What do you think?
Rate this book
Dragons #1
Dragons Wild
First in a brand new series from the "New York Times" bestselling creator of the Myth and Phule novels.
A low-stakes con artist and killer poker player, Griffen "Grifter" McCandles graduated college fully expecting his wealthy family to have a job waiting for him. Instead, his mysterious uncle reveals a strange family secret: Griffen and his sister, Valerie, are actually dragons.
Unwilling to let Uncle Mal take him under his wing, so to speak, Griffen heads to New Orleans with Valerie to make a living the only way he knows how. And even the criminal underworld of the French Quarter will heat up when Griffen lands in town.
A low-stakes con artist and killer poker player, Griffen "Grifter" McCandles graduated college fully expecting his wealthy family to have a job waiting for him. Instead, his mysterious uncle reveals a strange family secret: Griffen and his sister, Valerie, are actually dragons.
Unwilling to let Uncle Mal take him under his wing, so to speak, Griffen heads to New Orleans with Valerie to make a living the only way he knows how. And even the criminal underworld of the French Quarter will heat up when Griffen lands in town.
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
59 people are currently reading
854 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lynn Asprin
224 books1,067 followersRobert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
April 19, 2011
I was optimistic about this book going in because:
1) I remember liking Asprin's other works as a kid.
2) The cover has a poker playing dragon.
Sadly, this book was utterly lame. The plot was somewhere between contrived and cliched. You couldn't identify with any of the characters. And it was all exposition all the time. Like, people would explain things for paragraph upon paragraph, and our hapless protagonist would simply echo their last few words, in order to keep them going. Torture!
Aside from the Mary Sue-ness of the whole thing (seriously, they go shopping), though, there was a serious problem. This novel made me feel like a feminist.
The three female bit-characters in the whole novel:
Woman #1: hero's ex-lover; fashionista; doesn't make any decisions for herself because she's working for other people
Woman #2: hero's sister; srsly hot; dates one guy; gets scammed into dating another guy; thinks that maybe she should get a job and stop being a freeloader, only to be given one of a speechified run-around that amounted to "women should stay at home to keep their menfolk from worrying about them"
Woman #3: hero's lover
Possible explanation: The protagonist is often warned not to let women know anything because life gets dangerous when they get angry. Gee, you don't think they'll get angry from being kept in the dark? (If this had come back to bite our hero, I might've been cooler with it, but that never happened.)
All in all: poorly written, anti-women, and totally lame. Don't bother.
1) I remember liking Asprin's other works as a kid.
2) The cover has a poker playing dragon.
Sadly, this book was utterly lame. The plot was somewhere between contrived and cliched. You couldn't identify with any of the characters. And it was all exposition all the time. Like, people would explain things for paragraph upon paragraph, and our hapless protagonist would simply echo their last few words, in order to keep them going. Torture!
Aside from the Mary Sue-ness of the whole thing (seriously, they go shopping), though, there was a serious problem. This novel made me feel like a feminist.
The three female bit-characters in the whole novel:
Woman #1: hero's ex-lover; fashionista; doesn't make any decisions for herself because she's working for other people
Woman #2: hero's sister; srsly hot; dates one guy; gets scammed into dating another guy; thinks that maybe she should get a job and stop being a freeloader, only to be given one of a speechified run-around that amounted to "women should stay at home to keep their menfolk from worrying about them"
Woman #3: hero's lover
Possible explanation: The protagonist is often warned not to let women know anything because life gets dangerous when they get angry. Gee, you don't think they'll get angry from being kept in the dark? (If this had come back to bite our hero, I might've been cooler with it, but that never happened.)
All in all: poorly written, anti-women, and totally lame. Don't bother.
February 7, 2021
Well this is an oddity. The cover, the description, and Robert Asprin's other writing had me expecting some kind of light fantasy involving a dragon gambling his way to a gold hoard, possibly with a colorful crew of some kind around him. Instead, this is more like an Elmore Leonard novel, mostly set in New Orleans among an underground crew that runs numbers, hosts illegal high-stakes poker games, and generally makes its money on gambling. There's a bit of a fantasy overlay in that this world has dragons and other supernatural creatures, but the vast majority of the book is pretty mundane, as the protagonist, Griffen, takes over the gambling crew, learns the ropes, and gets used to New Orleans.
Which would all be pretty okay, except some aspects of this book have dated REALLY poorly.
Griffen is abruptly the center of a whole lot of plots because he and his sister Valerie are pure-blooded dragons. In this world, "dragon" mostly means "supernaturally powerful person who might have mental or physical or shapeshifting abilities," it's not very closely associated with being a big scaly lizard, in spite of the book cover. Purebloods are rare in a world where most people who identify as dragons are considerably more watered-down. As purebloods, they're likely to have much stronger powers than all the mixed-race dragons around them, so all the other powers in the book either kowtow to Griffen and court his favor, or want to kill him.
That "pure blood = innate superiority" plot point would be hinky enough on its own. (Didn't we go over this at length in the Harry Potter books?) But the racial angle of the book makes it much worse. Griffen is a Midwestern white boy. The New Orleans crew he takes over is entirely Black. The moment he graduates college (and his half-blood uncle tells him about dragons, which Griffen knew nothing about), his Black friend Jerome, who's been scouting him for quite a while for the New Orleans crew, shows up to offer him control of it, because Jerome's group is the "lowest of the low" in the dragon power structure, and they figure harnessing themselves to a bigger dog is a way up the ladder. So he comes in and starts running the crew, and making changes, and they immediately start thriving, in part because everyone's so impressed with how Griffen handles conflicts and issues.
So… a naive, lazy 22-year-old white boy with no experience at anything now has an entire gang of highly experienced Black number-runners looking to him for leadership and advice. That's already pretty annoying. Then add in his hot Asian-American girlfriend (who as far as I can tell has no more specific ethnicity than "Asian" and is literally described as looking like a "doll"), who hangs around him because a bunch of Eastern dragons also want to sign up under his leadership.
And the book treats women on the whole with similar disdain — Valerie is immensely strong and capable, and she starts developing her dragon skills faster than Griffen, but he's still advised to keep her in the dark about any really serious part of his business, because dragon women are volatile, irrational, and unpredictable. At one point, Valerie seeks out Griffen's mentor, the head of the New Orleans crew, to talk about how unsatisfied she is with sitting around doing nothing while her brother runs a growing crime league… and the guy, while cringing fearfully away from her because she might run amok at any moment, gives her a whole condescending lecture about how sometimes the best thing we can do to support our loved ones is just sit around passively. That way, he explains, Griffen will know she's safe, and won't divide his attention with worrying about her or trying to protect her.
So yeah. Based on Asprin's other books, I don't know that he was consciously racist or sexist, and I don't get the idea he had an agenda here, I think he just didn't see the optics of all this at all. Less forgivable is the point of the book where a cop goes on a mini-rant to Griffen about how awesome racial profiling is, and how stupid it would be for law enforcement to ignore the fact that so many Black people are criminals and so many Middle Easterners are terrorists. That one DOES sound both consciously racist and agenda-driven, and it was pretty irritating to read, given how simultaneously shallow and self-righteous it is, and coming from a guy who's otherwise portrayed as a straight-shooter who helps the protagonist out. And given that he self-righteously prefaces it by literally saying "Now I'm not saying ALL blacks are criminals or ALL Arabs are terrorists, but…" Ugh.
Even leaving aside the weird racial dimensions of this book, I found it pretty odd how much of the story is just exposition, either in the narration, or through characters delivering lectures. If you want to understand how numbers are calculated for sports bets, or learn how to play pai gow, or get some lengthy descriptions of the French Quarter, or for some damn reason you need to have the term "cover band" carefully explained to you, here's your book.
It wasn't at all an unpleasant read. It went by quickly, the characters are kind of interesting, there's a lot of conflict, I liked the detailed report on what it's like to live in New Orleans, at least for people who have all the time and money in the world. The world-building isn't exactly unique — the "dragons" in this book could just as well be vampires, or fae, or cultists who've made bargains with demons, they're so generically "people with powers and charisma." But it also doesn't fall into dragon clichés. Mostly I just find myself kinda baffled about the whole thing. It would have been so simple to just make Griffen Black too, and make this less about the pure blood of a powerful white man everyone wants to serve, and more about a subsection of society growing in power in the modern age.
