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Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls
The Magic That Doesn't Go Away
Cutbacks have forced Sarah out of the asylum in which she was raised—and into a strange new place where the Head Wolf rules the beautiful and the doomed.
But Sarah can never truly assimilate, for she possesses wild talents. Walls tell her their secrets. Safes tell her their combinations. And a favorite toy dragon whispers dire warnings about those who would exploit her for their own malevolent purposes. There's no place Sarah can hide, from her pursuers or from her past…
Cutbacks have forced Sarah out of the asylum in which she was raised—and into a strange new place where the Head Wolf rules the beautiful and the doomed.
But Sarah can never truly assimilate, for she possesses wild talents. Walls tell her their secrets. Safes tell her their combinations. And a favorite toy dragon whispers dire warnings about those who would exploit her for their own malevolent purposes. There's no place Sarah can hide, from her pursuers or from her past…
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 28, 1994
21 people are currently reading
792 people want to read
About the author
Jane Lindskold
127 books654 followersJane Lindskold is the author of more than twenty published novels, including the eight volume Firekeeper Saga (beginning with Through Wolf’s Eyes), Child of a Rainless Year (a contemporary fantasy set in Las Vegas, New Mexico), and The Buried Pyramid (an archeological adventure fantasy set in 1880's Egypt).
Lindskold is also the author of the “Breaking the Wall” series, which begins with Thirteen Orphans, then continues in Nine Gates and Five Odd Honors. Her most recent series begins with Artemis Awakening, released in May of 2014. Lindskold has also had published over sixty short stories and numerous works of non-fiction, including a critical biography of Roger Zelazny, and articles on Yeats and Synge.
She has collaborated with several other SF/F writers, including Roger Zelazny, for whom, at his request, she posthumously finished his novels Donnerjack and Lord Demon. She has also collaborated with David Weber, writing several novellas and two YA novels set in his popular ”Honorverse.” She wrote the short story “Servant of Death” with Fred Saberhagen.
Charles de Lint, reviewing Changer, praised "Lindskold's ability to tell a fast-paced, contemporary story that still carries the weight and style of old mythological story cycles."[1] Terri Windling called Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls "a complex, utterly original work of speculative fiction." DeLint has also stated that “Jane Lindskold is one of those hidden treasures of American letters; a true gem of a writer who simply gets better with each book.”
Lindskold was born in 1962 at the Columbia Hospital for Women, the first of four siblings and grew up in Washington, D.C. and Chesapeake Bay. Lindskold's father was head of the Land and Natural Resources Division, Western Division of the United States Justice Department and her mother was also an attorney. She studied at Fordham, where she received a Ph. D. in English, concentrating on Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern British Literature; she successfully defended her Ph.D. on her 26th birthday.
Lindskold lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, archaeologist Jim Moore.
Lindskold is also the author of the “Breaking the Wall” series, which begins with Thirteen Orphans, then continues in Nine Gates and Five Odd Honors. Her most recent series begins with Artemis Awakening, released in May of 2014. Lindskold has also had published over sixty short stories and numerous works of non-fiction, including a critical biography of Roger Zelazny, and articles on Yeats and Synge.
She has collaborated with several other SF/F writers, including Roger Zelazny, for whom, at his request, she posthumously finished his novels Donnerjack and Lord Demon. She has also collaborated with David Weber, writing several novellas and two YA novels set in his popular ”Honorverse.” She wrote the short story “Servant of Death” with Fred Saberhagen.
Charles de Lint, reviewing Changer, praised "Lindskold's ability to tell a fast-paced, contemporary story that still carries the weight and style of old mythological story cycles."[1] Terri Windling called Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls "a complex, utterly original work of speculative fiction." DeLint has also stated that “Jane Lindskold is one of those hidden treasures of American letters; a true gem of a writer who simply gets better with each book.”
Lindskold was born in 1962 at the Columbia Hospital for Women, the first of four siblings and grew up in Washington, D.C. and Chesapeake Bay. Lindskold's father was head of the Land and Natural Resources Division, Western Division of the United States Justice Department and her mother was also an attorney. She studied at Fordham, where she received a Ph. D. in English, concentrating on Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern British Literature; she successfully defended her Ph.D. on her 26th birthday.
Lindskold lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, archaeologist Jim Moore.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
October 13, 2023
3.0 Stars
I loved the ideas and pieces of this story but I'm not quite sure it worked as a cohesive narrative. I like the dynamics of pack life and mental wanderings of our main protagonists. But this book was super weird. Possibly too weird for me. This is a case where I appreciated the book but it didn't quite meet its potential.
I loved the ideas and pieces of this story but I'm not quite sure it worked as a cohesive narrative. I like the dynamics of pack life and mental wanderings of our main protagonists. But this book was super weird. Possibly too weird for me. This is a case where I appreciated the book but it didn't quite meet its potential.
July 17, 2014
What a dreadful cover the new edition has! Despite all that black surrounding the waif, this is not a grim, depressing story. Far from it!
When I think of the category Unique SFF Novels, this book is one that leaps to mind; not when I think of Grim SFF Novels.
The thing about Sarah is she can't speak normally, she can't read or accurately process written words. She can, however, remember and parrot emotionally charged language, so she communicates by means of appropriate quotes from Shakespeare and so on. She also talks to her two-headed rubber dragon, named Betwixt and Between. Talking to toys is not unusual, but they talk back, and the reader is immediately confronted with the whole question of how much of this is in Sarah's head.
Every now and then, though, an inanimate object will tell Sarah something really useful that she has absolutely no way of knowing. How this works is not really adequately explained -- there is some handwaving, but it doesn't really make sense, not that this is likely to bother the reader, because this is a story that pulls you in from the first moment.
Today, this little gem of a novel (220 pp) might be published as a dystopia, since that's such a Thing right now. But the focus is not on a horrible repressive government, though given the street society Sarah joins, it's obvious that there must be dystopian elements to the broader society. The bad guys are part of an Evil Corporation, though, rather than a Repressive Government.
This is told in a first-person-present-tense voice that I believe was less common at the time it was written, and that is still hard to pull off. Sarah is an excellent protagonist, especially the contrast between her as an adult character with adult complexity and motivations, and the way those around her tend to treat her as younger and more innocent because of her problems with communication. There are a good many secondary characters, mostly drawn broadly but well. Lindskold does a fine job making every character interesting and believable -- in Head Wolf's case, it's amazing that Lindskold pulled off "believable", but you really WANT him to be real. His Jungle Books-based gang is a wonderful element to the story. In fact, this novel crams a lot of disparate pieces into its short length, yet they somehow all make sense as you read the story. Writing any kind of synopsis must have been tough!
This is a story that deserves not to fade away into the past. Luckily it's still available, even if the current cover(s) don't offer much.
When I think of the category Unique SFF Novels, this book is one that leaps to mind; not when I think of Grim SFF Novels.
Sarah is insane. After all, she talks to walls, rubber dragons, and other inanimate objects. What no one else knows is that the inanimate answers her back. When budget cuts put Sarah out of a mental home and onto the streets, she is adopted by a street gang ruled by Head Wolf, a sometimes brutal man who may be as insane as she is. But someone wants Sarah -- perhaps merely to put her back inside, perhaps for more sinister reasons. Championed by the hacker Abalone, assisted by other members of the Pack, Sarah goes into hiding, but hiding may not be enough to preserve her freedom -- or her life.
The thing about Sarah is she can't speak normally, she can't read or accurately process written words. She can, however, remember and parrot emotionally charged language, so she communicates by means of appropriate quotes from Shakespeare and so on. She also talks to her two-headed rubber dragon, named Betwixt and Between. Talking to toys is not unusual, but they talk back, and the reader is immediately confronted with the whole question of how much of this is in Sarah's head.
Every now and then, though, an inanimate object will tell Sarah something really useful that she has absolutely no way of knowing. How this works is not really adequately explained -- there is some handwaving, but it doesn't really make sense, not that this is likely to bother the reader, because this is a story that pulls you in from the first moment.
Today, this little gem of a novel (220 pp) might be published as a dystopia, since that's such a Thing right now. But the focus is not on a horrible repressive government, though given the street society Sarah joins, it's obvious that there must be dystopian elements to the broader society. The bad guys are part of an Evil Corporation, though, rather than a Repressive Government.
This is told in a first-person-present-tense voice that I believe was less common at the time it was written, and that is still hard to pull off. Sarah is an excellent protagonist, especially the contrast between her as an adult character with adult complexity and motivations, and the way those around her tend to treat her as younger and more innocent because of her problems with communication. There are a good many secondary characters, mostly drawn broadly but well. Lindskold does a fine job making every character interesting and believable -- in Head Wolf's case, it's amazing that Lindskold pulled off "believable", but you really WANT him to be real. His Jungle Books-based gang is a wonderful element to the story. In fact, this novel crams a lot of disparate pieces into its short length, yet they somehow all make sense as you read the story. Writing any kind of synopsis must have been tough!
