The Dragon and the George

Dragon Knight #1

by Gordon R. Dickson

Jim Eckert was a dragon. He hadn't planned it that way, but that's what happened when he set out to rescue his betrothed. Following her through an erratic astral-projection machine, Jim suddenly found himself in a cockeyed world - locked in the body of a talking dragon named Gorbash.
That wouldn't have been so bad if his beloved Angie were also a dragon. But in this magical land, that was not the case. Angie had somehow remained a very female human - or a george, as the dragons called any human. And Jim, no matter what anyone called him, was a dragon.
To make matters worse, Angie had been taken prisoner by an evil dragon and was held captive in the impenetrable Loathly Tower. So in this land where georges were edible and beasts were magical - where spells worked and logic didn't - Jim Eckert had a problem.
And he needed help, by george!

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Fiction, Humor, Science Fiction, Adventure, Science Fiction Fantasy

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.

Reviews

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a moment he felt a sort of desperate hunger for the kind of life that had existed in the European Middle Ages of his medievalist studies. A time in which problems took the shapes of flesh-and-blood opponents, instead of impalpable situations arising out of academic cloak-and-dagger politics.

Jim is young and bright university graduate, planning to get married to his girlfriend Angie, but they struggle with poor paid jobs and backstabbing from the entrenched older teachers. He gets his wish as an experiment with "astral projection: setting the spirit free to wonder outside the body" goes wrong and Angie is transported to a different dimension. Angered, Jim forces the reckless research professor responsible for the experiment to send him in pursuit of his loved one, but a slight mishap waits for him on arrival: he wakes up in the body of a dragon named Gorbash. Part of the attraction of novel resides in looking at a brand new world through the eyes of a powerful dragon, learning to fly, making friends, having adventures. But there's more to it than escapist good time.

Portal fantasy has been a popular flavour of the genre for a long time. Gordon R Dickson merit is to use it both ironically / subversively, poking fun at some of the stereotypes of heroic quests, and seriously / philosophically - examining the nature of evil, personal responsibility and tolerance towards different people, opinions or cultures. What starts as a vacation from his Earth troubles for Jim, ends up with him taking a stand in the unending struggle between light and darkness - an overused cliche in fantasy, but reflective of our need for a moral compass and for a cause to fight for in life.

Imagine a teeter-totter, Chance sitting on one end, History on the other, swinging back and forth - Chance up one moment, then Chance down and History up. The Dark Powers love that. Thy throw their weight at the right moment on a side that's already headed down, and either Chance or History ends permanently up. One way we get Chaos. The other we get Predictability and an end to Romance, Art, Magic and everything else interesting.

So says Carolinus, the Archmage of the story, a riff on the standard wizard figure set by Tolkien with Gandalf, with a bit of Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future thrown in. Carolinus is both a joke and the greatest hope of Jim for recovering his girlfriend, cranky as cranky can get and distracted by a whole world acting wacky:

Dragons galumphing hither and yon - knights galumphing yon and hither - naturals, giants, ogres, sandmirks and other sports and freaks each doing their billy-be-exorcised best to terrorize his own little part of the landscape. Every jackanapes and teaching assistant in his blindness setting himself up to be equal of a Master of the Arts. It's not endurable!

As any fan of fantasy epics has come to expect, Jim will be sent to gather a fellowship to help in the ultimate battle against the Dark Forces. His gathering of companions offers Dickson ample opportunity to have a great time playing with staple characters:
- Brian Neville-Smith, a knight of the lesser branch of the Neville family, lantern jawed, blue eyed and with long yellow tresses, riding on his faithful white steed in search of fame and fortune;
- Aragh, the fierce and faithfull sidekick for Jim / Gorbash, a talking English wolf, which everybody knows are the proudest, most courageous wolves of the world
- Danielle - a maid who instead of being in distress can take care of herself quite well with bow and arrows and induces distress in Jim with her designs on marrying him.
- Dafydd, a boastful Welsh longbowman who could give Robin Hood a run for his money in any contest.
- speaking of which, we also get to meet Giles-of-the-Wold and his merry band of outlaws, father of Danielle and a useful man to have beside you in case you need to assault a fortified castle or set a trap in the middle of a marsh.

The fellowship is completed with a couple of talking dragons: Smrgol, the elderly uncle of Gorbash, always reminiscing of his glory days fighting ogres, and Secoh, a small sized, cowardly and self effacing chance encounter.

I will not say much about the plot or the finale, other than that it is much better structured than I expected from a comedy fare, and that it leaves the door open for the next volumes in the series:

It's a complex situation, derivative from a great many factors, unobvious as well as obvious. Just as in any concatenation of events, no matter how immediate, the apparent is not always the real.

I hope I wet your appetite enough if you are in the mood for a fun adventure in a fantasy themed park. I know I will put the rest of the Dragon books by Gordon R. Dickson on my wishlist.

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to find a pristine copy of Peter Dickinson’s “The Flight of Dragons” in a tiny used bookstore in Ottawa: the book brought back a ton of childhood memories, as it was one of the inspirations for a gorgeous animated movie, made by the same people who made “The Last Unicorn”. And let me tell you: I watched those two movies (on VHS, of course) so much when I was a kid that I can still quote most of the dialogues from memory. While the so-called “science” parts of the movie were based upon Dickinson’s book, the actual tale of a professor turned into a dragon was (loosely) based on this relatively unknown fantasy novel, “The Dragon and the George”.

Jim was a teaching assistant at a small Minnesota college, and while his life might not have been simple, he was happy playing volleyball, studying medieval history and making life plans with his girlfriend Angie. But when Angie is accidentally transported to a strange land via an astral projection experiment gone awry, everything changes. He insists on submitting himself to the same experiment in order to rescue her but somehow ends up projecting his consciousness inside the body of a young dragon named Gorbash. He is unable to prevent Angie from getting kidnapped by an evil dragon name Bryagh, and quickly realizes that according to the Laws of this strange world he is now in, Jim/Gorbash must enlist some companions with whom to rescue his girlfriend.

Some elements are hopelessly dated (the book was originally published in 1976, hence the astral projection and hairspray), but I was a bit surprised to see that some of the problems Jim and Angie struggle with in the “real world” are still issues we have to deal with now. The tenuous economic situation of working in academia but not being a tenured professor, for instance, has unfortunately not evolved all that much since the 70s – if anything, it’s gotten much, much worse! It’s also nice to see Jim lose a few illusions about the Medieval period along his way: that time period is very romanticised but there were plenty of unpleasant things to deal with back then as well, fleas being only a minor one.

Since Mark Twain, a lot of people have used the “modern man goes back in time and dazzles backwards Middle Age folks with science” premise, with varying levels of success. Dickson obviously thought the idea was hilarious, and you can tell he’s having a lot of fun comparing the complications of modern life with the incomprehensible intricacies of his fantasy land. The book also takes a poke at the standard epic fantasy tropes: the portal to another world, the wise old wizard, the dashing knight in shining armor, the maiden in distress, the motley group of companions going on a heroic quest… I am personally so over all those clichés, so I really appreciate someone making fun of them. I love the image of a dragon climbing up a small tree to avoid fighting a knight, of a wizard who can send someone in another dimension but has no idea how to cure an ulcer, the noble knight who can’t sway from the chivalrous code of conduct imposed on him even when it makes zero practical sense…

But as much fun as this book can be, it never managed to quite outshine the movie, which is a lot less cheesy and a surprisingly intelligent reflection on balance. The die-hard “The Flight of Dragons” fans ought to check it out, but don’t expect it to be as good as your childhood favorite. The writing is enjoyable, but the prose is not especially impressive and the plot is a little all over the place. For someone in love with the lady he must rescue, Jim gets very easily distracted in his quest… That said, I adore Carolinus in the book, who is basically a grouchy Gandalf who chews his beard and basically wishes people would just leave him alone.

For those who have never had the pleasure of watching the movie, here’s a little taste: https://www.tor.com/2016/10/12/the-fl...

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dragon/George fierce and big as a house who will jump up on a tree to avoid fighting with a knight in shining armour. (I kid you not my friends - he jumps and stays perched up on a tree!!!)