Which would all be pretty okay, except some aspects of this book have dated REALLY poorly.
Griffen is abruptly the center of a whole lot of plots because he and his sister Valerie are pure-blooded dragons. In this world, "dragon" mostly means "supernaturally powerful person who might have mental or physical or shapeshifting abilities," it's not very closely associated with being a big scaly lizard, in spite of the book cover. Purebloods are rare in a world where most people who identify as dragons are considerably more watered-down. As purebloods, they're likely to have much stronger powers than all the mixed-race dragons around them, so all the other powers in the book either kowtow to Griffen and court his favor, or want to kill him.
That "pure blood = innate superiority" plot point would be hinky enough on its own. (Didn't we go over this at length in the Harry Potter books?) But the racial angle of the book makes it much worse. Griffen is a Midwestern white boy. The New Orleans crew he takes over is entirely Black. The moment he graduates college (and his half-blood uncle tells him about dragons, which Griffen knew nothing about), his Black friend Jerome, who's been scouting him for quite a while for the New Orleans crew, shows up to offer him control of it, because Jerome's group is the "lowest of the low" in the dragon power structure, and they figure harnessing themselves to a bigger dog is a way up the ladder. So he comes in and starts running the crew, and making changes, and they immediately start thriving, in part because everyone's so impressed with how Griffen handles conflicts and issues.
So… a naive, lazy 22-year-old white boy with no experience at anything now has an entire gang of highly experienced Black number-runners looking to him for leadership and advice. That's already pretty annoying. Then add in his hot Asian-American girlfriend (who as far as I can tell has no more specific ethnicity than "Asian" and is literally described as looking like a "doll"), who hangs around him because a bunch of Eastern dragons also want to sign up under his leadership.
And the book treats women on the whole with similar disdain — Valerie is immensely strong and capable, and she starts developing her dragon skills faster than Griffen, but he's still advised to keep her in the dark about any really serious part of his business, because dragon women are volatile, irrational, and unpredictable. At one point, Valerie seeks out Griffen's mentor, the head of the New Orleans crew, to talk about how unsatisfied she is with sitting around doing nothing while her brother runs a growing crime league… and the guy, while cringing fearfully away from her because she might run amok at any moment, gives her a whole condescending lecture about how sometimes the best thing we can do to support our loved ones is just sit around passively. That way, he explains, Griffen will know she's safe, and won't divide his attention with worrying about her or trying to protect her.
So yeah. Based on Asprin's other books, I don't know that he was consciously racist or sexist, and I don't get the idea he had an agenda here, I think he just didn't see the optics of all this at all. Less forgivable is the point of the book where a cop goes on a mini-rant to Griffen about how awesome racial profiling is, and how stupid it would be for law enforcement to ignore the fact that so many Black people are criminals and so many Middle Easterners are terrorists. That one DOES sound both consciously racist and agenda-driven, and it was pretty irritating to read, given how simultaneously shallow and self-righteous it is, and coming from a guy who's otherwise portrayed as a straight-shooter who helps the protagonist out. And given that he self-righteously prefaces it by literally saying "Now I'm not saying ALL blacks are criminals or ALL Arabs are terrorists, but…" Ugh.
Even leaving aside the weird racial dimensions of this book, I found it pretty odd how much of the story is just exposition, either in the narration, or through characters delivering lectures. If you want to understand how numbers are calculated for sports bets, or learn how to play pai gow, or get some lengthy descriptions of the French Quarter, or for some damn reason you need to have the term "cover band" carefully explained to you, here's your book.
It wasn't at all an unpleasant read. It went by quickly, the characters are kind of interesting, there's a lot of conflict, I liked the detailed report on what it's like to live in New Orleans, at least for people who have all the time and money in the world. The world-building isn't exactly unique — the "dragons" in this book could just as well be vampires, or fae, or cultists who've made bargains with demons, they're so generically "people with powers and charisma." But it also doesn't fall into dragon clichés. Mostly I just find myself kinda baffled about the whole thing. It would have been so simple to just make Griffen Black too, and make this less about the pure blood of a powerful white man everyone wants to serve, and more about a subsection of society growing in power in the modern age.
June 28, 2016
Let's start with the fact that I liked this book, but it had a few issues. Well start with the proverbial elephant (or 'dragon' if you will) in the room.
There is no poker, and there are no dragons.
Now, this book markets itself as containing dragons playing poker. You only need to look at the cover to see that, but games of poker are fairly rare in the book. We are told that the main character is very good at it, but it's never shown in the book. It usually ends with "and then the main character won" because he's a dragon.
Which brings me to Dragons. Sure, we're told our main character is a dragon, but he does not behave any different for it. It seems to me that every instance of the word 'dragon' can be replaced with 'important character' without anything being lost.
So, what are we left with then? A story about a boy finding his place in life at the head of an illegal gambling ring, which has been handed to him. And all the risks and troubles it brings. There are risks, but the character never once fails. There's a few instances where the main character solves an issue skilfully, but mostly all his problems are solved by other characters handing him things, and serving him for no apparent reason. He gets off much to easily.
And that leaves the topic of ladies. It made me uncomfortable reading how women were treated in this book. None of the three females in the book have their own will, it seems. We are told all dragons desire after power, and are all after political gain. Except all our female characters do as they are told. On top of that female dragons have a very bad temper, and should be handled with kid gloves, and kept in the dark when it concerns men's business.
Despite these problems, I enjoyed the book. It's fairly slow, and the description of New Orleans's french quarter comes off as gushing at times. If you enjoy reading a slice-of-life story about the adventures of a young man running a small gambling ring, this book is for you.
There is no poker, and there are no dragons.
Now, this book markets itself as containing dragons playing poker. You only need to look at the cover to see that, but games of poker are fairly rare in the book. We are told that the main character is very good at it, but it's never shown in the book. It usually ends with "and then the main character won" because he's a dragon.
Which brings me to Dragons. Sure, we're told our main character is a dragon, but he does not behave any different for it. It seems to me that every instance of the word 'dragon' can be replaced with 'important character' without anything being lost.
So, what are we left with then? A story about a boy finding his place in life at the head of an illegal gambling ring, which has been handed to him. And all the risks and troubles it brings. There are risks, but the character never once fails. There's a few instances where the main character solves an issue skilfully, but mostly all his problems are solved by other characters handing him things, and serving him for no apparent reason. He gets off much to easily.
And that leaves the topic of ladies. It made me uncomfortable reading how women were treated in this book. None of the three females in the book have their own will, it seems. We are told all dragons desire after power, and are all after political gain. Except all our female characters do as they are told. On top of that female dragons have a very bad temper, and should be handled with kid gloves, and kept in the dark when it concerns men's business.
Despite these problems, I enjoyed the book. It's fairly slow, and the description of New Orleans's french quarter comes off as gushing at times. If you enjoy reading a slice-of-life story about the adventures of a young man running a small gambling ring, this book is for you.
May 18, 2016
Actual rating: 1.5. Only exceeded 1 because I didn't DNF. Barely.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. It's got a great concept and setting, and the IDEAS inside it were so promising.
Sadly, all of that was let down - badly - by the execution.
The whole bloody book is an infodump. It switches between being a horrendous, massive infodump of expository background (hey, let's get all the exposition and backstory out of the way in a brief recap ten pages in!) or it's an infodump on the workings of the French Quarter.
As if that's not bad enough, it's leavened with a jolly dose of misogyny and racism. Women fighting over the main character, then deciding to have a threesome with him; one woman referring to an Asian counterpart as a "fortune cookie;" northern white guy blows into town and takes over from the black folk doing everything better than they can 'cos hey, he's just genetically better at it (due to his stronger dragon blood, but....eesh). I developed a tic in my left eye after about a chapter (female dragons are inherently crazy, unstable, and to be used as breeders just because they're female?!) and it got worse as I read.
