Reviews

Up with your sword and strike at the gale!
Ride the rough seas for those waves are your home!
Winters may freeze but our hearts do not fail!
Heroes...Hearts...Forever!'

This was a great ending for an amazing series. I actually think that this series is seriously underrated. It has many morals and a great meaning behind it all.
This isn't just Children's literature but pure magic. Living in the wild. Being with nature. Cherishing the world you live in.

How to Fight a Dragon's Fury was again pure bliss to read. It was adventurous, tragic, funny and beautiful.
The writing is beautiful and funny. You feel like you're in the story yourself, which is the best feeling you can get when you read a book.
In this book are also many questions answered and some are quite shocking...

There are many heroes in the story. Not just one. Hiccup is of course my favourite hero.

And Toothless is my favourite, mischievous, daring but cute little dragon.

Also, something else I would like to say is that the two movie adaptions were for me in the beginning fun but now that I've read the whole series... I think I definitely prefer and like the books much better. And I will tell you why because the movies (adaptions) are COMPLETELY not the same as the books and Toothless is not the right one from the story and there were things added into the movies that didn't belong and other things from the book never even made it into the movie.

I prefer the Toothless from the story and I actually don't like it that they didn't put Alvin the Treacherous and Snotlout into the movies. So all in all - the movie is something entirely different than the book series that you see in front of you.

"The Dragontime is coming
And only a King can save you now.
The King shall be the
Champion of Champions.

You shall know the King
By the King's Lost Things.
A fang-free dragon, my second-best sword,
My Roman-shield,
An arrow-from-the-land-that-does-not-exist,
The Heart's stone, the Key-that-opens-all-locks,
The ticking-thing, the Throne, the Crown.

And last and best of all the ten,
The Dragon Jewel will save all men."

mirandatamsin's review against another edition

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5.0

I am 16 years old, it has been 10 years since I first read How to Train Your Dragon, and yet I still bawled my eyes out at how bittersweet this ending is. This series is inspirational and motivational for all age groups, with characters that grow even closer to your heart than you realise.

devontrevarrowflaherty's review against another edition

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4.0

It’s hard for me to believe that I didn’t do this review earlier, though we did finish reading as I was tackling a sizable backlog. Boo! This series deserves better than a months-stale review. But it is what it is, and the least the series deserves is a late review.

Amazon's blurb for the first book is as follows: "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the quiet and thoughtful son of the Chief of the Hairy Hooligans, tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan by catching and training a dragon. Can Hiccup do it without being torn limb from limb? Join the adventures and misadventures as he finds a new way to train dragons...and becomes a hero."

I think we ended up reading book number one of this fairly hefty twelve-volume series because it was on a fourth grade reading list. Little did I know that book one would not be enough for us, and that we would end up buying Eamon the entire box set and giving months of our bedtime reading to enjoying this together. I suppose that I expected something akin to the How to Train Your Dragon movies and maybe even the TV series, and I imagine I thought that the books were not going to be as good. And why were there twelve, anyhow? The movie is just one fairly simple story.

Well, that’s because the books and the movies are nothing alike.

Honestly, I find myself a little irritated that the movie even goes by the same title as the books. “Inspired by,” (and naming characters after) would be more accurate. Other than the names and a similar world, the books and movie have different moods, feels, language, characters (even though they go by the same names), plot, morals, etc. Not that the movie is bad. It’s a contemporary classic for a reason (Well, the first one, anyways) but I just want to reiterate: they have not much in common. They are both brilliant in their own way.

And the books are completely brilliant. I love them. My son loved them. When painting our eight stairs with book spines, the kids each got to chose one title, and Eamon—instead of Where the Red Fern Grows, Danny the Champion of the World, or Sign of the Beaver—went for How to Train Your Dragon.

Full disclosure: these books are written by the college friend of Lauren Child. When I found this out, I understood part of why I was loving it so much. Both Cressida Cowell and Lauren Child (author of the Charlie and Lola, Ruby Redfort, and Clarice Bean series) have a similar tone and similar voice. They are both funny and wildly imaginative, both like children who have never quiet grown up, like Willy Wonka or, his creator, Roald Dahl.

All that nepotism aside, however, How to Train Your Dragon stands alone based on writing, plot, and characters. The writing is smooth and engaging. The plots keep you reading. And the characters are charming and develop over time. Though not every kid will be in for dragons and Vikings, give it a try anyhow. Your kid may just end up wanting to know what happens to Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Camicazi, wanting to join them for their continually spiraling adventures.

I probably had some complaints about these books while I was reading them (like maybe I didn't love some of the stylized illustrations (which kids will)), but time has left a pleasantly warm feeling. I would re-read them. I hope my son will, too.

Book list:

How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
How to Be A Pirate (2004)
How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
How to Cheat A Dragon's Curse (2006)
How to Twist A Dragon's Tale (2007)
A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
How to Ride A Dragon's Storm (2009)
How to Break A Dragon's Heart (2010)
How to Steal A Dragon's Sword (2011)
How to Seize A Dragon's Jewel (2012)
How to Betray A Dragon's Hero (2013)
How to Fight a Dragon's Fury (2015)

New series, beginning 2017: The Wizards of Once

__________

MOVIE: I already mentioned the movie above. I would definitely recommend that you watch the first one, if you have not already. It’s a great movie, though hardly resembles the books. The second movie is okay. Take it or leave it. You won’t regret renting it for family movie night. (The third movie comes out this year.) The TV series, although somewhat popular, is not a favorite of mine. Read the whole book series, watch the first movie, and marvel at how different they are.