A huge and fearsome English wolf who will purr like a kitten when a beautiful maiden scratches him between his ears.

A powerful wizard with a bad case of stomach ulcer, mere dragons and outlaws and let us not forget not one but two ladies in bad need of rescue.

Add in a few harpies and other evil creatures as well as a fight to right the cosmic balance and there you go: The perfect recipe for a funny light read to help you wind down at the end of a long day.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure fun...rather unorthodox and original when it showed up. I read this and several of the sequels. Not the regular hero slays dragon story as the hero IS the dragon. Humorous/adventure.

Jim Eckert finds himself in one of the most spectacularly frustrating and weird situations that has been imagined in the worlds of fantasy. In a quest to rescue his girl friend who's been "aported" to another world (apparently "aported" there by a crazy professor who can't get her back, but offers to send Jim after her) Jim finds himself in the body of a dragon. In a world of powerful wizards, jousting knights in armor Jim is a dragon and "of course" Angie his girl is still human. AND they can't get home... from there, things go down hill.

Good book, enjoy.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's an odd duck for you. Or rather, an odd Dragon. Or rather, an odd Knight.

Yes, it's a DRAGON that happens to be a chivalrous KNIGHT. Or rather, he would be if he wasn't really the mind of a regular English godfearing chap that got slipped into the body of an actual dragon, living in the times of Chivalry, where men were real men and women gave handkerchiefs and needed saving.

I think the idea is splendid. Especially if you WANT this kind of thing. But tales of Chivalry are kinda done these days. That doesn't mean that the book isn't fun. In this specific way, it is very well done and if you manage your expectations, it's pretty much perfect.

Me, I think it's fine. Nothing too special but it IS a bit quirky and cute.

[Warren Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that you're going to cherish your whole life, or you're just not going to get it. As the title suggests, this is not pure sword and sorcery. This is a sarcastic comedy that uses fantasy tropes to create a dilemma for the main character, who learns a lot about himself in the process. There also are some science fiction elements involved as well, which is classic Gordon Dickson. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams, James Branch Cabell, or Terry Pratchett, this will likely be for you.

My only complaint is that I find the gag tends to wear out its welcome toward the end of the book. This is strange considering the novel is not long at all. And now I find out, after all these years since I first read this, that this book had sequels. So it looks like I've got more to add to my queue, but I'm a little concerned that my attention span will be even more taxed if the follow-up is more of the same.

My point is that comedic fantasy allegories are certainly my kind of thing, but they have a tendency to wear the jokes too thin, which I feel this one borders on that towards the end.

But overall, this is a touching, cute, and cheerful analysis of personality and friendships that will likely delight the nerd-at-heart as well as challenge your ability to correctly pronounce Welsh names.

[Ieva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tāds samērā jautrs klasisks fantāzijas piedzīvojums.
Galvenais varonis attopas sev svešā, mazliet Anglijas viduslaikiem līdzīgā pasaulē (šoreiz arī sev svešā - pūķa - ķermenī) un dodas lielajā piedzīvojumā, lai galā cīnītos ar Lielo Ļaunumu, un pa ceļam savācot diezgan impozantu cīņubiedru bariņu, un, protams, visu šo padarīšanu vada burvis.
Nekāda dziļā literatūra, bet kā izklaidei tiešām nav ne vainas.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I had severe issues with the blandness of many characters, the short-changing of the action scenes and the relatively inconsequential plot. I also admit my bias to having adored "Flight of Dragons" as a child, and this book pretty much only shares character names and the idea of a man transported into a dragon's body. I prefer the movie characters, though some of them are more fleshed out in this version. I just don't like how they are fleshed out. I don't find any particularly interesting, with maybe he exception of the wolf. He grew on me, possibly by virtue of being a wolf. But yes, the main character was horribly dull and a shadow of the movie's Peter. I really couldn't sympathize with him and he had few things to really draw you to him. Maybe he improves in the other books, but I won't be reading those. I also found the world relatively sparse. I guess overall I just wasn't fond of the coarseness of most of the characters and the story itself. There was nothing special about this book at all, though I will admit the descriptions were well done but nothing you wouldn't find in any other better-written fantasy.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely perfect Fantasy novel. A timeless classic. Light-hearted and very fast paced. It belongs on every Fantasy fan's reading list.

