Review: How to Train Your Dragon (novel)

The film of HTTYD is one of my favourite films ever. The book, on the other hand, is decidedly underwhelming.

How to Train Your Dragon, written by Cressida Cowell, was published in 2003, the first in a series of twelve books (though apparently there was a prequel that had some of the same characters, but no dragons). It's the inspiration for the much better-known and generally just better 2010 animated film and the franchise that spawned.

Our hero is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, a young Viking who has to train a dragon as for a coming-of-age ceremony. Yes, here he has to train a dragon, instead of kill one. The dragon he ends up with is Toothless, who isn't a Night Fury, isn't big enough to ride, and isn't very likeable. And Hiccup and Toothless end up killing a gigantic dragon that threatens the village, but it bears little resemblance to the climactic battle of the film.

This is one of the rare cases where an adaptation is an improvement on the source material. I spent most of the book thoroughly bored and unable to like any of the characters. The film, on the other hand, is never boring and keeps me cheering on Hiccup and Toothless from beginning to end.

Maybe the problem is that the book is clearly written for young children, and I was a teenager when I first read it. The film isn't really a children's film, despite what certain people believe of all animated films. Yes, it's mostly aimed at children, but anyone can enjoy it no matter how old they are. That trait is conspicuously absent from the book.

Or maybe I didn't enjoy the book because I watched the film first, and expected the book to be much the same. Anyone who expects that will be bitterly disappointed.

If you don't expect too much and try to overlook the book's failings, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did. But if you want to see Hiccup and Toothless's story play out like in the film, you'll definitely not like this book.

Is it available online?: I don't think so.

Rating: 3/10.