The Dawn of the Iron Dragon

Saga of the Iron Dragon #2

by Robert Kroese

A new beginning, 1300 years in the past...

In medieval Europe, three explorers from the distant future begin an ambitious project: build a craft capable of reaching the stars. While their leader oversees the construction of a secret underground base in Iceland, the other two travel thousands of miles to negotiate with the rulers of Europe and recruit the most brilliant minds of the age. When the Iceland base comes under attack, the travelers try to return to defend their home, but they are trapped in Paris just as an army of 20,000 Vikings lays siege to the city. To survive, they must defend Paris from the hordes of Norsemen and fight their way back to Iceland to save their new home--and keep the dream of the Iron Dragon alive.

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Time Travel, Science Fiction Fantasy, Historical Fiction

463 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2018

About the author

Robert Kroese's sense of irony was honed growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - home of the Amway Corporation and the Gerald R. Ford Museum, and the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water supply. In second grade, he wrote his first novel, the saga of Captain Bill and his spaceship Thee Eagle. This turned out to be the high point of his academic career. After barely graduating from Calvin College in 1992 with a philosophy degree, he was fired from a variety of jobs before moving to California, where he stumbled into software development. As this job required neither punctuality nor a sense of direction, he excelled at it. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel, Mercury Falls. Since then, he has written 18 more books.

Reviews

[Mark Wilcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy CRAP, what a roller coaster ride. This was an absolutely fantastic read. Robert is able to suck you in chew you up emotionally and spit you out... then make you come back for more. Cannot wait for the next book. Especially because of his teaser epilogue.

[Jeffrey Schmieder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great page turner, love the concept of future astronauts stranded in the Middle Ages trying to get back home. I do think the author is too hard on his heroes, but theirs is a survival story just as compelling as "The Martian".

[Richard Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book

This is the second book in the series. Most of the characters mentioned were real people at this time in the 800’s. The aliens are still chasing the spacemen and want to kill them. I had to force myself to put the book down so that I could make it last longer. Now on to get the last book in the series and continue the adventure.

[Anthoney · Rating 3 out of 5]

To dreary. Every plan fails. Every action they take is doomed. Right up to the last few pages.

[blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

More great stuff in the Iron Dragon Saga as our heroes try and try again to get off medieval earth and back to their own time to save the human race from its impending extinction.

Let me start by saying Kroese is juggling the can-they/can't-they question vis a vis time paradoxes brilliantly. Typically a story takes one extreme viewpoint on time travel (a butterfly flaps his wings) or another (Greek prophecy, where the actions taken to prevent something cause it to happen), with some variations (alternate time stream, things changeable around the edges, etc.) but this is the first story I can think of where the characters—and the audience!—don't know!

We started in book one with the characters taking a fatalistic attitude: "We know this didn't happen, so we know it can't happen, so we won't try it." Then it became, "Well, we don't really know it didn't happen, the records are sketchy, quite possibly because we obscured them..." Better still, though, "Well, we don't know how our antagonists feel about it, so they may just try to destroy the earth, and are we sure history can't be radically altered?"

It's a peach of a premise, a truly great device for suspense and Kroese makes the most of it.

Why only four stars? Well, I'm probably being a little coy. There are some minor formatting errors and—not to go all Mark Twain, here—but in chapter 30, a character is described as throwing away his useless shield in battle, only to have the shield be back in his hands for chapter 33 (same battle). These are minor points.

The main reason I'm thinking four stars is that it took longer to grab me than the first book. But on reflection, that's kind of a dumb complaint, since I was into it pretty fast and pretty hard by the end, and I am going to read on. So I'm switching it back to five.

But you'll never know it was four because I changed history...

[astaliegurec · Rating 1 out of 5]

Since I was so impressed with the first book in Robert Kroese's "Saga of the Iron Dragon" series ("The Dream of the Iron Dragon: An Alternate History Viking Epic (Saga of the Iron Dragon Book 1)"), I bought both this book ("The Dawn of the Iron Dragon: An Alternate History Viking Epic (Saga of the Iron Dragon Book 2)") and its sequel ("The Voyage of the Iron Dragon: An Alternate History Viking Epic (Saga of the Iron Dragon Book 3)"). Oops. That was a mistake. Based on this book ("Dawn"), I won't even be reading that already purchased sequel, "Voyage."

I've got several major problems with this book. First, as with the first book ("Saga"), every one of the 9th century characters' worldviews is indistinguishable from that of someone wandering the streets today. People from 1200 years ago flat-out didn't perceive the world the way we do. It's jarring. But, the bigger problem is what story Kroese chose to write here. Based on "Saga," I'd have thought this series would be about a small group of people from the future (and I highly disagree with Kroese's concept of time travel -- though Kroese certainly has the right to his own theories) stuck at the end of the Iron Age trying to develop enough technology to get back into space so they could get back to their own time and prevent, essentially, the destruction of humanity (pant, pant -- a bit of a run on sentence there). As science fiction, it would be amazing to see them start from nothing and work through things like developing reference flat surfaces, primitive tools, better tools and technologies, machine tools and computers. Nope. This book is all about separate groups of those people wandering Europe (supposedly to recruit help, but mostly for their own purposes) and running into countless soap-opera-like, deus ex machina events that both stymie and help them. Worst of all, they end the book (except for a bit of epilogue where a miracle has occurred) in a worse situation than where they started. So, yes. The book is less than worthless.

I'll also add that these first two books have taken us through two or three years of chronology. Yet, at a minimum, there's no way they can do what they need to do in less than centuries. So, how Kroese intends to cover any of that timeline in any reasonable number of books, I don't know.

Anyway, I'm rating the book at a Terrible 1 star out of 5 and am done with the series.

[James Backus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the second book in the series.

I recently found these Vilking/Spaceman series. I started with the first series and followed as soon as I could with the second volume. I read this enjoying the plot and characters. I am now going to read the next volume which came out a couple of days ago.

[Joga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and now the Iron Dragon.

If you trust my word just buy this Iron Dragon series and start reading now. If not, let me try to convince you. I was so excited to keep on after the first book, I did not give myself time to write a review before listening to the second book. I have now bought the third book, but want to write a review before going on. So I am suppressing the urge to hit play. It is hard, I feel I am making a sacrifice. That is how much I want you and everyone else to find this gem.

I feel like after finding “The lord of the rings” all this time ago, and the first book of Harry Potter. And I don´t want to say which book is best. They are all the best, along with this Iron dragon series. The lord of the rings gave us all a new and wonderous world to adore, just so epic, and pretty much the same with Harry Potter. I had stopped reading books at all when I was given the task to read the first Harry Potter book for children all this time ago. I feel it saved my soul, haven´t let go of books since then.

The Iron dragon is more based on the real world though, no magic. The magic of the story is a brilliant author and “it could have happened like this”. Which is why I want to write a review now, maybe not a sentence I can write after the third book. Also if the research of the story stands a closer look (how long it takes to sail between countries etc.), this story should be read in every history class everywhere. The story does bring study of gone times to life, and brings it closer. In a way where maybe more people would consider thinking of gone generations as something more than stone age people with no brain. Now that may not be something that excites you, but no worry. The Iron dragon will be suitable for readers of many genres. The story has endless fast paces action and surprises at every corner. It is flawlessly written and is a multi dimensional gem. A few times it had me so emotional I was crying. But most of the time it had me so engrossed there was no thought other than keeping on. At one time it though had me raving mad at the state of our societies. That even after the industrial revolution, where we have all this high tech, making machines that make our work force obsolete, we still exploit starving children on other continents. Write me a line if you don´t grasp what I am talking about. Ok, now I am mad again. But not about the story itself. The story is glorious! After two books I am in love with the Iron Dragon series. It excites my imagination to no end, the story is so complex and magical, exciting and the action is engulfing and endless. I lack words to do these books justice. If you are not yet convinced to read the series, keep in mind life is dull with just one flavor in your mouth, would you eat just one kind of food till end of times? Spice and different flavors make life more fun. And this one has high chance of making your day.

For those of us that like to listen to our stories, the narrator is just perfect. Somehow, would not have thought so without trying it out.

And now to the third book. Hitting play.

[H. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to sign up for Audible when I took a new job that makes for lots of time to—for the first time in my life—listen to audiobooks.

The Dream of the Iron Dragon was one of my favorite books of 2018, so naturally I jumped on the second book in the series, The Dawn of the Iron Dragon, with my very first Audible credit.

The Dawn of the Iron Dragon continues the story from The Dream of the Iron Dragon. Human spacefarers from a future in which we are locked in an existential, intergalactic struggle with a race of reptilian aliens have managed to travel to the Viking era with knowledge of a weapon that could end the war in humanity’s favor. All they need to do is build a spaceship from scratch during the tail end of the Iron Age.

Their efforts are complicated by the discovery, at the end of book 1 (spoilers!), that they have alien company after all. Book 2 is split between their efforts to recruit intellectual talent for their project, to protect their tenuous beachhead in Iceland, and to thwart alien efforts to not only derail their mission but to derail humankind’s progress altogether.

As I said in my review of the first book, it is the care taken with the details that really drew me in. This is an alternative history and time travel series that is also hard science fiction. I was a little disappointed, then, that so little of this book is devoted to the actual building of the iron dragon.

