The Dragon's Flower - Wyn Estelle Owens (Golden Braids Release Day Review!)

Here it is, the last of the stories in the Golden Braids co-release (and my personal favorite... I'm a sucker for rich semi-historical settings!)

The Dragon’s Flower is a Japanese-style fairy tale that takes the story of Rapunzel as its starting point and then charges off into a wonderful world of its own. 

As a tiny child, Hanako grew very ill.  To save her life, she was given over to the princess of Akiyama, who healed her and sent her to a remote pagoda to be raised in seclusion.  Why should Akiyama’s princess—a woman not known for kindness—do such a thing?  And why does Hanako have a dragon-shaped birthmark on her back?

Shichiro is a ronin, a warrior who was exiled from his home by the Shogun of Masaka.  Lost in a rainstorm, he finds himself at the foot of a mysterious pagoda.  Inside, he finds a kind blue-eyed girl.  But what friendship could a ronin have with the Princess of Dragons?

Isao is the son of one shogun and the heir of another.  Trained as a shinobi (ninja) from childhood, he and his comrade Ichiro hear about everything that happens in the Seven Lands.  And there are whispers that the princess of Akiyama and the shogun of Masaka have allied to put a puppet ruler upon the imperial throne.  But what can Isao do to stop them when he cannot trust himself to protect the people he holds most dear?

Mildly Spoilery Review

This is SUCH a fun book.  The characters, the world, the magic, the humor… I could go on and on.  It was a delight to read.  Both Shichiro and Hanako encounter such hardship but with such courage and kindness.  The secondary characters, from solemn Ichiro to little Daisuke, are fun too.

I love the fact that this book engages deeply with Japanese-like mythology but with a Christian twist.  I love the way Wyn names the different types of swords and pieces of clothing and uses the proper honorifics for everyone (at least, based on my experience watching anime it seems to be accurate *cough cough*).  Aaah!  So good!

Now I’d really like to see Sarah Pennington (author of Blood in the Snow, a China-esque Snow White) and Wyn do a collaboration.  I think Blood in the Snow and The Dragon’s Flower could be in the same world, don’t you?

Caveats… hmm…  The version of this that I was sent to review hadn’t been proofread yet, and it definitely needed to be proofread.  But I’m guessing most of that will have been fixed by the time y’all see it.

There were a couple of plot things that bothered me.  At one point in the narrative, a certain person (whom I won’t name, because spoilers) goes missing.  His friends then fail to look for him for months.  When they eventually go to find him, they succeed in like a day.  So.  Isao, you have all these ninja servants, are you seriously telling me that none of them could find a man who wasn’t particularly trying to hide?  For months?  If the missing guy had undergone some critical character development during his missing months maybe I would excuse this, but he just seems to have been sulking that whole time.

The other thing that made me scratch my head was the way the celestial guardians suddenly started solving everyone’s problems.  Need to locate someone?  Done.  Travel quickly?  Done.  Kill evil ninjas?  No problem.  Convince everyone to listen to your clever plan?  No worries, I’ll just turn into a dragon…  As soon as I realized that the celestial guardians were ready and willing to do ALL THE THINGS it took a lot of the suspense out of the story.  Also, if they are free to do basically everything, why have they been hanging around not acting for 300 years?

Readers who aren’t familiar with Japanese names might get a little lost at points.  There are a lot of people and places that get mentioned.  Personally I loved all the names, but not everyone is a crazy linguist. ;)  A character list (and maybe a map?  I like maps) would have been helpful, especially for the tertiary characters (all the shoguns… and small children… and ladies in waiting… and celestial spirits).

Final Verdict  

This story was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend it.

Buy it here.

Add it on Goodreads here.

Read my review of Wyn’s historical retelling of Snow White, But One Life, here.

Wyn Estelle Owens

Wyn Estelle Owens is the penname of a young woman who’s still figuring out what this whole ‘adult’ thing is all about. She lives in a big, old house in Maryland by a Hundred Acre Wood (dubbed Neldoreth) with her parents, three occasionally obnoxious brothers, her dog Jackie, and her rabbit Joker. She is fond of reading, writing, drawing, speaking in dead or imaginary languages, playing videogames, quoting classic or obscure literature, being randomly dramatic, and generally making things out of yarn. Her dream is to write stories that inspire people to chase after the wonderful world of storytelling. Her favorite all-time authors are Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Christa Kinde, and above all, J.R.R. Tolkien, who first inspired her to pursuing novel writing when she read the Hobbit at the age of seven.

Find her online at:  Goodreads || Facebook 

Golden Braids

The Golden Braids co-release has a Rapunzel story for everyone!  (Well, not if you like horror.  Or graphic novels.  Or… I’m gonna stop now.)  Check out the full blog tour here and enter the authors’ giveaways!

Here are the others tour stops for today, August 9th.

Knitted By God's Plan - Five Reasons to Read
Light and Shadows - Five Reasons to Read
Reviews
Unicorn Quester
Interviews
Safe Return Doubtful - Shichiro
Dreams and Dragons - Wyn
Guest Posts
Reality Reflected - Rapunzel and Ancient Japan