forward some thought provoking ideas on dragon fire, dragon flight, and why we'll never find a dragon in the fossil record. This book provided the plot for a Rankin/Base animation in the 80s, though the plot was lifted from another book called 'The Dragon & the George' by Gordon R. Dickson.Mark Chadbourn's 'Age of Misrule' series is also rather dragon-heavy. The story starts off well, gets a bit silly in the middle then improves toward the end but worth staying with if you like the Celtic myths. Interesting to see theorise what would happen if all those 'elder' things decided to make a come-back...Also for sheer escapism and a great child's gift look out for Dragonology by Ernest Drake; it's a gem. In a similar vein, Molly Hunter's 'Knight of the Golden Plain' is another bairns' book that remains timeless in its appeal.That reminds me, in 'favourite book' rather than 'favourite author' mode, Molly Hunter's 'A Stranger Came Ashore' is still one of the best fictional interpretations of local folklore in print. Well worth a look if you've not already read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanna Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Thanks for those Kephas4, I've managed to reserve, the Night of the Golden Plain, and the The Iron Dragons daughter at the library, so some good reading heading my way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Molly Hunter's 'A Stranger Came Ashore' is still one of the best fictional interpretations of local folklore in print. Well worth a look if you've not already read it.Still two copies in the Shetland Times Bookshop (when we got ours - in with the Shetland books). Been recommending it to bored children of tourists all summer so figured I should get one for my bored child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khitajrah Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 I like most of the stuff I've read by Iain Banks. I read The Wasp Factory because it was on the BBC Big Read list and I thought it was dreadful. I don't know which bit of it I was supposed to enjoy or how it managed to get on the list of the UK's favourite books! Needless to say I've been put off reading anything else by him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassermaet Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 ^^^ Try 'Espedair Street', 'Whit' or 'The Crow Road' instead, they're all great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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