Constant, unending infodumps are bad enough. Casual racism and sexism are worse. Combine the two, and it's a miracle I got through this book. I only avoided a DNF because I wanted to see if the author could pull something out at the last minute to redeem his great concept from a painfully atrocious execution.
Ugh. Skip it.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. It's got a great concept and setting, and the IDEAS inside it were so promising.
Sadly, all of that was let down - badly - by the execution.
The whole bloody book is an infodump. It switches between being a horrendous, massive infodump of expository background (hey, let's get all the exposition and backstory out of the way in a brief recap ten pages in!) or it's an infodump on the workings of the French Quarter.
As if that's not bad enough, it's leavened with a jolly dose of misogyny and racism. Women fighting over the main character, then deciding to have a threesome with him; one woman referring to an Asian counterpart as a "fortune cookie;" northern white guy blows into town and takes over from the black folk doing everything better than they can 'cos hey, he's just genetically better at it (due to his stronger dragon blood, but....eesh). I developed a tic in my left eye after about a chapter (female dragons are inherently crazy, unstable, and to be used as breeders just because they're female?!) and it got worse as I read.
Constant, unending infodumps are bad enough. Casual racism and sexism are worse. Combine the two, and it's a miracle I got through this book. I only avoided a DNF because I wanted to see if the author could pull something out at the last minute to redeem his great concept from a painfully atrocious execution.
Ugh. Skip it.
January 7, 2010
Better plotted than most of Asprin's stuff, probably because it isn't all a joke (on the readers, too?), but it's still simplistic & a bit juvenile. Worst problem: the paternalistic attitude towards Valerie (and females in general) grates -- part of the general immaturity.
The book feels like an ode to New Orleans, almost in the same way as Spider Robinson's books are an ongoing paean to Callahan's Place -- the people there are cleverer, more spiritual, more perceptive, and more humane than everyone else. Similarly, dragons are tougher, stronger, smarter, richer, and better than humans, even if the differences are invisible. It's a shame Asprin died, and is not going to write more, although I'm waiting for the $9.99 sequel's ebook to come down in price (the paperback is $5.69 -- WTF?).
Stupidest thing in the book: asking if it matters whether Griffen is a dragon or a human. Being tougher, stronger, and longer-lived than human, with flame & psychic powers is inescapably significant. Seeing it purely in terms of others' perceptions is plain stupid.
The book feels like an ode to New Orleans, almost in the same way as Spider Robinson's books are an ongoing paean to Callahan's Place -- the people there are cleverer, more spiritual, more perceptive, and more humane than everyone else. Similarly, dragons are tougher, stronger, smarter, richer, and better than humans, even if the differences are invisible. It's a shame Asprin died, and is not going to write more, although I'm waiting for the $9.99 sequel's ebook to come down in price (the paperback is $5.69 -- WTF?).
Stupidest thing in the book: asking if it matters whether Griffen is a dragon or a human. Being tougher, stronger, and longer-lived than human, with flame & psychic powers is inescapably significant. Seeing it purely in terms of others' perceptions is plain stupid.
May 14, 2011
I was really excited to read this book not only did a friend recommend it but it sounded really good. And I'm sure there are tons of people who will love this book I'm just not one of them. The action was to spread out, the few confrontations were anticlimatic, and the characters show very little growth except towards the end. Not to mention the author really didn't go into everything that he could have, like exploring the trials of Griffin growing his powers. It was talked about some but only after he learned he could do it. Despite all that I will probably follow the series and at least try reading the next book. There showed real potential growth at the end and to me Valerie is the more interesting character and what she may face as a dreaded female dragon haha. I hope all the characters get expanded on. They are a colorful bunch that deserves a better book than the first in this series
March 16, 2011
A wonderful book. Reminds me of the early Aaze and Skeeve. I love the setting. Maybe better to have dragons and vampires, etc. in New Orleans that pervects and clauds on other planets. I wish he had written many of them before his death
November 15, 2008
I wrote this review while I was on travel in Australia. It was *almost* far away enough from this book.
I have to admit to some real sadness about this book. I have very fond memories of reading the Myth books back in High School. I recall them as being cute and clever and generally fun reads. (But, then, I was 15 then, so...)
So, not to speak ill of the dead, but... This book was neither cute nor clever nor generally fun. It was overall shallow and tedious. It read like a cross of the worst aspects of Robert Heinlein and Piers Anthony. Like Heinlein, the characters had no voices of their own -- they were all just mouthpieces for the author. There was only one "character" in the book, just with different names. And like Anthony, the book seemed an excuse for the author to spout off his personal views and whatever research he happened to have done recently. Half the dialog was heavy-handed world building infodumps; the other half was superficial "gee whiz, ain't it cool?" kinds of tour book prose on the wonders of New Orleans, with an occasional political polemic by the author. (The micro-rant on racial profiling was both ignorant and offensive.)
The characters' actions were generally unbelievable. Well, check that -- I can believe in a college slacker who would rather play cards than get a job. (I knew a couple of them. :-) It's everybody *around* Griffen that I couldn't believe in. The scene with the drug gang leaders, for example. In my observation, angry people don't usually listen to polite reason. Especially not when they're armed, consider themselves to be king of the hill, and got there by being tougher than the next guy. As evidence, I submit all of 20th century middle eastern politics.
The plot was spotty and jumpy and seemed to exist mostly as an infrastructure on which to hang world building and exposition. Characters and threads were introduced and then dropped, the ultimate bad guy was tossed in a bit heavy handedly about 2/3 of the way through the book, and so on.
I really *wanted* to like this book, and I tried hard to finish it. But after the fourteenth time I found myself rolling my eyes in exasperation and swearing at the author, I gave it up. I flipped to the end to verify who the bad guy was and to see if Katrina would make an appearance. (It didn't, which disappointed me. That was one scenario that I thought might have been an interesting direction to take his world building. Maybe that's book 2.)
So I was glad to see what Asprin was up to, I guess, but I was really disappointed by this effort. I feel like I should go back and reread the Myth books -- I'm not sure if my memories of them are just juvenile excitement or if they really are far more interesting and entertaining than Dragons Wild.
I have to admit to some real sadness about this book. I have very fond memories of reading the Myth books back in High School. I recall them as being cute and clever and generally fun reads. (But, then, I was 15 then, so...)
So, not to speak ill of the dead, but... This book was neither cute nor clever nor generally fun. It was overall shallow and tedious. It read like a cross of the worst aspects of Robert Heinlein and Piers Anthony. Like Heinlein, the characters had no voices of their own -- they were all just mouthpieces for the author. There was only one "character" in the book, just with different names. And like Anthony, the book seemed an excuse for the author to spout off his personal views and whatever research he happened to have done recently. Half the dialog was heavy-handed world building infodumps; the other half was superficial "gee whiz, ain't it cool?" kinds of tour book prose on the wonders of New Orleans, with an occasional political polemic by the author. (The micro-rant on racial profiling was both ignorant and offensive.)
The characters' actions were generally unbelievable. Well, check that -- I can believe in a college slacker who would rather play cards than get a job. (I knew a couple of them. :-) It's everybody *around* Griffen that I couldn't believe in. The scene with the drug gang leaders, for example. In my observation, angry people don't usually listen to polite reason. Especially not when they're armed, consider themselves to be king of the hill, and got there by being tougher than the next guy. As evidence, I submit all of 20th century middle eastern politics.
The plot was spotty and jumpy and seemed to exist mostly as an infrastructure on which to hang world building and exposition. Characters and threads were introduced and then dropped, the ultimate bad guy was tossed in a bit heavy handedly about 2/3 of the way through the book, and so on.
I really *wanted* to like this book, and I tried hard to finish it. But after the fourteenth time I found myself rolling my eyes in exasperation and swearing at the author, I gave it up. I flipped to the end to verify who the bad guy was and to see if Katrina would make an appearance. (It didn't, which disappointed me. That was one scenario that I thought might have been an interesting direction to take his world building. Maybe that's book 2.)
