 |
Dragon Ultimate | Rating | |
| C | |||
| Christopher Rowley | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Bazil Broketail | Bazil Broketail, A Sword for a Dragon, Dragons of War, Battledragon, A Dragon at Worlds' End, Dragons of Argonath, Dragon Ultimate | ||
The Deceiver, the Dominator of Twelve Worlds, Waakzaam the Great has been beaten back. But he is not destroyed, and he has not given up his plans to conquer Argonath and the rest of the world. After unleasing not one but two plagues upon the nine great cities, he uses Argonath's old enemies, the Masters and their hordes of imps and trolls, to assault the weakened legions. But Waakzaam has even greater plans: to destroy the great Sinni, angelic beings from a higher plane who have been helping humanity - meddling, as far as he's concerned. The Sinni are no match for a direct assault. It will be up to a single dragonboy and a single dragon to travel to their world and meet the threat.
Finally, readers get to see and understand just why so many events have centered on Relkin. In every other book, we are told that "The Mother must have great plans for you," and other such platitudes. Now at last we understand why. Why him, I mean, not what her "great plans" are, although that too is made clear. And, thank goodness, it makes sense. My only complaint is that it appears more or less out of nowhere; it would have been nice if it had been at least hinted at earlier in the series. And Relin's awakening magical abilities do not count as a hint, in my mind.
However, I found this revelation was quickly overwhelmed by some of the book's downsides. Well, one, really: the Empire's reaction to the plagues. The people seems to have very modern sensibilities. This is a fantasy with supposedly a mideival level technology and society, but they immediately know it is spread by rats (though later they correct themselves, in that it is spread by fleas instead). How is this determined? There is no mention that it was magically done, and they strike me as lacking the resources to do so scientifically even if they had the mindset for it. (And they shouldn't have the mindset, or guns and other advances would have been invented by then, or at least not seen as a horrible thing in Battledragon.)
This isn't the first time modern methods and sensibilities have intruded on the setting, either. In the very first book, people in Argonath knew that disease and infection is caused by creatures too small to see. In Battledragon the witches protected the legions from plague in Eigo with spells to ward off insencts plus antibiotic powders. The armies of Argonath are not allowed to loot and plunder in enemy lands - a traditional right of the soldier until the 19th century or so. The entire court system is extremely American, and they understand and believe in evolution. None of this is exactly conductive to conveying a sense of midieval fantasy. The only reason I never mentioned it before is because they were really minor plot points, or mentioned in passing. They didn't really impact the story, most of the time, the real exception being the modern trials. Here, though, it is a very significant part of the plot, and so must be addressed.
Even with that, however, the book might have still been worthy of a better grade than I gave it. The story is not bad, and the battles between the Argonathi and Padmasan forces were done quite well, albeit hardly spectacularly. And their response to the plagues is very well depicted, as well, so long as you can ignore the modern sensibilities. It was almost gripping as we watched city after city succumb or throw off the infestations.
But then came the climax, in which Relkin travels between worlds and fights Waakzaam. I had a few gripes about the transworld journey, but the fight is the real problem. Relkin becomes a 250-foot-tall giant, Bazil is well over a thousand feet tall, and Waakzam is two thousand. After all this, after seven books and being told this is his great destiny, it all comes down to a fight between giants? Relkin becomes a 250-foot-tall giant, Bazil is well over a thousand feet tall, and Waakzam is two thousand. And the great battle that will determine if the universe will ultimately fall under evil's sway is a slugfest? It's kind of disappointing. Not to mention slow. Thanks to their size, words such as "ponderous" are used, and that's never a good thing when describing the climatic fight of an entire book series.
Once again Rowley had a good idea, but just didn't have the skill or at least the style to bring it off. Not to me, at least. A less discerning reader would still enjoy this more, I'm sure.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |