Voices of Dragons / Carrie Vaughn

 

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is on the younger end of YA, in my opinion. The sentence structure and vocabulary are geared to less sophisticated readers. But the basic bones of the story are good. Humans and dragons have reached a détente, just after WWII and just like the Berlin Wall, they've been keeping an eye on it and preventing any cross over. The problem is that there's no communication between the two sides any more. History has been forgotten and there are no ambassadors to renegotiate terms.

Enter our intrepid teenager, Kay Wyatt, an only child of the town sheriff and a member of border control. (I was amused, by the way, that the border between human and dragon was in Montana. I apparently live in Dragon country—kind of appropriate with the vast dinosaur fossil beds that we have in Alberta.) Kay is sweetly portrayed as an outdoorsy girl, into hiking and rock climbing. She is a bit intimidated by her BFF Tam, who is rather boy crazy and can't believe that Kay isn't. She's managing a budding relationship with her hiking & climbing friend Jon and the two of them are learning about communication.

Kay, being a typical 17 year old, occasionally does things that seem unwise, such as hiking or climbing alone. I was 17 once and I remember that feeling of being invulnerable and overconfident, so that part feels realistic to me. On one of these solo hikes, Kay falls into a stream on the border and is carried into dragon territory, where she is rescued by a young dragon, Artegal. She is shocked when he speaks to her, but curiosity is stronger than fear. They agree to continue to meet and become friends.

Leading a secret life is difficult, especially when the military is spoiling for a fight and willing to engineer a confrontation. But what can a teen girl and a young dragon do to prevent war? It's a pretty simplistic set up. For instance, there's no suggestion of a world wide human government, so it's unclear why the other countries aren't objecting to the American military provoking a mutual enemy.

Just like Kay and Jon learning to tell each other what they want, humans and dragons must quit trying to guess what the other side thinks and actually express themselves. Not a bad message and I would probably have adored it at age 13 or 14. I’m not unhappy to have read it, but I doubt that I will track down the sequel. Unlike some other YA series, there isn't quite enough meat here to satisfy the older adult reader.


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