The story really winds up dominated instead by the struggle with their alien foes. That, though, wound up far timelier than I realized. Because the weapon of choice is germ warfare, a plague. I have avoided pandemic fiction during this actual pandemic, but the vast increase in my knowledge of pandemics over the past several months left me better situated to appreciate the detail in this storyline.

There is, of course, plenty of Viking action. And a decidedly more high-tech—and genuinely shocking—set piece near the end of the book.

I am pleased to report that I don’t have to say nasty things about narrator J.D. Ledford. It took me a little while to get used to (this was my second audio book, ever, after all), and the plethora of Viking voices were a strain, but I very much enjoyed her narration overall. I am only on my third audiobook with a female narrator, but Ledford is my favorite of the three.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected the second book to worse that the first one given the premise, but this was a struggle to get through sometimes. Nothing whatsoever happens as far as the overall idea of the series is concerned. Characters having to build a space ship in the early middle ages. And that's what interested me the most. I think the problem is that the story is kind of a predestination paradox, with the outcome already predetermined. Much of the book plays against the historical Viking siege of Paris. And we know how that ends. So there is no real suspense. There is certainly a lot of action, but it's inconsequential and repetitive. Eventually I found myself skimming over entire passages where nothing relevant or interesting happens. I rarely do that.
This plot point repeats several times: character run or sneak around in the countryside somewhere and are captured by enemies hinding in the bushes. They are held captive for a while until someone frees them. That got old really fast.
One plot point is sort of skipped for a year in story time and then resolved with almost a deus ex machina.
The book is also hurt by the constant shifts between characters and locations - who are split up all over Europe - with most of the chapters being very short.

The dialogue and language also feel very anachronistic at times. The characters often talk in a too modern way and accept things far too easily. Then there is the use of words like "engineer" by everyone, which simply didn't exist at the time. Not just literally the word, but the entire idea behind the concept. Work was organized differently then. Something like "craftsman" could have been used instead.

Aside from the epilogue the characters have made no progress at all in their mission. In fact there is a giant setback that reduces the chances of success from "extremely unlikely" to "never going to happen". And yet one of the characters says that "nothing has changed". I fully expect that the difficulties will be handwaved away in the third book too, but it will be a while before I read that. This has turned me off the series for now.

[M. C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was as much of a wild ride as the first. For me, Gabe is still the only character from the future that stands out as an interesting personality, though not as much as he did in the first book. Events roll along too fast for personalities, perhaps.

I’m no historian, so I find the historical aspects of the book convincing. In this volume I was not as impressed by the plague aspect. The doctor aboard ship never names the ongoing plague despite its importance to the characters and the plot, but elsewhere a character casually (and poorly) diagnoses a case of polio on sight.

Similarly, the description of the future antibiotic nanobots is both unconvincing and an apparent death sentence for the character who loses his, yet he survives the book with no apparent concern for his own future.

The disease issues weren’t big enough to spoil the book for me, even before the exciting twist at the end.

[Francis S. Poesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really loving this alternative history sci-fi series and can't wait for book three. Having recently become a bit of a fan of this period in European history this is pretty much the perfect series to get me back into reading science fiction. Of course, I've read all of Rob Kroese's humorous Rex Nihilio sci-fi adventures, which are amazing, but this series could get me thinking about getting back into more serious sci-fi. Or, maybe I'll just stick with only reading Sci-Fi from Rob. Time will tell. Anyway, I can't recommend this series enough. Well written, historically accurate (at least as far as these types of historical fiction usually are), and intriguing. I always looked forward to my "reading time" at the end of the day to read a few more chapters. (One day I'll retire, or hit the lotto and be able to read the books I like in one sitting.)

[Dennis Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really into this series.
The crew have to find a way to get the weapon that will save the human race back to the future.
The problem is they can't change history!!
It's not that they don't want to, it's that they can't. The Paradox thing will bite you in the butt.
So they are working in those parameters.
The author does a good job staying within historical facts.
Our crew, from the 23rd century, have all of human history stored on their ship. So, if it was written down somewhere the ship knows about it.

Reading the story I would occasionally check out on the computer some of the things that the author was telling us about Norsemen, Danes, etc. from that area of the world. He was right on.
So in a sense this was also a history lesson about that time period and the big events that happened.
Onward to book 3!!

