Dragon's Winter ny Elizabeth A. Lynn...

[fajrdrako]

I lacked the energy to do anything much today but read, sleep and play video-games. Luckily, I had no commitments, so I read, slept, and played video-games. Highlights were talking on the phone with silverwhistle and having dinner with maaboroshi and maaseru.

I read Elizabeth Lynn's fantasy novel Dragon's Winter. I remember years ago really enjoying some Elizabeth A. Lynn novels, especially Watchtower and The Woman Who Loved the Moon. I remembered her, rather enthusiastically, as a good writer with original ideas.

Not here. There's a kingdom whose lord is a Dragon, i.e., a man who can turn into a dragon at will. His human wife dies giving birth to two sons, one Dragon, one human. The human resents the Dragon and learns magic so he can destroy him and take over his kingdom. War ensues. The story is told from the point of view, by turns, of various people affected by these events.

I was frustrated with the changing points of view. Wolf and his wife Thea and his friends Hawk and Bear were interesting, but didn't last long. Interesting characters wandered by but ultimately didn't mean anything, because their tenure in the pages was too brief, or accomplished little. The most interseting characters were probably the heroic Dragon-print and his damaged lover Azil, who betrayed him - but we don't follow their point of view, or, to a large extent, their story. And the story itself is dark and horrific enough to remind me of George R.R. Martin on a bad day, and Wolf's sweet son Shem reminded me of Khaireddin in the Dunnett novels. Two years old, and tragic.

Add to that: I didn't find the world-building very evocative. Mountains, castles. Darkness and ice wielded by the villain. Fire and air the domain of the Dragon. Numerous kingdoms, all small and ephemeral, sounding a little like lands in fairy tales. The North, the South, the East, the West - all different in some undescribed way, but their nature and even how far they were from Dragon's lands was unclear to me. I wasn't even sure why Wolf left his home.

Definitely not a feel-good sort of novel.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Apparently this was Lynn's first novel after a fallow period of 13 years. Maybe she needed to get up to speed.

I loved her older stuff, but I must admit I haven't read this one (have a copy somewhere...)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder why there was such a gap between books.

I see there's a sequel to this one, Dragons's Treasure. If it's written in the same style, I'm not sure whether I want to read it.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I, too, loved her earlier books. Bummer.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, writers change. I wondered what she'd been influenced by - because the things that were strengths in her earlier novels didn't seem to still exist. Unless I am misremembering.