The Whim of the Dragon
core novel 1989 The Secret Country
Record
| First published | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.86 (725 ratings, collected 2026-11-01) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441855131 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
Three forces could destroy the Secret Country: the Border Magic, the Crystal of Earth, and the whim of the dragon. The cousins have already faced the first two and now meet the third. After a narrow escape from the kingdom, the five receive a message calling them back to it. The country's trusted counselors know that the children are impostors, yet nobody can say who has been steering their fates from the start. To learn the truth, the cousins must find Chryse the unicorn and Belaparthalion the dragon, whose choices shape the land's future. They face the last dangers of a world that began as their own invention, and each must decide what that world means to them.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Secret Country
- Series: The Secret Country core; position 3 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Pamela Dean
Notes
- From the series record (The Secret Country): Five cousins are drawn into the kingdom of their childhood game and must play its royal children.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Secret Country: position 3 of 3: previous The Hidden Land (1986)
- Internal chronology, within The Secret Country: position 4 of 4: previous The Hidden Land (1986)
Sources
- Black Gate - Secret Country trilogy
- AbeBooks listings (Ace mass-market paperback, 1989)
- Rising Shadow
← The Secret Country dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.