Dragons’ Truth
Please welcome Teel McClanahan III to the site, with his young-adult fantasy tale Dragons’ Truth. As a special bonus, we’re releasing all eight episodes at once, so you can decide your own schedule!
When two young boys decide to skip school and seek adventure one day, they end up finding much more than they ever bargained for. More than the dragon and the mountain of riches they see at first, one of the boys finds the entire course of his life changed.
That boy, Larry, finds himself at the center of an adventure bigger than anything he’d ever dreamed of. And when Larry’s continuing adventure begins to effect his schoolwork, and then his teachers and his entire school, Larry’s not sure what he’s gotten himself into. When the effects of that seemingly innocent day begin to spread throughout – and then to threaten – his entire nation, Larry is forced to take action or face the destruction of the entire human race as a result of a single day of hooky.
Join Larry as he grows from a little boy into the last chance for survival that humanity may have, and find out just how complicated a happy ending can become…
June 20th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Great book concept and narration, it just begs to find out who the kid was though…
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I made it to the end because there’s a lot of good stuff here. However, starting with Episode Three, Ghadshyk became preachy and long-winded, and not only got away with it but was admired for it. That was hard to believe.
Oddly enough though, the thing that annoyed me the most (and kept throwing me out of the story) was the way the schools were presented. I’ve been interacting with my local schools for years, and I just could not accept the progression of the new idea through the schools. So it might work better in the story without so many details. Schools are bureaucracies, and nothing spreads through a bureaucracy that fast, except maybe the flu.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:51 am
I really enjoyed this book, and although at times it felt like an after-school special, it persevered in its message and really made me think. The only problem I had is that the end didn’t feel like the end. There was no “The End” or anything, it feels very incomplete. Maybe that was intentional but it was very unsettling when just listening to it straight through and finding out there is nothing after 15.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
At the two thirds mark I thought you were simply channelling the
‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ book.
The Raid was a bit of a surprise given the frozen time bit.
You had a real chance at some characters and you went way over the top with the philosophy of knowledge. Seems like it would have been a better challenge to try to enact the journey through narratives or generations instead of ripping Larry out of his context and having him grow up in a chapter.
Your ability with the accents set the bar really high. You had such high production quality and reading and voices that I was looking for a narrative depth as well.
January 14th, 2011 at 6:20 am
I enjoyed the book, but I have a problem with the “all ages” rating. Over a hundred million people dying horribly is not a ‘family friendly’ concept. Nor is sneaking it into what starts as a story about a twelve year old boy.
I enjoyed the philosophy. I think Gail, who objected to the idea that ideas could spread through the school system so rapidly, missed the point. These ideas are magical and transforming. They turn people into dragons. They cause people to quit their jobs and ignore the bureaucracy.