Customer Reviews

Dragon's Ring

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Fionn and Meb are two of the most enjoyable characters I have read about in recent years.

A dragon with a heart and a mage who is not suddenly all powerful after 'finding out the truth' are very different heroes.

Fionn has been working for a long time to destroy Tasmarin whilst Meb was dragged into this plane when Fionn destroyed the first of the towers holding Tasmarin in place.

They travel Tasmarin as Fionn plans the final destruction of Tasmarin and Dragon's Ring is a fascinating read. Meb is a very likeable character who changes from a young girl to a mature woman who is more then a match for Fionn. Fionn is a rogue who is honest about his intentions to destroy Tasmarin to all who ask but no one believes him.

Along the way they gather favours from the many races who live in Tasmarin and finally connect them all together as Fionn prepares to destroy Tasmarin.

Read Dragon's Ring to find out how good a story this is.

Hopefully this will be only the first in a series about Fionn and Meb.

Dave Freer always impresses me with his ability to find ways to twist common elements of SF/F and make them his own. I can't think of another author that could make a protagonist who is intent on bringing Armageddon a sympathetic, and entertaining character, certainly not with so few words spent in doing so. The story revolves around Fionn and Meb and we get to watch them learn a bit from each other as they go about getting Fionns plan to fall into place.

Excellent read with characters, setting, and dialogue each stunningly simple and their own strength.

Dragon's Ring (2009) is a standalone fantasy novel. It is set in Tasmarin, the place of dragons. That plane was constructed with pieces from here and there, so it is mostly water with many islands.

Dragons rule Tasmarin. Humans are just fodder for the dragons. Human wizards are troublesome, however, and the dragons have long ago wiped out those with magic genes. But another human magic user has appeared within Tasmarin.

In this novel, Fionn is a black dragon. He is a troublemaker and very good at it. None knows where he dwells, but all dragons know that he is trying to destroy Tasmarin. Although all dragon can shapeshift, Fionn is probably the only adult dragon using this ability.

Meb is the human magic worker. Her real name is Anghared, but her foster mother names her Meb after finding the infant on the seashore. However, Fionn calls her Scrap and she calls him Finn.

In this story, everything changes when Fionn fells the South-Eastern tower. It has been holding back the void, but paramatter now mixes with real matter and converts to energy. Anghared is torn from her mother's grasp and flung into the angry sea.

Seventeen years later, Meb spots raiders coming into the harbor and runs to warn the other villagers. She gets too close to the cliff edge and a large piece fells off, taking her with it. She hits the sea hard, but is rescued by a merrow. He takes her dress and most of her hair as his reward.

When Meb reaches Cliff Cove, she finds the huts and boats burning and the raiders searching the wreckage. After the raiders leave, Meb goes down to the ruins and finds only embers, ashes and a couple of bodies. The villagers have fled, but she does discover food, water, and some clothing.

The clothing is for a boy and her hair is now short, so she looks like a boy. She is ashamed of her pretense of boyhood, but she decides that it is worthwhile to protect her virtue. Not that she knows what her virtue really is.

Meb learns that the survivors have left for Tarport. After she reaches the town, Meb searches for food, drink and her fellow villagers. But she gets mugged instead. Then she tries to take a pouch from a drunken gleeman and is caught herself.

After Fionn grabs Meb, she wiggles loose only to fall into the canal. The villagefolk are fishers, but none know how to swim. So Fionn has to dive in the water to pull her out.

Meb becomes Fionn's apprentice. She thinks that he is teaching her the tricks of a jester and rogue. Yet he is really training her to be a planomancer.

Meb is worried that Finn will discover that she is a girl and dismiss her. Finn is worried that her wild magic will catch the attention of the dragons and other species that are looking for a human mage. He gives Meb a Dvergar-made necklace to focus and control her magic.

This tale has every species on Tasmarin looking for a human mage. Several groups have identified Meb as a human magic worker, but she is not aware of them or her magic. Unknown to her, Finn is working hard to protect her from the other mages.

This novel lacks proper copyediting. Apparently the publisher depended on spellcheckers instead of human eyeballs, for "were" and "where" are interchanged and "sliver" replaces "silver". Also, the South-Eastern tower is lost and then is seriously cracked; obviously one of the "South-Eastern" usages is a mistake.

This work is an introduction to Tasmarin and the eight peoples that dwell there. It has a list of characters at the front and tables in the back. The novel looks like the start of a series. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Freer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of various magics, dragon troublemakers, and bewildered heroines.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Fionn is low in the ranks of the dragons, but high in mischief, or in fact, down right skulduggery, not to mention that he is determined to destroy the universe.