This is a story that deserves not to fade away into the past. Luckily it's still available, even if the current cover(s) don't offer much.
April 10, 2012
In her asylum, Sarah is different than the rest. She only speaks in memorized verse--especially Shakespeare and Blake--and always has her vinyl two-headed dragon close by. However, she's not really autistic. When budget cuts force her onto the streets, she falls into a street gang that guards her with fierce protectiveness. Sarah soon realizes something strange: she can hear the voices of more objects than her dragons. Walls speak their security codes, and paintings tell their history. And when a doctor from the asylum that raised her begins a frantic search for Sarah, she'll need all the wiles of her street friends and her own gifts if she'll make it out alive.[return][return]I love the premise here. Sarah is an amazing character, and first person narration works perfectly here because she can think like other people, but she doesn't speak or listen like others. The beginning of the book is filled with vibrant characters from the street; on some levels those interactions worked, though some sexual elements felt forced and didn't fit with the rest of the book. Her friend Abalone shines. In the latter half, that feeling isn't there. Sarah is on the run and the cast is limited, and some of the best characters from the beginning fall into stereotypes. It makes the book feel unbalanced. One of the big plot twists at the end was easy to see coming, too. It's not a bad read--it's good for a study of technique alone--but I don't feel it's worth keeping.
October 29, 2021
While I was surprised by the almost casual descriptions of mistreatment of the disadvantaged, it made sense for the life these characters lead (in which maltreatment and inequity is a fact of life). It was also timely in that I just watched Dune and the similarity of struggle between reality and delusions. between the protagonists struck me. What is reality? How to judge whose perception is true? The duality of both realities….
February 8, 2013
Wonderful, wonderful, amazing, awesome book.
I read this book many, many years ago and had a very good emotional memory of it, even if I didn't remember the specifics beyond the two-headed dragon, "crazy" Sarah and talking inanimate objects. Really, that's enough. Add in the beautiful, poetic title and surely it has to be a winner.
Of course, memory can lie, or at least soften the edges. Not to mention that the passing of time can date and change one's reaction to a book. Jo Walton at Tor.com calls it having the "suck fairy" visit; that a book one loved in the past can suffer from growing up, growing technology, growing understanding of the errors of the past.
I am very happy to report that Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls has not suffered in the least. Possibly, if anything, I appreciate it more now than I did at 25 or so. I'm older, I'm wiser, I'm the mother of a child with issues of his own (if mild ones), and I think perhaps this book talks to me even more now than it did then.
It also helps that the "near future" that Lindskold created for her book still works as a "day after tomorrow" as well now as it did when the book was originally published in 1994. For a first book, it is amazing. It's creative, and poetic, and strong and inventive. Sarah is an amazing character and I still love her and Betwixt and Between to pieces. Maybe if I ever make another soft toy dragon, it will have to have two heads.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Go, find it, read it. You won't regret it.
I read this book many, many years ago and had a very good emotional memory of it, even if I didn't remember the specifics beyond the two-headed dragon, "crazy" Sarah and talking inanimate objects. Really, that's enough. Add in the beautiful, poetic title and surely it has to be a winner.
Of course, memory can lie, or at least soften the edges. Not to mention that the passing of time can date and change one's reaction to a book. Jo Walton at Tor.com calls it having the "suck fairy" visit; that a book one loved in the past can suffer from growing up, growing technology, growing understanding of the errors of the past.
I am very happy to report that Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls has not suffered in the least. Possibly, if anything, I appreciate it more now than I did at 25 or so. I'm older, I'm wiser, I'm the mother of a child with issues of his own (if mild ones), and I think perhaps this book talks to me even more now than it did then.
It also helps that the "near future" that Lindskold created for her book still works as a "day after tomorrow" as well now as it did when the book was originally published in 1994. For a first book, it is amazing. It's creative, and poetic, and strong and inventive. Sarah is an amazing character and I still love her and Betwixt and Between to pieces. Maybe if I ever make another soft toy dragon, it will have to have two heads.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Go, find it, read it. You won't regret it.
June 11, 2009
It's a a great set-up - a secret, wolf-pack underworld with a nifty, areal den that takes in wayward youth. (The author clearly loves the culture of wolves, as evidenced by her later novels which I have not read). Add to this the protagonist, a young woman, Sarah, with mysterious powers to speak with inanimate objects, but can only speak in quotes from literature to other people. Fairly early in the novel, she is ejected from the institute with no belongings and no place to go. The beginning of the novel is full of delightful weirdness, funny utterances from Sarah and dark puzzles, with the young woman navigating a new world through the eyes of someone convinced that she is crazy, but utterly accepting of her strange abilities.