So I was glad to see what Asprin was up to, I guess, but I was really disappointed by this effort. I feel like I should go back and reread the Myth books -- I'm not sure if my memories of them are just juvenile excitement or if they really are far more interesting and entertaining than Dragons Wild.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 20, 2017
Before you have a chance to be fooled by the novelty of the cover art, let me warn you: nothing that ridiculous or imaginative even remotely happens in this bland, plodding book. At first blush, this story of gambling dragons working underground in the Big Easy sounds like a laugh, a bit of comedic fantasy fun. Unfortunately, the late Robert Asprin goes absolutely nowhere with this premise, only doling out small bits and pieces of his universe's mythology, and barely bringing in any dragon-like characteristics or behavior at all. Most of the book is taken up with lengthy descriptions of the locale of New Orleans (which would be fine if his clumsy prose was up to the task) and the ins and outs of card playing, which has no bearing on the story since the entire cardsharp operation is glossed over. We never even once sit in on a single card game. In fact, if you took out all of the supernatural elements, as little as there are, this turns out less like a comic urban fantasy novel and more like a misguided attempt at a hardboiled crime story in the vein of someone like Elmore Leonard. But where Leonard's prose is lean and sharp, Asprin's is limp and obvious. Even his pacing is weak, getting rid of characters just as quickly as they're introduced, weakly resolving plotlines or never letting any plotlines go anywhere, or spending an inordinate amount of time on irrelevant details that add nothing to the story. The first third was bearable fluff, but toward the end, this started to turn into a real slog. Avoid, unless the idea of a dragon fantasy book with barely any dragons (or fantasy) interests you.
May 8, 2008
I really try not to give negative reviews, because I think fiction is too subjective for that kind of nonsense, and also, who the hell died and made me the Book Goddess? But with this book, I gotta say: when my husband brings me a book and says, "Look! Isn't this awesome? It's a book about dragons! Playing poker! How awesome is that?" then there damn well better be dragons. And there damn well better be poker. And where there's neither, well . . . it kind of sucks.
But Robert Aspirin's Myth books are totally entertaining, and if you're into pun-based fantasy, you should read them.
That's all.
But Robert Aspirin's Myth books are totally entertaining, and if you're into pun-based fantasy, you should read them.
That's all.
August 2, 2024
I think my rating needs a little context. First I want to say that the book was fine. It was well written. It's just everything in between that just didn't work for me. And that's a personal preference issue, not a reflection of the author. I'll go more into the details later.
Backstory:
I bought this book years ago on the author's name alone. In my teen years I had read several books in the myth-ing series and rather enjoyed them. This book had been sitting on my shelf for a number of years before learning that my sister would actually read books featuring dragons. Well there's a dragon featured prominently on the cover, so I figured...
Some four years ago, I get the book back, unread. Now she's not a reader by any stretch of the imagination - so I kind of figured her not reading the book was going to be the end result. By this point, I'm moving abroad, so I pack the book into storage what with having to be choosy about what I was bringing with me.
Present day, I'm visiting my father who still has all of my books, and I decide it's now time to read and purge. Which brings me to picking up this book.
As part of my reading process I'm cycling through fiction and non-fiction books so I don't taint fiction with the previous fiction book read. I tend to be a critical reader - if you've looked into my past reviews I rarely if ever give a book 5 starts. 4 stars is high praise from me. Non-fiction isn't exactly riveting reading, so this give fiction in general a leg up in appreciation.
A little bit of context on my views on marketing as a reader - because this is probably what doomed the book before I even read the first page:
I don't read the blurb, why would I? I bought the book on the author's name - he writes fantasy. There's a cover that features a dragon rather prominently on the cover, so I'm expecting some fantasy shenanigans'.
I read the blurb just now, and yes, the book is about that - with emphasis on dragons (which don't actually ever appear in this book save for a dream sequence), and completely omits the heavily leaning on magical realism. THERE ARE NO DRAGONS! Just people going around calling themselves dragons - like over powered LARPers.
It was clear going in that the 'fantasy world' was going to be the real world. Cool, you'd think there'd be less world building, but no... there's so much world building about New Orleans that I genuinely believe that these were product placements to advertise bars and restaurants. I've heard of authors doing the deep dive into real world locations, but I felt this was extreme... like I don't need a building by building description of Bourbon Street. Granted the author called New Orleans home... but It's not the building that bring a city to life - it's the people and the culture. He spends a lot of time name dropping to the point of it being uncomfortable.
By the time we hit New Orleans, I realize I've been deceived by the marketing. Implied dragon powers are not the same as being a dragon - yet there is a dragon prominently on the cover. We're dealing in magical realism, so the cover is done in cartoony style akin to the myth-ing series, implying that the author's tone and humor may be carried forward. Nope. It's played straight.
This is a disconnect from what the book is vs what the book actually is. This is a decision made by the publisher to go after dollars from pre-existing fans over growing a new fan base with the right readers who know and appreciate magical realism. It's scummy. It's deceptive. And this is why this book gets 2 stars instead of 3. I feel conned. I won't be buying any more books from this author, specifically Jody Lynn, the co-author. I most certainly won't be buying anymore books with Robert Asprin's name post 2008 because being dead means he's not creating new content. So I feel comfortable in not assiting ACE (his publisher) by rewarding them for their deceiptive marketing practices.
For context on my stance here:
I used to work for a scummy corporation who had no shame using bait and switch, to down right lies to pry money from customer's hands. They were selling knock-off tech at premium prices, charge a full price installation fee while claiming it really was 1/2 price, then send in a barely trained tech to... well to say that the staff routinely got to told to leave positive reviews for the company to off-set the bad reviews, should tell you everything you need to know. This was also during a recession. These days with greed-flation, inflation, carbon tax upon carbon tax (thank you Trudeau -.- you rich mofo), stagnant wages, housing costs bubbles, and a new recession on the horizon... I don't take a shine to authors or publishers who bait and switch their books. I don't care if it's $0.99 or $12.99. Be honest about what it is - there are readers for you! I swear!
Now you know where I stand, you can probably guess where things went sideways for me.
I would have liked to have known this was a story plying up the myths of dragon lore in a real world context, that magic and spell slinging - your standard fantasy fare - wasn't going to be an actual thing. I would have read it anyway, and because I was given the right frame of mind to read it in, I probably would have enjoyed it more. There are no actual dragons here. They even mess with the mythology so that dragons are shapeshifters...which was the first red flag for me.
I'm not quite sure when, but I'd say somewhere between the first 1/3 and the 1/2 way point of the book, I got this growing sense that I was reading the author's midlife crisis fantasy. There's just a to of things that I suspect the self-insert character does that just doesn't really fit with a young twenty something. It got to the point where it just felt uncomfortable to read. I'm not sure if it was the fixation of his core women being overtly sexualized, the fixation on booze and late night partying, the occasional 2-3 chapters that were preachy af - or was it that the author really wanted to write about the rise of a gambling syndicate (a la casino) but his sales come from fantasy, so....
There are other low-key problems with the book - like the featured female characters are nothing less than very liberal sex kittens, and the idea of female empowerment is a scene where the female lead is groped and she beats the shit out of the dude. Give that the book was written pre-2008, it was standard fiction fair that beating up pervy mean = strong female character. The problem with the women was that there was very little variance. You don't spend loads of time with Fox or Mai to see the difference in personality - but all three are what I guess qualifies as sassy as their core personality trait. I expected this treatment at least, I'm disappointed because I would have expected his female co-author to have leveled out the female characters a bit. At least they have some sense of agency - even if they are all basically the same person.
I usually gripe that the chapters are short. In this case, thank god! I just wanted to get through the book and if every 4-5th page is cut in half, I just had less over all to grind through. That said, his chapters were actual chapters, and not just scenes posing as chapters. I'm kind of jealous of how easy he makes it look :P Also small paperback made reading 25 pages about 15min endeavor so reading 50 pages made getting through this bait and switch really easy. Like I said, the writing is fine - it's just everything else.
