Dragons (novel)

The Dragons series (not to be confused with the Dragon Series; also called The Last Dragon Chronicles, but we're going with the first title used for the series here) is a group of bestselling children's fantasy novels, by the English author Chris d'Lacey. The series began in 2001, and is still going. As of this writing, there are seven main books in the series, plus a spinoff series for young readers.

The series begins when David, an Ordinary College Student, starts looking for a place to stay during his term. He finds a woman named Elizabeth "Liz" Pennykettle, who is renting out part of her house on a street called Wayward Crescent. David moves in with her and her ten-year-old daughter, Lucy. Liz is an artist - she makes clay dragons, and even gives David a dragon of his own, whom he names Gadzooks. As David settles into life with the Pennykettles, he starts noticing strange things - movement in the corner of his eye here, the feeling of being watched there, and odd noises everywhere. Through his adventures with Lucy, he soon realizes that there is more to the Pennykettles than there seems. Some of the dragons they make are just statuary, but some of them are alive. David refuses to believe this at first - but his sudden inspiration to write stories, and Gadzooks' own pen and paper, soon force him into believing that there is more to Wayward Crescent than meets the eye.

David is soon dragged deep into the secret history and world of dragons. Liz and Lucy are among the last protectors of the world's dragons - descendants of Guinivere, a maiden who befriended the last "true" dragon. Dragons aren't the big beasts they once were - now, they must take clay bodies. But they still have dragon's sparks, deep down. And David and the Pennykettles must protect them from all who would do them harm!

The books in the main series are:


 * The Fire Within
 * Icefire
 * Fire Star
 * The Fire Eternal
 * Dark Fire
 * Fire World

Fair warning: This series likes to do interesting things to your mind.


