Key title It's not every day you wake up and find you're a dragonhunter but in this exciting debut novel that's exactly what happens to Simon St. George... Thrilling debut novel from a young new American author, currently working as a screenwriter. Pre-emptive seven figure bid by Universal Pictures prior to any book deal. The author is currently working on the movie screenplay. Peter Guber of Mandalay Pictures to produce.
Jason Hightman was born and lives in California where he works as a writer and film maker. He is married with a daughter. The Saint of Dragons is his first novel.
In Hightman's atmospheric tale, dragons exist in the modern world but have mastered camouflage ("They look like men now, mostly," explains the Dragonslayer). As the novel opens, 13-year-old misfit Simon St. George waits with his classmates for a streetcar on Halloween eve and beetles begin "swarming" over their feet. The author then shifts gears to a group of knights in full "Crusader" regalia who raid a turreted estate outside Chicago, Ill., where "beetles swarmed" at the roots of the trees, connecting the scenes. All but the knights' leader, Aldric, are killed in the Dragon attack. The beast dies, but not before divulging that he knows about Aldric's son. Simon is then plucked from his boarding school by Aldric, the father he has never met. The father-son relationship never really develops; rather their experiences create a kind of shared bond. The two seek out the beast Aldric believes is the last of its kind, the White Dragon. Here the author injects some humor: the White Dragon lives in an apartment overlooking New York's Central Park and masquerades as a patron of the arts. There they also meet a magician and travel with her to Venice, where they learn of a network of beasts planning an apocalyptic disaster called "Fire Eternal." In their globe-trotting to France, Russia and China, the duo meets one dragon that may have some heart. The gray area of this dragon's motives adds complexity, if some ambiguity, to a fast-moving adventure story. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Gr 5-8-Simon St. George attends an elite boarding school and hasn't seen or heard from his parents in 11 years. Then one October day, a greasy-haired, ragged, and dirt-ridden man shows up on campus claiming to be his father. Before 24 hours pass, Simon finds himself abducted by this odd stranger and about to be initiated into the family business-dragon-hunting. The man explains that "the Dragon is the source of all that is rotten in the world," and that since the time of the legendary St. George of England, his descendants have been dragon-hunters. Now 13-year-old Simon is needed to join the fight. What ensues is a long series of sword-and-sorcery adventures heavy on action and light on plot-much like a video game, comic strip, or feature-length cartoon written in short sentences and simple language but without the pictures. The setting is contemporary and decidedly dark. Dragons and humans alike, with the exception of Simon, have all the subtlety of cartoon characters. His father is not exactly a noble knight, showing as little tact and feeling in his dealings with friends and family as with his sworn enemies. The cover of this book is reminiscent of Christopher Paolini's Eragon (Knopf, 2003), but readers who expect the depth and complexity of contemporary popular high fantasy will be disappointed. Those who prefer the macabre outlook and less demanding style of Darren Shan's "Cirque du Freak" series (Little, Brown) might enjoy The Saint of Dragons.-Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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