Brad About Books: The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER
Published: October 2, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 296 pages
Source: Amazon.com/read for YT Book Club
Series: Dragonslayer, #1

In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

YT Book Club (which I am a host of) chose this book for the January 2013 pick! Want to see our thoughts? Click here for the link to the video!

What can I say about THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER? To be honest, I was very disappointed. I expected a great fantasy novel with lots of action and awesome character development; none of that happened for me.

The first issue I had with this book was the pacing. This is an odd case for me: there would be so much going on in the story, yet it was so slow moving. I don't know how to properly describe it, but barely anything felt relevant and had a point of being in the story to me. And everything that happened was so quirky, different, and weird. That would be the best word to describe THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER: weird. 

But I did enjoy a few of the characters in THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER. Jennifer Strange was a great character. She was strong and heroic character that went to dangerous depths to save her world, and I really appreciated that. But I have to say that my absolute favorite character in the book - in fact, this character bumped up a star for me - was the dragon. Gah, he was so wise and great! That's one part that Jasper Fforde put a spin on that I really loved.

I can't ignore the fact that the book was super odd. I would find myself asking questions and forgetting what I had just read, making me have to flip back a couple of pages to try to regain my memory of the book. Plus, the character development took forever to get started. Some characters I loved, others didn't appeal to me. 

The ending was super sad! I found myself feeling sorrow deep within me, finally connecting to these characters and this book. But another thing that annoyed me in this novel was how words were played upon. I don't think I spotted the word money in this book at all; there was only moo-lah. And after awhile, it gets repetitive and too strange for me to handle.

Overall, THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER did disappoint me, but a few things added a big plus to it. The dragon is one of the greatest beasts in YA fiction, and I loved that Fforde added that element! I'll have to see where the series goes next.

MY RATING: