Customer Reviews

Dragonsbane

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dragonsbane is a story about a witch (Jenny Waynest), a celebrated dragonslayer (John Aversin) and a black dragon named Morkeleb. Without revealing too much of the story, it's enough to say that it follows a standard formula for a dragon / fantasy book, but does so in a rather illustrative and original fashion.

Rather than give us a one-dimensional baddie dragon which is merely a prop set up to be dispatched by the main characters, Hambly proceeds past this and reveals a depth to the black dragon that I have not yet seen duplicated in other fantasy stories involving such mythical creatures. Needless to say, the characters in this novel are very well developed, as well as the artful descriptions of the story's tapestry-so well described at times, we often feel we're really there. This is a talent Barbara brings to her works and is what distances herself from the usual sci fi / fantasy writer "me-too-izm."

Some may find her long winded descriptions tedious, claiming that she wastes valuable space at the beginning of this novel with filler, but I welcome it as building a solid foundation of character study and depth. If you pay attention, you'll no doubt increase your knowledge of medieval culture as well.

If you prefer traditional "sword & sorcery" type novels with mounds of action and little depth, pass this by. If, however, you prefer more to your fantasy than warriors, warlocks and mindless monsters, check out Dragonsbane.

This book introduces us to Lord John Aversin, one of Hambley's most endearing characters. John is a northern "barbarian", who is in actuality quite smart and bookish. He'd rather be learning about engineering feats of the distant past or applying some new theory of farming instead of fighting bandits or the mysterious Ice Riders. But he was born the son of the old Lord, and inherited after his death. He has a strong sense of duty to both his people and the Realm, which has fogotten him and his people since they pulled their garrisons out and sent them back south to the capital more than 100 years ago. He is married to Jenny Waynest, a mage of limited powers whose loyalties are slpit between John and their sons, and her power, which she is still trying to increase.

Into this situation strides Gar, an aristocratic idealist who is as out of place in the royal seat as John is as a bloodthirsty warrior. He is looking for John, because Aversin is the only living Dragonsbane, that is, he killed a dragon several years ago that was threatening his people. Another dragon has appeared down south, and is threatening the capital. Gar persuades John and Jenny to go south to face the monster, in return for the garrsions to be sent north again and the Realm to take interest in the north once again. John, who'd rather study dragons than slay them, reluctantly agrees to go.

Here we start on a high adventure, which in typical Hambley fashion, quickly becomes a web of political intrigue, dark magics, and hidden intents. Gar turns out to be the royal heir to the throne, the king is enslaved to a witch of tremendous but mysterious power, and the confrontation with the dragon turns out to be more than anyone bargained for. This is a great tale, one that will keep you turning the pages long into the night. The characters are so normal, and human, that you can't help but identify with them. This is not your typical hero slays dragon quest, nor is it a typical mighty mages contest. What it is, is a simple human story, about what is important in life, and why we do the things we do. I highly recommend this book.

Unfortunately, the sequels do not do this story justice, and you really aren't missing much if you skip them.

Dragonsbane is easily Hambly's best book to date (26 November 1997). She woos us into her universe, which admittedly is not difficult since there are few new artifacts to engage our attention, but she also manages to woo us into the interior spaces of her characters where we are allowed to see the kinds of choices that people make every day and every lifetime.

The book is full of choices -- Jenny Waynest gives up mastery of magic in order to have a relationship with her lover and her sons -- and those choices are constantly called into question, both by the characters themselves and by the situations into which the characters are drawn. Jenny knows that her life could have been very different had she chosen to pursue her magic despite its severe demands; only the dragon is able to confront her when he sees clearly into her heart and mind and asks: "Do you cling to all the little joys because you are afraid of the great ones?"

Dragonsbane falters as most Hambly books do: the author is so enamoured of language that the well-drawn tapestry of scene and mood sometimes looks more like the over-busy, tassled throw rugs my Aunt Geneva used to embroider, applique, and give away to all the grandkids. Sometimes, a simple image does the trick.

But the great strength of the book is that it is not overwhelmed by the artifacts of the genre. The story is clearly about people, not about magic, and Hambly is able to use the artifacts to seduce us into a story where dragons love gold for its singing of their names.

Dragonsbane is the most accomplished, most polished, and most poignant of Hambly's work.

Looking only at an outline of the plot, Dragonsbane could easily be mistaken for a yet another tale in the "high fantasy" tradition. It contains most of the standard elements that make such stories popular: heroic quests and battles, contests of magic, and the like. Those elements are executed well, and alone could make for a somewhat entertaining story.

However, the tale is anything but high fantasy. The heroes of the story are presented as human beings, with human faults and human needs, and nothing is as simple as the legendary ballads would suggest. As much as anything else, the book deals with difficult choices, past and present, that define who the characters are and who they will become.