 * Aesop Amnesia: Despite seeing the dragons alive at the end of the first book, he's back to doubting their existence in the second.
 * Actually it'd be  but for all intents and purposes,   would be very nearly as powerful.
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: David doubting the dragons at first is completely logical, but by the second book, one wonders why his Weirdness Censor is so hardy.
 * Arc Words: Sometimes.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:
 * Badass Abnormal:
 * Birth-Death Juxtaposition:  is announced shortly after.
 * : Dark Fire.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Everyone under the control of the Ix.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: One of the most dramatic examples in recent children's fiction - the first book is an adorable, harmless romp. By the third book, we have
 * Cover Drop: From Fire Star onwards, a dragon matching the cover art is described somewhere in each book.
 * Disappeared Dad: Lucy's father.
 * Divine Race Lift:
 * Express Delivery:
 * The Fair Folk: The Fain, though they are far from the fairies of traditional myth.
 * Fusion Dance: This happens when the Fain "commingle."
 * G-Rated Sex: Descendants of Guinivere can become pregnant by thinking about the ones they love (or motherhood) in the presence of special clay eggs.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Quite a bit of it, usually with regards to dancing around the issue of sex.
 * "She never lets me catch her up."
 * "Been spending a lot of time keeping each other warm?"
 * In the second book, Dr. Bergstrom lets David use his good luck talisman for, well, good luck. When he discusses the matter with Zanna later, he asks her, "Did you shake his totem?" This elicits a shocked "Pardon?!" before David explains himself.
 * : Alexa.  Oh, and   is just as bad.
 * Gorn: The series has plenty of dark and violent moments, especially Fire Star, but Dark Fire is suddenly bloody as hell.
 * : Yes, in a children's book.
 * Honorary Uncle: Liz and  are this to Alexa.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:  And lets not forget   who got impaled by
 * Intergenerational Friendship: David and Lucy forge a bond over trying to rescue a squirrel named Conker. No, not that one.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "David, stop talking in italics. It's not helping anything."
 * Lighter and Softer: The spin-off series, focusing on the dragons themselves, is written for very young readers.
 * Librarium Of Babel: The Librarium in Fire World.
 * Living Dragon Figurines
 * : Zanna, quite blatantly so.
 * Marked to Die:
 * Meaningful Echo: In actions, the ending of Snigger and the Nutbeast mimics those of
 * Mind Screw: Fire Star is really heady for a children's book. The end of Dark Fire can also be really screwy to the mind when you try to think about what happened.
 * Mirror Universe: Every main character in Fire World has a counterpart on Earth. It's also Lampshaded in-universe.
 * David is ...well, David.
 * Eliza is.
 * Harlan is.
 * Penny is.
 * Rosa is.
 * Gwyneth is.
 * Mr. Henry is.
 * Mathew is.
 * Angel is.
 * Boon is.
 * Stromberg is.
 * Most Writers Are Writers: David's a geology student, but becomes a writer through Gadzooks' help. d'Lacey confesses that David is a kind of Author Avatar.
 * Mr. Vice Guy: Mr. Bacon. He's the main antagonist for most of the first book, but he's not actually a bad person at all--just curmudgeonly. He becomes a grumpy good guy in the later books.  averts this trope by being a definite good guy.
 * Never Found the Body: In The Fire Eternal,
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Perky Goth: Zanna.
 * Pineal Weirdness
 * Punctuation Shaker: Dragons are fond of the traditional apostrophe (see: Things like "G'ravity" and "G'lant"). Ix go for the exotic and rarely-seen ː, in things like Ixːrisor and Premːix.
 * A lot of things in Fire World have semi-colons in them, to a vast extent. To name a few, theres the world itself, Co:pern:ica, with machinery known as Com:puters, and they can send E:coms with them. Harlan teaches Phy:sics, and has a Tech:nician, Benard.
 * Rewriting Reality: David seems to be doing this in The Fire Within, with Gadzooks' help. He's understandably confused.
 * Sacrificial Lamb:
 * Sacrificial Lion:
 * However, we do not see the characters reactions to it because they're all to busy.
 * Shout-Out: In Fire World, some authors on the books bear resemblance to real life authors. A more obvious Shout-Out is to Alice in Wonderland, when David finds a book called Alicia in the Land of Wonder.
 * Earlier on in the series there's a reference to (paraphrased from memory) 'a popular series of books about a boy wizard going to school', and then in The Fire Eternal, Gollygosh conjours up a screwdriver that 'looked very similar to the screwdriver used by the time travelling hero of the dragons' favourite television programme'.
 * Show Within a Show: Books Within A Book - David's writings, especially once
 * : The end of David's first story, Snigger and the Nutbeast. And at the end of the third book,
 * Supporting Protagonist: In the second trilogy, David spends far less time in the limelight as opposed to the other characters.
 * Teens Are Monsters: In the fourth book, teenaged Lucy is not the same kind little girl she was.
 * Theme Naming: All dragons' names begin with "G." Up to and including,
 * In Fire World, all the Firebird's true names begin with an A.
 * Touched by Vorlons: When the Fain commingle with people, they tend to leave quite a bit of residue behind.
 * Trilogy Creep: The first three books form a definite trilogy, with a complete story, and a very definite ending. The rest do continue it, but begin a new story arc altogether.
 * Two-Part Trilogy: An inverse of the way it usually happens - the first two books form a more complete and coherent story, with the third one being more seperate.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Henry Bacon - he never really knows what's going on, but he provides sturdiness in all the chaos surrounding him.
 * Whale Egg: Descendants of Guinivere hatch from eggs. It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Alexa in Book Four. It's strongly implied that
 * Wound That Will Not Heal:
 * You Cannot Grasp the True Form:
 * Touched by Vorlons: When the Fain commingle with people, they tend to leave quite a bit of residue behind.
 * Trilogy Creep: The first three books form a definite trilogy, with a complete story, and a very definite ending. The rest do continue it, but begin a new story arc altogether.
 * Two-Part Trilogy: An inverse of the way it usually happens - the first two books form a more complete and coherent story, with the third one being more seperate.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Henry Bacon - he never really knows what's going on, but he provides sturdiness in all the chaos surrounding him.
 * Whale Egg: Descendants of Guinivere hatch from eggs. It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Alexa in Book Four. It's strongly implied that
 * Wound That Will Not Heal:
 * You Cannot Grasp the True Form:
 * You Cannot Grasp the True Form: