The Dragon's Tooth by N.D. Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've said this before, but N. D. Wilson reminds me in some ways of C. S. Lewis. Both have a sense of magic and wonder in their stories. Both show that this world is infused with meaning, with a battle between good and evil. And both write stories in which characters must learn what it means to show virtue and courage.

But at the same time, Wilson's stories are very different from Lewis's. Wilson includes a lot more action and a lot less preachiness--the story tends to do the talking more than moralizing characters in the story. And Wilson's target audience is a little more mature than Lewis's, although he's still aiming for kids.

The Dragon's Tooth is nothing like the 100 Cupboards series, but I found it more exciting. It has more action, and I am simply fascinated by stories about secret organizations that have been around for centuries protecting the world.

As I read, I was reminded of National Treasure (secret underground/hidden passageways, secret organizations entwined with history, etc.), Harry Potter (Cyrus and Antigone, the main characters, become part of a school that is similar to Hogwarts in some ways), and even a couple of Pixar movies (Up, in some aspects of its WW1 era explorer/adventure culture, and Ratatouille, since there's a crazy woman in a pink bathrobe with a shotgun at the beginning of the story).

Finally, I think I see the influence of C. S. Lewis--particularly his sci-fi novel That Hideous Strength. There's an evil, supernaturally powerful Weston-like scientist who does nasty experiments on people and animals, and there's a scene near the end of the book in which I think Wilson may be consciously alluding to one of the final scenes of That Hideous Strength.

As in the 100 Cupboards series, the story gains depth as we continue to read. I love how Wilson gives us deeper and deeper levels of the background as the story unfolds, and how he connects his story to history and legend (as in National Treasure, we find out that several members of the secret organization were people that all of us learned about in history class).

Finally, I really enjoyed this book because it's set in Wisconsin. It begins in Oconomowoc, which is a town fifteen minutes from where I live and a place where I take my family all the time. So it was fun for me to imagine the book's action happening right around the corner from here.

This was a great book for me to read for no other reason than to enjoy a good story. I look forward to the next book in the series.

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