The Brass Dragon

by BRADLEY M Z

It's bad enough for a teen-age boy to wake up with amnesia, strange burns on his legs, and even stranger nightmares. But when a creepy stranger claiming to be his father tried to remove him from the hospital, his adventure was just beginning -- unless, of course, the adventure had already happened.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Ebooks, Adventure, Science Fiction Fantasy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Evalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm honestly surprised with how much I really enjoyed this book - I don't generally read scify and so was ready to find this rather boring. But I rather enjoyed myself and had fun throughout the entire plot, from the lost and frightened Barry to the trip into space, and the fast-paced, harrowing end.

[Brendon Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in one day. Its definately YA SF which I didnt know going into it after picking it up at a used book store for the awesome cover art. It was still fun and enjoyable with mystery in the begining after our main character wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. The second part of the book where it turns into space travel and alien fighting was where it got good as before this did drag on for around half the book. Not upset I read it or that it turned out to be YA. This would be a great book for a young boy to read starting out in the SF genre.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've loved most of the books I've read by Marion Zimmer Bradley, but this one was bad. I think it was written for young adults. One thing I thought was funny is that she has an advanced race of interstellar travelers that still use a slide rule for calculations.

[Jon Kenna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the first proper book I ever read back in 1977. I remember loving it so was keen to re-read it. I shouldn't have. It's terrible. Corny and horribly dated.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I didn't realise it when I bought it, this is actually published as a full on 'children's book'. Not Juvenilia (which I think it is more suited to) nor as what we would call today 'YA' but actual Children's.

I think I read it many years ago; so many that while I remembered events vaguely after I read them, I never really saw anything coming, in any case I enjoyed it thoroughly: a young man/boy around 17? 18? wakes up in a hospital bed with amnesia. He was picked up injured with no ID and it set's the scene nicely for the overall story. One of the first things that happens is that someone (we realise someTHING, but they do not) turns up, claiming to be his father calling him 'Barry'.

Now the boy has such a visceral reaction of horror to this someone, that the doctor will not release him and he is still there when ANOTHER man turns up, claiming to be his father and, again, calling him Barry. As a way to escape 'man' #1, the boy pretends to recognise him and goes home with him.

This set's the scene for Barry with no memory trying to re-integrate into a normal life - only with weird and ab-normal things continuing to happen around him. He decides he must find out what happened in the year he was missing and we...

launch into the next part of the story which is how Barry, a year back got mixed up with two sets of aliens, galactic politics and goes careening around the solar system. The secret of the bronze dragon, found in his pocket when he arrived at the hospital is also revealed!

Now the Barry in space part is heaps of fun, it is kind of a classic 'boy's own adventure' and reminds me a lot of some of Heinlein's juvenilia adventures. As a MZB book, it is probably not her best work but I do feel it is more light-hearted than a lot of her books, which tend to be humourless so maybe writing juvenilia brought out a deeply hidden streak of humour. As a book written in the 70's? Well, it reads like something from the 70's in terms of society and earth technology. It is dated to that extent but no worse than that...

Lot's of nice, easy fun a fast read (it only took me a day) and well worth it for classic sci-fi buffs.

[Jimyanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Bradley's early, juvenile (might be referred to these days as YA) stories. It is essentially a 1960s style pulp sci-fi action adventure with the main character still more or less a kid. As such, it is not a deep or thoughtful story, but it is fun and well-written, especially the first part. Part two drags a bit as it is flashback to fill in the backstory that we weren't given in part one, and while it's interesting enough, the reader still finds himself thinking, "Well, this is all well and good, but what's happening NOW?" Might have been a better read if that backstory had been filled in piecemeal rather than done as a giant info-dump, but it still wasn't bad. A fun read and not at all bad for early pulp sci-fi.

[Brian Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

OMG... aliens use slide-rules! A glimpse into what sci-fi used to be like before computers and smart phones. I must have bought this decades ago to complete the MZB collection but I don't recall reading it before I did today. First person narrative. An easy read. It begins slow as an amnesia patient story, with the protagonist struggling to understand glimpses of flights in space. Then the second half of the book is the flashback of those events, before the confrontation with the bad guy. Where it lost me was the Texas nurse calmly lets this head-case into her car while the aliens are closing in and get this, she doesn't own a gun. An American without a gun? Parallel Earth perhaps?

[K Kono · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's kind of fun as a historical document of the '60s (slide rules, "[e]veryone knew the figure five days in free-fall, between the Earth to the Moon" but the no one (including the aliens) talk about faster-than-light travel or time dilation, "Berkeley ... was the sort of place where a little old lady could walk aound town with a hundred dollars in her handbag and nobody would touch her except to help her across the street") but as hard science fiction, ouch.

It reminds me of the old pulp science fiction from Amazing Stories and the like.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. Advanced space-faring civilizations use pocket tables, slide rules and arm strength to navigate/pilot? There are moss and cacti on Mars and they can be digested easily by humans who can breathe the air and survive the temp with a thick coat? The "good guys" from another solar system look just like humans but the bad guys are monsters? Right. I get this was written in the late 60s, but this all just seems low really effort.

[Drilli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lettura piacevole e scorrevole (lo stile della Bradley è sempre estremamente scorrevole, del resto), ma nulla di speciale. E' una fantascienza un po'... ingenua, che costituisce sì un buon modo di intrattenersi per qualche ora, ma che dubito mi resterà nella memoria troppo a lungo.

[Gmc · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites.

Barry is on his way home from late after school basketball, when he sees another kid attacked and injured. He helps the other guy home, and they all end up taken to Mars.

[Hermann Morr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanzo interessante di una Marion Zimmer Bradley all'inizio della sua carriera e non ancora prigioniera delle serie da lei stesse create.

[Zuraika Redo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un racconto talmente inutile che posso abbandonare definitivamente la Bradley senza rimpianti.
Pessima anche la traduzione italiana.

[Jaq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid old school teenage fiction. Limited female characters who are relegated to passive roles.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. had moments, but mostly just kind of forgettable — no pun intended.

[Rev. Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summertime space tale!

[Llona ❤️ "Così tanti libri, così poco tempo." · Rating 1 out of 5]

diciamo fantascienza anni 60 anche se in realtà è poco più di un incoerente favoletta della buonanotte

[Torfinn Ingolfsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it.

[Jasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A relatively short book that is very nice and easy to read

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

~• Il drago di Bronzo è un libro di fantascienza scritto ai suoi esordi da Marion Zimmer Bradley. Come saprete è un'autrice che ho molto amato nel ciclo di Avalon, ma questo libricino non è riuscito a rapirmi. Un po' il problema forse sta nel genere letterario che io non amo particolarmente (a meno che non si parli di distopia), ma anche perché non sono riuscita a trovare quello stile dell'autrice del quale mi sono irrimediabilmente innamorata.

La storia è ambientata negli Stati Uniti, più precisamente in Texas e poi in California, e altra ambientazione è Marte.

Inizia in un ospedale della città di Abilene, in Texas, dove un ragazzo si sveglia e si rende conto di avere perso la memoria. Non sa chi sia, né da dove viene, né il suo nome né cosa sia quello strano drago di Bronzo ritrovato tra i suoi effetti personali.
Ben presto però scopre di essere scomparso dalla sua città di origine, Berkeley in California, da più di un anno.

Torna a casa con suo padre e cerca di avere una vita tranquilla, ma strani eventi mettono in pericolo la sua esistenza e quella dei suoi cari ed è così che deve tornare indietro per cercare di mettere insieme i tasselli mancanti della sua memoria per risolvere quello strano enigma.
Ma cosa è successo veramente? E cosa c'entra Marte?

È un libro che secondo me non può mancare nelle librerie di chi ama il genere e l'autrice, ma a me purtroppo non ha preso totalmente.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly early Marion Zimmer Bradley books, one of her stand alones not tied in with her popular Avalon or Darkover series. No, it's not what I'd recommend as an introduction to her, it's pretty forgettable compared to her other books, I had to browse through the books and other reviews to remember the details while other books by her remain fresh decades after reading. And yes, this is based on that hoariest of cliches, a hero suffering from amnesia. For all that I remember it as an entertaining read. Marion Zimmer Bradley is a strong storyteller and there's very little by her that isn't at least enjoyable. But yes, there are a lot of better books out there--including from her.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, great author.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok SF novella :)

[Diane Goeres-Gardner]

It encouraged me to read more of her books.

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent example of Zimmer Bradley's juvenile writing!

[Sue Lilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, a good read!

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was okay. Off to listia for someone else to enjoy! =)

[Maddalenah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un romanzo strano, che ho abbastanza detestato alla prima lettura, mentre alla seconda mi sono più o meno innamorata :D

[Ambs ❤❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad story, considering it was relatively short. It was written well and flowed easily. Everything was wrapped up nicely in the end, and hope more adventures befall Barry in the future.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a YA book-- story of a young man who can't remember recent past but gradually discovers he was recruited to fight aliens....