Customer Reviews

The Dragon In Lyonesse (Tor Fantasy)

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

 

 

A lot of people seem to have some problem with this book, but frankly, I thought it was a change of pace. Jim is still utterly himself, but he's starting to get comfortable with who and what he is. He came in contact with the greatest knights of all time, and held his own by doing things on his own terms. What I'm looking forward to is how he handles the greatest challenge of all - fatherhood. I can't wait to see how Dickson has his dragon knight cope with being "Daddy" to his adopted mideveil son. I'm sure both author and character will rise to the occaision.

This is a new adventure that differs greatly from the rest in the series. Even if you have disliked the rest of the series you will surely enjoy this one. The dragon knight returns to Lyonesse but has a completely different battle at hand. What makes this book so exciting is the involvement of the real knights of old like Pellinor, Galahad, and more. This excellent book involves Jim, Daffyd, Brian, and Hob of the main characters but even better is the involment from the Arthurian knights. The story goes that Jim has once again become involved in a battle with the dark powers. The difference is that the dark powers have also recruted some of those from the Arthurian legend. This book is sure to please any who has read this far into the series and even those who just want to read this single book. Dickson has written a standout book in his famous series and this is deffinatly it.

Each book in the Dragon Knight series is pretty decent by itself, and I've enjoyed every single one of them, but in my opinion, the series needs some rejuvenation...

Time after time, has the Baron James been discovering through someone that the Dark Powers once again 'interfere' amok, and time after time has James been finding some miraculous solution. I have no problems with this as a basis for each book, it's just that it has been written the same way each time, perhaps with a few new characters and some backdrops. The highlights of the series, aside from the first book, have been where Jim has been doing something unusual with magick, fighting a battle, or existing as a dragon.

In my opinion, an expansion of these highlights in the next book would be welcome. Perhaps about the formation of a treaty between England and the local dragons...humans with other opinions building one force, and even dragons who do not wish to be involved with 'georges' forming their own group. This would call for James to switch in and out of dragon form alot, and for, perhaps, an emergence of the mere dragons, lead by Secoh!

Oh, well...we'll see what comes up.

Awaiting the next book,

Hypogryph

Well I don't have as much to say as some of the others, since they have said it so well, but I just want to add my two cents worth in the mix as well.
I also agree with the reviews that said this is one of the best so far. I thoroughly enjoyed the high adventure and the cast of new characters added to this book. I would like to encourage anyone who likes this genre to read this series. I particularly enjoy the humor that has been a part of this fantasy adventure. Once again Jim Eckert, (the Dragon Knight), Sir Brian Neville-Smyth, and Dafydd ap Hywel mix it up with the Dark forces. Also the continuing development and importance of Hob the hobgoblin has added an interesting twist to the story. Angie, Jim's wife continues to take a stronger and stronger role in the plot as well.
I am looking forward to reading the next book in line, since reading the last chapter in this one. It was a very good finish as far as I was concerned.

Jim Eckert, the Dragon Knight (who, like Nita and Kit in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, seems to have developed into the major defender of his world against the powers of evil), here returns to the magically preserved realm-under-the-sea of Lyonesse, to which the Knights of the Round Table retreated following the Last Battle between Arthur and Modred. Jim and his friend Sir Brian Neville-Smythe passed through Lyonesse a year or so earlier on their search for Jim's infant ward (a story told in The Dragon & the Gnarly King), but this time they go in response to a request from the master bowman, Dafydd ap Hywel, who was with them at the Loathly Tower (see The Dragon and the George), and whose kinsman, the King of the Drowned Land, has felt "a presence...casting a growing shadow" toward his country from Lyonesse. The Dark Powers, which Jim, Brian, and Dafydd have so often fought before, are once again at work, apparently hoping to take over the Arthurian realm and use it as a staging area from which to launch attacks on the World Above. Naturally, Jim can't refuse a companion's request--not that he's inclined to when the Powers themselves send a finger of their darkness into his very castle. And Brian, who loves nothing better than a good knightly "bicker," is equally ready to take up sword and lance against their old foes.

Reaching the Drowned Land, Dafydd is called away to the bedside of the dying King, and Jim and Brian must venture on accompanied only by Jim's household hobgoblin, an adventuresome and loyal little Natural who has shared several of their previous quests. They're soon joined by an old acquaintance, the Questing Beast, who proves to be "a friend indeed" throughout the experiences that follow, as they discover that the Powers have a local ally in Morgan le Fay--and may also be supported by her three sisters, the other Witch Queens of the Matter of Britain. Then they find out that Jim's old enemy, the Duke of Cumberland, has been imported from the World Above to lead the Dark Powers's invasion force--and Modred, though killed in the Last Battle, has been resurrected and is helping him. Arthur's knights, who've had no battle practice for a thousand years, are outnumbered and out-armed--but too proud to accept much of the help and advice offered them by their visitors. How Jim manages to turn the tide at almost the last moment--with unexpected help from one of Morgan's sisters--is the burden of the book.

This is one of the best of the Dragon Knight series, with a steadily upward-ratcheting level of tension and suspense, plenty of new information about the Dark Powers and how (and why) they do what they do, and a background that shows clearly how Dickson must have immersed himself in the ethics and ideals of 14th-, and fourth-, Century England. The Questing Beast, generally known for convenience as "QB," is a delightful secondary character and worth the book all by himself. And while Jim's Master-in-Magick, the mage S. Carolinus, is still recovering from his captivity among the Gnarlies, his female colleague KinetetE, who's as crotchety as he is, takes Jim magically under her wing and finds herself surprised by his creative approach to the problems he encounters. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Dickson has developed a series of books that allows the reader of today to say what if...? This unique viewpoint allows for the writer to put a 21st century spin on a classic fantasy novel. Characters are real in a fatastic world. This particular book puts Jim the Dragon Knight in the world of King Arthur.

An enjoyable read.

Gordon Dickson's latest Dragon Knight novel, is sad to say, the weakest in the series. In his previous outings Dickson had always managed to maintain a delicate balance between Dickson's always-delightful humorous and satirical elements and the more serious action-adventure episodes. In the Dragon of Lyonesse, however, the latter elements predominate to such a degree that renders the final result almost uniformly depressing and even worse, dull. Only recommended to Dragon-Knight fans who want a complete set of the series.

I mean, dont get me wrong, I liked the book but you eventually have to get tired of the same thing with the "dark powers" and Jim(main character) finding a way out of the situation, I just hope in the next book that something big will happen like new characters or old characters dieing, I hope Gordon R. Dickson sees this....