In terms of plot structure, I suppose this should not have come as a big surprise as this too is pretty standard in fantasy story structure, but the main threat is dealt with in the absolute last chapter. I mean there is foreshadowing that the main threat is just going to be a random occurrence, but each occurrence suppose to heighten the narrative tension - which it does not. It's an after thought really. The bulk of the story isn't about dragons, or dragon powers though dragon powers are mentioned frequently, it's about a young guy taking over and expanding a gambling syndicate. Now, Terry Pratchett does similar things with Going Postal, but in his case we're already familiar with the world, so this postal system is an actual new and interesting innovation for that world. Where as building a gambling syndicate in the real world - where the protagonist's luck and allure is what is contributing to new contract draws - this all felt really lazy.
To sum up, this is a story about a bunch of people who call themselves dragons but don't ever become dragons (save for the dream sequence), who go into hiding (barely) in New Orleans where the hero does a whole lot of nothing, and a whole lot of nothing happens, and then the main threat appears loses against hero, and then the book abruptly ends with a self congratulations of mastering ones dragons powers. -.-
Not for me.
Backstory:
I bought this book years ago on the author's name alone. In my teen years I had read several books in the myth-ing series and rather enjoyed them. This book had been sitting on my shelf for a number of years before learning that my sister would actually read books featuring dragons. Well there's a dragon featured prominently on the cover, so I figured...
Some four years ago, I get the book back, unread. Now she's not a reader by any stretch of the imagination - so I kind of figured her not reading the book was going to be the end result. By this point, I'm moving abroad, so I pack the book into storage what with having to be choosy about what I was bringing with me.
Present day, I'm visiting my father who still has all of my books, and I decide it's now time to read and purge. Which brings me to picking up this book.
As part of my reading process I'm cycling through fiction and non-fiction books so I don't taint fiction with the previous fiction book read. I tend to be a critical reader - if you've looked into my past reviews I rarely if ever give a book 5 starts. 4 stars is high praise from me. Non-fiction isn't exactly riveting reading, so this give fiction in general a leg up in appreciation.
A little bit of context on my views on marketing as a reader - because this is probably what doomed the book before I even read the first page:
I don't read the blurb, why would I? I bought the book on the author's name - he writes fantasy. There's a cover that features a dragon rather prominently on the cover, so I'm expecting some fantasy shenanigans'.
I read the blurb just now, and yes, the book is about that - with emphasis on dragons (which don't actually ever appear in this book save for a dream sequence), and completely omits the heavily leaning on magical realism. THERE ARE NO DRAGONS! Just people going around calling themselves dragons - like over powered LARPers.
It was clear going in that the 'fantasy world' was going to be the real world. Cool, you'd think there'd be less world building, but no... there's so much world building about New Orleans that I genuinely believe that these were product placements to advertise bars and restaurants. I've heard of authors doing the deep dive into real world locations, but I felt this was extreme... like I don't need a building by building description of Bourbon Street. Granted the author called New Orleans home... but It's not the building that bring a city to life - it's the people and the culture. He spends a lot of time name dropping to the point of it being uncomfortable.
By the time we hit New Orleans, I realize I've been deceived by the marketing. Implied dragon powers are not the same as being a dragon - yet there is a dragon prominently on the cover. We're dealing in magical realism, so the cover is done in cartoony style akin to the myth-ing series, implying that the author's tone and humor may be carried forward. Nope. It's played straight.
This is a disconnect from what the book is vs what the book actually is. This is a decision made by the publisher to go after dollars from pre-existing fans over growing a new fan base with the right readers who know and appreciate magical realism. It's scummy. It's deceptive. And this is why this book gets 2 stars instead of 3. I feel conned. I won't be buying any more books from this author, specifically Jody Lynn, the co-author. I most certainly won't be buying anymore books with Robert Asprin's name post 2008 because being dead means he's not creating new content. So I feel comfortable in not assiting ACE (his publisher) by rewarding them for their deceiptive marketing practices.
For context on my stance here:
I used to work for a scummy corporation who had no shame using bait and switch, to down right lies to pry money from customer's hands. They were selling knock-off tech at premium prices, charge a full price installation fee while claiming it really was 1/2 price, then send in a barely trained tech to... well to say that the staff routinely got to told to leave positive reviews for the company to off-set the bad reviews, should tell you everything you need to know. This was also during a recession. These days with greed-flation, inflation, carbon tax upon carbon tax (thank you Trudeau -.- you rich mofo), stagnant wages, housing costs bubbles, and a new recession on the horizon... I don't take a shine to authors or publishers who bait and switch their books. I don't care if it's $0.99 or $12.99. Be honest about what it is - there are readers for you! I swear!
Now you know where I stand, you can probably guess where things went sideways for me.
I would have liked to have known this was a story plying up the myths of dragon lore in a real world context, that magic and spell slinging - your standard fantasy fare - wasn't going to be an actual thing. I would have read it anyway, and because I was given the right frame of mind to read it in, I probably would have enjoyed it more. There are no actual dragons here. They even mess with the mythology so that dragons are shapeshifters...which was the first red flag for me.
I'm not quite sure when, but I'd say somewhere between the first 1/3 and the 1/2 way point of the book, I got this growing sense that I was reading the author's midlife crisis fantasy. There's just a to of things that I suspect the self-insert character does that just doesn't really fit with a young twenty something. It got to the point where it just felt uncomfortable to read. I'm not sure if it was the fixation of his core women being overtly sexualized, the fixation on booze and late night partying, the occasional 2-3 chapters that were preachy af - or was it that the author really wanted to write about the rise of a gambling syndicate (a la casino) but his sales come from fantasy, so....
There are other low-key problems with the book - like the featured female characters are nothing less than very liberal sex kittens, and the idea of female empowerment is a scene where the female lead is groped and she beats the shit out of the dude. Give that the book was written pre-2008, it was standard fiction fair that beating up pervy mean = strong female character. The problem with the women was that there was very little variance. You don't spend loads of time with Fox or Mai to see the difference in personality - but all three are what I guess qualifies as sassy as their core personality trait. I expected this treatment at least, I'm disappointed because I would have expected his female co-author to have leveled out the female characters a bit. At least they have some sense of agency - even if they are all basically the same person.
I usually gripe that the chapters are short. In this case, thank god! I just wanted to get through the book and if every 4-5th page is cut in half, I just had less over all to grind through. That said, his chapters were actual chapters, and not just scenes posing as chapters. I'm kind of jealous of how easy he makes it look :P Also small paperback made reading 25 pages about 15min endeavor so reading 50 pages made getting through this bait and switch really easy. Like I said, the writing is fine - it's just everything else.
In terms of plot structure, I suppose this should not have come as a big surprise as this too is pretty standard in fantasy story structure, but the main threat is dealt with in the absolute last chapter. I mean there is foreshadowing that the main threat is just going to be a random occurrence, but each occurrence suppose to heighten the narrative tension - which it does not. It's an after thought really. The bulk of the story isn't about dragons, or dragon powers though dragon powers are mentioned frequently, it's about a young guy taking over and expanding a gambling syndicate. Now, Terry Pratchett does similar things with Going Postal, but in his case we're already familiar with the world, so this postal system is an actual new and interesting innovation for that world. Where as building a gambling syndicate in the real world - where the protagonist's luck and allure is what is contributing to new contract draws - this all felt really lazy.
To sum up, this is a story about a bunch of people who call themselves dragons but don't ever become dragons (save for the dream sequence), who go into hiding (barely) in New Orleans where the hero does a whole lot of nothing, and a whole lot of nothing happens, and then the main threat appears loses against hero, and then the book abruptly ends with a self congratulations of mastering ones dragons powers. -.-
Not for me.
July 14, 2017
Dragon's Wild lives up to Asprin's tradition of well told but quirky stories that you can't help laughing at. It's less out-right farcical than Phule's Company and the Mything series, which means it worked better for me as a humorous read (I'm not really a fan of farce.) Dragon's Wild kept me laughing out loud.
If you are a critical reader, this is not the book for you. Other reviewers criticisms of exposition and weak story are legit. For me the characters, the feel of the Big Easy, the world, and especially the humor more than made up for that, but YMMV.
If you are a critical reader, this is not the book for you. Other reviewers criticisms of exposition and weak story are legit. For me the characters, the feel of the Big Easy, the world, and especially the humor more than made up for that, but YMMV.
March 22, 2020
2020 bk 104: If you love New Orleans and the French Quarter, like a little paranormal, and are intrigued by power plays, then the Dragons series by Robert Lynn Asprin may hit the spot. I believe this was the last series he started before his untimely death - and his wife or another author helped round out the series at four volumes. The first of these begins when young Griffin McCandles learns that he is a dragon. And that's all I'm saying. The action is fast and fun in this quartet of books and this is the one that starts them all.
March 10, 2021
This is my first book by Robert Asprin and I had very low expectations: dragons seriously?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the ease of the reading, enough details, really nice description of atmosphere of New Orleans, and a very good plot. Fantasy details aside, it was interesting to find out who & what & how.
Totally recommend.
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the ease of the reading, enough details, really nice description of atmosphere of New Orleans, and a very good plot. Fantasy details aside, it was interesting to find out who & what & how.
Totally recommend.
November 29, 2019
Im a fan of Robert Asprin. I love his Phules company books as well as his Myth books, that being said this is not them. Here Mr. Asprin goes in a more straight forward direction and not for the better. Its about a young man who discovers he is a dragon and from that interesting premise it goes straight ahead with no fun turns. I was disappointed and see no reason to read the rest of the series.
March 24, 2018
easy read and good characters. would be a good introduction for someone into urban fantasy if they wanted.
December 9, 2017
When one thinks of humorous fantasy novels, Robert Asprin has to be at the top of one’s list. Just thinking of the “Myth-Adventures” series of novels raises the risibility index considerably. Dragons Wild is my first experience with this series from Asprin and it is comedy in a very real sense. It is not laugh out loud or LMAO comedy like I experienced in the “Myth-Adventures” series. Rather it is a comedic story following the classic U form. I don’t think I am creating a spoiler by suggesting that Dragons Wild takes a protagonist with potential, hits him with unexpected blow after blow (usually ameliorated by some light touch of humor or gentle “win”), gives him a major challenge he is supposed to overcome, and then, somehow brings said protagonist to a positive conclusion. It probably wouldn’t be a series without that U form and it definitely wouldn’t be as satisfying.
What do two individuals do when they discover that they aren’t what they seem, that they are potentially a danger to more powerful individuals, and that even those closest to them suggest that they relocate and stay under cover? Then, just when they start to breathe easier, they find out that a legendary bounty hunter is after them and a Homeland Security agent may be keeping tabs on them for a potential mortal enemy? What do they do when they discover that keeping control of their inner selves is harder than they could even have imagined? Well, they deal with it along with a little help from their friends, a bit of fortuity, and several clever improvisations.
The bulk of the story is set in New Orleans. I was mesmerized by the city when I first visited it and some of that enchantment returned to me as I was reading Dragons Wild. The riverboat Natchez (on which some friends of mine and I had a wonderful evening) makes its appearance, Café du Monde (whose coffee I have enjoyed over the years) is a key location in one scene, descriptions of Jackson Square offer both a tourist and local perspective, and Bourbon Street is demystified in several scenes. New Orleans with its background of piracy and voodoo makes an ideal setting for a power struggle between supernatural entities.
Now, in the classic comedic U form, the trope is that the protagonist is constantly trying to level the metaphorical playing field but keeps finding herself or himself in a bit of metaphorical quicksand. The satisfying part is when those in quicksand are thrown a strong rope. The interventions by outsiders and supporting characters make good sense in Dragons Wild and usually give the protagonist involved (usually Griffen, but at times, his sister Valerie) just enough opportunity to creatively solve a problem themselves. I enjoyed the way Griffen operated in this book. Readers are treated to new discoveries about his and Valerie’s potential as they discover how to avoid going overboard.
The pacing in this novel is perfect. The short chapter format is ideal for the pattern of crisis/revelation/solution that recurs throughout the novel. The characters are terrific as is the culture of the dragons in terms of power-shifting, greed, and ambition. In Dragons Wild, at least, the dragons almost seem to be a symbol of the mafia and, at one point, Griffen makes a decision reminiscent of the young Don Corleone. What can I say? This one works for me!
What do two individuals do when they discover that they aren’t what they seem, that they are potentially a danger to more powerful individuals, and that even those closest to them suggest that they relocate and stay under cover? Then, just when they start to breathe easier, they find out that a legendary bounty hunter is after them and a Homeland Security agent may be keeping tabs on them for a potential mortal enemy? What do they do when they discover that keeping control of their inner selves is harder than they could even have imagined? Well, they deal with it along with a little help from their friends, a bit of fortuity, and several clever improvisations.
The bulk of the story is set in New Orleans. I was mesmerized by the city when I first visited it and some of that enchantment returned to me as I was reading Dragons Wild. The riverboat Natchez (on which some friends of mine and I had a wonderful evening) makes its appearance, Café du Monde (whose coffee I have enjoyed over the years) is a key location in one scene, descriptions of Jackson Square offer both a tourist and local perspective, and Bourbon Street is demystified in several scenes. New Orleans with its background of piracy and voodoo makes an ideal setting for a power struggle between supernatural entities.
Now, in the classic comedic U form, the trope is that the protagonist is constantly trying to level the metaphorical playing field but keeps finding herself or himself in a bit of metaphorical quicksand. The satisfying part is when those in quicksand are thrown a strong rope. The interventions by outsiders and supporting characters make good sense in Dragons Wild and usually give the protagonist involved (usually Griffen, but at times, his sister Valerie) just enough opportunity to creatively solve a problem themselves. I enjoyed the way Griffen operated in this book. Readers are treated to new discoveries about his and Valerie’s potential as they discover how to avoid going overboard.
The pacing in this novel is perfect. The short chapter format is ideal for the pattern of crisis/revelation/solution that recurs throughout the novel. The characters are terrific as is the culture of the dragons in terms of power-shifting, greed, and ambition. In Dragons Wild, at least, the dragons almost seem to be a symbol of the mafia and, at one point, Griffen makes a decision reminiscent of the young Don Corleone. What can I say? This one works for me!
February 11, 2022
This was a quick, fun read. The story balances precariously between serious and comical, and Asprin kept it mostly humorous, which I appreciated. My only serious problem with it was some of the minor characters.
I have a lot of problems with Valerie (the sister), even though I liked her. (I don't really care about Mai and Foxy Lisa.) She's a tough girl who's stunningly beautiful; fine, whatever. But Griffen brings her in on the family secret, only to stop telling her stuff because people keep telling him female dragons are uncontrollable and explosive. We're fed little hints about Valerie's powers and awesome temper, except we only see her get truly angry once, and it fizzles out pretty quickly. That's how it goes with the other female dragons, too. Very disappointing. I expected dynamite and got sparklers.
So poor Valerie was dragged out of school to New Orleans, where her brother's got this brand new job waiting for him. Griffen doesn't forget about her, exactly, but in his defense, he's a busy man. So Valerie's by herself with nothing to do except sight-see. Understandably, she gets bored and looks for a job. (I was disappointed she started looking for a job so late, after pages of her being bored and dissatisfied, but whatever.)
She meets several different guys, all of whom fall in lust with her immediately. Again, whatever. She totally forgets about one after promising to check out his band, sort of dates the second, and the third is used as a lame plot device. I won't spoil with it details, but I saw it coming and wasn't thrilled with how she overcame it. (Clue: Griffen "helped".)
Putting Valerie aside, the rest of the book was pretty good. I enjoyed Phule's Company a lot more, but aside from a few typos, the book was cute and moderately paced. Griffen wasn't the most entertaining character, but I enjoyed seeing him learn the ropes and work out problems himself.
I absolutely loved the descriptions. They weren't overdone, but they still brought this side of New Orleans to life. The minor characters (although not the antagonists) were well done and enjoyable. Overall, it could have been much better, but I'm glad to say I didn't waste two afternoons.
I have a lot of problems with Valerie (the sister), even though I liked her. (I don't really care about Mai and Foxy Lisa.) She's a tough girl who's stunningly beautiful; fine, whatever. But Griffen brings her in on the family secret, only to stop telling her stuff because people keep telling him female dragons are uncontrollable and explosive. We're fed little hints about Valerie's powers and awesome temper, except we only see her get truly angry once, and it fizzles out pretty quickly. That's how it goes with the other female dragons, too. Very disappointing. I expected dynamite and got sparklers.
So poor Valerie was dragged out of school to New Orleans, where her brother's got this brand new job waiting for him. Griffen doesn't forget about her, exactly, but in his defense, he's a busy man. So Valerie's by herself with nothing to do except sight-see. Understandably, she gets bored and looks for a job. (I was disappointed she started looking for a job so late, after pages of her being bored and dissatisfied, but whatever.)
She meets several different guys, all of whom fall in lust with her immediately. Again, whatever. She totally forgets about one after promising to check out his band, sort of dates the second, and the third is used as a lame plot device. I won't spoil with it details, but I saw it coming and wasn't thrilled with how she overcame it. (Clue: Griffen "helped".)
Putting Valerie aside, the rest of the book was pretty good. I enjoyed Phule's Company a lot more, but aside from a few typos, the book was cute and moderately paced. Griffen wasn't the most entertaining character, but I enjoyed seeing him learn the ropes and work out problems himself.
I absolutely loved the descriptions. They weren't overdone, but they still brought this side of New Orleans to life. The minor characters (although not the antagonists) were well done and enjoyable. Overall, it could have been much better, but I'm glad to say I didn't waste two afternoons.
December 3, 2018
I picked this up because I was looking for a light, fun, quick novel at a time I expected to be busy with other more serious things. I had read the Myth series years ago and expected similar lighthearted adventure. Unfortunately, though the premise is interesting and many of the characters had promise, there was far too much time spent going over (and over) the obvious. The story didn't really move. There were things that happened, but they mostly seemed like pointless opportunities to describe New Orleans nightlife, to pontificate about the author's theories on a variety of subjects, and self-indulgent nods to his own cleverness.
While it's good to develop the flavour of the story through glimpses into character and setting, that was nowhere near as subtle as it should have been. It felt like a chore to finish. The entire story could have been told in less than half the pages, and more effectively, with some decent editing and rewriting.
While it's good to develop the flavour of the story through glimpses into character and setting, that was nowhere near as subtle as it should have been. It felt like a chore to finish. The entire story could have been told in less than half the pages, and more effectively, with some decent editing and rewriting.
November 12, 2015
I really enjoyed this series start. I think because I was on a plane ride and it was a fun, easy, at times silly paranormal read. Plus most of it takes place in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Yes! Love that, it feels like I just visited.
Our heroes find out they are dragons. They have to deal with that. Powerful ones, so there are all sorts of folks who want to either recruit, kill, test, join or marry them while they are naive. So it is a bit of a coming of age for these two siblings. Because we are in New Orleans we get a voodoo type character and there is a promise for even more paranormal types to crawl out of the woodwork.
Looking forward to Dragons Luck, which I think I may read soon.
Our heroes find out they are dragons. They have to deal with that. Powerful ones, so there are all sorts of folks who want to either recruit, kill, test, join or marry them while they are naive. So it is a bit of a coming of age for these two siblings. Because we are in New Orleans we get a voodoo type character and there is a promise for even more paranormal types to crawl out of the woodwork.
Looking forward to Dragons Luck, which I think I may read soon.
March 9, 2015
I enjoyed this book. It was not a farce like I am used to from this author. It was an interesting story about a young man who finds out he is a dragon when he graduates college. He is apparently a powerful near pure blood and so everyone wants a piece of him. This book was slow moving and a bit meandering but was somehow riveting all the same. I just had to keep reading to see how he was going to grow into his powers. It was well written as you'd expect from this accomplished author. Lots of interesting secondary characters. Lovely feel for New Orleans where the main portion of the book takes place. There are a couple more in the series and I will be reading them.
January 22, 2009
I read this book immediately after "gods behaving badly" by Marie Phillips. Both books had a new take on old concepts (dragon mythology and Greek gods), but only "Dragon Wilds" succeeded in selling the concept.
While there are strong resemblances to Asprin's "Myth Adventures" series, the protagonist, Griffen McCandles, and his sister Valerie are definitely unique and engaging to read from start to finish. I also loved the backdrop of New Orleans; the city was a palpable character in the book and made me want to go back and visit again.
While there are strong resemblances to Asprin's "Myth Adventures" series, the protagonist, Griffen McCandles, and his sister Valerie are definitely unique and engaging to read from start to finish. I also loved the backdrop of New Orleans; the city was a palpable character in the book and made me want to go back and visit again.
February 4, 2017
While perhaps not the most intriguing story of all times, it's an enjoyable and easy read. The climax comes a bit as a surprise - too much so, it doesn't quite fit with the story and feels like an afterthought.
July 6, 2020
Not Asprin's best but it was still totally fun.
July 26, 2022
I debated between two and three stars for this book, but I'm listening to the audiobook of The Red Sphinx by Alexandre Dumas and this book was way easier to get into and keep reading, so let's say 2.5 stars rounded up because Asprin is not Dumas.
Still....
I read most of the Myth books way back when they were first published and I really liked them. I haven't read much else by Asprin, but I was hoping for something similar. This was a real disappointment. Reaching back in my memory, I recall that there was a fair bit of philosophical discussions between Skeeve and Aahz in the Myth books where Aahz would explain cultural differences or whatever. But there was also action in those books. They would have an end goal, and be trying to reach that goal and there were various encounters and adventures along the way. Standard quest type stuff.
This book was full of the philosophical, but there was no quest. Griffen ends up in New Orleans and wanders from bar to restaurant to bar to restaurant. Perhaps the premise--that he's trying to take over an established gambling organization--just doesn't lead to any action. But even some scenes where there might have been some action, like when one of the secondary characters is stabbed, the scene is basically Griffen stumbles upon the person, they have a conversation, and Griffen walks away. ???
And the women? Seriously, our first encounter with Griffen's sister starts with him seeing her walking away from him on the street and he comments, "I'd know that rump anywhere." This is followed by a disclaimer something along the lines of "I'm not interested in my sister in that way, but even I have to admit she had a magnificent body." Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew. The two women that Griffin has a relationship with are both very peripheral characters who pretty much don't do anything except appear in his bed until right at the end of the book when they contribute a little more to the storeline. It definitely left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
I might seek out the next book in the series simply out of curiousity, but it likely won't be something I look for anytime soon. I have a lot of other books on my TBR and this series did not get off to a compelling start.
Still....
I read most of the Myth books way back when they were first published and I really liked them. I haven't read much else by Asprin, but I was hoping for something similar. This was a real disappointment. Reaching back in my memory, I recall that there was a fair bit of philosophical discussions between Skeeve and Aahz in the Myth books where Aahz would explain cultural differences or whatever. But there was also action in those books. They would have an end goal, and be trying to reach that goal and there were various encounters and adventures along the way. Standard quest type stuff.
This book was full of the philosophical, but there was no quest. Griffen ends up in New Orleans and wanders from bar to restaurant to bar to restaurant. Perhaps the premise--that he's trying to take over an established gambling organization--just doesn't lead to any action. But even some scenes where there might have been some action, like when one of the secondary characters is stabbed, the scene is basically Griffen stumbles upon the person, they have a conversation, and Griffen walks away. ???
And the women? Seriously, our first encounter with Griffen's sister starts with him seeing her walking away from him on the street and he comments, "I'd know that rump anywhere." This is followed by a disclaimer something along the lines of "I'm not interested in my sister in that way, but even I have to admit she had a magnificent body." Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew. The two women that Griffin has a relationship with are both very peripheral characters who pretty much don't do anything except appear in his bed until right at the end of the book when they contribute a little more to the storeline. It definitely left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
I might seek out the next book in the series simply out of curiousity, but it likely won't be something I look for anytime soon. I have a lot of other books on my TBR and this series did not get off to a compelling start.
January 21, 2024
For starters, this book is somewhere between a 6/10 and 7/10 in terms of what it is, but on a 5-star scale I'd either have to round up -- and I don't think this book is good enough for 4 stars -- or down, which is what I chose because I just can't recommend it.
The plot is sort of as described, though there is a little more nuance to it -- and less -- so that this tends to play out sort of like an extended comic book without pictures. And that's kind of why I only sort of liked it. A lot of this book read like it was written for the same audience that would read comic books with characters that were close to caricatures and not a whole lot of depth to them. This is kind of par for the course with Robert Asprin, though some books are better than others (his first Myth Conceptions book, Another Fine Myth, is actually fun to read).
I'm not above mindless reading -- brains do need a break from time to time -- but this particular book struck me as one that never reached it potential because either the author wasn't sure what to do with it or didn't care enough. It's enjoyable but not satisfying (and the second book is worse, which made me give up on the series). If you're looking for a light-hearted, comic books minus pictures type of read along the lines of Piers Anthony, check out Asprin's "Myth Conceptions" series but I can't recommend this one.
The plot is sort of as described, though there is a little more nuance to it -- and less -- so that this tends to play out sort of like an extended comic book without pictures. And that's kind of why I only sort of liked it. A lot of this book read like it was written for the same audience that would read comic books with characters that were close to caricatures and not a whole lot of depth to them. This is kind of par for the course with Robert Asprin, though some books are better than others (his first Myth Conceptions book, Another Fine Myth, is actually fun to read).
I'm not above mindless reading -- brains do need a break from time to time -- but this particular book struck me as one that never reached it potential because either the author wasn't sure what to do with it or didn't care enough. It's enjoyable but not satisfying (and the second book is worse, which made me give up on the series). If you're looking for a light-hearted, comic books minus pictures type of read along the lines of Piers Anthony, check out Asprin's "Myth Conceptions" series but I can't recommend this one.
December 15, 2024
One of the worse books I've read by Asprin. It's very clear from it that he was incredibly passionate about New Orleans, which was the city in which he resided when this book was published. While this makes the description of the city very descriptive, it also means that he bores the reader with every detail possible whenever the opportunity is presented.
At the start of most chapters, it will open with a short description of where the subject of the chapter is. The next paragraph was always dedicated to describing the mundane aspects of the surrounding area, such as street performers or tourists. While this paints a fantastic picture of the locale at the start of the book, it becomes incredibly tedious after the first five times. It got to the point where I would skip the first three paragraphs of each chapter if the first sentence opened with "X was enjoying a morning coffee/lunch/fancy dinner at 123 diner".
It's a shame because the actual subject of the story is quite interesting. The underlying aspects of the main character being a dragon, and the politics that come into play surrounding that is very entertaining. And when there is action happening, Asprin does a great job of describing it and making it entertaining. It's just really too bad that a majority of it is hidden within the fluff and flutter of mundane New Orleans happenings (Mundane when compared to the actual plot of the story).
Definitely wouldn't read it again. But if you're trying to get through all of Asprins books like I am, maybe pad this one between two good books.
At the start of most chapters, it will open with a short description of where the subject of the chapter is. The next paragraph was always dedicated to describing the mundane aspects of the surrounding area, such as street performers or tourists. While this paints a fantastic picture of the locale at the start of the book, it becomes incredibly tedious after the first five times. It got to the point where I would skip the first three paragraphs of each chapter if the first sentence opened with "X was enjoying a morning coffee/lunch/fancy dinner at 123 diner".
It's a shame because the actual subject of the story is quite interesting. The underlying aspects of the main character being a dragon, and the politics that come into play surrounding that is very entertaining. And when there is action happening, Asprin does a great job of describing it and making it entertaining. It's just really too bad that a majority of it is hidden within the fluff and flutter of mundane New Orleans happenings (Mundane when compared to the actual plot of the story).
Definitely wouldn't read it again. But if you're trying to get through all of Asprins books like I am, maybe pad this one between two good books.
July 25, 2025
Griffen McCandles is a lackadaisical college student but a savvy card sharp whose life takes a sharp turn into the impossible to predict when his wealthy uncle informs him that he is and all the family are dragons. Griffen and his sister head to New Orleans, trying to figure out what it means to be a dragon, and to survive the savage competition in the dragon business world!
I'm a big fan of Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth series, and was hoping this would be a similar fantasy/comedy. It's not, but it's still a decent urban fantasy. Unfortunately, it never really gets better than "decent", which I'd call one step above "adequate". The beginning is especially rough, when it should be the strongest part of the book. The bombshell of Griffen being a dragon is dropped on him almost immediately, before the reader even knows who the character originally was. There is some awful dialogue (Griffen admits that his sister is "really hot" though he "had never lusted after her" - awkward!), and an action scene that is superficially exciting, but makes little sense if you actually try to visualize it. The book definitely improves after this, exploring both New Orleans and dragon society. But it's not spectacular writing, and it's hard to get caught up in the story and/or root for Griffen after that lackluster opening.
There's some fun wish-fulfillment and a climax that is both dramatic and also hints at how big and threatening the magical world is outside of what Griffen knows. Still, it's a pale shadow of the iconic Myth series, and I doubt I will bother with any of the sequels.
I'm a big fan of Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth series, and was hoping this would be a similar fantasy/comedy. It's not, but it's still a decent urban fantasy. Unfortunately, it never really gets better than "decent", which I'd call one step above "adequate". The beginning is especially rough, when it should be the strongest part of the book. The bombshell of Griffen being a dragon is dropped on him almost immediately, before the reader even knows who the character originally was. There is some awful dialogue (Griffen admits that his sister is "really hot" though he "had never lusted after her" - awkward!), and an action scene that is superficially exciting, but makes little sense if you actually try to visualize it. The book definitely improves after this, exploring both New Orleans and dragon society. But it's not spectacular writing, and it's hard to get caught up in the story and/or root for Griffen after that lackluster opening.
There's some fun wish-fulfillment and a climax that is both dramatic and also hints at how big and threatening the magical world is outside of what Griffen knows. Still, it's a pale shadow of the iconic Myth series, and I doubt I will bother with any of the sequels.
August 29, 2018
Man I tried hard not to be subjective with this one, I was under the assumption that I would love anything that Robert Asprin put his name on, however it was not to be in this case. Will I continue with this series however, very likely.
Some good notes, the premise, characters and pacing of the story were very enjoyable. I had no trouble getting through the book.
Onto the bad notes, sorry Robert but no one converses and dialogues with each other the way these characters do. For a person who has been reading YA for years including Rick Riordan, I still found this novel overly cheesy in the dialogue. Surely it’s not a big deal though right? Wrong.
This book was ok enough to keep me going but really only for fodder until I pick the next book.
Some good notes, the premise, characters and pacing of the story were very enjoyable. I had no trouble getting through the book.
Onto the bad notes, sorry Robert but no one converses and dialogues with each other the way these characters do. For a person who has been reading YA for years including Rick Riordan, I still found this novel overly cheesy in the dialogue. Surely it’s not a big deal though right? Wrong.
This book was ok enough to keep me going but really only for fodder until I pick the next book.
January 14, 2020
Asprin has been part of my reading rotation for as long as I can remember, though it's been quite a few years since the last summons.
This book seemed a bit more traditional than what I remember from him, not so many jokes, but easily four stars for readability.
I might forget the characters and plot in time; this used dragons and shapeshifting and poker as detailing for a city. Welcome to New Orleans. There's a bit of a tourist trade in literature. Places you learn by sight without ever setting foot in them, and the next author who comes along need only drop a few lines to set the stage.
One more pin on the map. Not a place I ever considered visiting, but it was a highly enjoyable detour.
This book seemed a bit more traditional than what I remember from him, not so many jokes, but easily four stars for readability.
I might forget the characters and plot in time; this used dragons and shapeshifting and poker as detailing for a city. Welcome to New Orleans. There's a bit of a tourist trade in literature. Places you learn by sight without ever setting foot in them, and the next author who comes along need only drop a few lines to set the stage.
One more pin on the map. Not a place I ever considered visiting, but it was a highly enjoyable detour.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews