Dragon

Dragon (1998) Steven Brust

I really like Dragon. It’s fun, it’s well-written, and I particularly like some of the observations that Vlad makes about life and war.

For the most part, Dragon takes place soon after Taltos, however, a few parts of the story take place after Yendi. And if you think that’s confusing, you’re right.

Vlad is relating events that occurred soon after Taltos, however, his time frame as he tells his story is soon after Yendi. The storyteller Vlad has met, but not yet married Cawti, and he is telling his part in the War of Barrit’s Tomb, which occurs soon after he met Morrolan and Sethra, years before he met Cawti.

I enjoyed this book as a whole, and I particularly liked the parts about the battles and the war. As Vlad relates his impressions and feelings about his part in the war, he also relates what Sethra told him later about the war. So we get it from a micro and a macro perspective. The confusion and chaos experienced by an individual soldier, and the overall plans and ideas of the general in charge of the war itself. I found the combination of the two to be very interesting as well as thought provoking.

I also liked learning yet another story from Vlad’s past. This time, how he comes to provide security for Morrolan, and how he ended up in the middle of a war between two Dragons (one of whom is Morrolan). We also learn a little bit more about Spellbreaker, and finally meet one of the Serioli. Oh, and we get to finally see Vlad’s first meeting with Daymar, which is pretty much how he described it in the past, yet still unexpected.

I enjoyed Vlad’s musings upon the motivations of Dragons, and his thoughts on war and battle, especially his feelings as compared to those of his Dragon companions.

One negative, however, is that I did find the jumps back and forth in time confusing. As Vlad was relating his memories of what had happened, they are intertwined with his musings on what is happening to him currently. There were several passages where I became confused about the time line, as he moved not years in the past, but only a few days or hours. In one passage in particular the time shifted in the middle of a paragraph, and I was left trying to figure out why Vlad was contacting Krager to discuss how things are going back at the office when he’s in the middle of a battle.

However, aside from that, this books was, for me, pretty much perfect. We got to see Morrolan and Aliera and Sethra, and watch their relationships with Vlad evolve into what we saw in other books. We also see more of his relationship with Cawti, although I was disappointed that we don’t really see anything that gives us any hint of how things are going to end up later.

Although this would be an acceptable place to start the series, it might be slightly less confusing if you have read Taltos and Yendi, simply because it might make the story lines a little easier to follow.

Despite the confusion, this is still a fun book to read, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Rating: 9/10

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