This book
is one I bought for cheaply at a secondhand book fair. While it didn’t immensely
speak to me, it did have a dragon on the cover, which was kind of neat, and I
liked what I read on the blurb, so I decided to take it home, it was cheap
anyways. Today we’ll be having a look at it. Is it any good, or best left
forgotten? Let’s check out Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Spoilers below the cut.
In the fantasy
world of the Death Gate Cycle, the world is divided into several different sections
of different floating island. The ones floating the highest belong to the high
and mighty elves, while the humans live in the middle lands, and the dwarves, also
called Gegs, which live in the lowest portions of the universe and are
subservient to the elves.
Notorious assassin
Hugh the Hand takes on a mission to kill a changeling prince, yet this turns
out to be quite the adventure he wasn’t ready for. The boy turns out to be
magically protected, and has mystic powers of his own. Hugh, the child Bane and
his servant Alfred set out on a journey across the floating lands, which takes
them all the way down to the Gegs and is full of trouble and adventure.
The first
thing that spoke to me when I opened this book was the world building. When I
first opened it and saw the maps, I was very confused. It looks very
complicated, however, the text does a very good job of explaining this world
called Arianus. Reading what is mentioned in the chapters and then going back
to compare it to the maps, it makes a lot more sense.
I have a
soft spot for floating islands, and this was no different. I loved the idea of
the different levels as well, with the elves on top and the dwarves, which are
seen as the lowest beings, below. I also thought that the idea of having water
as a form of monetary system was very interesting, since there’s some places in
Arianus with major water shortages. The cultures of each different race (though
we mostly focus on the humans and Gegs) are described thoroughly and are full
of unique jargon and quirks.
The story was
also definitely something different from what I usually read, but I nonetheless
enjoyed it. This is more mature fantasy, yet it’s still a book I mostly had fun
with. The writing style wasn’t the most accessible, but I also read the Dutch
translation of this book, and I have a notorious history of having a harder
time reading in my native language over the preferred English.
The
characters were not the most amazing, but definitely flashed out enough. Bane
was interesting, I had a good time reading Hugh’s and Limbeck’s POVs, and I
even really found myself liking Alfred, despite him being a type of character I’d
normally easily get annoyed with. There isn’t a very big cast of characters or
anything, it’s mostly just our core cast, but they each do a good job of what they’re
supposed to do. I was definitely sad to see Hugh die by the end.
I guess if
I could have a “criticism” (if you could even call it that) it’s that a dragon is
very prominently featured on the cover, yet they barely play any role in it. There’s
some dragons, but they mostly function as a transport means and nothing else.
There’s later a bigger dragon which goes rogue, but, again, it’s very minor. None
of the dragons have a name or even a real presence worth looking at. For
someone who loves dragons and reading fantasy about them, this was a little bit
deceiving. There isn’t even that much flying on top of dragons in the entire
book, mostly just in ships made from their skins. Ah well, just a personal preference.
While I don’t
think I’ll be continuing this series because it ultimately didn’t speak to me
enough, I will give it credit for being a good startup for the first book,
especially for a random pick at a book fair that I had no expectations for going
in. If I ever happen to come across the second book in a bookstore, I may get
it, but I don’t see myself going out of my way to order the rest of the series
online or something along those lines. Still, this is a good read, and I think
that it’ll definitely appeal to some readers! It’s just not very to my tastes,
and that’s okay!
Rating: 4/5
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