Mab is an orphaned girl, now missing her second family. The dragon that is responsible is going to pay for what he did.

Pity she doesn't recognize him when she meets him.

Or is it? A charming meeting of many species and conflicting desires, where it gets hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, or is it that we can't tell good from bad?

DRAGON'S RING is a fine choice for any fantasy library, telling of the world of Tasmarin, a place of dragons cut off from all others worlds and filled with magic. Fionn, a black dragon, is set to destroy the place- and it will take all the magic available to thwart him - and a human mage, long gone from the dragon's kingdom. Swift action makes this a pick for any serious fantasy collection.

My wife gave this to me on Christmas day and I stayed up until 3:00 that morning reading. Rather then repeat the synopsis other reviewers have provided I will state that I rarely read fantasy; finding it mostly reworks of established plots and characters. Not so with Dave Freer's fantasy and this book is no exception. His characters are different and accessible. His description of place well done without belaboring the scenery. The plot in this novel is twisted enough to make it fresh.

Meb and Finn surely captured my heart and I hope that we will see more of them. This book is definitely worth adding to your shelf.

With Dave Freer, you can always expect a unique twist on the genre standards, and Dragon's Ring doesn't disappoint. In a world where dragons rule, human magic users have been wiped out, and the whole place is falling apart, one trouble-making dragon who wants to destroy it and a human mage accidentally brought into the world turn all the usual expectations on their head, then do a dance with any notion you might have of what 'should' happen - and it's all beautifully handled, so that the ending, while unexpected, feels perfect.

It's a wonderful read, with a darker subtext that never overrides the fast-paced adventure but leaves you thinking after the book is finished.

If you like your fantasy filled with gritty realism and plenty of good humor, you'll like Dragon's Ring. If you like your fantasy with glimpses of a larger history, a universe that has space for magic and a ring of worlds, you'll find it here. And if you like your fantasy filled with characters that range from big brothers that you'll recognize to very different sprites and demons and such... you'll really enjoy Dragon's Ring.

Heck, if you wonder about questions like these: Will the world end if a fisherwoman's foundling daughter wears trousers? Why do merrows catch the souls of drowned sailors? Can an old dry stick, a piece of dried seaweed, a bag of hot air, a puff of flame, a reflecting pool, a hammer, and a little gold make everyone happy? If you want the answers to these and other questions, you'll just have to read Dragon's Ring.

What is Dragon's Ring? Well, it's about Meb, an orphan raised by fisherfolk in Tasmarin, where dragons rule, learning about human mages and her romance with Fionn, the planomancer. Or it's about how a Scrap of humanity became Anghared, the love of Fionn, how the closed world of Tasmarin opened bridges to the worlds, and how the centaurs, creatures of smokeless flame, humans, dvergar, dragons, alv of many types, the mountains and the sea, a sheepdog, merrows, and the Lyr learned the power of love. Dragon's Ring is all of these, and more!

Buy it, read it, and enjoy your visit to Tasmarin. Tell them I sent you. And watch out for that gleeman's magic! He'll make your gold disappear.

Dave Freer's Dragon's Ring is an entwining of historical reality and fantasy, written in an exceptionally enthralling style with exceptionally sympathetic characters.

I read it before it was published, and despite the awkwardness of reading it unproofed, in manuscript, I found myself sucked in so thoroughly that I kept neglecting what I needed to do -- I was at a conference at the time -- and finding excuses to go back to my hotel room and read again.

I have since read it twice more, and every time I notice some new bit of layering in the story or characters that evaded me before.

One of the best fantasies I've ever read. Buy one for yourself, one for a friend and one to donate to your favorite school library. I have.

I really enjoyed this story - the main characters are reliably complex, and there are enough hints dropped here and there that there's something far bigger going on than the main (human) character expects. The story is both sufficiently "wrapped up" by the end that I don't feel like I've been left hanging - and yet I'm also eager to get my hands on the sequel. I'm hoping that Scrap gets to have some non-magic-driven character growth away from her protective guardian in this next one. She spends most of this book cast as a MacGuffin, carrying around another MacGuffin. The MacGuffin interactions are often hilarious - to the extent that it gets in the way of any actual tension in the plot. There's not any doubt that the heroes are going to prevail, nor any expectation that success will require any personal sacrifice on the part of the good guys. Enjoyable, certainly; fun, definitely; epic fantasy, not quite. Parts of it remind me of Robert Asprin's MythAdventures series, which I also enjoy!