Glen Cook is a helluva writer. He never seems to
get the respect he deserves; his stuff sells well but he never seems to "break
out" the way others (who may or may not be better writers) have and continue
to do.
And this may well have been Glen's best book so far.
Sad it's been out of print since its single first edition, more than ten
years ago.
I recall buying it, because i buy every Glen Cook novel that comes out, and
reading it in basically one sitting (and even though i read nearly 1000
words/minute, that was a longish read, because this is a *big* book). Not
too long after that, as we were setting out on a seven-hour drive (to an
SF convention, as it happens) my wife asked me if i had anything interesting
she could read on the trip. I handed her "Dragon". She protested that she
didn't like Cook's stuff. I persuaded her to try it.
As we were arriving in Louisville, she looked up and said "Okay -- when can
I read the sequel?"
But there isn't a sequel. It's wide-open for a sequel. The last line almost
*demands* a sequel.
But Glen won't write one. And i've bugged him about it on and off at SF
conventions for years -- he just grins and says "Don't feel like it" or words
to that effect.
But, even given the fact that this book really *needs* a sequel and there
isn't one and there apparently ain't gonna *be* one, i cannot recommend it
too highly as a classic example of how to do space-opera *right*.
Would be well-worth the effort of finding a copy if you like well-written,
well-thought-out extremely wide-screen Space Opera; particularly, anyone
who likes either David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series or "Doc" Smith's
"Lensman" books needs to read this. |
