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Dealing with Dragons  By  cover art

Dealing with Dragons

By: Patricia C. Wrede
Narrated by: Words Take Wing Repertory Company of Syracuse,NY
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Publisher's summary

Take one bored princess. Make her the seventh daughter in a very proper royal family. Have her run away.

Add one powerful, fascinating, dangerous dragon.

Princess Cimerone has never met anyone (or anything) like the dragon Kazul. But then, she's never met a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird or a stone prince either.

Princess Cimerone ran away to find some excitement.

She's found plenty.

©1990 Patricia C. Wrede (P)1996 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, an Imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"A decidedly diverting novel with plenty of action and many slightly skewed fairy-tale conventions that add to the laugh-out-loud pleasure." (Booklist)
"A wonderful listen for the entire family." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Dealing with Dragons

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,170
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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Performance
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Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
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    1,066
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clever story, unspeakably awful performance

This seems to be a clever, funny, tongue-in-cheek story that pokes fun at the conventions of fairy tales. But the performance by Words Take Wing was just horrible. All the actors seem to feel that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, squared. Every line is pronounced with exaggerated voice and over-the-top emotion. There is probably a good book hidden behind the performance, but I guess I'm going to have to read this in paperback to find it.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great fun for girls or boys

Patricia Wrede has created a wonderful series of fractured fairytales based on the misadventures of thoroughly modern Princess Cimorene as she comes of age in a mixed-up enchanted world. In Cimorene's world wizards are mostly up to michief, dragons are stubborn and knights in shining armor are usually a nusance.

My nine-year-old son thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook (we've read three other books in the series too), and like the Harry Potter books there's plenty to amuse adults.

The book is full of dialog and the audiobook uses a talented cast to perform all the parts of this unabridged production.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

I'm enjoying the book very much. I purchased the audio narration simply to hear how to pronounce the princess's name. When I saw it was a "full cast" narration, I thought, "How fun!" WRONG! The narration is unbearable.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Subpar voice cast

Most of the voice cast was passable, but the main heroine's voice actress is atrocious. For some reason she recites all of her lines in the same angry indignant tone of voice whether she's supposed to be wistful, sad, happy, etc... It really affected my opinion of what would have otherwise been a fun audio book.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The voices...are grating.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think this book would be WONDERFUL for young girls. I thought it was a book that could also be enjoyed by adults, which I think it might be.

Really it was the reading for the dragons' voices that made me stop listening. I think reading the book with a younger person might be delightful.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A most enjoyable children's book

My son and I have listened to this book several times. We find it just as enjoyable as the Harry Potter books. I hope the other three books in this series are added soon.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Dramatic Presentation

This is a wonderful book and a fantastic series. It's so refreshing to read a kid's fantasy series with such a strong, intelligent, and no-nonsense Princess as the hero. It has a full voice cast, and it reads more like an amateur dramatic production than a typical audiobook. They're all a bit hammy and over the top, and I love it, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. I wish Audible had the rest of the series. I had to find the last two books on CD through my local library's interlibrary loan.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great for adults too.

I love the full voice acting. the story is fast paced and fun. highly recommend

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

What made the experience of listening to Dealing with Dragons the most enjoyable?

I have loved this series since I was a teen. Since discovering audiobooks my children and I have been greatly enjoying them and they LOVED this book and the narrator made it so much fun to listen too. I can't wait to listen to the second one :)

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great for kids and adults!

This book (and the second one so far) has been a delight to listen to for both our kids and us. There's humor for all ages and the cast that performs all the various characters is great. It's great to find a series with a strong female lead.

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3 people found this helpful