In particular, I found that I could truly empathize with Jenny, a woman torn between her love for her family and her love of learning. "To be a mage, you must be a mage" to the exclusion of all else, she was taught, and every moment spent on other interests meant that much less power, that much less knowledge that she would never attain. Her struggle (and failure) to truly satisfy both of those desires is one of the central issues of the book.

Because of this and many similarly deep examples, Dragonsbane is a book that I have read again and again. Its conclusion brings a tear to my eye every time. Unlike most fantasy these days, Dragonsbane contains characters that are truly well drawn and compelling in their humanity. Those who read fantasy only for adventure and who have no taste for any "good literature" may well be disappointed by a book that focuses more on people than on swords and sorcery. However, for more mature readers who want more from a story than a few fights and lightning bolts, Dragonsbane is one of the very best books in the genre.

Dragonsbane gives us a dragon of real quality. You can almost hear the timbre of his voice and the scrape of his wings. The heroine Jenny has all the hallmarks of any person - bitterness and love, envy and generosity in equal measure. Their story is not told in excrutiating detail but the detail you get is evocative, tantalising and constructive. This is a book that you can reread and find yourself once again caught up in their lives. This is a real world and these are real people - just open the page and go there!

I absolutely adore this book...it's one of the first fantasy books I ever read, and I still pick it up again and again. Jenny's struggle between love and power strikes a chord in any person who reads this book. As an avid fan of any book about dragons, I must say that Hambly's image of them is the one that most closely parallels my own, and I always enjoy this book every time I pick it up. Now that there is a sequel, I look forward to exploring this world that Barbra created in more depth.

Dragonsbane. The bane of Dragons in the land is Lord John Aversin, the only living man who's slain one. This is all well and good, except the book isn't about him.

This book is written entirely from the mage Jenny Waynest's POV. DOn't get me wrong, this isn't a first person novel, but we never get a viewpoint other than Jenny's. In some ways this is good. It allows for excellent character development within Jenny herself, which we get.

Unfortunately, this style of writing also leaves most of the other characters pretty mono-dimensional. Halfway through the book, we know how John is going to react to this crisis, we know that Gareth wants to help out but is convinced he is too cowardly. We know Trey is sweet and sincere. And to this novel's detriment, none of these characters really evolve over the course of the novel.

In many other ways, though, this is a very good book. I've read a couple of Hambly's newer books, and it seems to me that instead of getting better, her writing style has diminished over the years. In her newer works, the action is unclear and indistinct, and the passages are often extraneous and boring. Not so in Dragonsbane. I never felt lost as to who was doing what, even when the dragon was flying around in combat with a giant monster and spells were flying all over the place. And it doesn't spend time describing every excrutiating detail of our heroes moving south. Although at first it seems a little jumpy, it is really much to the novel's benefit that the author keeps the book on the action, and doesn't feel it necessary to write a thousand page book.

As to the plot and pacing, the entire book was extremely well paced, flying right along, but the reader isn't quite sure where exactly the plot is heading until most of the way through the book.

Now on to the real stars of the book -- the dragons.

God's Grandmother! Finally here are some believable dragons with believeable motives. This book finally explains why dragons are drawn to gold. And the physics of the dragon itself are more clearly defined and better than any dragons which I have read before.

There were, however, a couple of little irkers. First, the constant talking about the spectacles. Okay, we get the idea that the characters are wearing glasses already! Sheesh. And also, how many times was "The key to magic is magic; to be a mage you must be a mage" repeated in this novel? Talk about overkill.

Still, overall it was a very fun read with some awesome action scenes. I'd recommend picking this one up.

I almost didn't buy this book when I saw its cover back in the eighties because I was afraid it was going to be one of those "damsel in distress" fantasy novels. But then, I saw a review that tempted me, so I bought it... This has become my novel to reread every year. My first copy became so dogeared, I had to buy more. It's the book I push off on friends and other readers. The book I say I wish I had written.

It's adventure, romance, intrigue and magic, all written in the Hambly style. It made me an undying fan of Hambly's work.

If I was ever stranded on a desert island with only one book to read, this would be it.

The title and cover of this book both have the look and feel of a very typical type of fantasy tale - the evil dragon clutches a revealingly clad babe in its black talons, and a warrior looms not far off - obviously coming to the rescue... But almost immediately the book begins to correct these false impressions (though the picture IS true to a major episode in the story...). There is no cliché here; Hambly has actually given us a far subtler sort of story, with a conflicted couple at its heart.

"Dragonsbane" is a label given to the very rare handful of human heroes that have actually managed to kill dragons. All of them (of course!) have been immortalized in legends and ballads galore. Only one of them is actually currently alive... Unfortunately, legend and reality are not the same, and the dragonkiller hero (the Dragonsbane of title) is a very practical guy, in charge of a squalid little struggling community in a very hostile land. The king of the little community's country has abandoned them to struggle with their local problems without federal (or royal?) assistance for years. But when a dragon comes along, who ya gonna call?

The story of the Dragonsbane's second dragonkilling adventure is told by his girlfriend, Jenny. But Jenny is not just an observer in this story. She is also the resident witch and healer in the squalid little community, and rather effective right-hand "man" to the Dragonsbane. As a witch, or "mage", she is sort of second-rate, and has always striven to learn as much as possible, and to be as good at her art as she can be. She's tough, she's humble, she's honest - she's admirable. She can't really afford the time away from her magic that her love for this man (and their 2 kids) has pulled from her. She knows she could be better at it if she spent more time with abstract magic, but... she loves her family and community, and feels responsibility for them, so she spends most of her time as a healer and mother. She is torn between her love and her career! And the Dragonsbane, John, recognizes her conflict. Indeed, this ultimately is the biggest conflict in the book - beyond the conflict with the dragon, the conflict with the witch, and the conflict with the monster. (No more plot clues!!)

Hambly draws her characters beautifully. Jenny is the protagonist, and the tale is told from her viewpoint, but all the main characters are clear and quirky individuals: John, the "Dragonsbane", is a brilliant, largely self-taught, amateur engineer/naturalist with a wacky sense of humor; Gareth, who comes to beg for his help, is a dreamer and idealist who slowly discovers that substance is more important than surface glitter. And the more minor characters are well rendered and believable also.

From the beginning, the story sets us up to expect the usual, only to turn it on its head. The glorious shining hero, the Dragonsbane, makes his first appearance ankle-deep in muck. Expecting a horrible physical battle, the heroes end up instead beset by politics. Ironic reverses and surprises continue throughout the story, all the way to the complex and surprising ending. Need I add that I loved it?!

Well, here it is: the book that started everything! Or at least one of the best fantasy series ever! This was the first Barbara Hambly book I ever read, waaay back when, that got me hooked on this fabulous writer. It's the tale of a pair of unconventional lovers in a sort of Dark Ages land: John Aversin - the only living Dragonsbane, and the quirky, bespectacled Thane of Alyn Hold - and his lover; Jenny Waynest, the cool, distant Witch of Frost Fell. When the king's son comes to the backwater Winterlands, begging decidedly un-heroic Aversin to slay the black dragon, John agrees. The last (and only) dragon he killed almost killed him, but he hopes that this will be a way to convince the king to send the troops his land so desperately needs. Unfortunately, between the patronizing, pettily obnoxious aristocrats of the king's court; a racist populace in uproar over the dragon displaced gnomes and an evil hidden mage, he and Jenny find that the dragon is the least of their worries!

Hambly, a historian, does an amazing job of illustrating what it's like to live in a land with no law, especially one so dangerous and unforgiving that merely surviving is difficult, and far too often impossible. What does it mean to live in an abandoned land? Years ago, the king of the southern capital withdrew his troops and never sent them back. Not only does this mean that protection from raiders and bandits is left to local chieftains like John, it means knowledge itself is lost. Lack of security and the hardscrabble struggle for simple survival means books get used for kindling, papering walls and toilet paper. People's lives become smaller and more circumscribed as trade and travel diminishes. The world shrinks and becomes cruder and more brutal. John, not only a leader and the representative of law but a scholar who mourns the disappearance of knowledge, is willing to risk his life in a desperate gamble to stop the slow dissolution of civilization.

[Note: This review is the same for all 4 books of the Winterlands series.]

** Aahhh... This is what I mean by a good Hambly book! No! A great Hambly book! This is probably my favorite Hambly series, and one of my favorite series of all time. What makes Barbara Hambly books so wonderful is that not only are her stories nail biting-ly thrilling but you come to love the characters. I'd compare her to Stephen King - they both write exciting stories that have you snapping when they (dare!) try to interrupt, and they both write emotional, three dimensional characters, often outsiders, you truly come to care for. And like all great character driven stories, they change and grow and learn. When you close the last page, you feel like you've completed an epic journey, one where your inner journey is at least as important as the outer. Even the dragon grows!

Like all the great stories it's a hard, often heart-rending journey, but one told with some beautiful prose. I can't say much more without spoiling the story - you'll just have to read it yourself. Be sure to read the books in order:

Be sure to start read the books in order:
1. Dragonsbane
2. Dragonshadow
3. Knight of the Demon Queen
4. Dragonstar

Conclusion: Highest recommendation! Don't miss out on this amazing experience!