Dragon Time

by Ruth Nestvold

In Unterdrachenberg, time has stopped. After the death of his queen, the dragon king is mad with grief. Only a human woman can enter the dragon's lair to fix time -- a magic that is forbidden to women.

Katja is the grand-daughter of a clockmaker, and she has watched her grandfather work with time for many years. But can she fix it on her own? More importantly, is she brave enough to try?



If you liked this story, check out my collection, "Dragons and Princes and Witches, Oh My!"


Praise for "Dragon Time":

"'Dragon Time' is a beautifully told tale. It's easy to feel empathy for Katja; she has just enough flaws that we can love her, and not so many that we lose respect for her. The play of plot and emotion was especially lovely; the ending satisfies completely, and the love in the story positively shines. While the story has ancient treaties, magician-clockmakers, and, of course, dragons-everything needed for a good fantasy story-it's the love that stands out the most. It's a story I'll go back to time and time again-pun intended."
- Keesa Renee DuPre at Tangent Online


"In 'Dragon Time,' Ruth Nestvold looks at a world years after Siegfried failed to defeat Fafnir.... Nestvold's story is interesting and she creates an nicely realized Medieval German village based on the legends of the Nibelungenlied."
- Steven H Silver at SF Site

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons

ebook

First published March 5, 2011

About the author

Ruth Nestvold has published widely in science fiction and fantasy, her fiction appearing in such markets as Asimov’s, F&SF, Baen’s Universe, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella “Looking Through Lace” won the “Premio Italia” award for best international work. Since 2012, she’s been concentrating her efforts on self-publishing rather than traditional publishing, although she does still occasionally sell a story the old-fashioned way. She maintains a web site at http://www.ruthnestvold.com and blogs at https://ruthnestvold.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[MrsJoseph *grouchy* · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bookslifewine.com/r-dragon-time/

3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars

Note: Dragon Time is only available as a standalone from Smashwords. Amazon (and other e-bookstores) sells an anthology of Ms Nestvold's short stories that includes Dragon Time.

I received this free copy of Dragon Time via Smashwords in March 2011, qualifying it for my 2016 The Mt. TBR Struggle is Real challenge. Dragon Time has been on Mt. TBR for 5 years, 2 months.


Dragon Time starts as a rather lovely tale. In Dragon Time, the dragons are shifters but they mostly avoid humans, especially males, but mate and have children with human females.

The story opens with the heroine, Katja, realizing that all the clocks in her home have stopped. Katja is the granddaughter of a clocksmith who would love to follow in her grandfather's footsteps but cannot. Women are not allowed to be clocksmiths in her county.

Katja discovers that time has stopped and that it is related to the death of the Queen of Dragons. As the only woman around who has any familiarity with clocks, Katja must overcome her slight fear of dragons as well as the established glass ceiling in order to repair the World Clock.

I really enjoyed this short story...until I got to the ending. The ending was a quick wrap up with a tacked on romance that felt rushed and/or that the author was just done with the story and slapped on an ending. I did a quick check to see if Ms Nestvold has any full length books set in this universe but did not see any.

All in all, a quick read that is mostly enjoyable.

[Laura May · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. Not good, not bad, just fine. There were some really interesting ideas, but they weren't necessarily well-executed. It's like the author normally writes novels and decided to try short stories, or the opposite: so there's too much depth for a short story and not enough length to tie things up properly. All the same, it entertained me for the past day or so on the commute, so... Yup, I don't even have a word to follow that 'so'. Like I said, it was fine.

[Bill Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great short story with well defined goals and characters. A delightful short read from Smashwords.

[Tania Arpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. The stories are funny and smart, and brought you to unexpected places.