Then it goes downhill, as the author explains everything with genetic manipulation and schemes to make money from her abilities. The surreal world of the wolf-pack is replaced by straight up action and intrigue and Sarah's abilities lose their metaphorical magic. Alas, the story becomes stock bio-genetic fiction. The characters remain lovable, but not enough to make me cry if someone got killed off. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this twenty years ago, but now I like my weird fantasy to just stay weird.
Then it goes downhill, as the author explains everything with genetic manipulation and schemes to make money from her abilities. The surreal world of the wolf-pack is replaced by straight up action and intrigue and Sarah's abilities lose their metaphorical magic. Alas, the story becomes stock bio-genetic fiction. The characters remain lovable, but not enough to make me cry if someone got killed off. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this twenty years ago, but now I like my weird fantasy to just stay weird.
August 9, 2023
genuinely a wild book. the plot was pretty insubstantial but the characters and near-future world were vividly drawn and weird enough to be interesting on their own.
September 17, 2020
This was my first Lindskold book and it was very interesting! Enjoyed the twists and turns of the story and the characters.
February 23, 2013
Sarah has lived in a psychiatric home for years, her only form of communication quotes from literature. Now cost-saving measures are putting her out on the street. She is taken in by a group of unwanted people led by Head Wolf, a madman who is a modern age Fagin, but one who cares for his people. Sarah finds a home there as well as friends who can understand her. Then word comes that the people who tossed her out are frantically looking for her. Sarah and her friends must find out why as well as how to avoid capture.
I found an free first chapter for this book online at a website I don't even remember and began reading. I was immediately enthralled and went searching for the e-version, finally discovering it on Sony's Bookstore. It would probably be classified as fantasy, but we aren't talking about elves and witches and werewolves or vampires. These are real people in an undetermined future time, the people who slip through the system and make lives for themselves. Sarah is a strong character who truly grows through her interactions with the Pack. I have enjoyed some of Lindskold's short stories, but would never have found this book without stumbling over the free chapter. I'm definitely putting her other books on my list.
I found an free first chapter for this book online at a website I don't even remember and began reading. I was immediately enthralled and went searching for the e-version, finally discovering it on Sony's Bookstore. It would probably be classified as fantasy, but we aren't talking about elves and witches and werewolves or vampires. These are real people in an undetermined future time, the people who slip through the system and make lives for themselves. Sarah is a strong character who truly grows through her interactions with the Pack. I have enjoyed some of Lindskold's short stories, but would never have found this book without stumbling over the free chapter. I'm definitely putting her other books on my list.
August 11, 2007
I don't know where to start. This book had me entranced from the start. Lindskold has an incredible grasp on what makes humans tick, and couples that with an excellence in writing that allows her thoughts to come across clearly. This book takes a 'victim' of the socialwork world, and turns her into a heroine worthy of, well I can't think of anything that both worthy and all encompassingly human, as Sarah undoubtedly is.
I group Lindskold's writings into two main groups. The first I found were straight fantasy, her Wolf's Heart books. I enjoyed those very much, and intend to keep reading them.
Then, I read her Child of a Rainless Year (see my review on that one), and realized she wrote other types of book. These, I term 'a fraction off reality'. She builds a very real, fairly modern (or in case of Buried Pyramid, early 1900's, I think) world, makes it leap-off-the-page real, peoples it with folks who could live next door, and gives them a slightly magical life.
I absolutely love these fraction books of hers, and hope you give them a try.
I group Lindskold's writings into two main groups. The first I found were straight fantasy, her Wolf's Heart books. I enjoyed those very much, and intend to keep reading them.
Then, I read her Child of a Rainless Year (see my review on that one), and realized she wrote other types of book. These, I term 'a fraction off reality'. She builds a very real, fairly modern (or in case of Buried Pyramid, early 1900's, I think) world, makes it leap-off-the-page real, peoples it with folks who could live next door, and gives them a slightly magical life.
I absolutely love these fraction books of hers, and hope you give them a try.
October 21, 2007
Oh my goodness... I have never been so pulled into a book before! Well, maybe once or twice before, but still... I don't even know where to begin. I was enthralled and even saddened by Sarah's inability to communicate her very complex thoughts to her friends, who include her mentor Abalone and her two-headed dragon Betwixt and Between. She speaks in classical quotes and has secrets locked inside her head, much like the asylum from which she was released. Mysteries are around every corner for Sarah, and the reader, as she leads you through a labyrinth of mayhem, madness, and magic.
If you like dark tales of lunacy and feral science fiction, then this is a story that will make you sad when it ends.
If you like dark tales of lunacy and feral science fiction, then this is a story that will make you sad when it ends.
April 9, 2009
Totally loved this book. It was magical and fantastical and I felt stoned the entire time I was reading it. The plot is sci-fi fantasy and the author obviously read Kipling as a young person. However, the voice of the narrator was so involving and well-portrayed. I did not find her going out of character at any point. The story was internally coherent. The language was beautiful. Really liked it.
July 25, 2017
This is a weird book. I liked it, some parts of it quite a bit, but it's a weird book. I think I started out with the wrong expectations; I'd just read a YA book, and the cover of this one looks like a YA novel. It's also told from the perspective of someone who believes her plastic dragons can talk to her, so initially I thought I was going to be reading a YA fantasy novel.
Pretty quickly, though, the book veers into adult territory; the protagonist Sarah is actually in her thirties, and there's a fair amount of sexual content, including mentions of child prostitution, although none of it is graphic or detailed, just alluded to.
This is set in some sort of possibly dystopic future, but we don't get a lot of details about the world because everything comes from Sarah's very limited POV. That's actually one of my favorite parts about the book--the way the author lets little details about the world slip through (everybody uses some kind of credit system, hovercars are a thing, etc) without really explaining anything.
Another part I really like is that Sarah can speak to inanimate objects. At the beginning of the story, the reader thinks she's hallucinating and then gradually comes to realize that she truly can hear her plastic dragons and other objects speak. I also like that Sarah falls in with a group of marginalized people who have banded together to protect each other and live together in what sounds to me like an abandoned chemical plant. Their society is based on the Jungle Book, and is very cool if also very disturbing in many ways.
So, pros: very cool world building, very interesting protagonist, very interesting plot.
Cons: mentions of child rape and child prostitution, consent issues, really bizarre (dated?) understanding of autism (the story begins with Sarah in an institution, and she's believed to be autistic because she was mute as a child and now can only communicate in quotations from stories that she's memorized)
Recommend with reservations.
Pretty quickly, though, the book veers into adult territory; the protagonist Sarah is actually in her thirties, and there's a fair amount of sexual content, including mentions of child prostitution, although none of it is graphic or detailed, just alluded to.
This is set in some sort of possibly dystopic future, but we don't get a lot of details about the world because everything comes from Sarah's very limited POV. That's actually one of my favorite parts about the book--the way the author lets little details about the world slip through (everybody uses some kind of credit system, hovercars are a thing, etc) without really explaining anything.
Another part I really like is that Sarah can speak to inanimate objects. At the beginning of the story, the reader thinks she's hallucinating and then gradually comes to realize that she truly can hear her plastic dragons and other objects speak. I also like that Sarah falls in with a group of marginalized people who have banded together to protect each other and live together in what sounds to me like an abandoned chemical plant. Their society is based on the Jungle Book, and is very cool if also very disturbing in many ways.
So, pros: very cool world building, very interesting protagonist, very interesting plot.
Cons: mentions of child rape and child prostitution, consent issues, really bizarre (dated?) understanding of autism (the story begins with Sarah in an institution, and she's believed to be autistic because she was mute as a child and now can only communicate in quotations from stories that she's memorized)
Recommend with reservations.
May 25, 2020
I’ve had this book for a good while and finally got around to reading it. Where to start? I think the idea of the story was interesting, but it wasn’t properly executed, in my opinion. I get that Sarah could only talk using quotes, but there was a lot of narratives that seemed all over the place, as in it was hard to understand because the writer put the words in a strange order or didn’t write it in a very understandable way, if that makes sense. For example, “When his partner says something, the drumming stops and his attitude becomes tense and listening.” So his attitude becomes listening… What is that supposed to mean exactly? Or there was the description of someone having a “neuter voice.”
There was a part when the pack wanted Gerome to help them. Sarah is talking to him while Grey Brother is nearby. I’m not a fan of learning a character was doing something/had something after the fact. What I mean is that Grey Brother ends up putting his knife away. Yet there was never any mention of him even having one out in the first place.
The idea of drawing a detailed map in the dirt was laughable. Just imagining what it looked like after all the little things Sarah said she was including in it? No…
Sarah is taken to the garden roof after her capture. There are orchids that remind her of prom dresses and weddings. I could see her knowing about weddings, maybe, but proms?
When Sarah and Jersey are “in the zone,” she wants him to be able to see how she sees (the dragons, her owl). She doesn’t do anything though. Yet he ends up being able to see them moving and eating.
Near the end, Sarah is rescued and they’re trying to get to Jersey. They enter a room that smells like men’s socks. Are they dirty men’s socks? Who knows? Either way, what do men’s (dirty was not mentioned) socks smell like? How are they different from women’s socks (dirty or not)?
In the end, I loved the cover and the idea but not the story so much.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2024
"Magical thinkers, people who so believe in or perhaps sense the living spirits in the inanimate world that what is dead matter to you and me might somehow be able to communicate with them."
This book has sat in my bookcase for decades. Finally, I took it down and read it.
Interesting premise. Sarah can only communicate with phrases from books that were read to her. She has an excellent memory and she talks to a two-headed toy dragon called Betwixt and Between. She lives in a Home because she's considered autistic and unable to care for herself. However, bureaucracy steps in and wants to release the patients who can function in society. They all get a card with funds and are turned loose onto the streets.
This is a "light" dystopian society, set in our future. It's more "high" tech than the 90's (The decade this book was published).
Sarah is lost on the streets when she is found by a young woman named Abalone. She takes her to "The Jungle," an underground society led by the "Head Wolf." The system in place there is loosely based off of The Jungle Book. Sarah gets a teacher, a "Baloo," and she chooses Abalone. The "Head Wolf" is described as kind and fair, but can administer harsh justice when necessary. I found it both interesting and creepy in a "cult" like way. "Head Wolf" was an interesting character, yet, there is very little of him in the book.
Soon, the "Home" wants Sarah back. She must leave "The Jungle" and go into hiding. She has the help of Abalone and Professor Isabella. Eventually, we learn that Sarah can talk to any inanimate object, not just her dragon. It can overwhelm her and there's a reason why she is wanted back by the creepy people looking for her.
The book is told from Sarah's perspective, which is an interesting POV and it is set in an interesting world. However, I was left a little underwhelmed, somehow wanting more from this story than I got.
This book has sat in my bookcase for decades. Finally, I took it down and read it.
Interesting premise. Sarah can only communicate with phrases from books that were read to her. She has an excellent memory and she talks to a two-headed toy dragon called Betwixt and Between. She lives in a Home because she's considered autistic and unable to care for herself. However, bureaucracy steps in and wants to release the patients who can function in society. They all get a card with funds and are turned loose onto the streets.
This is a "light" dystopian society, set in our future. It's more "high" tech than the 90's (The decade this book was published).
Sarah is lost on the streets when she is found by a young woman named Abalone. She takes her to "The Jungle," an underground society led by the "Head Wolf." The system in place there is loosely based off of The Jungle Book. Sarah gets a teacher, a "Baloo," and she chooses Abalone. The "Head Wolf" is described as kind and fair, but can administer harsh justice when necessary. I found it both interesting and creepy in a "cult" like way. "Head Wolf" was an interesting character, yet, there is very little of him in the book.
Soon, the "Home" wants Sarah back. She must leave "The Jungle" and go into hiding. She has the help of Abalone and Professor Isabella. Eventually, we learn that Sarah can talk to any inanimate object, not just her dragon. It can overwhelm her and there's a reason why she is wanted back by the creepy people looking for her.
The book is told from Sarah's perspective, which is an interesting POV and it is set in an interesting world. However, I was left a little underwhelmed, somehow wanting more from this story than I got.
November 6, 2017
The way this book treats mental illness and sexual assault made me too uncomfortable to finish. The story is told from the perspective of the main character, who has limited speech capabilities and communications through famous literature quotes. It's heavily implied that she is autistic, and that being autistic gives her special powers that allow her to talk to inanimate objects. She also is turned out of the asylum she was raised in and quickly taken in by a street gang where sexual abuse appears to be the norm. I skimmed through to the end of the book to see if things got better, but even at the end of the story, her neurodivergence is treated as something that makes her "broken" and a frustration to her friends because she can't communicate normally. There's also a genetically engineered baby that is supposed to have her magic talking powers without the "negative aspects" of her abilities (ie, the things that are implied to be autistic behaviors).
This book feels incredibly othering of autistic people, making them into science experiments and conduits for magic. This dehumanizing aspect creeped me out pretty badly.
This book feels incredibly othering of autistic people, making them into science experiments and conduits for magic. This dehumanizing aspect creeped me out pretty badly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2020
How much this appeals to the reader will be directly proportional to their affection for cyberpunk settings/tropes/archetypes/stuff. A decade after Gibson dropped Neuromancer, Lindskold has give us a Janie Mnemonic if you will. Evil corps, hackers, the ruins of once great cities, flying vans & scooters, addictive drugs that allow telepathy... populate this tale more familiar than fresh, but at least not feeling stale (released in 94, Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls is between - after Blade Runner & Akira but before Total Recall & The Matrix).
So, far this may feel like a three star review, and I guess it could be but... the narrator is intriguing: always at risk of being the princess who needs rescuing, she never loses agency; though able to "speak" with inanimate toy dragons, she can only speak in remembered quotes with other people; been through trauma but never crying for sympathy. And I think many will find her hacker side-kick appealing.
Quick read, under 300 pages. For fans of this milieu, four stars maybe five. For those with little interest cyberpunk but like a strong heroine and don't mind a SF story, three maybe four.
So, far this may feel like a three star review, and I guess it could be but... the narrator is intriguing: always at risk of being the princess who needs rescuing, she never loses agency; though able to "speak" with inanimate toy dragons, she can only speak in remembered quotes with other people; been through trauma but never crying for sympathy. And I think many will find her hacker side-kick appealing.
Quick read, under 300 pages. For fans of this milieu, four stars maybe five. For those with little interest cyberpunk but like a strong heroine and don't mind a SF story, three maybe four.
September 18, 2020
I read this book in furtherance of my “Definitive Guide to Dragons” at the recommendation of my aunt and was quite surprised to discover the dragons are actually...a toy. BUT they ARE dragons and therefore the book belongs in the Guide.
Overall I found this book readable and semi interesting but nothing to write home about or recommend. The protagonist has been released after a lifetime in an insane asylum; and learns to survive with some outlaw street kids. The street kids speak in some fun ways, and the main character speaks solely in literary quotes which is more charming than it sounds. There is nefarious activity and loyalty and a sort of mystery and magic masquerading as science. I wasn’t sorry I spent the time reading it, but I also wasn’t sorry when it was over and I wasn’t ever STOKED to get back to it. And it definitely does not have the feel of a DRAGON BOOK as I look for them!
Overall I found this book readable and semi interesting but nothing to write home about or recommend. The protagonist has been released after a lifetime in an insane asylum; and learns to survive with some outlaw street kids. The street kids speak in some fun ways, and the main character speaks solely in literary quotes which is more charming than it sounds. There is nefarious activity and loyalty and a sort of mystery and magic masquerading as science. I wasn’t sorry I spent the time reading it, but I also wasn’t sorry when it was over and I wasn’t ever STOKED to get back to it. And it definitely does not have the feel of a DRAGON BOOK as I look for them!
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February 17, 2025Sometimes I scan the racks at Half-price Books for paperbacks that look dated. I love the chance to read a book that slipped by me a generation ago. I picked up this title from 1994 and read it in one snowed-in day.
Sarah can speak only in quotations from great literature. She converses regularly with her toy dragon. She lives in a mental health facility until she is kicked out and forced to live on the streets. From there she joins a gang that lives by laws they've cobbled together from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books. Then someone comes looking for her and the mystery of her origin is revealed.
This is a dystopian plot without a dystopian tone. Sarah is very engaging. She kept my interest and I cared about what happened to her. Still, the portrayal of the traumatized street people earning in a desperation economy left me uneasy. It did not feel honest, particularly about the effects on children.
Sarah can speak only in quotations from great literature. She converses regularly with her toy dragon. She lives in a mental health facility until she is kicked out and forced to live on the streets. From there she joins a gang that lives by laws they've cobbled together from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books. Then someone comes looking for her and the mystery of her origin is revealed.
This is a dystopian plot without a dystopian tone. Sarah is very engaging. She kept my interest and I cared about what happened to her. Still, the portrayal of the traumatized street people earning in a desperation economy left me uneasy. It did not feel honest, particularly about the effects on children.
February 13, 2019
My thoughts are on the book are favorable. I really enjoyed the story and the writing style. It was interesting to see how this crazy woman operated. The characters were quite interesting, and although the author didn't paint as much of the picture as I would have liked, I felt free to fill in the gaps on my own.
Even though the book is short, it took a little longer to read. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. It wasn't that I left it for long periods of time, I wanted to stay with the story. It literally took me longer to read this book than others that are longer and have enjoyed as much. I don't skim. Quite honestly, I think the concepts introduced were new to me, as were the characters.
I would be very interested in reading more of Lindskold.
Even though the book is short, it took a little longer to read. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. It wasn't that I left it for long periods of time, I wanted to stay with the story. It literally took me longer to read this book than others that are longer and have enjoyed as much. I don't skim. Quite honestly, I think the concepts introduced were new to me, as were the characters.
I would be very interested in reading more of Lindskold.
January 16, 2024
This is technically science fiction, but only feels that way once hovercraft get involved. Our protagonist, Sarah, has no last name, no parents names, no origin on record. She also has trouble communicating, being mute for many years and then relying on repeating quotes. Us readers, however, get in her head. There we learn that she is adept at what the scientists in the book call "magical thinking" - the ability to communicate with objects. They talk to her, first and foremost in the persons of Betwixt and Between, her two-headed rubber dragon. This one certainly starts off odd, but Sarah and her eclectic allies make the ride, and it does all get explained for those rational explanation people at the end. If you're on the fence, give it a try!
January 14, 2019
I love so many of Jane Lindskold’s books, such as Changer and Legends Walking (now Changer’s daughter). This might rank up there among my favorites. I read it because I trust her as a writer, and she did not disappoint.
The characters are unique and accessible, and the plot had me at the edge of my seat a few times. There were times I felt so afraid that I had to pause in my reading. I didn’t want the characters to go through what was happening—and if I closed my eyes, then it paused their pain. At least my experience of their pain.
Well written. I’ll probably re-read this one a time or two.
The characters are unique and accessible, and the plot had me at the edge of my seat a few times. There were times I felt so afraid that I had to pause in my reading. I didn’t want the characters to go through what was happening—and if I closed my eyes, then it paused their pain. At least my experience of their pain.
Well written. I’ll probably re-read this one a time or two.
February 19, 2023
A fun premise, but unlike many other readers, this one took me FOREVER to get into it. The beginning was interesting, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. After a while, the action picked up, and the reason for the introduction began to make sense. I think the characterizations in this book are fairly good, with the individuals being well drawn in my mind.
I gave it 3 stars, but I could see someone of slightly different sensibilities going higher. It was fun and would be lightly recommended for someone like myself, but recommended just the same.
I gave it 3 stars, but I could see someone of slightly different sensibilities going higher. It was fun and would be lightly recommended for someone like myself, but recommended just the same.
January 9, 2021
I'm a great Lindskold fan, and have never read a book of hers that I didn't like. Having said that, I think this one may be my new favorite. Fast paced. Characters unique and fleshed out enough to make you love, despise, or have concern for. An enjoyable degree of suspense. A refreshingly different 'world'. I wound up reading 'just one more chapter' far too often, and yet was sorry when the book came to an end.
September 24, 2018
This story is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the 90's. A girl is labelled as "insane" and is put in the hands of an institution. But, there is a lot more behind the story. This was an exciting tale and the characters were real to me. Even the secondary characters had well developed personalities. I love Jane Lindskold's later works and am glad I got to read this early one.
January 2, 2017
I don't know that I could really recommend this book to anyone. It has some really interesting concepts and characters, but it's take on sexual assault and mental illness and abuse felt very off to me.
September 24, 2019
Very interesting premise and engaging characters.
I had no idea that it was Sci-Fi until a couple of chapters in. I guess it needed to be by the time it started hotting up.
I felt it was a bit hurried at the end but it looks like there might be a few more to go to develop the world.
I had no idea that it was Sci-Fi until a couple of chapters in. I guess it needed to be by the time it started hotting up.
I felt it was a bit hurried at the end but it looks like there might be a few more to go to develop the world.
November 2, 2020
I’ve read the Firekeeper and Orphans series, and it’s truly remarkable that THIS was her first published work. Her characters are real, her world lush, and her story as creative as any of Firekeeper’s adventures.
October 3, 2021
I really like this author and this book, though way different and grittier than Through Wolf's Eyes, was good as well. This book is set in an urban dystopia, so far out from the middle ages type song of her other books. It also has swearing and references to sexual violence.
August 20, 2025
Magnificent story!
Engrossing novel. The dynamic base concept is that a 30-something woman can hear and speak to in animate objects. What could your phone or laptop tell someone about you and your secrets if they could talk?
Engrossing novel. The dynamic base concept is that a 30-something woman can hear and speak to in animate objects. What could your phone or laptop tell someone about you and your secrets if they could talk?
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