Dragons Wild [Paperback]

Dragon's Wild (2008) is the first fantasy novel in a new series. Dragons have been around for a long, long time. They tended to ignore humans when they first appeared, but the humans had intelligence and bred like rabbits. After humans became thick on the ground, the dragons tried fighting them. Unfortunately, the humans had invented armies.

Western male dragons have a problem with social activities. As predators, they tend be territorial and run off any trespassing males. Thus, male dragons usually fight individually and were often swarmed by massive numbers of humans.

The Eastern dragons got along better with humans. Also, these Eastern dragons knew how to shapeshift and could blend with the humans without causing a mob to form. Finally, the Western dragons learned this trick from their Eastern kin and found their own niches in human society.

In this novel, Griffen McCandles is a young dragon, but doesn't know it until his uncle breaks the news. Uncle Malcolm wants Grifter to become an associate in his company, but Grif demurs and asks for time to think about it. After leaving his uncle, Grifter is picked up by an U.S. Senator who happens to be in the vicinity and to know that he is a dragon.

Dropped off by the Senator at his hotel, Grifter goes to his room and finds his girlfriend Mai waiting inside. She also knows that he is a dragon and has a proposition for him. When Grifter questions her knowledge of his heritage, she immediately leaves him and is not seen again for weeks.

Grifter is thoroughly confused and tends to disbelieve in dragons. So he drives his Sunbeam Tiger several hundred miles to consult his sister Valerie. After telling her almost everything, they decide to find a safe place to hide. Then Jerome shows up.

Back in school, Jerome had been his friend, drug source, and fellow card player. Grifter got his name partly because he is a card shark. No, not the kind that cheats, but the kind that knows where every card is. He has been told that this talent comes from his dragon awareness of the situation.

Jerome has another proposition for Grifter. Everybody else wants him to join their organization, but Jerome wants Grif to become the head of his organization. It has something to do with being a nearly full blooded dragon and the status that comes from it. Naturally, it also has a lot to do with his skill at cards. Anyway, Jerome invites Grif and his sister to New Orleans.

In this story, Griffin is housed in an apartment converted from the former slave quarters. It is quiet and secluded, with a wrought iron gate at the courtyard entrance. It is better equipped that the average motel room and close to the center of the French Quarter.

Grif meets many of the residents and tourists in the Quarter and learns the local customs. He explains his presence to a few residents and soon virtually everybody living in the Quarter knows who and what he is. He even meets a local police detective named Harrison and gets on well with him. Maybe it has something to do with the Feds who have been following him without notifying the local police.

Eventually Griffen meets Moses, the current boss of the gambling ring. They discuss the business and its mode of operation, then Moses gives him a problem to solve. Grif asks permission to handle it himself and soon clears the situation. Actually, Valerie handles the situation, but Grif set it up; what man would want to tell the world that he had been roughed up by a woman?

This tale seems to be more about the French Quarter and, to a lesser extent, New Orleans as a whole. It involves a ghost voodoo queen, a mysterious assassin, other dragons, and much more. Sorry, no vampires so far.

What is it about the author and reptiles? Gleep in the MYTH series, the Zenobians in the Phule series and now Griffen McCandles and his kin! Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Asprin fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of shapeshifters, card games, and quite a bit of lust.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is a straight up urban fantasy from the creator of the Mything series. It is nothing like the Mything series or in fact anything I've seen from him before. It is also in my humble opinion the best thing he's ever done including Thieves World. No mything goofiness here. Weell, it's Asprin there has to be some. He does keep the punning at a minimum. . .whew.
Here there be dragons: powerful characters that he has developed very well indeed. Lot's of humour but a very strong storyline as well.
Dragons. Existent and powerful since long before man showed up and snuck up on them are still with us. Only they have assimilated and learned to adopt human shape and mannerisms while retaining dragon power, and dragon character: jealous, grasping, greedy and powermad, and that's thier nicer side. They tend to be political to the bone. Now that's scary.
As far as Griffen (like that name?) is concerned when his uncle tells him he is a dragon he wonders what uncle has been smoking. Except that now the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, dragons start coming at him from everywhere. Half his friends and a lot of enemies he didn't know he had. Uh oh. Griffen and his sister are almost "pureblood" which scares hell out the current dragon establishment, and there is a prophecy. Double uh oh.
Off he and his sister Valerie run to pre-katrina New Orleans assasins and govie agents on their tails.
It's really interesting how he develops the story and the characters as a kind of a series of almost disconnected vignettes. Little stories in the flow of the story. Very nice.
It's Nawlins at it's best where he is offered an established gambling syndicate, in the Quarter of course, by lesser dragons who want him to lead them. All he has to do is learn how to be a dragon. . and survive.
Great stuff. Great characters, his sister Valerie is way tough. Mose is Yoda! This is going to be really good show. A really fun series with absolutely cool possiblities. Can't wait for the next book. I wonder if Katrina will show up and how he'll deal with that? Or maybe in this world she doesn't show at all. One can wish.
DO NOT MISS THIS!! Or you are just a lizard and your tail will fall off.

It's great to see Asprin get his chops back as a writer. For years he was a favorite of mine, but when he went through some personal issues a few years ago his writing, sad to say, suffered for it. Dragons Wild though is honestly up there with the better stuff I've seen him do, and certainly better than all or most of what he's put out recently. It still has a few minor flaws, a few awkward and over-descriptive passages early on, but overall this is honestly a great and dun book, well written and well thought out, with solid and fun characters who react in logical and believable ways to being confronted with evidence of magic and the supernatural, and similar bizarre situations.

A warning to some however. This book reads like exactly what its advertised to be: the first book in a series. There is not much of a story here, its really an introduction to the characters, to the setting, and to the basic conflicts. You meet Griffen and Valerie McCandles, and gt a few slices of the first two or three months of their new lives as they learn what they really are, and what that implies, and you get introduced to the antagonists likely to cause them trouble in the future. As an introductory chapter, this really is a great book and did exactly what it was supposed to do, left me in the end waiting impatiently for the next book. I would have liked to see a bit more, but as an introduction it was genuinely great.

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