Category: Fantasy ISBN-10: 1896944809
Type: Fiction
Pages: 288
Copyright: May 2008
ISBN-13: 9781896944807
So, you want to know all about dragons? Run the gamut of stories about the mythological beasts in "Firestorm of Dragons." Humorous tales of extreme sports with genetically-engineered animals and pesky door-to-door salesmen with scales, exist beside conventional stories of treasure and deceit, hunter and hunted, hatred and sacrifice. See how dragons exist today without most humans noticing, or abandon all preconceived notions and imagine a dragon as a 1940s-style detective. Let your experience with dragons end with a trio of stories depicting the possible end of dragons--one uplifting, one poignant, and one heart-wrenching in its meloncholy.
Professional Reviews
Dru Pagliassotti
Firestorm of Dragons is a collection of 15 new stories featuring dragons — good, evil, intelligent, bestial, humanoid, reptilian, and all permutations in between.
The mood of the stories ranges from understated to brash. On the quieter side of the spectrum is Sarah R. Suleski's thoughtful "Poison Bird," about adolescent misunderstanding and separateness. Other stories in the collection that take atypical views of dragons are Eric Diehl's "A Darkness of Spirit," in which dragons are seduced into battle madness by the demands of a warlike humanity, and Chris Azure's "Dragonkeeper," which plays on the Chinese conception of dragons and the earth to deliver a message about responsibility and acting as a steward over nature.
On the brasher side, the amusing "Dragonscaling!" by John Teehan opens the collection with an in-your-face essay about the extreme sport of climbing and collecting scales off the backs of sleeping dragons. Karina L. Fabian's light-hearted "Dragon Eye, P.I." introduces Vern, a working-toward-repentance North African Faerie Wyvern who combines a hardboiled look at fantasy cliches with an original take on the dragon's history with St. George — it'd be nice to see more of this character. "Dragon's Blood" by Michele Acker throws a struggling hunter together with a baby dragon with charming, if somewhat predictable, results, and "Dragon Fruit" by Kim Richards suggests an intriguing secret background to the cliche of petty nobles sacrificing village virgins to the dragon.
The collection contains several more stories told from or at least including the dragon's point of view — "Lessons" by Kirk Dougal, "Shattered Dreams" by Kevin Tisserand, "A Dragon's Dawn" by Dana Sisson, and "Inside the Cavern" by Richard Bray. Other stories are fantasy adventures in which the dragon poses some sort of problem to be overcome, such as "The Druid's Dragon" by Bob Nailor, "A Reptile at the Reunion" by Sandra M. Ulbrich, "No Time for Dragons!" by Tina Morgan, and "For Your Eyes Only" by J. M. Butler.
Firestorm of Dragons is an entertaining collection of dragon-themed stories that would be a great read for a scorching dragonfire-hot summer day.
The third book of the trilogy, The Chronicles of Henry Roach-Dairier, this volume, as with the others, will appeal to both adults and young adults. Readers will experience several levels of meaning from literal to social satire.
Retail Price: $15
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