Continuing the exploration of the portrayal of dragons, I've since read 'TALON' by Julie Kagawa, 'TOOTH AND CLAW' by Jo Walton, 'SERAPHINA' by Rachel Hartman and McCaffrey's 'DRAGONFLIGHT' - some very wonderful and diverse books. Of course, I am not reviewing the books themselves, just the dragons themselves.
Let's start with 'TALON' (by Julie Kagawa). Shapeshifting dragons. Dragons in human form, in our world, pretending to be human, living their whole lives out as human beings. Being hunted down by an elite, top-secret military organisation - the Order of St. George. Ember and Dante Hill are two hatchlings who - in human form - are sixteen-year-old siblings, being introduced into the human population for the first time. The existence of their dragon community is the greatest secret on the planet, and they must restrain their natural impulses, and never transform into their dragon selves under any circumstances.
There are some very clever things in this book, and I like the way that the protagonist Ember has two selves, her 'human' self and her 'dragon' self, which both have conflicting ideas about certain other humans and certain other dragons. How were the dragons portrayed though? They were a more instinctive, much larger and scarier version of the character's human selves. The whole concept of shapeshifting from human form into dragon form is too much of a stretch for me, though. There's just such a massive size discrepancy, where does all that mass come from/go when they transform?
Next is 'SERAPHINA' which is Rachel Hartman's debut novel. It's an outstanding debut, and I really enjoyed it. But we're here for the dragons. This novel is set on a different world, in the Kingdom of Goredd, which it about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the truce between draonkind and their Kingdom. Seraphina, the protagonist, is the music mistress at the royal court, herself under the tutelage of Orma, who is a dragon in human form living amongst the human population. Shapeshifting dragons again? Yes indeed. Disaster strikes the Kingdom when Prince Rufus is murdered prior to the arrival of the Ardmagar, the leader of the Dragons.
Despite the shapeshifting element of the dragons - again a stretch too far - the dragons in Hartman's novel are very interesting. They are generally emotionless, supremely logical beings with their own political structures. Throughout the story it's shown that throughout their conflicts and wars with humanity, they've learned from us, and there's been a significant cultural change where instead of hoarding gold they now hoard other values like intelligence. I especially like this because it brings them to life even more - ideas values, and ways of thinking do change over time, and it speaks of the depth and complexity of their species.
'TOOTH AND CLAW' by Jo Walton really took me by surprise. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up, but I fell in love with it really quickly. It's a regency romance (think Pride and Prejudice) but all the characters are dragons. Throughout the country, there live common servant dragons and dragons of noble rank, such as Exalted, August, Majestic, Illustrious, Dignified and Respected. This story focuses on the family of Dignified Bon Agornin, who begins the story on his deathbed, and what becomes of Respected Avan, Blessed Penn and the sisters Respected Selendra and Haner. While they have titles, they have very little in terms of wealth and size.
These dragons are portrayed so well; they sleep on beds of gold coins, the bigger and stronger can develop the ability to breathe fire, the Blessed (the priests) bind their wings and do not fly, the servants have their wings bound and are not permitted to fly. The society is so well divided into the haves and have-nots, and as you may have suspected, a lot of the story revolves around finding acceptable partners of noble rank. They're intelligent, they're all unique individuals with their own values - greed, love, equality, honour, for example.
And finally, 'DRAGONFLIGHT: THE FIRST CHRONICLE OF PERN' by Anne McCaffrey which some may say is an even more iconic Dragon series than Le Guin's 'Earthsea.' Well, it's got a lot more dragons in it. Pern is a planet, colonised by humans, and highly empathetic humans with an innate telepathic ability have the ability to bond with and fly the Dragons. Over hundreds of years, the reason for the existence of these Dragonriders has been forgotten, and only one of their Weyrs remain inhabited. But soon they're going to be needed more than ever.
