While ideally each book should get its own separate review it appears that there is only a Tropes page for the series as a whole. So as requested by a response to a comment I posted in response to a review of Trollhunters here is my review of How To Train Your Dragon.
How to Train Your Dragon as the first book is mostly an origin story for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III son of chief Stoick the Vast of the tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, the island of Berk, Hiccup’s sidekick Fishlegs the sadist teacher Gobber the Belch, the bully Snotface Snotlout and the premise of the series.
For those of you who have only seen the adaptations, the premise of book is that Gobber is training the children in “becoming a hero the hard way” because “only the strong can belong” and each one has to train a dragon too a small to ride to hunt for them as part of a Rite of Passage or be banished from the tribe as penalty. Long story short Hiccup the Useless and his dragon Toothless fail miserably inadvertently getting themselves and everyone else banished only to redeem themselves to the tribe by saving the island from a Sea Dragon known as the Green Death (thanks in part to Hiccup’s ability to speak Dragonese). All in all it’s pretty good but I like the sequel much better.
How To Be A Pirate introduces his most mightily malicious murderousness Alvin the Treacherous, leader of the Outcasts, who starts off as a Captain Hook expy but returns in later books as Hiccup’s nemesis. And he is an impressive villain. It also introduces the Backstory involving Hiccup’s ancestor Grimbeard the Ghastly as well Hiccup’s swordfighting ability. And for fans of the first book it has Hiccup trick the Monstrous Strangulator to whom he fed Alvin into stinging itself providing a satisfactory end. It also {{Chekhov’s Gun}}s Fishlegs’s berserk tendencies.
How To Speak Dragonese introduces one of my favourite characters, Camicazi daughter of Big Boobied Bertha, chief of the Bog Burglars, sworn enemies of the Hairy Hooligans. And the Romans kidnapping both her and Hiccup in an effort to get the tribes to blame each other and start a war actually is a good plan. The Fat Consul is an entertaining enough villain and even though he’s dangerous he’s hard to take seriously but his Dragon-in-Chief The Thin Consul who reveals himself as half-Roman half-Viking and turns out to be Alvin all along.
A part of me feels They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character with Ziggerastica, self-proclaimed god of nano-dragons but I’m not sure what Cowell could have done with him later on. I do like how Hiccup shows his trickster hero tendencies when he deceives the Romans introduced thinking he’s Thor. And I like how Alvin, unlike former antagonists actually sees through the trick. And his swearing revenge during his Disney Villain Death actually convinced me he would survive and return. And I like the sequel hook involving the Venomous Vorpent.
I like the next book. I liked how Fishlegs coming down with Vorpentitis proves a red herring and how Hiccup’s is lightly foreshadowed throughout the book. I like the who would be dumb enough to think the world is round jokes. I like Norbert the Nutjob as a villain. And I like how Hiccup insisting that the world is a flat enrages Norbert to the point where he delays killing him and Camicazi for the sake of showing him the frozen potato his father stole with the Native American arrow still inside it. I like the plot twists with the Dragon having Vorpentitis. And I like how Camicazi understands Oot Me to mean shoot me and she shoots Hiccup in the foot with the arrow curing his Vorpentitis in so doing.
I like the Broken Pedestal story Old Wrinkly gets when it turns out he’s responsible for the Lava Lout Volcano’s coming eruption. And I like Humungous Hotshot the Hero. And Alvin using his Terrific Al alter ego to manipulate Humungous into murdering Hiccup for him. And Cowell’s parody of the All Thing was wonderfully entertaining.
Madguts the Murderous is a disappointing villain in relation to previous antagonists. He wants to kill Stoick by feeding him to Sky Dragons because Grimbeard did the same to Madguts’s ancestor but he wants to do the same thing to Bertha for some reason. Fortunately, Norbert takes centre stage as villain of the book. This is also where Cerebus Syndrome starts to kick in. The fact that their forebears practiced human sacrifice is new as is Madguts willingness to do so to Stoick and Bertha. It even begins with Norbert invading the island of Northern Wanderers and enslaving them as part of his Viking raid. And Hiccup agreeing to be tattooed with the Slave Mark to earn the Wanderers’s trust is brave but it also means he can never take off his helmet revealing the Mark or he’s doomed leading to his having to keep it a secret. And I like that bit. I also like the return to Berk using the flying machine the Wanderers built. It was a breath of fresh air to have a character aside from Alvin call Hiccup his nemesis. And I like how at the end Hiccup is now looking forward to being chief so that he can fix everything that’s wrong. As well as the Fishlegs foreshadowing.
