Book: There be dragons here by S. L. Rowland
Reviewed by Books and Bad Ideas (Jamie)
Rating: 5/5
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Thank you to the author @slrowlandauthor for the opportunity to ARC read this coziest of cozy fantasies!
There Be Dragons Here by SL Rowland is the fourth book in the Tales of Aedrea series and it is the warm mug of hot cocoa that you need in a frigid reality. It's so warm, so delightful, and so full of hope that it cannot help but leave you feeling like you can face anything-- even a valley full of dragons!
What I loved the most about this book was that it rejects the ageism that is typical fare for fantasy: the young adventurer going on an adventure that includes great peril in order to find themself along the way. Instead, Hilda is a grandmother and a dwarf who is not quite 200 years old, but she has children and grandchildren at home! What this book does is takes the call to adventure and turns it into a rediscovery of a self presumed lost to time and the flow of life moving forward. Hilda proves to herself, and to a special someone along for the journey, that she hasn't lost her spark or her drive. It's just been buried under the dust of a few decades!
In addition to rejecting the ageism typical in fantasy, this book shows the power of storytelling. By telling stories not only to her children and her grandchildren, but to people she meets along her journey to honor Frey's last request, Hilda shows that not only can stories bond people and creatures of disparate pasts and paths, but that it can serve as a vehicle for healing and for grieving the lost of those dearest to us. Storytelling isn't just a means to pass the time around the fire-- it is an act of love to both those present and those dearly departed.
If you loved Lord of the Rings but really wanted a protagonist more like Gandalf or Bilbo, rather than Frodo; if you pledge your axe to the cause; if you think D&D games would be 100% better with war goats and grandmas who kick butt; and if you believe in the power of storytelling to make things better, then I 100% recommend this book.