The dragons in this tale are certainly the more traditional type of dragon. They are divided into classes by their colours, gold dragons are queens, the large brown dragons are the ones best suited for combat, and there are also smaller green dragons and so on. It is only the queens, the golden dragons, that can lay eggs. And a dragon will only bond with one human in it's lifetime. It's a complicated system that works. The dragons can communicate with each other telepathically, and with their bonded rider. They have their own intelligence and wisdom - and this is the thing that irked me about the book, that the humans made all the decisions, all the plans without consulting their dragons. Those dragons may have a wealth of helpful ideas and abilities that aren't being used because the humans are too pig-headed to ask.
So what is there to learn from these stories? None of the dragons really came across as terrifying deadly monsters - the scariest were in 'Talon,' and given the protagonist is a dragon herself, it was kind of hard to be afraid of them. A common theme amongst these four stories were the communities the dragons lived in, the way their societies were structured. The dragons in 'Talon' were part of a secretive organisation, with clear ranks and roles assigned. In 'Tooth and Claw' dragons had a complex system of nobility, birthright and marriage, as well as legal and political structures. In 'Seraphina' the actual political system wasn't thoroughly explored, but they certainly had a complex society with a ruler, ambassadors to the human Kingdoms, as well as a rigid system of punishment for dragons who broke the law. The Dragons of 'Pern' had a really interesting almost symbiotic relationship with their human riders, and the riders of the dragon queen and her mate were given the positions of the leaders of the Weyrs. It was really interesting to explore these different political and social structures during the reading of these books. I've learned that the old saying "no man is an island" applies equally to dragons. They too have families, peers, leaders and social and political structures.
Over the next few months I shall read Novik's 'HIS MAJESTY's DRAGON,' Goodman's 'EON,' Pratchett's 'GUARDS! GUARDS!' and 'THE DRAGON DIARY' by Steer. Of course, feel free to suggest your favourite dragon novels as well!
Let's start with 'TALON' (by Julie Kagawa). Shapeshifting dragons. Dragons in human form, in our world, pretending to be human, living their whole lives out as human beings. Being hunted down by an elite, top-secret military organisation - the Order of St. George. Ember and Dante Hill are two hatchlings who - in human form - are sixteen-year-old siblings, being introduced into the human population for the first time. The existence of their dragon community is the greatest secret on the planet, and they must restrain their natural impulses, and never transform into their dragon selves under any circumstances.
There are some very clever things in this book, and I like the way that the protagonist Ember has two selves, her 'human' self and her 'dragon' self, which both have conflicting ideas about certain other humans and certain other dragons. How were the dragons portrayed though? They were a more instinctive, much larger and scarier version of the character's human selves. The whole concept of shapeshifting from human form into dragon form is too much of a stretch for me, though. There's just such a massive size discrepancy, where does all that mass come from/go when they transform?
Next is 'SERAPHINA' which is Rachel Hartman's debut novel. It's an outstanding debut, and I really enjoyed it. But we're here for the dragons. This novel is set on a different world, in the Kingdom of Goredd, which it about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the truce between draonkind and their Kingdom. Seraphina, the protagonist, is the music mistress at the royal court, herself under the tutelage of Orma, who is a dragon in human form living amongst the human population. Shapeshifting dragons again? Yes indeed. Disaster strikes the Kingdom when Prince Rufus is murdered prior to the arrival of the Ardmagar, the leader of the Dragons.
Despite the shapeshifting element of the dragons - again a stretch too far - the dragons in Hartman's novel are very interesting. They are generally emotionless, supremely logical beings with their own political structures. Throughout the story it's shown that throughout their conflicts and wars with humanity, they've learned from us, and there's been a significant cultural change where instead of hoarding gold they now hoard other values like intelligence. I especially like this because it brings them to life even more - ideas values, and ways of thinking do change over time, and it speaks of the depth and complexity of their species.
'TOOTH AND CLAW' by Jo Walton really took me by surprise. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up, but I fell in love with it really quickly. It's a regency romance (think Pride and Prejudice) but all the characters are dragons. Throughout the country, there live common servant dragons and dragons of noble rank, such as Exalted, August, Majestic, Illustrious, Dignified and Respected. This story focuses on the family of Dignified Bon Agornin, who begins the story on his deathbed, and what becomes of Respected Avan, Blessed Penn and the sisters Respected Selendra and Haner. While they have titles, they have very little in terms of wealth and size.
