I listened to Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons) as full-cast audio productions. Unfortunately there were some casting choices I strongly disagreed with, so while I hope they won’t become my defaults for the characters. (The worst two were Kazul in Dealing, which of course is when she’s most present, and Telemain throughout, which made him sound about twelve.) And Shiara (of Talking) is incredibly annoying out loud. I also thought the pacing of the production was a little too fast in Dealing.
Listening also really underscores the very odd relationship of Talking to the rest of the series—Talking was published first, and the other three are prequels, but any way you read them, it’s weird. (However, I think this is one case where I would not recommend publication order over internal chronology.)
These are still a lot of fun, though, and those fond of revisionist fairy tales (subtype YA and gently humorous) should check them out.
> (However, I think this is one case where I
> would not recommend publication order over
> internal chronology.)
Agreed. I always recommend publication order, but not this time.
I listened to the audio production of Dealing on a recent long car trip, and liked it enough to continue with the rest of the series in dead tree format. The nature of the transition from the third book to Talking made me glad I’d encountered them in that order; I think reading Talking first and finishing with Calling would be rather unsatisfying.
Last note: these are clearly YA, but nevertheless have the all-too-rare ability to extract occasional involuntary snorts of laughter from me as I read them.
Bruce Coville, who produced these recordings, now runs Full Cast Audio, so you might like to check out their catalog. They do good work.
Thanks for the tip. My local library seems to have quite a few of these as downloadable e-audio. Now that I own a portable player and a car with an AUX jack, that’s becoming my preferred format.
Incidentally, can you think of any other series of books that have the structure of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles — specifically, where [SPOILER rot-13ed] gur cerdhryf raq va n pyvssunatre gung frgf hc gur bevtvany obbx?
I know I’ve heard someone mention another book that ends in the same situation as book 3, but I can’t remember what. Sorry.