A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons has a good villain (The Librarian) and introduces Stormfly a Norse speaking chameleon dragon with a flair for lying. So it has good things for it but in the way of story, it’s not that great. Especially in relation to previous books. I do like how it {{Chekhov’s Gun}}’s Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II.
Speaking of whom, How To Break a Dragon’s Heart. It is implied that Toothless will become more important than he realizes due to Toothless having a birthmark identical to that of the dragon Furious, who wants to wipe out humanity as revenge after Hiccup II’s father Grimbeard the Ghastly betrayed him resulting in his current enslavement. It also has the Witch Excellinor reveal that the heir of Grimbeard will reunite the barbarian archipelago believing the prophecy to refer to her son Alvin only to discover Hiccup is also descended from Grimbeard and as such a threat to Alvin. Come to think of it Alvin’s willingness to die to kill Hiccup is actually quite the character development for him. And I like that Fishlegs story is told. And Hiccup freeing Furious to save everyone only for Furious to reveal he’s not going to honour his promise not to destroy humanity is an impressive {{nice job breaking it, hero}}.
I like how Furious’s war leads to the Outcasts reinstating Alvin and resulting in the tournament to find the new king. And how Snotlout proves to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain when he exposes as having the Slave Mark. And how it turns out that Stoick chose not to abandon Hiccup despite him being the runt and as such is disqualified as chief (only the strong can belong). And Alvin takes over as Third Place.
I like Valhalarama as an action girl and she reclaims the slavemark as the Dragonmark sparking a Civil War with the Alvinsmen. Snotlout’s Heel–Face Turn feels a bit like it was just so that Cowell could kill one of the guys but it’s still well done.
I like Hiccup’s Heroic BSoD. And I like that Fishlegs is the one to defeat Alvin. And how Hiccup instead of killing all dragons (like Alvin was going to) sends them back to sea to keep them safe enabling a happy ending.
These are great books. It’s a shame they were eclipsed by the films.
Literature I wish the movies hadn’t eclipsed them
How to Train Your Dragon is an immensely entertaining series of children’s books by Cressida Cowell.
While ideally each book should get its own separate review it appears that there is only a Tropes page for the series as a whole. So as requested by a response to a comment I posted in response to a review of Trollhunters here is my review of How To Train Your Dragon.
How to Train Your Dragon as the first book is mostly an origin story for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III son of chief Stoick the Vast of the tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, the island of Berk, Hiccup’s sidekick Fishlegs the sadist teacher Gobber the Belch, the bully Snotface Snotlout and the premise of the series.
For those of you who have only seen the adaptations, the premise of book is that Gobber is training the children in “becoming a hero the hard way” because “only the strong can belong” and each one has to train a dragon too a small to ride to hunt for them as part of a Rite of Passage or be banished from the tribe as penalty. Long story short Hiccup the Useless and his dragon Toothless fail miserably inadvertently getting themselves and everyone else banished only to redeem themselves to the tribe by saving the island from a Sea Dragon known as the Green Death (thanks in part to Hiccup’s ability to speak Dragonese). All in all it’s pretty good but I like the sequel much better.
How To Be A Pirate introduces his most mightily malicious murderousness Alvin the Treacherous, leader of the Outcasts, who starts off as a Captain Hook expy but returns in later books as Hiccup’s nemesis. And he is an impressive villain. It also introduces the Backstory involving Hiccup’s ancestor Grimbeard the Ghastly as well Hiccup’s swordfighting ability. And for fans of the first book it has Hiccup trick the Monstrous Strangulator to whom he fed Alvin into stinging itself providing a satisfactory end. It also {{Chekhov’s Gun}}s Fishlegs’s berserk tendencies.
How To Speak Dragonese introduces one of my favourite characters, Camicazi daughter of Big Boobied Bertha, chief of the Bog Burglars, sworn enemies of the Hairy Hooligans. And the Romans kidnapping both her and Hiccup in an effort to get the tribes to blame each other and start a war actually is a good plan. The Fat Consul is an entertaining enough villain and even though he’s dangerous he’s hard to take seriously but his Dragon-in-Chief The Thin Consul who reveals himself as half-Roman half-Viking and turns out to be Alvin all along.
A part of me feels They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character with Ziggerastica, self-proclaimed god of nano-dragons but I’m not sure what Cowell could have done with him later on. I do like how Hiccup shows his trickster hero tendencies when he deceives the Romans introduced thinking he’s Thor. And I like how Alvin, unlike former antagonists actually sees through the trick. And his swearing revenge during his Disney Villain Death actually convinced me he would survive and return. And I like the sequel hook involving the Venomous Vorpent.
I like the next book. I liked how Fishlegs coming down with Vorpentitis proves a red herring and how Hiccup’s is lightly foreshadowed throughout the book. I like the who would be dumb enough to think the world is round jokes. I like Norbert the Nutjob as a villain. And I like how Hiccup insisting that the world is a flat enrages Norbert to the point where he delays killing him and Camicazi for the sake of showing him the frozen potato his father stole with the Native American arrow still inside it. I like the plot twists with the Dragon having Vorpentitis. And I like how Camicazi understands Oot Me to mean shoot me and she shoots Hiccup in the foot with the arrow curing his Vorpentitis in so doing.
I like the Broken Pedestal story Old Wrinkly gets when it turns out he’s responsible for the Lava Lout Volcano’s coming eruption. And I like Humungous Hotshot the Hero. And Alvin using his Terrific Al alter ego to manipulate Humungous into murdering Hiccup for him. And Cowell’s parody of the All Thing was wonderfully entertaining.
Madguts the Murderous is a disappointing villain in relation to previous antagonists. He wants to kill Stoick by feeding him to Sky Dragons because Grimbeard did the same to Madguts’s ancestor but he wants to do the same thing to Bertha for some reason. Fortunately, Norbert takes centre stage as villain of the book. This is also where Cerebus Syndrome starts to kick in. The fact that their forebears practiced human sacrifice is new as is Madguts willingness to do so to Stoick and Bertha. It even begins with Norbert invading the island of Northern Wanderers and enslaving them as part of his Viking raid. And Hiccup agreeing to be tattooed with the Slave Mark to earn the Wanderers’s trust is brave but it also means he can never take off his helmet revealing the Mark or he’s doomed leading to his having to keep it a secret. And I like that bit. I also like the return to Berk using the flying machine the Wanderers built. It was a breath of fresh air to have a character aside from Alvin call Hiccup his nemesis. And I like how at the end Hiccup is now looking forward to being chief so that he can fix everything that’s wrong. As well as the Fishlegs foreshadowing.
A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons has a good villain (The Librarian) and introduces Stormfly a Norse speaking chameleon dragon with a flair for lying. So it has good things for it but in the way of story, it’s not that great. Especially in relation to previous books. I do like how it {{Chekhov’s Gun}}’s Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II.
Speaking of whom, How To Break a Dragon’s Heart. It is implied that Toothless will become more important than he realizes due to Toothless having a birthmark identical to that of the dragon Furious, who wants to wipe out humanity as revenge after Hiccup II’s father Grimbeard the Ghastly betrayed him resulting in his current enslavement. It also has the Witch Excellinor reveal that the heir of Grimbeard will reunite the barbarian archipelago believing the prophecy to refer to her son Alvin only to discover Hiccup is also descended from Grimbeard and as such a threat to Alvin. Come to think of it Alvin’s willingness to die to kill Hiccup is actually quite the character development for him. And I like that Fishlegs story is told. And Hiccup freeing Furious to save everyone only for Furious to reveal he’s not going to honour his promise not to destroy humanity is an impressive {{nice job breaking it, hero}}.
I like how Furious’s war leads to the Outcasts reinstating Alvin and resulting in the tournament to find the new king. And how Snotlout proves to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain when he exposes as having the Slave Mark. And how it turns out that Stoick chose not to abandon Hiccup despite him being the runt and as such is disqualified as chief (only the strong can belong). And Alvin takes over as Third Place.
I like Valhalarama as an action girl and she reclaims the slavemark as the Dragonmark sparking a Civil War with the Alvinsmen. Snotlout’s Heel–Face Turn feels a bit like it was just so that Cowell could kill one of the guys but it’s still well done.
I like Hiccup’s Heroic BSoD. And I like that Fishlegs is the one to defeat Alvin. And how Hiccup instead of killing all dragons (like Alvin was going to) sends them back to sea to keep them safe enabling a happy ending.
These are great books. It’s a shame they were eclipsed by the films.