Prairie Fire

by E. K. Johnston

Overview

Listen! For the song of Owen Thorskard has a second verse.

Every dragon slayer owes the Oil Watch a period of service, and young Owen was no exception. What made him different was that he did not enlist alone. His two closest friends stood with him shoulder to shoulder. Steeled by success and hope, the three were confident in their plan. And though Siobhan McQuaid was the first bard in a generation, she managed to forge a role for herself and herald Owen as a new kind of dragon slayer for a new kind of future.

But the arc of history is long and hardened by dragon fire. Try as they might, Owen and his friends could not twist it to their will. Not all the way. Not all together.

Listen! I am Siobhan McQuaid. I know the cost of even a small bend in the course of history. Listen!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467739092
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	930L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

The cool things about Emily Kate Johnston are that she is a forensic archaeologist, she has lived on four continents, she decorates cupcakes in her spare time, she adores the Oxford comma, and she loves to make up stories.

The less cool things about Kate are that she's from a small town in southwestern Ontario, she spends a lot of time crying over books in random coffee shops, and she can't play as many musical instruments as she wishes she could. The Story of Owen is Kate's first novel. Visit her online at ekjohnston.ca.

Editorial Reviews

"Grand, heartbreaking, ennobling and unforgettable." —starred, Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 2014-12-22
This follow-up to the acclaimed The Story of Owen (2014) is part adventure, part alternative history, part friendship story, part ecological fable and all heroic saga.Once dragon slayer Owen Thorskard graduates high school, he signs up for his mandatory service in the Oil Watch, and of course Siobhan McQuaid, his bard and best friend, enlists as well. Their previous exploits (chronicled in Siobhan's songs, now a YouTube sensation) have made the pair unpopular with those in power, so they receive the dreariest, most remote deployment: Fort Calgary. Grueling practice gradually coheres their raw support team into a tough fighting unit—and trusted friends. But are they prepared for the test of the biggest, deadliest dragon of all? This sequel is not as perfectly crafted as Johnston's debut: The plethora of new characters is hard to keep straight, the minutiae of military training drag on the pace, and promising subplots peter out without resolution. Still, the narrative is held together by Siobhan's unique voice, which casts every character as an instrument, every event as a melody; all she witnesses is knit together in a symphony expressing universal themes of friendship, duty, loyalty and sacrifice. For all Siobhan's insistence that she merely channels Owen's story, it becomes evident that tales are as much about their tellers and that heroism comes in all forms. Grand, heartbreaking, ennobling and unforgettable. (Fantasy. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews