Dragonworld

Dragonworld

by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves

This book was sadly lacking in dragons. I didn't get to see any until the book was more than half over. The book was mostly about a misunderstanding between two countries which resulted in war, intrigue, petty politics, etc. While that was actually pretty interesting, it wasn't what I signed up for. I wanted dragons. Admittedly, the one dragon I did get to see was pretty cool, and I was willing to settle for the coldrakes (cousins of dragons that look similar but are smaller, dumber, and can't breathe fire), but even those got much less page time than the stupid humans and their squabbling.

So, ultimately the book is saying that war is bad and we should all try to talk out our differences and get to the bottom of things before we start killing each other. It's really not a bad premise, and it is actually told pretty well, but if you're going to write a story about humans, don't call it "Dragonworld".

Although the premise was good (if slightly misleading) this book is not very well written. The narrator is overly explanatory and the dialogue feels stiff. I don't think I really cared about any of the characters. They felt too much like caricatures for me to be concerned with any of them, even when the authors were obviously trying to create some depth. That was the problem. It was too obvious. Speaking of which, if they had used the word "obvious" one more time, I was going to throw that book out the window.

The other thing that bothered me was the authors' total lack of understanding physics. Several times, they mention that a boat or raft was not overturned in rough water because of how light it was. Anyone who has ever been on a boat can tell you that the heavier the boat, the less likely it is to capsize.

While all of the conflict was brought to a satisfactory conclusion, it was too satisfactory. The bad guy (girl, in this case) didn't even end up in jail. She got to go back home to her mansion and her husband after her treason was proven. Why wasn't she thrown in jail? They were ready to throw the Monarch in jail on for treason on little more than the princess' word. So why does she get to go free?

The ending was also a little too sappy. They all become friends and learn to talk to each other rather than invading each other's lands. It really made me want to gag. Then a character gets to go with the dragon to explore other lands, which is cool and all, but why? Why does a dragon need some puny little human following it around? At times, I thought the authors were trying to hard to wrap everything up and beat their readers over the head with the moral of their story. I get it. Talk before you fight. Now where are the dragons?