Servant of the Dragon
Author: David Drake
Year: 1999
Abstract:
Garic and his buddies are at it again. A great evil threatens the world as we know it, and only our heroes can save the
day. Oops, that sums about about 90% of most of the books out there. Well, Garic is trying to unite the kingdoms of the
Isles, and the Evil Ones have raised the long lost city of Yole. Millions of undead are marching forth to destroy the
living world.
| Advanced Mind | |
| Exploration/Quest |  |
| Military/Fighting | |
| Horror | |
| Magic | |
| Advanced Technology | |
| Time Travel/Alternate History | |
| Science | |
| Aliens/Beasties | |
| Contemporality |
Other books in this series: Lord of the Isles
Lord of the Isles [1997]
Queen of Demons [1998]
Spectre's Review
As with the previous two books in this series, I found the quality of the text quite high. Usually, Drake has a very
expansive vocabulary, using the best word to indicate a particular object, emotion, or concept. When the right words are
used, that adds a distinct depth to the story. The plot pattern is the same as the othe two books, everyone gets split up
and follows their own journeys, while eventually meeting up later on. It appears to work well, however, so I'm not
complaining. I like how Drake separated several elements of the final plot, and used the separate journeys of Garic and
his friends to bring the pieces together.
Action level was quite appropriate. For the first time so far in the series, Drake actually surprised me when the giant
bird-thing captured Sharina. That was quite unexpected, and he set up the scene quite well to make you think you knew
what was going to happen, and then altered things slightly but effectively to surprise me. Few authors can keep several
distinct plots moving along, while having all of the plots (for the most part) working to fit pieces of the larger plot.
He separates people into groups, sometimes uncomfortably, and moves the plot along without causing major technical gaffs.
I was slightly disappointed that very few of the major players were injured or killed. Garic did die, I'll concede that,
but he didn't stay dead. I would have liked to have seen either Chalcus or Merota die, but that didn't happen either. I
felt Cashel's journey was pretty much a waste of time (as far as the main plot goes), albeit quite entertaining and
interesting. He spent a great deal of time only to accomplish three things: 1) The release of Colva into the waking
world, 2) retrieval of the Peach of Eternal Life, and 3) Arriving at the scene with the rest of his friends for the
book's climax. There were several elements from Cashel's journey that could be used in the next book, and if Drake
doesn't use something from there in a following book, then I would classify it as a waste of time and material (whereas
the other folks' journey's had immediately recognizable significance into the main plot). I would say Cashel is my
favorite character, and with the amount of time spent on his journey, I'd have liked to have seen more. I liked Sharina's
new friend Dalar, the man-sized chicken (which I'm sure came from Drake's nightmares of Sesame Street and Big Bird), and
I was slightly disappointed he was sent back to his home thousands of years in the past. There was future potential for
that character.
I was disappointed in the predictability of the story (outside of the one surprise with the bird-thing). I also find it
difficult to wade through grammatical errors (even though I make plenty of them myself, but hey, what the hell are
editors for), and there just has to be some kind of entry in a thesaurus somewhere for the word 'facade'. I hate it when
authors use one particular word OVER and OVER and OVER again (not even Drake's infraction, however, is as severe as L.E.
Modessit Jr.'s overuse of the word 'pinnon').
This book deserves more than to have the review end on a bad note, so I'll mention that this entire series is fabulous,
and quite safe (i.e. little gore, little if no sex, no language) for sensetive readers. This is one of the few series,
let alone books, that I would recommend getting in hardcover.
Date posted: 2001 01 03
Spectre's Rating
Minus a half point for textual and grammatical errors (blame it on the editor, they should have caught that). Minus a
half point for predictability and the weak use of Cashel's time-intensive journey for a friggin fruit.