Review: The Princess and the Dragon and Other Stories About Unlikely Heroes by Francesca Burke

This is a spoiler-free review for the opening chapters of The Princess and the Dragon and Other Stories About Unlikely Heroes by Francesca Burke. You can read the beginning of the story for free on Francesca’s Words and continue on her Patreon. Francesca also runs a wonderfully eclectic blog over at Indifferent Ignorance (featuring some adorable baby elephants that surely no-one could stay indifferent about).

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When reading a fairy tale, it tends to be obvious from early on whether it’s a story intended to be read by a child alone, or by an adult reading to a child. The best stories, however, combine the best of both worlds. Those are fairytales that a child can enjoy on their own, but with enough nuance lurking under the surface that the adult can appreciate them too – whether they’re reading to a child, or for themselves. The Princess and the Dragon and Other Stories About Unlikely Heroes by Francesca Burke is one of those fairytales.

In the first three chapters, we get an increasingly closer look at the island of the Three Kingdoms, and the Kingdom of Mirrors in particular, where the first main plot of the story is centered. We follow the young Princess Amelia as she struggles to help keep her family’s kingdom afloat in the middle of a war waged against it by an unfriendly neighborhood dragon, a threat that may seem nebulous until the mentions of death tolls and refugees (terrifyingly non-sensationalized) drive it home for the reader. With the heir to the throne (Amelia’s older brother) choosing to abdicate in favor of a loving marriage to a commoner, the king’s health fragile in the aftermath of a stroke, and the kingdom’s finances drained by the decades-long dragon threat, we find the Kingdom of Mirrors in dire straits. But Amelia has a plan – and with the support of the three-quarters of the Kingdom’s High Council, she rallies her kingdom to an unconventional defense against the dragon… that may just work.

Although these days I lean more towards sci-fi than fantasy, and fairytales aren’t my usual fare, either, I had no trouble whatsoever getting into the story from the very first lines. Francesca’s evocative descriptions bring the fantasy island to life: from sweeping vistas of Lumiere, the capitol of the Mirror Kingdom, to an intimate family dinner. Even though it’s a fairytale, the characters are the farthest thing from cardboard cutouts. You won’t find here the tropes of “handsome prince”, “plucky princess” or “Queen Mother” – but living, breathing people with quirks, desires, ambitions and weaknesses. We get given glimpses of history of the royal family and beyond (I genuinely hope that the outcome of a certain incident with a dog and a growth potion will show up at a later point in the story).

Francesca’s writing style is lively and witty, reminiscent of Chris Riddel and, even more so, Lemony Snicket (to the degree that at one point, I was expecting her to make an aside to define a more complicated word like “notoriety”, as Snicket is apt to do). Here’s a sentence I’m particularly fond of: The mosaiced fish were consistently bigger than the little people on the boat, which always made Amelia wonder whether the artist had no sense of scale or if they wanted to emphasize how brave the fishermen were, sailing out to face enormous krakens and territorial mermaids and climate change.

This description comes fairly early in the story and is mostly an aside, talking about a mosaic that Amelia passes as she walks. For me, the list of struggles featuring territorial mermaids and climate change in the same sentence worked as a perfect way to ground the Kingdom of Mirrors in my mind. It’s this kind of seamless blending of fairy tale imagery and 21st century English (complete with 21st century realities) that makes the Kingdom of Mirrors feels the opposite of far, far away – but a place a modern-day reader can easily relate to, full of beauty and very real problems alike.

In summary, The Princess and the Dragon and Other Stories About Unlikely Heroes is a beautifully written story and, right from its opening chapters, promises to be an enjoyable read for people of all ages. I strongly recommend you get thee to Francesca’s blog to read the first three chapters available there, and, should your means allow, continue reading the story on her Patreon. I know I will be.