I love the idea of someone being capable of saving the day—that’s part of what makes all heroic fiction so thrilling, I think. I’ve tried to instill that in my own work, and I knew that I was going to be bringing everything together in the final volume in a (hopefully) exciting and satisfying way. But while this book had all of the necessary dramatic elements, and all of the really fun things I enjoy writing, it was lacking in hope. And that, to me, is too necessary an ingredient to exclude. The first draft, as it stood, was already a good book—but I needed what I’d written to be questioned aloud. And once that was done by my editors, the path was absolutely clear to me.
The story was a huge amount of fun to write. I’d been waiting a while to use some of the new characters, like Aristophanes; the same goes for the collected Mystorians. Uncas and Quixote all but write themselves; young Telemachus opens up the backstory to include some of my other works; and the chance to include battle goats made me a hero to my children. But all of that whimsy and spectacle and drama was to get to the last pages of doom and despair, so that I could end with the epilogue that I wrote.
The conclusion is coming, but no story—not even that of John, Jack, and Charles—is ever truly over (this is a series involving lots of time travel, after all) and there is one more chapter to go for the most unlikely hero of them all, who chose redemption, and in doing so, restored hope. I can’t ask any more of a character, or a book.
James A. Owen
Silvertown, USA
James A. Owen is the author and illustrator of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series; the creator of the critically acclaimed Starchild graphic novel series; and the author of the Mythworld series of novels. He works at the Coppervale Studio in Silvertown, Arizona, where he lives with his family.
heretherebedragons.net
Jacket design by Laurent Linn
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2012 by James A. Owen
Map design by Lon Saline
Map illustration by Jeremy Owen
Simon & Schuster • New York
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ALSO BY JAMES A. OWEN
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica
Book One: Here, There Be Dragons
Book Two: The Search for the Red Dragon
Book Three: The Indigo King
Book Four: The Shadow Dragons
Book Five: The Dragon’s Apprentice
Lost Treasures of the Pirates of the Caribbean
(with Jeremy Owen)
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by James A. Owen
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Book design by Christopher Grassi and James A. Owen
The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Owen, James A.
The dragons of winter / written and illustrated by James A. Owen. — 1st ed.
p. cm.—(The chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica ; [6])
Summary: With the Archipelago of Dreams in the hands of the Echthroi and the link to the Summer Country lost, the Grail Child, Rose Dyson; the new Cartographer, Edmund McGee; and the Caretakers Emeritus seek to rebuild the Keep of Time, but face a terrible new enemy who was once an ally.
ISBN 978-1-4424-1223-1 (hardcover)
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Characters in literature—Fiction. 3. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.O97124Ds 2012
[Fic]—dc23
2011034891
ISBN 978-1-4424-1225-5 (eBook)
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part One: The War of the Caretakers
Chapter One:
The Mission
Chapter Two:
The Bungled Burglary
Chapter Three:
The Rings of Jules Verne
Chapter Four:
Days of Future Past
The Anachronic Man
The Messenger
Part Two: The Chronic Argonauts
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
The Last Caretaker
Through the Looking-Glass
The Hotel d’Ailleurs.
Lower Oxford.
Part Three: The Mystorians.
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
The Cabal
The Dragons of Winter
The Unforgotten
The Sphinx.
Part Four: The Winter World.
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
The Goblin Market
The Sorceress.
The Unicorn
Part Five: The Corinthian Legend
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Chapter Nineteen:
Chapter Twenty:
The First King
The House on the Borderlands
The Furies
Choices
Part Six: Mysterious Islands
Chapter Twenty-One:
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Chapter Twenty-Four:
The Ancient of Days.
Epilogue
Author’s Note
About James A. Owen