These dragons are portrayed so well; they sleep on beds of gold coins, the bigger and stronger can develop the ability to breathe fire, the Blessed (the priests) bind their wings and do not fly, the servants have their wings bound and are not permitted to fly. The society is so well divided into the haves and have-nots, and as you may have suspected, a lot of the story revolves around finding acceptable partners of noble rank. They're intelligent, they're all unique individuals with their own values - greed, love, equality, honour, for example.
And finally, 'DRAGONFLIGHT: THE FIRST CHRONICLE OF PERN' by Anne McCaffrey which some may say is an even more iconic Dragon series than Le Guin's 'Earthsea.' Well, it's got a lot more dragons in it. Pern is a planet, colonised by humans, and highly empathetic humans with an innate telepathic ability have the ability to bond with and fly the Dragons. Over hundreds of years, the reason for the existence of these Dragonriders has been forgotten, and only one of their Weyrs remain inhabited. But soon they're going to be needed more than ever.
The dragons in this tale are certainly the more traditional type of dragon. They are divided into classes by their colours, gold dragons are queens, the large brown dragons are the ones best suited for combat, and there are also smaller green dragons and so on. It is only the queens, the golden dragons, that can lay eggs. And a dragon will only bond with one human in it's lifetime. It's a complicated system that works. The dragons can communicate with each other telepathically, and with their bonded rider. They have their own intelligence and wisdom - and this is the thing that irked me about the book, that the humans made all the decisions, all the plans without consulting their dragons. Those dragons may have a wealth of helpful ideas and abilities that aren't being used because the humans are too pig-headed to ask.
So what is there to learn from these stories? None of the dragons really came across as terrifying deadly monsters - the scariest were in 'Talon,' and given the protagonist is a dragon herself, it was kind of hard to be afraid of them. A common theme amongst these four stories were the communities the dragons lived in, the way their societies were structured. The dragons in 'Talon' were part of a secretive organisation, with clear ranks and roles assigned. In 'Tooth and Claw' dragons had a complex system of nobility, birthright and marriage, as well as legal and political structures. In 'Seraphina' the actual political system wasn't thoroughly explored, but they certainly had a complex society with a ruler, ambassadors to the human Kingdoms, as well as a rigid system of punishment for dragons who broke the law. The Dragons of 'Pern' had a really interesting almost symbiotic relationship with their human riders, and the riders of the dragon queen and her mate were given the positions of the leaders of the Weyrs. It was really interesting to explore these different political and social structures during the reading of these books. I've learned that the old saying "no man is an island" applies equally to dragons. They too have families, peers, leaders and social and political structures.
Over the next few months I shall read Novik's 'HIS MAJESTY's DRAGON,' Goodman's 'EON,' Pratchett's 'GUARDS! GUARDS!' and 'THE DRAGON DIARY' by Steer. Of course, feel free to suggest your favourite dragon novels as well!
to me talon made me feel like the dragons were aliens just trying to fit in to human culture with the human disguises it reminded me of those 1930s alien movies where they shape shift or show their there alien forms
ReplyDeleteI totally get it - they were so conscious of not letting their guard down, not giving away their secret.
ReplyDeleteHi Austin
ReplyDeleteIn regards to McCaffery's (Not having read the other books). The later books actually have Dragons disagreeing with and in some cases disobeying their riders, the first books were written way back in the 60's and the World developed over the next 30-40 years. The later books also explain the origins of the Dragons (Yes the science was a little dodgy :) :p ) Some of her later short stories including Second Weyr and Rescue Run in The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall are good to give some perspective on the world. Red Star Rising also gives a good look at the developing Socio-Economic development of the World inc the way Dragons are perceived and behave. Yes I am tragic and have read all the Dragonriders Novels. Dragondawn explains the origin of the Dragons
Also if you are interested in Dragons as a source try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temeraire_(series)
ReplyDeleteIts the Napoleonic Wars with Dragons, inc a stint in Australia
I can loan you most of the in Treeware Versions :)
Thank you for your responses, John!
DeleteI have recently been given the first three Temeraire books by a friend! Now to find the time to read them!