Reviewed by Catherine Cheek
Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley, takes a look of what it might be like if dragons existed on earth, and how they would fit in with modern society. It’s told as a memoir, from the point of view of Jake, who has spent his entire life at a wildlife refuge for dragons called Smokehill. The staff at Smokehill (and their children) also display other draco species, Tundra wolves, griffons and other mythical creatures. However Smokehill’s main focus, like this novel, is dragons, true dragons, draco australiensis, who are endangered and almost never seen.
Jake and his father are both still reeling from the death of Jake’s mom, and because his father feels guilty about not paying attention to Jake, he lets him go out on a solo jaunt within the park despite the fact that Jake is not yet fifteen. Having been raised in the park, often under the care of the Aragorn-quality Rangers, Jake has sufficient woodsman skills to survive even within the park’s vast acerage. Through what appears to be sheer luck (but later turns out to be mystical reasons) Jake finds a dying dragon. He also finds the poacher she killed, and her litter of babies, one of whom is still alive.
Jake saves the foundling and names her Lois. Raising her proves to be a huge mental and physical sacrifice, but for the men and women of Smokehill, it’s one they take on without question. Saving dragons is, for them, a sacred trust. Raising the dragon is also a risk, as it’s illegal to save a dragon, even though they are endangered, because of the fear that dragons will eat people. I never quite bought this, as it’s made quite clear that dragons have never eaten people. Also, comparable species who do eat people (grizzlies, Tundra Wolves, cougars, alligators) are afforded preservationist protection in both the novel’s world and ours. However, the need for secrecy hinges on the fact that they all risk terrible punishment if it’s revealed they saved a dragonet, and without the need for secrecy, the novel could have ended on page seventy.
Like the crew of the family-run coffeehouse in Robin McKinley’s Sunshine, the employees of Smokehill have a cohesive esprit de corp that makes them all likeable despite their flaws. Jake is a self-absorbed sullen teen, but he acknowledges it and gets past it by caring for Lois. Eleanor is a bratty child, but her strength and self-assurance save them later. Eric is a tyrant and a jerk, but he steps out of his character to save the place they all love.
The descriptions of the other draco species were quite detailed and plausible, and for a while I assumed that this was going to be a science fiction novel. I can buy thirty foot long draco sylvanis and smelly draco odoratus that has to be kept behind glass, especially in a world where Nessie has been found and people are attempting to breed her. The fact that the true dragon, draco australiensis was a marsupial gave my inner scientist a little thrill. However, even Anne McCaffery couldn’t make giant, fire-breathing lizards plausible (though she made a valiant attempt). When large, sentient, long-lived creatures have litters instead of single births (vastly at odds with the real world) the worldbuilding started to look sloppy. I might even have bought the dragon’s paranormal abilities, but when Jake says these enormous, flying, hotter-than-an-oven creatures eat like ascetic monks, the novel slipped firmly from sf to fantasy.
Smokehill itself is an interesting character in this novel, with a deep rich history of its own. It has a force-field gate that keeps dragons in and poachers out (though they never discover how that poacher who killed Lois’ mom got in). No one else in the world has a gate like that, or knows how to make one, so Smokehill is one of a kind. It’s also floundering due to lack of funding. Most of its budget comes from the entrance fees paid by tourists. The tourists are despised by the staff, who see them as a necessary evil, a troublesome bunch who try to escape within the preserves of the park to see the elusive true dragons. People get crazy when it comes to dragons, Jake explains.
And people do get crazy when the body of the poacher is discovered. The poacher had rich parents, it turns out, and they quickly come to the defense of their trespassing son whom they believe was an innocent victim despite his lightning gun and grenade launchers. As political pressure heats up, things become precarious for the folks at Smokehill. Jake and his foundling dragon hide within the vast park. There they meet other dragons, and learn how perfect and wonderful and misunderstood these gentle giants really are.
The story is completely from Jake’s point of view. One of the problems with this is that much of the action happens at the Institute, while Jake is off with Lois in the park, so we don’t hear about their struggles until everything has been resolved. This meant that the true end of the story happened two thirds of the way through, and the final hundred pages of the book was all happy ending. While I liked the characters, I didn’t care to see them all marry their high school sweethearts and have babies—at least, not for that many pages. Also, Jake’s voice uses a lot of italics, which started out distinctive and charming, but midway through started to grate on my nerves.
Still, for the first half of the book, I found it hard to put Dragonhaven down. Knowing it was going to have a happy ending didn’t make it less enjoyable, as I didn’t know what kind of a happy ending it was going to have. The dragons themselves, like the Arkhola Indians, were a little too perfect and saintly. Then again, once in a while it’s nice to have fantasy that isn’t completely dark, and monsters that aren’t evil. People who are crazy about dragons won’t want to pass Dragonhaven up.
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