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Dragon's Ring #2
Dog and Dragon
The sequel to Dragon's Ring.A wry and clever young heroine coming into her magical powers is flung into the midst of power struggles and momentous battles in a medieval-style world where her coming may be the answer to a long-awaited prophecy of liberation from tyrannical rulers.
Lyonesse: a world formed with a magic so deep that it takes a true king to hold its parts in balance. Yet there is no king on the throne, and a dark power struggle is underway between an ancient sorceress with her shadow army of destruction and the human subjects of Lyonesse’s power-mad wizard. The only spark of hope is a prophecy that tells of a Defender who will one day come and set things to right.
Young Meb, flung from her dragon-ruled homeland in another plane of existence into Lyonesse, doesn’t think she’s been called to be any kind of Defender. And she certainly isn’t happy when she’s immediately embroiled in the deadly power plots of the local royals. But Meb also happens to be an adept at the universe-folding skill of Planomancy, trained by a world-walking troubleshooter of the multiverse, the great Dragon Fionn himself –a dragon who is desperately searching for Meb, whom he’s come to love.
Accompanying Fionn is Dileas, Meb’s pet and the most loyal magic sheep dog in a thousand universes. If anyone can track Meb across time and space, Dileas can.
As the legions of Shadow Hall gather to bring down the leaderless kingdom, Meb must decide whether to use her ability to become the Defender everyone hopes for–if only to avoid becoming the plaything of tyrants. With the Dragon Fionn on the way, magical battle is joined, and the destiny of universes hangs upon the courage in one young woman’s heart.
Lyonesse: a world formed with a magic so deep that it takes a true king to hold its parts in balance. Yet there is no king on the throne, and a dark power struggle is underway between an ancient sorceress with her shadow army of destruction and the human subjects of Lyonesse’s power-mad wizard. The only spark of hope is a prophecy that tells of a Defender who will one day come and set things to right.
Young Meb, flung from her dragon-ruled homeland in another plane of existence into Lyonesse, doesn’t think she’s been called to be any kind of Defender. And she certainly isn’t happy when she’s immediately embroiled in the deadly power plots of the local royals. But Meb also happens to be an adept at the universe-folding skill of Planomancy, trained by a world-walking troubleshooter of the multiverse, the great Dragon Fionn himself –a dragon who is desperately searching for Meb, whom he’s come to love.
Accompanying Fionn is Dileas, Meb’s pet and the most loyal magic sheep dog in a thousand universes. If anyone can track Meb across time and space, Dileas can.
As the legions of Shadow Hall gather to bring down the leaderless kingdom, Meb must decide whether to use her ability to become the Defender everyone hopes for–if only to avoid becoming the plaything of tyrants. With the Dragon Fionn on the way, magical battle is joined, and the destiny of universes hangs upon the courage in one young woman’s heart.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2012
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170 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 13, 2019
A very enjoyable story. Even better than its predecessor.
May 3, 2018
Definitely the sequel to Dragon's Ring, though they have separate stories. Spoilers ahead.
Like Fionn traipsing after Dilean down a strange road, and the dangers they meet there, and Fionn's realizing Meb's effect on the dog.
Meb suddenly appearing in a castle in a manner that appears fulfill a prophecy, thus landing her in the middle of intrigue, and a world where magical exploitation of other worlds produces many attacks. With her surprised discovery that humans are noble here.
It includes a man willing to be executed if his family is spared, juggling on many occasions, a fount, three regents in a row without a king anywhere, a sorceress out for revenge, dealing with the evil eye, and much more.
Like Fionn traipsing after Dilean down a strange road, and the dangers they meet there, and Fionn's realizing Meb's effect on the dog.
Meb suddenly appearing in a castle in a manner that appears fulfill a prophecy, thus landing her in the middle of intrigue, and a world where magical exploitation of other worlds produces many attacks. With her surprised discovery that humans are noble here.
It includes a man willing to be executed if his family is spared, juggling on many occasions, a fount, three regents in a row without a king anywhere, a sorceress out for revenge, dealing with the evil eye, and much more.