[Pseudonymous d'Elder · Rating 4 out of 5]

__________________________
“Be kind to dragons, for thou art crunchy when toasted and taste good with ketchup.” ―― Sherrilyn Kenyon

In the 1880s, while writing Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain invented a new literary genre in which a modern man is mysteriously transported back in time and has adventures. There have been myriad imitators in the 140 or so years since Yankee appeared, but few as worthy as The Dragon and the George.

As The Dragon and the George opens, Jim Eckert is having a bad week. First he finds out that he isn't getting the teaching position he was counting on at a Minnesota college, and then his fiancé is transported back in time in an astral plane accident (well, you know how dangerous those astral planes are, what with the protoplasmic foam problem and the backups at O'Dharma Field). Then when Jim is sent back to rescue her, his mind gets stuck in the body of a dragon and he finds out that his fiancé is being held hostage in the Tower by the evil Dark Powers (Note: I didn't say the Dark Powers were all members of the U.S. House of Representatives; I just said they were evil) . He then had to join together with a fiscally conservative magician, a big bad wolf, a cowardly dragon, a knight, a Robin Hood wannabe, and others to rescue the fair maiden, defeat evil, and save the world. Life just ain't easy.

★★★★ The Dragon and the George is an interesting, light-hearted adventure. Is it funny? Hey, it slayed me.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book almost 40 years ago. It was one of my first fantasy reads, and I loved it! I recently ran across it and 5 or 6 more that Dickson had written in the series. I had not read any but the first and decided to refresh my memory and re-read it. Like many memories from our youth, it wasn't quite as good as I remembered, however, I did enjoy it enough to want to read more in the series and see what happened to the characters. The writing is a bit dated and the story is simpler than most of the fantasy written today. You don't have to learn a new language to follow the action, and there are not so many characters that you need a listing at the front of the book to keep track of them (these are both appealing traits to me, as I don't like to work that hard when I am reading for enjoyment). It is a good story and fun to read. If it was written today, it would probably fall into the "youth fantasy" genre. I wont get into the details of the story, but suffice to say there are dragons, and ogres, and knights, and magicians; enjoy!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite movies when I was growing up was "The Flight of Dragons". Many years later, I was in a thrift store and saw this book and on discovering that the movie was loosely based on it I decided to buy it.

For those who have watched the movie you should be aware that it is VERY loosely based on the book. The basic concept of a 20th century man being sent back to a historic fantasy world and trapped in a dragons body is there and the characters from the movie are in the book too, but the story itself is completely different.

The story is excellent and the characters are realistic. The people talk and act as they would in a historic way as opposed to a fantasy world. There are also a huge amount of original elements to the book, the way the magic system works is wonderful.

I was only part way through this book before I returned to the same thrift store to buy several more books in the series.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a collection of cliches and poorly drawn characters. I want to believe that the book was bad because the author was writing for a genre that was not particularly well defined at the time, but it's very difficult to believe that in light of his contemporaries. In addition, the ending just falls apart with "final bosses" that have absolutely no significance. This book is a fantasy genre equivalent of the anime "Record of the Lodoss War", thankfully without the added torture of poor voice acting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10
It was an enjoyable read for the most part but the characters were pretty lame, the plot was predictable, there was a lot of Deus Ex Machina and some casual, obnoxious, pointless sexism that almost made me quit the book. You could blame it on the times but if the wolf is more well rounded and respected than the master archer lady then fuck off.

[Melissa Koser · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is OK, I guess, if you're a teenager who hasn't read much fantasy. Otherwise, it's pretty boring.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and stumbled across it again in audio format and decided to give it another read. I had very good (but limited) memories of the novel. A guy gets stuck in a dragon’s body when he tries to follow his fiancé through a science experiment gone bad. After that, it’s pretty much a fantasy adventure with some scientific understanding thrown in.

Second time around, I still enjoyed it. It’s a pretty good adventure story which, forty years ago, would have felt fresher than it does today. There are a number of good characters and a decent problem to be resolved. I may give the sequels a chance.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up with the cartoon, FLIGHT OF DRAGONS, which was based on this, and read the book about six years ago. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Fun to see what was different, and what was the same. And it's overall a great book, as Our Hero deals with a) being trapped in a "fantasy" world and b) being trapped in the body of a dragon. A must for fantasy fans!

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book 12 years ago. This summer, my siblings and I decided to read it together. So I did, and reviewed it. Then I rediscovered my first review! They're very similar, which goes a long way toward my classification as a broken record. Here are both:

[2005] I've wanted to read this novel ever since I found out that it was the inspiration for the animated movie Flight of Dragons---you know, the one with James Eckert, the contemporary academic who finds himself trapped in a mystical age in the body of a dragon named Gorbash, who teams up with another dragon named Smrgol, a wolf named Aragh, a knight named Sir Brian Neville-Smythe, a wizard named Carolinus, and an Amazon archeress named Danielle to rescue his fiancee Angela from the Dark Powers.

And that's about where the movie departs from the book.

While the movie was co-inspired both by Wayne Anderson's illustrations and Peter Dickinson's meticulously researched non-fiction monograph The Flight of Dragons, this novel sports "only" a Boris Vallejo cover and skimps on dragon mechanics. Too bad. I'd have sought the hardcover if Mr. Anderson had illustrated the novel; his curvaceous, shiny-smooth, preposterously proportioned, claw-encrusted, impossibly sinuous dragons, which I first spied as a youth in a review of Dickinson in Smithsonian magazine, have inspired a lifetime of drawings of dragons in Anderson's style.

The novel's plot is quite different from what I remember of the movie. There are no other wizards---not even an evil wizard to act as foil for Carolinus. There are only an assortment of beasties and men who align themselves with the formless Dark Powers, including the dragon Bryagh, the insanity-spawning sandmirks, and an Ogre who might have been lifted straight from a Tolkien cave troll. The bulk of the novel is taken up by a side quest to Sir Brian's lady's castle, something completely left out of the movie, but which serves the same vehicle for the prerequisite gathering of "Sir" James' Companions.

Although the novel suffers from some weaknesses, such as a lackluster ending only an SCA member would love, and indistinguishable female characters (Danielle and Angela are so strong-willed and adept at the subtle art of male coercion that I wondered if Angela had actually gotten herself trapped in Danielle's form instead of arriving in her own skin), there are some inspired moments, such as Danielle's delusions of Jim's grandeur and Sir Brian's iconoclastic baseness. Also, Aragh the wolf is truly a joy to read as the only consistently noble character, and Carolinus' frequent conversations with the omniscient Auditing Department had me laughing. Dickson also has an impressive, encyclopedic knowledge of medieval armor!

All in all, it's good solid fantasy with a modern twist, and a piece of my childhood. Three out of five sandmirks.

[2017]For the first time in a while, I had to force myself to finish a book. This novel is definitely not in the class of The Last Unicorn [the previous summer's sibling read!]. But still, it's a piece of my childhood, so I saw it through to the end.

**** Achtung! Below be spoilers! ****

One thing that kept breaking immersion for me was Jim's frequent forgetting to stay on target. Admittedly, Dickson addresses this in the very last chapter, and tries to explain some of Jim's decisions via Angela's being in his head, but at this point, this attempted justification seems a little too little, a little too late. Indeed, the plot gets so lost in side quests that the much-anticipated final assault on Loathly Castle is almost an afterthought. The fearsome Dark Powers are a no-show.

Other quibbles: the story fails the Bechdel test miserably. The female characters rarely stray from talking about men, and they never talk to each other. Even though Angela, Geronde and Danielle are strong-willed and possess the canny ability to bend the thoughts and decisions of the men under their sway, they are more or less undistinguishable. So much more could have been done with Danielle's archery (indeed the movie merges Dafydd into Danielle's character), or Geronde's taste for revenge, or Angela's ABD-smarts. It's a book of its times, being an expanded version of Dickson's novella, published in the September 1957 issue of S&SF.

Nevertheless, The Dragon and the George has its moments. Following are a few specific thoughts I jotted down for each character.

Jim"But I'm not a dragon!" Eckert has shades of bravery, but most of it is of a foolhardy nature. He is not a very consistent character. On the one hand, he is smart enough to think on his claws ("Of course if I'd known your social security number....") and invent dragon sonar, but he makes several bad decisions (going after Sir Hugh, abandoning the party) for ill-defined reasons. And for being engaged to Angela, he's not all that concerned with rescuing her for most of the book. Dickson spends a lot of time inside Jim's head, but his reasoning is muddy. We're supposed to pity Jim for his huge inferiority complex, revealed during his soul-searching solo trip. But I didn't buy it. I identified more with Smrgol than with Jim, natch.

S. "By the Powers!" Carolinus embodies the constantly hassled wizard archetype with flair. I love how we never find out what the S stands for, how he gnaws on his Gandalfesque beard, how he banters with the Auditing Department. And I love how Carolinus is a mathemagician, for he knows about "aleph tables", which (unlike other wizards?) he doesn't use to cheat the Auditing Department: "Just because a number is transfinite doesn't mean you can use it to get something for nothing!" His explanation for Chance v. History being thrown off-balance by the Dark Powers is a bit forced. The movie takes the easier route (if more tropey) of magic v. science. Favorite quote: "Now where did a dragon acquire the brains to develop the imagination to entertain the illusion that he is not a dragon?"

Sir Brian "Damme if I" Neville-Smythe never introduces himself to Sir James. Dickson has Jim pull the name Brian out of thin air (p.75)! D'oh! Though he has some moments, the crusader knight (his warhorse Blanchard hails from Tours, his religion is Catholic) is mostly cut from medieval chivalrous cloth, save some notable exceptions: his hands are "quite familiar" with his Lady Geronde. (In fact, Jim admits as much with respect to Angela when Carolinus inquires if she is a maiden!) I did like the archaic way he talks, though. Favorite quote: "Perhaps we ought to have a go on behalf of our respective ladies while we have the chance...." Always keeping up appearances, that Sir Brian.

Aragh "I'm an English wolf!" the grumpy talking canine is one of the most original characters, squarely lawful neutral. He functions somewhat as a moral compass for both Jim and Gorbash. Dickson offers no explanation for why wolves like Aragh talk, unlike other creatures such as horses and badgers. It's a recurring joke that he is always present but out of sight, appearing just when you need him, with his trademark growl. Yet with all his gruff nature, Aragh sure melts around Danielle. That is a nice touch. Favorite quote: "Never count an English wolf dead until you see his bones well bleached by the sun."

Danielle "That's what the enchantment makes you think" the archer has so much unexplored potential as a character: Amazonian, deluded, resourceful, single-minded, loyal, tender, fiercely independent and determined. Aside from a handful of scenes with Jim, Dafydd and her father Giles of the Wold, her potential is wasted. She serves purely as eye candy. And exactly how can she make someone a knight if Giles has lost his title? Favorite quote: "No one makes me stay---or go---or anything else. In this hap, I'm going."

Dafydd "[blah, blah], look you" ap Hywel is the Companion most made of cardboard. He exists mostly to draw Danielle's attentions away from Sir James, and to shoot arrows in bad guys and harpies with his impossibly large pecs and Welsh longbow. And then to complain about not shooting better afterwards. Favorite quote: "There is no such thing as an impossible, but only a thing the doing of which has not yet been learned."

And the best for last, Smrgol "By my tail and wings!" the elderly dragon. My love for the avuncular drake and his dry humor is only surpassed by his own love and loyalty toward the not-so-brainy Gorbash. (Jim/Gorbash: "Smrgol, I've been thinking---" Smrgol: "Good boy!") I teared up reading his last words to Gorbash before Loathly Tower. My only beef is that mere-drac Secoh is the only one who mourns Smrgol: not Jim, not even Gorbash. The party just leaves Smrgol's jaws clamped around Bryagh's neck, leaves his leathery wings and bones to rot on the causeway! For shame! Fave quote: "Remember that you are a descendant of Ortosh and Agtval, and of Gleingul who slew the sea serpent on the tide banks of the Gray Sands. And be, therefore, valiant."

3 out of 5 flasks of demon-placating milk. Needless to say, I won't be reading the subsequent nine books in the decalogy!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dickson, Gordon R. The Dragon and the George. 1976. Preface by David Drake. Dragon Knight No. 1. Start, 2013.
I can scarcely believe that it has been two decades since Gordon R. Dickson died. I somehow keep expecting another Dorsai or Hoka story to appear any day now. Dickson had a dry wit that one does not usually find in writers of adventure fantasy and military science fiction. But The Dragon and the George, the first novel in the Dragon Knight series, has it aplenty. Consider its premise: Jim, a struggling teaching assistant in the English department of a small Minnesota college, has to try to rescue his fiancé Angela when an astral projection experiment in the psychology lab where she works runs amok and teleports her who knows where. He straps himself into the machine and soon finds his consciousness inhabiting the body of a large dragon in a cave where Angela is being held by other dragons. So, Jim is a dragon and Angela is a George because to dragons all human beings are Georges. Let the adventure begin. Not only is there more wit than one expects but stronger character development. In his heroic quest to free Angela, Jim finds that he and the dragon have similar character flaws, including anger management issues. I enjoyed reading this one again.

[Stephen Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1976 and despite its looney premise, it was quite good. The female characters were not problematic as often the case in book written in that era, so good on Gordon!! I brought this book on the cover alone, drawn by the great Boris Vallejo. The plot, once you got past the first part, moved along nicely and the characters interactions are great. Drags in few spots here and there, but far more highlights than duds.

[Teri-K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical light 1970s fantasy, this was a fun story that managed to not be too sexist (or racist at all). The MC starts off kind of boring, but he collects fun and likable companions, and learns a few things along the way. I may have read this when it first came out, but don't remember it, and had a good time with it. 4 stars because it's just a quick, short read, but sometimes that's just what I want.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dickson's "modern man goes medieval" fantasy novel is enjoyable and easy to read, if a little silly in places and very much of the fantasy literature of its time, i.e. Dungeons and Dragons by way of Mark Twain goofiness and Conan The Barbarian world-building. The characters are fun and the premise is charming, but the story often veers away from what's really interesting and loses focus both when it attempts to explain its own messy internal logic and when it tries to humanize its medieval entourage through rather cliche modern juxtapositions (though there is a bit with Sir Brian, the native knight, learning about Social Security codes from James, the time traveling hero, that is genuinely laugh out loud funny). Emotions are not exactly given much stage time either, though all the female characters exist to be objects of desire (to Dickson's credit, he gives all of them brains, if not very much to actually do), and so the content never rises much beyond basic entertainment, but all said and done it's still better than the average Piers Anthony novel, so if you're looking for a snack in armor- this book's got your name on it.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Technically I did not even finish this book. Usually I love books with Dragons and mystical creatures but I really struggled with the way this book was written. It lacked detail and substance. My friend told me once that life is to short and there are way to many good books to read so why waste your time on the ones that you don't like. I usually bust through them anyway but this time I listened and moved on, and I'm not feeling like I missed out on much. When you can read the last chapter and catch up on everything from the middle, I don't feel to bad.

[Sicofonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, I fall into the 99% of people who knew this book because they have fond memories of "The flight of dragons" movie. That tells you quite a lot, because the book is known by the movie rather than by its own merits. The book is quite boring a predictable, and the reason I read it fully was to be kind of morally entitled to type these lines to tell everyone to AVOID READING THIS BOOK. Seriously, unless you are a hardcore fantasy fan... don't read this.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read perhaps all of these books back in high school, and from that era, they're the only genre series I've actually come back to and still liked.

Not that there aren't issues: there are plenty.

But that's why I've just added a guilty-pleasures shelf, because it's far too late for me to actually come up with reasons why I like them so much. I'll have to come back to it later (maybe after I check out the second book, tomorrow).

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ronnie James Dio recommended this book, and for the first time he let me down. This book is tedious and predictable, too much telling, not enough showing. It has moments but it wasn't long before I found myself skimming through just trying to get it over with. The first sentence of each paragraph was about all I needed.

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

La mole e forma del volume non sembra dare indicazioni di questo tipo, “Il Cavaliere Drago” di Gordon R. Dickson è stato per me la risposta perfetta al fantasy estivo: divertente, intrigante e immersivo.

Approcciando grazie a OscarVault “Il Drago e il Giorgio” nella mia solita ignoranza sapevo soltanto che abbiamo un uomo nel corpo di un drago e dovrebbe essere un fantasy con venature comiche. Poco ? Non posso darvi torto, tuttavia ecco il commento al primo romanzo da una profana con il puro ed unico desiderio di leggere qualcosa capace di intrattenermi.

Siamo davanti ad un portal fantasy: un uomo moderno (degli anni 70) viene sbalzato in un classico universo fantasy grazie a un esperimento universitario che, prima di lui, ha mandato laggiù la sua fidanzata. Qualcosa però va storto perchè il nostro Jim non arriva laggiù come “giorgio” qual è (ovvero umano) ma viene infilato dentro lo squamoso drago Gorbash e da lì partirà un’avventura per ritrovare la propria amata.

Gli elementi del fantasy classico ci sono tutti: draghi, valorosi cavalieri, dame da salvare, fuorilegge, damigelle combattenti, un mago che parla per enigmi e una palude malvagia con una torre delle potenze malefiche. Fin qui tutto nella norma, ciò che lo rende frizzante è allora la prospettiva da cui questi elementi vengono visualizzati: un uomo moderno dentro il corpo di un drago che deve fare il drago e al contempo il cavaliere.

Jim deve imparare cosa voglia dire essere un drago, cosa significhi volare, mangiare, combattere come un rettile alato e allo stesso tempo muoversi in questo universo medievaleggiante e magico per lui che, come noi, ha una mentalità e un sistema di valori completamente diverso. Le scenette comiche si sprecano: dalla carne cattiva alle ali per aver volato troppo al tentativo di dare spiegazioni per aver detto a un cavaliere “Numero di previdenza sociale”, dal giustificare l’essere un essere umano nel corpo di un drago (palesemente una maledizione, si sì) al credere che tutti gli animali parlano e venire guardato male perchè ha tentato di chiedere indicazioni a un povero tasso.

Jim compie il suo viaggio dell’eroe con lo scopo di tornare al proprio punto di partenza, eppure, come nel più classico dei racconti fantastici, questo più che un percorso spaziale è un cammino all’interno di lui stesso alla scoperta del proprio vero io.

Ho riso tantissimo, ho partecipato ai pensieri e ai dolori di Jim e ho apprezzato come l’autore, seppur nell’impianto della commedia, abbia voluto riflettere e immedesimarsi davvero in cosa potesse voler dire essere un drago. Questo libro è stato una scoperta, una vera fiaba che mi ha fatto viaggiare con la fantasia e nel mio essere adulta ritrovare quella gioia infantile di fronte a un racconto di draghi, maghi e cavalieri.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Jim Eckert was a dragon."

Yep, in a mad-science physics experiment gone wrong, Jim's love Angie is whisked to an alternate reality. In the attempt to save her, Jim only makes half the transition. He is astral-projected to the same reality, but into someone else's body.

Some thing else's body. A dragon named Gorbash.

So, suffice it to say for this review, Jim gets cast about a bit before discovering that he has a Quest, and he must delay his rescue of Angie until he has gathered a set of Companions to square off with him against the Dark Powers that hold Angie hostage at Loathly Tower.

To the plus, this is Dickson in his prime, stiring history and psychology in an imaginative swirl. This is the early heyday of modern fantasy, and Dickson puts out a good, entertaining novel.

To the minus, it was almost ahead of it's time. Many of the dramatic elements didn't have time to form before the finale -- although, like life, parts of the story live on long after the credits.

Solid 4 stars.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim ends up in a dragon's body when he's transported to another world.

I liked the idea of this better than I ended up enjoying the book. It's pretty standard 1970's fantasy with that one neat twist. If I had read this thirty years ago, I probably would have been more impressed.