***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***

ciphertextx's review against another edition

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5.0

I'll review this when I stop crying about it

[EDIT] 25th July, 2018

I'm still crying, but here's my quick review which is more like a general series review!

I'm going to try to keep this as succinct as possible, because my love for these books knows no end, and I want to write a quick review and not an entire literary dissertation.

At first glance, this series might appear to be for kids. Young ones, at that. They're splattered throughout with childish drawings of the characters (Cowell says they are drawn like this in order to make her younger readers feel that they, too, can draw the characters). The writing is simplistic and verges into third person omniscient a lot of the time, which I associate with children's books more often than not. They're written from the point of view of Hiccup as an old man, reflecting on his life and writing his memoirs.

But if you thought these books were too childish for you, you're WRONG. Here's some reasons why.

Scenes of war, branding, slavemarks and slavery, murder, decapitations, abandonment, grotesque disfigurement, etc.

It's hard to capture the essence of just how big these books are, and how much of an impact they have on the reader. In the first few book, it seems like nothing is important. Some lines are sharp and shocking, but it seems like it's all unrelated. Then you get to book 8. And you realise everything - everything - has led up to this point. All of Hiccup's adventures, all the stuff he's been collecting, his experiences, his enemies.

Throughout the books, Hiccup is collecting a series of objects called the King's Lost Things. Who is the king? Why, the King of the Wilderwest, of course. What is the Wilderwest? A kingdom comprising of all the tribes of the Archipelago! Why are his Things Lost? Well...that's a pretty MASSIVE and emotional spoiler. But he needs the things to become the next King of the Wilderwest so that Alvin, his nemesis, won't become King. If Alvin becomes King, he'll enslave and wipe out the dragons. Hiccup doesn't want that at all. Of course, it doesn't help that a massive and powerful sea dragon called Furious has waged war on all the humans after he had his heart broken by them (see book 8 and the story of Hiccup the SECOND). So Furious is fighting Alvin AND Hiccup, Hiccup is fighting Alvin and trying to make peace with Furious, and Alvin just wants to kill literally everyone, even the people who are on his side.

Honestly can't talk too much about the plot of this series without spoiling everything, so I'll not get too into it. All you need to know is that oh my GOD, the emotions, you have no idea how big the plot truly is. Everything makes so much sense the further into the books you get. Rereading after you've finished the series gives excellent reread factor. And again, the emotions. I cried so much at the end.

If the final movie is supposed to be heading back in the direction of the books, we're all in for a rough ride.

Quick stuff about only some of the characters.

Hiccup is just the best little hero. He's similar to how he is in the movies, a little dweeb who is ostracised by his peers. Reasons for this are given more depth in the books. There's a special reason for his name, he really should have been killed at birth apparently, it's a whole thing. Anyway, he is portrayed as clever, book-smart, inventive, soft but powerful with his words, and pretty skilled at a lot of things. When things start to get rough for him, I was truly aching inside.

Fishlegs is Hiccup's best friend, also a really skinny dweeb, but a tall one with glasses. Fishlegs' story is just as interesting as Hiccup's, and there were some twists in there as he tries to find out who his parents are that really shook me to my core. He is loyal and honest with Hiccup 'til the end.

Camicazi is a tiny wild little girl whom they meet in book 3, becomes Hiccup's second best friend. She is absolutely hysterical, always ready to throw down, will never back down from a challenge, and supports Hiccup 100%.

Toothless is a tiny smol baby dragon whose sass knows no bounds, and he was the highlight of the comic relief in this series. He grows up a bit in terms of personality throughout the series, but ultimately remains himself. And we love him for it.

Ran out of steam. Books are amazing and good.

elphabala's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

5.0

This book kept me at the edge of my seat for the whole duration. I absolutely could not stop reading. What a marvelous ending to the quests of our beloved heroes.
I loved that unlike the movies, toothless and hiccup stayed together until the end of hiccup's life. Reading this series was one of the best decisions I've made this year.

telltalepage's review against another edition

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5.0

This was a fantastic ending to a series that I loved more than I thought I would. (Thank you David Tennant for reading these, otherwise I probably never would have read these physical books.) The story progressed from a little boys book filled with misfortune and potty jokes to a complex series with some really good life lessons.

Since this is a book series for kids, I try to review them with that in mind. These last few books have had some really really great morals and life lessons about growing up, changing the old world for a new generation, being true to yourself and your friends, how to handle complicated situations and confrontations, and a whole slew of other ones.

I was so pleased with this final book, which wrapped up just enough of the story while still leaving room for the reader to try to fill in everything that happened with Hiccup between 15 and 70 (or however old he is at the end of his life as he writes his memoirs) and still feeling satisfied. I was so attached to these characters, much more than I thought I ever would be, and reading about them conquering fears and growing up.

I try to review without spoilers, so let's just say that this ending was really well done and I'm so glad I decided to read this series!

taylorswiftegot's review against another edition

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5.0

nostalgia makes a lot of points.

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