March 14, 2025
"I believe a dog and a dragon can be friends." - me, picking this up at a used bookstore and buying it just for the title and front cover.
I went into this with very little expectation, figuring it might be some light fantasy runaround adventure that fixates on the novelty of a dog that is friends with a dragon (as great of a concept that is already), plausibly full of things I couldn't understand because it's the second book in a series (for the most part, it gives decent context for previous events, although some names and terms are not directly explained). I was pleasantly surprised to find myself being captured by the constant inventiveness of the worlds(!), its inhabitants, and how characters resolve problems they run into.
The titular characters are the dragon Fionn, a Planomancer who essentially acts as a wandering debugging tool for the many worlds connected across the universe, and Dileas, a mostly normal sheepdog who has been influenced by magic and is able to understand any language (although detecting sarcasm is beyond him). There's a bonus non-titular third main character, a young woman named Meb, who possesses untold magical capabilities and was until recently under the mentorship of Fionn, and to whom Dileas is fiercely loyal. The novel is roughly evenly split between following Meb's misadventures in the magical land she has teleported herself to moments before the story begins, and Fionn and Dileas trying to reunite with her while Fionn fixes imbalances across the worlds they travel. Wonderfully, Dileas turns out to be capable of tracking Meb across all of time and space, by a combination of the magic energy he's been exposed to from Meb, and his total love for her. What a good dog!
As I said in my opening, the worldbuilding in this novel is constantly inventive. Fionn and Dileas travel through at least half a dozen worlds, each with their own cultures, local magical properties, and varieties of fantastical creatures residing in them. Not every world is given equal time or depth, and some of the possibilities are hinted at rather than elucidated upon, but the everchanging setting makes every new encounter full of unpredictable possibilities. A lot of it also involves variations of real world mythology, although rarely in a way that feels bogstandard or overdone.
The frequent change of locale also gives room for many perspectives! Different characters from different worlds will have contradicting opinions on not only neighbouring worlds and the nature of their inhabitants, but the fundamental structure of the worlds themselves, particularly wrt how magic "actually works". In fact, a lot of Meb's contention with the people she finds herself around is on the basis of people disbelieving her magic abilities, because they don't conform to their social expectations of how it "should" work. Even so, there are different, opposing arguments given by people who disbelieve in her magic, which gives a lot of nuance.
One thing I wish was explored more is mage Aberinn's development of clockwork machinery to harness magical effects. It's a very cool idea to me, which feels relevant to my fascination of depicting scientific machinery and magic working together, but the "how" of almost everything Aberinn does happens outside of the text. Still though, there a lot of interesting ideas in what he's able to accomplish, and it's fun to think about, even without a solid basis for interpreting it.
Finally, there's the excitement of seeing just *how* everybody deals with the problems they encounter. In Meb's case, she finds herself in the midst of a complex web of social games where people tell each other bald-faced lies about their ideals and goals, often managing to be bitterly vicious and cruel while maintaining a polite front. As an autistic person who has dealt with a lot of verbal abuse from "nice" allistic people, I find it very refreshing how adamantly Meb cuts through the bullshit and works towards her own goals, regardless of what other people try to decide for her.
Fionn also encounters social obstacles like this, but most of the time, he has to deal with dangerous beasts, magical traps, and shifty people who would object to the presence of a dragon (by the way, Fionn can shapeshift, and he's very good at looking like a human). However, it's never Fionn himself in direct danger- in a lot of ways, he is so ridiculously powerful that any problem he runs into could, hypothetically, be trivialized. But there are two constraints he faces: Firstly, he is literally unable to willfully take the life of a sentient being; and secondly, he can't risk harm coming to Dileas, because he could not handle facing Meb again if her precious pet dog died. Add in Fionn's sheer delight in playing tricks on others, and Dileas' undying determination to reach Meb, and you have a great setup for a lot of fun situations.
Now that I'm done with all the positives, I want to go over the negatives about this book. Most significantly, to my surprise and discomfort, the threat of rape is brought up several times throughout the book. Thankfully, it's never described as happening. There is one scene where somebody attempts to assault a character, but they are quickly and violently dealt with before anything graphic happens.
Less significantly, but much more present, is the bizarrely bad editing. It slowly improves as the book goes on, with the occasionally relapse, but the first third suffers from odd grammar choices, sloppy sentence structure, and unclear antecedents. It's not unreadable by any means, but it's annoying and offputting. However, I didn't notice any spelling errors, which I find to be by far the most disruptive kind of mistake. And ultimately, my interest in seeing what happens next overrode my annoyance at the evident lack of editing.
Overall, I'd recommend this book to anybody with a love for dogs, dragons, and/or inventive fantasy worlds, as long as they can put up with the bumpy editing and the tonally jarring, if thankfully brief, references to assault.
- N
I went into this with very little expectation, figuring it might be some light fantasy runaround adventure that fixates on the novelty of a dog that is friends with a dragon (as great of a concept that is already), plausibly full of things I couldn't understand because it's the second book in a series (for the most part, it gives decent context for previous events, although some names and terms are not directly explained). I was pleasantly surprised to find myself being captured by the constant inventiveness of the worlds(!), its inhabitants, and how characters resolve problems they run into.
The titular characters are the dragon Fionn, a Planomancer who essentially acts as a wandering debugging tool for the many worlds connected across the universe, and Dileas, a mostly normal sheepdog who has been influenced by magic and is able to understand any language (although detecting sarcasm is beyond him). There's a bonus non-titular third main character, a young woman named Meb, who possesses untold magical capabilities and was until recently under the mentorship of Fionn, and to whom Dileas is fiercely loyal. The novel is roughly evenly split between following Meb's misadventures in the magical land she has teleported herself to moments before the story begins, and Fionn and Dileas trying to reunite with her while Fionn fixes imbalances across the worlds they travel. Wonderfully, Dileas turns out to be capable of tracking Meb across all of time and space, by a combination of the magic energy he's been exposed to from Meb, and his total love for her. What a good dog!
As I said in my opening, the worldbuilding in this novel is constantly inventive. Fionn and Dileas travel through at least half a dozen worlds, each with their own cultures, local magical properties, and varieties of fantastical creatures residing in them. Not every world is given equal time or depth, and some of the possibilities are hinted at rather than elucidated upon, but the everchanging setting makes every new encounter full of unpredictable possibilities. A lot of it also involves variations of real world mythology, although rarely in a way that feels bogstandard or overdone.
The frequent change of locale also gives room for many perspectives! Different characters from different worlds will have contradicting opinions on not only neighbouring worlds and the nature of their inhabitants, but the fundamental structure of the worlds themselves, particularly wrt how magic "actually works". In fact, a lot of Meb's contention with the people she finds herself around is on the basis of people disbelieving her magic abilities, because they don't conform to their social expectations of how it "should" work. Even so, there are different, opposing arguments given by people who disbelieve in her magic, which gives a lot of nuance.
One thing I wish was explored more is mage Aberinn's development of clockwork machinery to harness magical effects. It's a very cool idea to me, which feels relevant to my fascination of depicting scientific machinery and magic working together, but the "how" of almost everything Aberinn does happens outside of the text. Still though, there a lot of interesting ideas in what he's able to accomplish, and it's fun to think about, even without a solid basis for interpreting it.
Finally, there's the excitement of seeing just *how* everybody deals with the problems they encounter. In Meb's case, she finds herself in the midst of a complex web of social games where people tell each other bald-faced lies about their ideals and goals, often managing to be bitterly vicious and cruel while maintaining a polite front. As an autistic person who has dealt with a lot of verbal abuse from "nice" allistic people, I find it very refreshing how adamantly Meb cuts through the bullshit and works towards her own goals, regardless of what other people try to decide for her.
