The Dragon Lord [Paperback]

David Drake (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC (1982)
• ASIN: B000RH364S
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,658,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

Dave returned to become Chapel Hill's Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together through fiction making sense of his Army experiences.

Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader's hatch of a tank in Cambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education in history and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic action SF and fantasy. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited with creating the genre of modern Military SF. He often wishes he had a less interesting background.

Dave lives with his family in rural North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly Good, May 25, 2000

By 

Joel Rosenberg - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon Lord (Paperback)

The thing about David Drake is that he absolutely refuses to be bound by sentimental genre restrictions that he hasn't agreed to.

And this is a typical, albeit early, example of him doing that. His Arthur isn't the doomed romantic of T.H. White; he's a historically believable conqueror, every bit as credible -- and unsavory -- as Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, or Ibn Saud. Drake's protagonists, while capable of some personal nobility, aren't cookie-cutter heroes, or even the more complex (and also thoroughly enjoyable) ones from White -- they're the sorts of folks who simply don't let cutting a few throats bother them.

This is probably the most original take on the whole Arthurian thing that I've ever read, and I've read quite a few.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still love this old favorite!, May 18, 2006

By 

Sharon - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dragon Lord (Paperback)

Could be called sword and sorcery, Arthurian retelling, Irish mythology.... Whatever you call it, this tale of two very different but well matched mercenaries, trying to stay alive and true to each other and what they believe (or don't believe), despite the forces of history and the machinations of warlords, magicians, witches, and mythic monsters -- it held my attention each time I picked it up. I don't have many books of this sort on my shelf, but I know I will continue to reread this one every few years as I have for over fifteen years, so I'm looking for a hardcover edition.

NOTE: Where I learned the meaning of 'I've got your back' even though it's never said. Read when you want to restore your faith in less-than-perfect but still-the-best friends.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He needs a Skull., June 13, 2010

By 

Gunner (Smyrna, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Dragon Lord (Paperback)

The Dragon Lord

(1979)

The Dragon Lord

(1979)

First, I `d like to say how pleased I was to find that I could purchase a brand new copy of this from Amazon, and since I'm an Amazon Prime member I received free shipping.

An Arthurian Tale out of the Ordinary, Arthur Warlord of Britain, has forged together a Mercenary Army more savage and terrible than the Saxon barbarians who have invaded his Island. Victory isn't enough. Now Arthur wants to annihilate the Saxons by becoming the Dragon Lord.

He needs a Skull.

This is Drake's first novel. He showed promise even back then that this guy was going to be special.

Warning: There is a scene toward the end of chapter Eleven that might give sensitive juveniles nightmares. It is best to have sensitive juveniles avoid this scene, in my humble opinion, it almost gave me nightmares. What were you thinking Dave?

From the author:

Very little of what I wrote before finishing Redliners was

intended for juveniles, sensitive or otherwise.

That particular scene was stolen from a Danish historian,

Saxo Grammaticus. (Who was also the source of Hamlet, if you were wondering.)

I have no objection to the warning--which as I say could be

applied more generally.

All best,

Dave

I highly recommend this novel to fans of Arthurian Fantasy and to Drake Fans, but not for juveniles say under the age of 15 or so.

Gunner June, 2,010