hardcover, 2048 pages
Published Oct. 16, 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that.
In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet... It's time for Hiccup to learn how to be a Hero.
Silly, silly, silly :-). A fun romp complete with the expected vindication of the underdogs. I enjoyed.
I picked this book up at the library having recently seen the movie. Though the volume was small and the plot synopsis seemed rather... different, I assumed that books were always better than movie and decided to give it a try. Obviously, I was wrong. From the start, I did not like any of the characters. Hiccup was annoying, weak, and lacking in intelligence. He had no redeeming qualities, at least none apparent to me. He heads for a cave in hopes of coming out with a big strong dragon, and I thought, maybe this dragon will somehow teach him a lesson. But no. The dragon is small, whiny, and altogether worse than he is. He hides this fact from his father (Who is almost unbelievably stupid) and from there on, all I could focus on was the crude humor and general crudeness which had nothing to do with humor. …
I picked this book up at the library having recently seen the movie. Though the volume was small and the plot synopsis seemed rather... different, I assumed that books were always better than movie and decided to give it a try. Obviously, I was wrong. From the start, I did not like any of the characters. Hiccup was annoying, weak, and lacking in intelligence. He had no redeeming qualities, at least none apparent to me. He heads for a cave in hopes of coming out with a big strong dragon, and I thought, maybe this dragon will somehow teach him a lesson. But no. The dragon is small, whiny, and altogether worse than he is. He hides this fact from his father (Who is almost unbelievably stupid) and from there on, all I could focus on was the crude humor and general crudeness which had nothing to do with humor. Eventually I just had to put the book down before he could detail the name of another filthy disgusting thug. I intend to see the movie's sequel, but will not read another one of these books. It's too bad that the book couldn't have been better. I didn't need it to match the movie- I just hoped for something worth reading.
