The Dragon & the Gnarly King (Mass Market Paperback)

by Gordon R. Dickson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
In this latest book in his humorous dragon series (e.g., The Dragon on the Border, Tor 1992), Nebula and Hugo award winner Dickson returns to the tale of the English professor who must adjust to life as a medieval dragon in a parallel 14th century world. When the King of the Gnarlies kidnaps Jim and Angela Eckert's adopted son Robert, Jim again assumes his dragon form to save the child. Jim and Angela bring their 20th-century sensibilities and his fledgling magical abilities to a medieval world of talking wolves and trolls. Dickson adds a sly touch of humor to make this a highly enjoyable read. Highly recommended for all fantasy collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
In the seventh tale of Baron James de Bois de Malencontri, the Dragon Knight, his adopted son is kidnapped by his longtime rival, the earl of Cumberland, in cahoots with the king of the Gnarlies, faeries with an agenda of their own and a taste for meddling in human politics. In both human and dragon forms, Baron James has his work cut out for him, and he and his wife, Angie, are still struggling to reconcile late-twentieth-century and medieval (also magical) realities. Faster paced than some of its predecessors, with more adventure and less humor, this series member is as well written, for Dickson is a writer who would never, even under threat of death, fail to do his homework. It will definitely hold series fans, even if it wins no new converts. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812562704
• ISBN-13: 978-0812562705
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #737,249 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #29 in

  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dickson, Gordon R.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what is wrong with you people?, July 1, 2000

By	Laurie Drage (Astoria, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

I really do not get you reviewers who are short changing this book by far. Dickson's Dragon Knight series is one of the best set of books out there! In this book I admire his development of the character of Hill, who changes from an anonymous play-thing of the Sea Devil, to one of the most key characters of the book. Also, I like the fact that in this book, Jim learns that his Master in Magick, Carolinus, is not invincible, and that he can be caught in a magickal situation that he is helpless to get out of.

I would definitly reccomend this book to all of my friends. In fact, I already have.

If you are a Fantasy reader, and you HAVE NOT READ Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon Knight series, you'd better get cracking! There are already nine amazing books in this series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent., April 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dragon and the Gnarly King (Vol 2) (Hardcover)

I have just reread this book for the third time, and still found it enjoyable. It is a light, easily read book. It does have slight connection to a previous book but this does not detract from its readability or enjoyability. Anyone wishing to have a light, humorous read, and can cope with fantasy, should not go past this excellent series.

I found this series on par with Christopher Stasheff's 'wizard in rhyme' series.

4.0 out of 5 stars Coping with kidnap and treachery, May 19, 2009

By	Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Gordon R. Dickson, who died in 2001, was best known as a writer of military science fiction, notably the 11 volumes of the Dorsai!, or Childe Cycle, series, but he also had a gift for uproarious humor (he and Poul Anderson collaborated to produce the delightful Hoka! series, about a race of sentient teddy bears and the ramifications that result from their tendency to copy any culture they learn about), and he produced nine volumes (this is the seventh) about the Dragon Knight, Jim Eckert, who (in Dragon and the George), found himself transported to "a magic world at once comic and ethically complex where human beings and dragons share a common culture," and eventually decided to stay there. Having earned nobility and a castle of his own through his exploits against the Dark Powers, Jim and his wife Angie, along with various allies both human and otherwise, spend the rest of the series dealing with the sometimes jolting differences in thought and culture between this alternate 14th Century and the 20th from which they came, and by the way swatting at the Powers whenever they rear their heads. In the present volume, it's been three years since they became permanent residents of the dragon/human reality, and Jim is beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea after all; he suspects that his castle people--steward, servants, men-at-arms--are beginning to "see through him," to realize he's not really the knight/baron/magician they think him, and is convinced that if they do so, his friends--and his enemies, including the King's half-brother, the powerful Duke of Cumberland--won't be far behind. Given that there's something of a tax revolt under way, this is about the worst possible time to have such an eventuality unravel his life, and the recurring weird noises in his castle walls--"boomps," as he's christened them--are just one more distraction he doesn't need. Then his and Angie's infant ward, Robert Falon, vanishes out of his very cradle, even as Crown Prince Edward sends a message begging Jim's help. But there's really no choice to make: Robert must come first. Accompanied by Sir Brian Neville-Smythe, his friend and neighbor, and Dafydd ap Hywel, the Welsh longbowman, Jim sets out for the mysterious land of Overhill-Underhill, which proves to be accessible only through the Drowned Land (inhabited by a people whose king is a kinsman of Dafydd's) and the ancient land of Lyonesse. A grotesque and silent manikin who's been adopted as a sort of pocket-pet by Jim's friend, Rrrnlf, a 30-foot-tall Sea Demon, proves instrumental in finding and rescuing the child, but even then Jim's troubles aren't over, as he returns to his castle to find himself and his two friends faced with arrest on charges of high treason!

Though not classic fantasy of the Tolkien type, the Eckert books are filled with all the elements that makes fantasy fun, including valorous duels, difficult quests, strange cultures both human and otherwise, vivid characters (Dafydd is a favorite of mine, as is Aargh, the sentient English wolf), and the ever-lurking shadow of evil. Jim's lingering self-doubts give them a Marvel Comics flavor of angst that will be familiar to any fan of Spider-Man, and his struggles to fit in--psychologically as much as any other way--into 14th-Century society help the reader understand just how differently people thought in those days from the way they do now. Dickson also introduces a new species of "Natural," as most nonhuman beings are called in his world: the Gnarlies, who are neither gnomes nor dwarves but a little like both. It will help if you've read the previous books in the series (at least the first one), but you can follow the story even if this is your first introduction to it.