Fire Star by Chris D'Lacey

From Barnes & Noble

With this sizzling installment, Chris D'Lacey's Fire trilogy comes to a full boil. Thanks to the machinations of that arch-nemesis sibyl Gwilanna, David Rain and his friends must confront fiery dragons and pugnacious polar bears. An excellent fantasy adventure.

From the Publisher

A research trip to the Arctic and a contract for a new book--life can't get much better for David Rain. But as soon as David finds himself in the icy climes, he begins to write his legend of bears, dragons, and the mysterious fire star. Soon he realizes that his tale is starting to mirror real life, and that an old enemy is on her way to meet him.

Can David thwart her terrible master plan? Or will his world be destroyed forever?

Children's Literature

This third in a series continues the adventures of Liz the dragon-maker, her daughter Lucy, and their boarder David, whose stories of polar bears eerily foretell events in the Arctic. Bears battle an evil shaman just as Liz and Lucy struggle against the wicked sibyl Gwilanna. David and his girlfriend Zanna are researching global warming in Manitoba, but David returns to help Liz when Gwilanna kidnaps Lucy. Then Zanna disappears. One of Liz's dragons travels to a distant star and becomes possessed by a young alien being, a Fain. Another Fain arrives who wants to destroy all dragons. At least four magical talismans are involved—a polar bear's tooth, a carved narwhal's tusk, a dragon's claw that writes truth for yet another character, and a piece of dragon tail that may help awaken a dragon ancestor and contribute to the already dangerous changes of global warming. A reader unfamiliar with the first two stories will quickly understand that some evil threatens the world. He or she may never quite figure out what that evil is because of an inability to piece together the background story, or be sure which character belongs to which side. Even readers hooked by the intriguing fantasy and engaging humans and animals of the earlier books may find this one confusing. While the others were well within the grasp of good middle grade readers, the death of a major character makes this a book for older readers, in spite of the author's promise that the story is not over.

VOYA

Picking up where IceFire (Orchard, 2006/VOYA August 2006) left off, this novel continues the story of David Rain and Elizabeth and Lucy Pennykettle. Embroiled in a mystery involving an ancient dragon, the small dragons that Elizabeth creates, polar bears, witches, an Inuit tribe of the artic, an emerging star, and an alien race, the trio race between the wilds of an Artic Research Station and the United Kingdom, all while battling evil forces and the clock in order to save the world from ultimate destruction. Although the plot is fast paced, it is too convoluted. At the climax and the subsequent conclusion, the whole novel just falls apart. Long passages of pedantic instruction in physics and the novel's mythology bog down the tale further. The introduction of Elizabeth's long-lost love who has been living as a monk and an evil member of the alien race strain even further the plot's credibility. The characters are flat, mostly because the characterization comes in previous series volumes, making this installment highly dependent on the others. The settings are the one exotic, bright spot in the work, adding to this mysterious fantasy. Although readers of previous series titles will want to read this continuation, encouraging librarians to complete their set, others should pass by this poorly constructed novel.

Kirkus Reviews

The third in the series that began with The Fire Within (2005) leads its characters into a world-saving adventure in the Arctic. College student David and his girlfriend Zanna are ostensibly researching global warming with their professor, Dr. Bergstrom. None of the three, however, are really what they seem. David's writing, inspired by his muse, the dragon Gadzooks, has a disturbing tendency to come true. Zanna is a sibyl with unexpected powers, and Bergstrom is trying to prevent an apocalyptic summoning of dragons. Meanwhile, David's young friend, Lucy, is kidnapped by her powerful sibyl ancestor and imprisoned in the ice. Side plots intrigue, though they are marred by flat and stereotyped characterization: intolerant, superstitious monks; nearly bestial Inuit gifted with shamanic knowledge and the like. The mixed ages of the protagonists (college students, young child, adults mourning lost love) lead to some inconsistency of style, but the originality of the approach makes up for shortcomings in implementation. An entertaining adventure. (Fantasy. 9-11)

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Product Details

• ISBN: 0439901855
  
• ISBN-13: 9780439901857
• Format: Paperback, 560pp
• Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
• Pub. Date: January 2008
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 7,002
• Age Range: 9 to 12
• Series: David Rain's Dragons Series, #3