Customer Reviews

Dragon and Herdsman: The Forth Dragonback Adventure

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dragon and Herdsman (2006) is the fourth novel in the Dragonback series, following Dragon and Slave. In the previous volume, Jack escapes from the Chookoock family estate with 30 ex-slaves in Arthur Neverlin's shuttle. Although he never gets into the Chookoock computer system, he does discover that the Malison Ring mercenaries had ambushed the Shontine/K'da advance party.

In this novel, Jack breaks into a Malison Ring recruiting office, but is trapped inside. He is rescued from the building by his former associate Alison Kayna. When they reach the spaceport, her ship is invested with Braxton Universis agents, so Jack gives her a ride to Rho Scorvi. She pays for the fuel on the eight day trip.

Alison seems very well informed about spaceships, even discovering the existence of his InterWorld transmitter. Although she is suspicious, Jack keeps secret the existence of Uncle Virge. He also hides the presense of Draycos.

Reaching their destination, Jack discovers that the native Erassvas are symbionts with the Phookas. These creatures have all the physical characteristics of the K'da, but not the intellectual abilities. They can even go two-dimensional on their hosts. Draycos is very disturbed over their good natured, yet animalistic behavior.

Then Malison Ring ships arrive. The Essenay destroys the two Djinn-90 fighters, but vanishes in an explosion. The remaining transport lands and disembarks mercenary soldiers.

Jack takes all the Phookas in the band as well as ten Erassvas for hosts and herds them through the forest. Alison reluctantly tags along. Draycos keeps hidden, but slips out occasionally to scout around and to ambush the mercenaries whenever an opportunity occurs.

This novel reintroduces Alison, the somewhat friendly, and always suspicious, mercenary recruit with too much knowledge of soldiering. Keeping her from noticing the Phookas slipping on and off their hosts is just plain tiring and Jack cannot let her notice the off and on again nature of his "tattoo". Then the "Kodiak" attacks his herd and Alison doesn't have a clear shot.

The slow and unintelligent Phookas raise unsettling questions within Draycos. Are all his racial legends a lie? A silver-gray Phooka with silver eyes starts to follow Jack or himself with a puzzled look. He calls her Taneem, after a childhood friend who has since died in the fighting against the Valahgua. Taneem is very attractive, but DUMB.

Highly recommended for Dragonback fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of derring-do with an alien companion.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Very entertaining story; this book is the fourth in a continuing series. I especially enjoy the interplay between honor, ethics, different cultures, and survival, as well as a great action plot. Please, hurry up and write the next one!

Says Jack in this new "Dragonback" novel. Heh. I plan to steal this for myself and use it as soon as possible.


"Dragon and Herdsman" is the pivotal fourth novel in the "Dragonback" series. In this book, an important truth about the fate of Draycos's people, the K'da, is revealed and so is the true nature of a henceforth mysterious character, Alison Kayna.

This book finds Jack stranded on a planet full of Phooka, which are actually K'da. Their senses have been dulled by living an idyllic life and Draycos is disgusted at first. But he and Jack both soon find that things are more than they seem.

Fans of this series won't want to miss this newest work by Zahn. Things are really getting rolling with this series, which I only just recently started reading. I can't wait to see more!

This book is the fourth book in Timothy Zahn's young adult series written about teenagers. Though some seem to be under contrary impressions, Zahn did write this with young adults in mind.

The book is very good. Though occasionally simplistic in style, the plot is anything but. The characters are, if not overly complex, then definitely believable. You take clear sides in the book, and you want to see it to the finish. The premise is compelling, and the plot is tense.

"Dragon and Herdsman" doesn't lose your attention. It doesn't slack in the surprises provided by the last three books. It keeps stringing the reader along with hints about the science and psychology of the dragons, and the massive conspiracy that plans to destroy the remainder of the K'da race.

Overall, a good read and a good buy.

Dragon And Herdsman is the fourth book in Timothy Zahn's Dragonback series, picking up some weeks after where Dragon and Slave left off. As readers of the first three books will know, Jack, an orphan con-artist/thief (reformed, he insists) and Draykos, a warrior/poet of the dragon-like K'da, are working against a deadline to find out who was behind the attack on the advance fleet of refugee ships that Draykos' people were traveling on, an attack that left Draykos the only survivor. They originally only had two clues -- that the attack was carried out by mercenaries, and that the mercenaries had aliens known as Brummgas in their ranks. But now, after Jack's having first joined up with a mercenary group and then later having himself sold as a slave to a prominent Brummga household that also dabbles in mercenaries, they have learned more about who carried out the attack and what their overall plan is.

Having learned the name of the specific group of mercenaries involved - the Malison Ring - Jack and Draykos attempt to break in to one of their offices to search their computer for more information, but things quickly go wrong and Jack ends up captured. Only to then be unexpectedly rescued by Alison Kayna, a girl he enountered when he was in the mercenary group in Dragon And Soldier, a tough and smart character who has an unknown agenda of her own. Turns in fortune end up with Jack agreeing to take Alison to a remote undeveloped world where she is expecting to meet up with friends, but once there they find that the mercenaries have been tracking them all along and they end up stranded on the ground and fleeing for their lives.

And as if all of these turns don't make things difficult enough, Jack and Alison end up making a startling discovery: a small group of natives called the Erassvas who live in symbiosis with a herd of what they call Phookas... that seem to be non-sentient K'da:

"Just stay here and keep an eye on them, okay?" Jack cut her off. Without waiting for more argument, he strode off toward the dragons.
--He was halfway there when it belatedly occurred to him that even if they _were_ K'da, they might not be civilized. "Draykos?" he muttered, slowing down his pace a little. "What do you think? Are they all right?"
--There was no answer. "Draykos?" he repeated. "Come on, buddy, wake up."
--"Look at them, Jack," Draykos murmured darkly.
--Jack glanced down into his shirt. "What?"
--"I said look at them," Draykos said, his voice growing even darker. "Lying around, not watching for danger or threat, digging grubs -- _grubs_ -- out of dead wood."
--A chill ran up Jack's back. He studied the multicolored dragons as they wandered around, trying to see in them the powerful, clever, deadly poet-warrior that was Draykos. "But they _are_ K'da, aren't they?"
--"No," Draykos said bitterly. "Not K'da. Not anymore."
--"They are _animals_."

The action is decently-paced as Jack, Draykos and Alison are hunted through the jungles and forests by the Malison Ring mercenaries. Zahn does a good job of realistically conveying the difficulties of trying to herd a group of Phookas and their Erassvas hosts over unfamiliar terrain with only two or three individuals available to do the work. And there are some interesting developments suggesting that the symbiotic relationship between a K'da and its host may affect them both in ways not previously seen. My only problem with the book is that the things learned about the Erassvas and the Phookas raise a number of questions that are never really answered and yet you feel like they should have been. That and, again, sometimes things seem to happen because of the needs of the plot even when it requires the characters to be, well, dumber or less observant or more trusting than they should be. For this reason, I'm rating this volume 3 stars instead of 4, which is what I gave to the first two Dragonback books.

All in all though, this is a still a good continuation of the series and we can see Jack and Draycos continuing to evolve as characters, and in this volume, Alison Kayna as well. Recommended.

In this, the fourth book of the Dragonback series Timothy Zahn takes the reader to a strange planet where Draycos and Jack are being hunted by the mercenaries that hold the the information the pair need to save Draycos' people from being ambushed. On this planet they find a race of beings called the Phookas who appear to be of the same race as Draycos, but they appear to be at the level of herd animals, which makes Draycos question where he himself may actually have come from. They are acoompanied by Alison someone who Jack metDragon and Soldier: The Second Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback) with her help they defeat the mercenaries, and escape to fight another day, but Alison seems to have her own agenda. Zahn does a great job in developing the relationship between Draycos and Jack. The series keeps getting better and better.

With only three months left before the K'da/Shontine refugee fleet arrives, Jack breaks into a Malison Ring base to find out where the fleet's rendevous point with the now destroyed advance scouting party is. He is caught red-handed but luckily he's rescued by Alison Kayna. Jack and Draycos drop Alison off at the planet of Rho Scorvi, where they discover a whole herd of K'da. To Drayco's dismay, they have discovered the home world of the K'da, but these K'da (called Phookas) are only animals, with no intelligence or fighting skills.
Colonel Frost of the Malison Ring has followed Jack to Rho Scorvi and Jack and Alison employ all their ingenuity to stay out of his clutches while keeping the existence of the Phookas secret from the mercenaries. Meanwhile, Jack also has to hide Draycos's existence from Alison and Draycos is depressed and angry over the origins of his people

My son is hooked on this series. I couldn't buy these books fast enough to suit him.

This entire series is vetted as for "young readers" and while it is not a complex, deep philosophical book it kept my interest through out and I am 54 so this is one I have shared with my thirteen year old and we have been equally satisfied with it.

Me because it was entertaining enough and not in anyway condenscending in tone and to my thirteen year old as the main character is fourteen. LOL.

I recommend the entire series

Zahn has a great writting style, but the plot for this book was not as compelling as the others. Still good though.