No Such Thing as Dragons, by Philip Reeve
Philip Reeve is fast becoming one of my favorite kids' lit authors. Fever Crumb was a cool, steampunky story, and this one, meant for slightly younger readers, is just as compelling, even though its a completely different genre. Just why is it so awesome?
No Such Thing as Dragons plays with both historical and fantasy conventions. When he reaches age ten, the protagonist Ansel, mute since his mother’s death, is bundled off to work for blustery dragon-slayer Brock. The story is set in the 'real' world, somewhere in late medieval Germany, a land where the ignorant still believe in dragons but the educated are starting to questions such myths.
Ansel soon realizes that the knight Brock is little more than a charlatan, making his way across Europe with his con game, which involves tricking folks with his aristocratic veneer and a crocodile skull. The knight's goal is simply to exploit people's fears to score enough food and money to keep going (not a noble goal, but certainly not nefarious). Brock freely admits to the mute Ansel that there are no such things as dragons. But when the pair end up in an unnamed village at the foot of a mountain called Drachenberg, they discover that Brock's confidence may be misplaced.
Circumstances do not work out in Brock and Ansel's favor. The two, joined by a sacrificial maiden sent up the mountain to be the dragon’s dinner, have to battle for their lives when the dragon (or a creature very like one) arrives, determined to eat the whole group, horses included. As the characters confront a terror unlike anything else, they find out what it really means to be a hero, and how even heroes are not guaranteed a happy ending.
Reeve’s middle grade story is unexpectedly rich for its size. He's skipped a lot of the window dressing (no long descriptions of medieval life or mores here) to get to the core of his tale. Though filled with more than enough suspense, gore, and action to satisfy a reluctant reader (read: video-game addict), Reeve’s story is really a character study. Ansel, Brock, and the maiden Else are wonderfully nuanced people, with conflicting motivations, loyalties, and courage.
Chapter by chapter, we learn a little more about each one, and about the world they inhabit. Reeve holds the resolution out until the very last moment, and what could have been a cliched ending feels pretty natural. Ansel’s affliction also makes for an interesting story limitation; since he can’t talk, he must learn in other ways than simply by asking questions. His forced silence even drives the story in parts: imagine warning people about a dragon when you can’t yell dragon!.
Reeve's storytelling is well-balanced and even delicate. He does an excellent job of suggesting ideas to the reader, rather than simply stating them. The result is a book that can be read in a few different ways. Is it really set in our world? Is the creature a dragon, or not? What does it really mean to call it a dragon? And does it matter if the thing is going to eat you anyway?
I really enjoyed No Such Thing as Dragons, and for a story without a lick of magic, it’s a marvelous fantasy. The hardcover came out last fall, and it looks like a paperback edition is coming in May 2012.