DRAGON RUN, by Patrick Matthews

Quick Facts:
- 336 pages

If I were nine to thirteen years old, I probably would have loved this book. I can say this with some confidence, because it came highly recommended to me by a thirteen year-old with whom I typically share literary tastes. That said, I found Dragon Run, by Patrick Matthews, to be a solid exercise in common fantasy motifs, with enough originality to raise it above a bit above most of its competition.

The premise of Dragon Run is that on the annual "Testing Day", young adults are each tattooed with a number (1-7) that is supposed to represent their ability and therefore worth to society. Their number determines their rank in society and their future occupation. Our hero, twelve-year old Al Pilgrommor, enters Testing Day nervous but calm. His parents are fours, surely he won't be lower than a three.

The number tattooed on the back of Al's neck is a zero.

Zeros don't exist.

Zeros don't exist because as soon as one is identified they are killed, along with their entire family line.

This is perhaps the best plot device in Dragon Run. In making Al a zero, Matthews immediately upsets the familiar ordinary-boy-finds-out-he's-extraordinary storyline. And to his credit, Matthews never subverts this. Throughout the entire novel, I expected Al to discover that his labeling was a mistake, or that zeros were actually individuals with so much potential for power that they were eliminated for the "good of civilization." This never happens. Though Al does learn more about the ranking process and what qualities are actually used to make a zero ranking, he remains a zero throughout the entire story.

This allows for some very worthwhile exploration of what it means to be seen as the lowest-of-the-low, and can serve as fodder for discussion about how valid it is to judge someone based on appearance or superficial ranking. Al is the story's hero, despite his zero status, and he is appropriately heroic at the appropriate times. Thus, another excellent discussion point is raised: what does it mean to be a hero?

Another aspect of Dragon Run that I thoroughly enjoyed (and actually wish Matthews had indulged in a bit more!) was its world building. Al's world is ruled by rarely-seen dragons, who apparently created humans (as well as the other races that populate the novel) and use a select few humans through which to communicate and exert their power. This is a very interesting concept, and the dragons as indifferent and malevolent god-figures is a theme present but not fully explored in terms of its implications for human society. Though one of the major story arcs involves an act of atrocity committed by dragons on humankind, the atrocity was dealt on a very specific group of people and then kept largely a secret afterwards. What blame people did place was on another human, rather than on the dragons. While I realize this was necessary for the way in which Al's adventure unfolds, I can't help feeling that it was something of a lost opportunity. For a society to be as established and entrenched as this one apparently is, so little acknowledged acrimony for the beasts bringing the public arbitrary suffering seems improbable.

As a whole, I found that Dragon Run held little for the adult reader that was original or surprising. The characters are largely stock fantasy figures, with predictable dialogue. Take, for example our introduction to Trillia, the token "big-talking-but-secretly-soft-female" best friend:

"I swear I will pull these pins out of my hair and jam them up your skinny-"
"I think you missed a spot," Al interrupted.
. . . She turned her glare on him. "Don't think I won't beat you up. Right here. Right now. Right in front of everybody, Mister too-good-to-get-dressed-up."
- Dragon Run, page 4

For an young reader or someone new to fantasy, this is probably a very entertaining character introduction. For those of us a bit older, and who have spent a fair amount time in the fantasy genre, it's less novel. We've met this girl a million times already, and we know her story arc before it even begins.

I therefore recommend Dragon Run as a solid addition to any teacher's fantasy section of the bookshelf, particularly in the upper elementary and middle school grades. It's fast-paced and has the feel at times of a live-action movie, which many students are sure to enjoy. And as discussed above, it opens doors to a number of worthwhile conversations. It just may not hold adult readers in thrall as much as it will the kids.