Fionn also encounters social obstacles like this, but most of the time, he has to deal with dangerous beasts, magical traps, and shifty people who would object to the presence of a dragon (by the way, Fionn can shapeshift, and he's very good at looking like a human). However, it's never Fionn himself in direct danger- in a lot of ways, he is so ridiculously powerful that any problem he runs into could, hypothetically, be trivialized. But there are two constraints he faces: Firstly, he is literally unable to willfully take the life of a sentient being; and secondly, he can't risk harm coming to Dileas, because he could not handle facing Meb again if her precious pet dog died. Add in Fionn's sheer delight in playing tricks on others, and Dileas' undying determination to reach Meb, and you have a great setup for a lot of fun situations.
Now that I'm done with all the positives, I want to go over the negatives about this book. Most significantly, to my surprise and discomfort, the threat of rape is brought up several times throughout the book. Thankfully, it's never described as happening. There is one scene where somebody attempts to assault a character, but they are quickly and violently dealt with before anything graphic happens.
Less significantly, but much more present, is the bizarrely bad editing. It slowly improves as the book goes on, with the occasionally relapse, but the first third suffers from odd grammar choices, sloppy sentence structure, and unclear antecedents. It's not unreadable by any means, but it's annoying and offputting. However, I didn't notice any spelling errors, which I find to be by far the most disruptive kind of mistake. And ultimately, my interest in seeing what happens next overrode my annoyance at the evident lack of editing.
Overall, I'd recommend this book to anybody with a love for dogs, dragons, and/or inventive fantasy worlds, as long as they can put up with the bumpy editing and the tonally jarring, if thankfully brief, references to assault.
- N
November 23, 2014
So. Incredibly. Good.
So! Read this other book by another author just a bit ago - it was *okay* but I just had a problem with the jester/trickster character. I WAS LEFT UNSATISFIED. This book is an example of how to do it well. Finn. Need I say more?
Meb&Finn, cue the sighs!!! I'm gonna go read more Dave Freer books, and he has a donation button on his website if you want to give him a tip. Which I did because he is just that awesome!!!
So! Read this other book by another author just a bit ago - it was *okay* but I just had a problem with the jester/trickster character. I WAS LEFT UNSATISFIED. This book is an example of how to do it well. Finn. Need I say more?
Meb&Finn, cue the sighs!!! I'm gonna go read more Dave Freer books, and he has a donation button on his website if you want to give him a tip. Which I did because he is just that awesome!!!
June 5, 2013
Dog and Dragon has become one of my most favorite books. The black dragon reminds me very stongly of someone I am excessively fond of, and the dog Dileas is everything I wanted my sheep dogs to be when I was a young woman. Some writers make you feel their characters exist out there, in the multiverse.
July 20, 2017
Great fun
This book is a lot like the Harry Potter ones. Magic dragons and young hero's. I'd like more like this please.
This book is a lot like the Harry Potter ones. Magic dragons and young hero's. I'd like more like this please.
June 6, 2020
A little predictable but fun read. One of the beat stories with a dragon I've read much like The Dragon and the George.
March 25, 2021
Ok
I didn’t like the whole story line “then something happened !” And it took me to the end of two books to realize that.
I didn’t like the whole story line “then something happened !” And it took me to the end of two books to realize that.
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February 5, 2024ebook
February 5, 2025
I love this book. It is so cute!
May 6, 2012
A very nce one. I missed the prequel, but the tale unfolded nicely. Dogs and dragons make good adventuring partners.
January 23, 2013
Please keep the books in this series coming. I find them to be quite enjoyable.
January 23, 2013
Fun read, but a little too much emphasis on how "good" the female protagonist is, but that is just one of my hot button bits lately from reading too many romance books.
February 25, 2020
It's nice when things mostly work out, even if I got a little confused on the way.
November 26, 2014
I just couldn't get into the story , I didn't want to read any further
November 15, 2014
It wasn't bad but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the prequel first.
March 19, 2020
It would have probably helped if I read the prequel first, but entertaining nonetheless.
July 15, 2014
rating: 3.5/5.0
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews