They Found the Dragon!

I started reading Dragonlance in junior high. Elves, dwarves, and dragons. Wizards, clerics, and barbarians. People and places with too many consonants: the Kingdom of Vizrak, Yshar of Mologon, the Sword of G’nar Fingratha. Campy and cliché, but comforting.

Romance novels for light-sensitive adolescents.

There’s a new trilogy in the series, the first book of which I started this week: The Dragons of Dwarven Depths. I set the book on our kitchen table as I made lunch this morning, and Ian found it just after he stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his eyes.

The cover is vivid, bright orange with a dwarf, a half-elf, and a kender armed for battle, and held in a fighting stance. And behind it all is a dragon, wings spread wide and wreathed in flame. These are Fantasy’s bare-chested heroes.

Ian grabbed the book and drank its cover. ‘Oh! Are there pictures?’

‘Nope, sorry kiddo.’

‘What’s it about?’ He flipped through the pages.

‘It’s…complicated.’ I went back to my tuna sandwich, and he went back to ogling the cover. Eventually he found the illustration of King Duncan’s Floating Tomb. ‘Hey, there is a picture!’

I’d forgotten. There’s always a map of something. ‘Is this where they’re going?’ He pointed to the Ruby Chamber of the Hammer.

They who? ‘Most likely.’

‘Are there dragons?’

‘Always!’

He beamed. ‘I’m going to make my fingers be their legs!’ And he walked his fingers across the map, climbing stairs and jumping chasms. ‘They found the dragon! Yay!’ A battle ensued, his fingers crashing together and scrambling across the page.

He closed the book, and walked away.

2 Responses

  1. Rich Blank
    Rich Blank at | | Reply

    Here’s to raising another generation of light-sensitive adolescents! (In spite of our wives’ best efforts . . .)

  2. Dan
    Dan at | | Reply

    Why are these books always in trilogy form? What’s wrong with a one off novel? I hardly ever read fantasy any more because I find it incredibly frustrating when they only have book 2 and 3 in stock at the bookshop.

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