How to Be a Pirate

Not bad, but not as good as the first one.

This continuation of Hiccup´s story is not a bad book, but it is not as compelling as the first one. Most of all, in the end, it is impossible not to feel that the story falls short. While in the first book the author makes a great presentation of Hiccup´s world and all the characters who surround him, in this book, the presentation of the big, bad boss that Hiccup has to ultimately defeat lacks the weight it should have because it is thrown at us with little to no previous context.

Another thing is the resolution of the conflict. I have always thought that just because you are reading a children's book, it does not mean the book should treat its readers as stupid. Like any other HTTYD book, the big final boss is a dragon, but in this case, it does not feel like the great menace it should be; instead, it feels more like a poor resource of the author to end the story. This has a lot to do with the fact that this novel works more like an introduction to Alvin's character, who will have a more preponderant weight in the next book. And yes, Alvin is by great means the enabler of this book's plot, but the introduction of the final boss felt as if the author remembered she had to put a big bad dragon Hiccup has to defeat, and she threw him in the last two chapters hoping the readers would not notice. Even the way Hiccup defeats it feels waaaay too easy. Comparing it to the finale of the first book, where Hiccup has to use all his wittiness and cleverness to solve the riddle, in this book, the answer is given to easily and too in-the-face, we don´t get to have that moment where we are surprised by Hiccup's abilities. Instead, we know how the problem is solved even before the dragon had shown us he is poisonous. The moral of the story is not less beautiful or interesting than the last one, but the way we get to that conclusion do not make it justice.

Considering that this book series was not thought of as a saga per se, but more of a collection of stand-alones, I will say that if I had read this book as my first impression of the How to Train Your Dragon books, I´m not sure I would read the rest of it.