Customer Reviews

The Hidden Dragon: The Stargods #1

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Irene Radford has written a number of dragon-related novels, but The Hidden Dragon, Book one of The Stargods series, is basically serving as my introduction to her work - so I can't compare this to her earlier Dragon Nimbus series entries. This particular novel is entertaining and features a couple of fascinating magical creatures, but several things marred my enjoyment of the story.

The three O'Hara brothers (Loki, Konner, and Kim) are running one final smuggling mission for their Mum when authorities descend upon their spaceship. In desperation, the Brothers make an uncoordinated hyperspace jump, winding up in the vicinity of an unclassified planet that appears green with vegetative life. In their own world, nature is largely a thing of the past, and the brothers know that their own private planet full of naturally grown food could net them a fortune in the domed, bio-controlled world they come from. They basically have no real choice about landing, as their narrow escape from authorities resulted in significant damage to their ship. Setting foot on the lush planet, the brothers find a world that had been partially terraformed at some point in the past. It is populated by a society of primitive men and women led by a bloodthirsty high priest, Hanassa, who demands blood sacrifices for the dragon god Simurgh. The head-strong brothers destroy the hateful altar of sacrifice, decry Hanassa's lust for blood and power, and soon split the population into opposing tribes. Hanassa sees many of his villagers leave to follow these new Stargods who arrived on a white dragon - including Hestiia, the young lady he covets for himself. None of this makes this evil fellow very happy.

This world is a magical place. The brothers confront the impossible when they meet up with a dragon and a flying cat that seem to communicate with one another. Stranded on the planet for at least several months, the brothers take it upon themselves to help their new followers survive and prosper - initially out of self-interest on their part. Of course, they form a bond with the people as time goes on - and they have to defend their villagers from the constant challenges of Hanassa and his stalwart magical powers. The brothers find magic of their own with which to meet the challenge, as their natural psi abilities are magnified greatly in this alien environment. The bulk of the story revolves around the brothers' conflicted emotions over their prior commitments to their distant mother and their new commitments to these primitive villagers who look upon them as gods.

Radford's plot is a little repetitive: the brothers are attacked by Hanassa's warriors, they seemingly kill the dangerous high priest, and then a short while later the whole thing just repeats itself. The brothers themselves also aren't fully-developed characters in my mind. I oftentimes had trouble distinguishing one from another, and there were many occasions when one said something I would have expected another one to say. Their motivations are also somewhat suspect - even though Radford goes on and on about the brothers' obligations to their Mum back home. They seemed to have the same conversation on a regular basis, and the moralizing that goes on every time they have Hanassa in their clutches but refuse to take a human life grows old (and foolish) after their first couple of violent encounters. There isn't much of a sense of closure as the novel ends, either, giving the reader the impression that this tiresome pattern is only going to be repeated anew in the next volume of the series. Additionally, the dragon plays less of a role here than you might reasonably expect, the flying cat all but disappears midway through the story, and none of the other characters (apart from Hestiia) are all that interesting. Radford's attempts to introduce humor into the story, especially in the brothers' dialogue, also don't come across all that effectively.

Reading this novel, I just felt as if some important dimension was missing. The story retained my interests, and I basically liked the characters, but I never felt connected with this world or its inhabitants. There is definitely enough material here for a successful series, but I think the author just needs to sit back and let the story tell itself.

Although the imagery was colorful, the writing was weak. It grew so tiresome to read on about their struggles to almost kill their nemesis. Every time they could have finished the job, there were objections about how wrong it is to kill any living thing (even those bent on your own destruction). And the mentions of how the most civilized of us have eschewed meat as a source of food. Over and over again these themes were vocalized as major plot points and character values. I for one get sick of being bludgeoned with someone's personal opinions when I'm trying to read a book for fun. I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.

"The Hidden Dragon" (Volume 1 of The Stargods) is a mixture of science fiction and fantasy and somewhat fails in both genres.

Three brothers with latent psychic abilities are attacked in their spaceship by the authorities. They manage to escape and limp to the nearest planet with an acceptable atmosphere, hoping to find the resources they need to repair their ship. When they arrive, they find a primitive society, apparently the descendants of a lost colony.

To their amazement, the O'Hara brothers find that the planet supports dragons, a mystical race of powerful beings who have, for the most part, remained aloof from the humans. Until now. In the past, one of their own acquired the taste for human flesh and had to be destroyed. Another outcast wants to control the human race.

Although the O'Hara brothers just want to collect the elements they need and leave, they become caught up in the fate of this world.

The characterization is rather weak. The three brothers are almost indistinguishable from one other and all have similar names which just adds to the confusion. Radford doesn't supply any firm motivations for their actions; this became irritating at times. The motivation of the villain is particularly flat. Why does he want to kill everyone? He seems to be interested in acquiring and using power; if he kills everyone, who is left to worship him? The few potentially interesting individuals (the fiery Hestiia and the mysterious flywacket Gentian) are discarded or muted about halfway through the book.

Also, Radford doesn't pretend to be subtle in her storytelling. She continually "hints" at things until you want to scream "Ok, Ok, I get it now!!"

But, for those of us who enjoy a bit of diverting adventure, the book does fulfill that requirement.

Readers of Radford's other series, "The Dragon Nimbus" and "The Dragon Nimbus History" will thrill to find familiar names and places: Simurgh, Hanassa, Yaakke, the Stargods, and the genesis of the nation of Coronnin.

Expect a cliffhanger...after all it is only volume one.

When the O'Hara clan resisted the Galactic Terran Empire planetary governor's takeover, he declared them outlaws and claimed the family shipping business. When the O'Hara home exploded, the oldest sister Katie disappeared. The family matriarch became determined that the family would regain their citizenship rights so that they could have access to the databases and thus find out what happened to Kate.

The three O'Hara boys (Kim, Konner and Loki), take to smuggling so that they can bribe a corrupt official into returning their citizenship. On their latest run carrying valuable pearls, they are almost caught and have to make a FTL jump into unknown space to avoid getting captured. The ship is damaged and the O'Hara brothers are forced to land on a planet inhabited earlier by earlier GTE colonists who have sunk into a hunting and gathering type society. In a battle with a corrupt tribal official, the brothers liberate the slaves, build their own nation where the inhabitants regard them as the STARGODS. Their adventures become the stuff that legends are made of.

Irene Radford has begun a new series that is very different in tone and style than her previous Merlin's Descendants. The story line is sophisticated yet the interactions between the brothers is both witty and slapstick. There is enough action in THE HIDDEN DRAGON to keep readers turning the pages until they reach the end of the book. It will be very hard to wait for book two in the series so we can revisit those darling O'Hara men.

Harriet Klausner

This is the first (and probably only) book by Irene Radford that I have read. After reading it, I was more than a little surprised to find that this was not her first book.

I would expect a higher standard of writing from a published author. I'm not talking about storytelling ability, plotting, imagery, etc. -- that could be improved, but I've seen worse (yes, in published authors.) What I'm talking about here is the *mechanics* of writing. Grammar, punctuation, and just plain awkwardness. There were times when I'd wince when I read a sentence and think, "She must have really struggled over that one." Maybe we can blame the copy editors at DAW, but it's painful to read. I have used this book on more than one occasion as an example of bad writing. I'll hand someone the book and say "Read one chapter at random (your choice) and then don't ever complain to me about {insert writer here} again."

Don't let me make it sound like the story telling redeems it, because that's pretty painful too. The characters are cardboard -- you have to carefully look to see who the viewpoint character is at a particular point, because they all seem the same and she seldom signals a change in viewpoint. These can be very abrupt.

Her understanding of science seems a bit limited for someone writing "Science Fiction." That would be OK if she didn't try to incorporate science into the story. There are lots of good SF books by authors with little science knowledge, but those authors don't try to bash you over the head with their bad science. "Science proves that dragons don't exist." Give me a break! Neither science nor scientists would attempt to "prove" such a thing. And is she using a "femto" as a synonym for a "femtosecond"? She uses it as a unit of time. A femtosecond is to a second as a second is to 32 million years. So her characters pause for a femtosecond in conversation? Yeah, right. She uses this term *constantly*.

Ms. Radford may be a very nice lady, but this book is sloppy and painful to read. Her characters aren't believable, her story is not believable, and the mechanics of her writing is just plain awkward. Maybe her other books are better, but I'd be afraid to subject myself to another one to find out.

I really loved Irene Radford's take on the Arthurian Saga, her Merlin's Children series. So when I found this book from her (apparently better-known) dragon-centric series, I almost grabbed the entire trilogy. It's a good thing I controlled myself, because this book has been a big disappointment.

The premise is a good one (if not completely original). Three brothers, smuggling "one last run" before bringing the loot home to Mom, have their starship break down on an uncharted planet. The planet was apparently settled hundreds of years ago, but the survivors have lost all their technology; the brothers' technology makes them seem like gods. Particularly because there's something about this planet that seems to enhance each of the brothers' latent psi powers. Meanwhile there's a Bad Guy who has his own power-hungry plans...

Good idea, right? Unfortunately, Radford stumbles on the execution, and she stumbles hard. The characters are far too cardboard, with "secrets" to keep from one another that are purely dumb. The bad guy was simply given a coat of Evil Paint (yet another bad guy who wants to knock off everyone except Our Heroine, and there's no particular reason he should single her out). Exposition that gets in the way of storytelling. And irritating dialog.

It's all especially annoying because I know how good Radford can be. This has all the awkwardness and promise of a first novel. (I'm tempted to think that it WAS the first, but there are two additional Dragon Nimbus trilogies, and I think they pre-date the events in this book.) The basic storyline was enough to keep me reading until the end (with a lot of scanning, later in the book), and I see some of the sparkle that I enjoyed in Merlin's Children... but overall, it's really no better than "Okay." Instead, pick up a copy of her Merlin series -- you'll enjoy it far more.

This was the first of Irene Radford's books I had read. It kept me glued to the pages until I had finished the book. I enjoyed it enough to immediately purchase all 4 of the books in The Dragon Nimbus series.

SIDE NOTE: For anyone who is looking for another good fantasy series, try the books by David Eddings. I recommend starting with the series The Belgariad (book 1 is entitled Pawn of Prophesy). The story is Tolkien-esq but with an easier-to-read style. I own 16 of his books, and they've all been read until the covers are falling off!

I found a good many grammatical errors, most of which were in punctuation (i.e. periods where question marks should be, etc). There were a few other errors, as well, but the book as a whole was pretty good. Not quite as high quality as her other two Dragon Nimbus series, however. It seemed to lack something. Nevertheless, it was a good read.