[Alex Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had my doubts after finishing the first book in the series, but thought I'd give it another chance.
Sadly, that's a DNF (and that doesn't happen very often). By 54%, I caught myself trundling through the text without enjoying it one bit.
Unmemorable, cartoonish, stilted characters, lacking any depth - let alone development.
Hectic jumping between the POVs, including occasional side characters.
Flat, flavorless storytelling that drags you on without an ounce of engagement.
Writing that could be considerably tightened (and, honestly, could use some professional editing).
The only reason I am not giving it 1 star is for the author's bravery in engaging on a worldbuilding project of such scale.
Bottom line: when you realize you're only mildly curious about the plot - but that's it, and you may be far better off just reading the synopsis... Yeah, no.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternative history

This second book in the series is great. The melding of history and science fiction is spellbinding. The characters remain true to their historical roots. The Vikings have all the bluster and courage we know about. The petty and not so petty quarrels and maneuvering of the various factions are believable too. I loved the odd mixture of science fiction and historical data. The intrepid sky people are a plucky bunch with an impossible task to try to save their people 1300 years in the future. I can’t wait to see what happens next. And to top it all off I have a new author to follow.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually quite liked this book.

I've read a few of the alt history books, including 1492 from Flint and I think Harry Harrison did a few as well.

The first book was very good. Interesting setup plot device, and engaging characters. The second book picks up where the first book finishes.

I would not say it's an advancement of the first book, more a continuation, but it didn't feel like an effort to plough through it. I was sufficiently drawn in and interested in the development of the plot and the characters to enjoy it to the end.

Worth a buy.

[Petr Kalis · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I was buying into crazy premise of the series, "lets build a rocket, just instead of Nasa rocket scientist we will use old time Viking", I was really disappointed with second book into the series.
If there was only small attempt of using technology advantage in first installment (carnage of Viking attackers with railgun, DIY forging of guns in tenth century), this book is resigning on anything similar. Story is separated into three different groups of characters travelling all around historic Europe. No part interested me too much.
Main focus is on Vikings attempt to siege Paris, which was one of the highlights, but still I would prefer watching this siege in TV series called Vikings, which was much more entertaining.
All others segments were just only more boring.
Maybe I had different expectations, but I don't see how author could finish this story in only one book left. Or better, how he manage to finish it in any way that would interest me.
So back to re-reading "The Hammer and the Cross" by Harry Harrison. That is also historical science fiction with Vikings, just without crazy rocket idea, but much more fun and with better characters.

[Lindsey Hieb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a solid 3 stars for me. Not much was done to build the characters all that much in my opinion from the first book, and it really just felt like set up for the last book with manufacturered drama via the illness. The story just moved a little too slow for me, and it made me start focusing on the infeasibility of what they are trying to do (since I work at NASA and have an idea how many people it takes to do even the simplest of tasks dealing with getting humans into space). We'll see how the third one goes I guess! I'm definitely curious to see how it all works out!

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great 2nd book in series

Well this definitely improves on the first. Loads happening in it but it never feels cluttered and is well paced.

Thankfully the author is realistic with timings for travel as always annoys me when people cover hundreds of miles in a few hours but here it takes days, weeks, months as it should.

Hardly any errors so well proofread and is well written as well with believable characters although I’m still surprised they are all so accepting of the “Spacemen”.

Again is it really alternate history or more time travel - who cares on too book 3 😁

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy second entry in the Iron Dragon series! This book begins with the main characters splitting up to continue the mission, which gives Kroese a chance to show off different parts of 9th-century Europe and put our heroes in all kinds of new predicaments. Book 2 definitely caught me off-guard more than once. I'll be starting Book 3 soon to see if and how the Iron Dragon project continues!

[Volpot · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. For every one step forward in plot, the story took 9 steps sideways in trivial side events. I still sorta like the concept, but I'm not sure I will have the patience to stay with this series to conclusion

[Ashakery Dart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quit reading half way thru.
The Vikings had been relegated to anonymous bodyguards, while ever other section of people is getting more attention.

But if you like a story that races from one happening to another, without spending time on how the people are affected, you might like this one.

[BBJWEIHE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb story, Fascinating premise

The sci-fi premise mixed with a solid historical foundation makes this a very unique series/book. I am a voracious reader (1000 pages a week) and this book series is definitely a must read!

[Breiding, Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice

Very engaging book. Nice work. Quite a few twists in this book that will keep you reading for more. Thanks.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The siege of Paris, aliens, vikings, plague, what's not to like? Fast paced; hard to catch your breath sometimes.

[Graham Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sequel

The saga continues. This is a excellent sequel. The story is full of twist and turns. Surprises abound. You will enjoy this book of you read the first book.

[Tony Williamson,jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent second book.

This series had me hooked from the beginning. It is what sci-fi is meant to be. The time travel aspect is really interesting.

[Becky L Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. Omg do yourself a favor and pick up this series. Today. Just when you think you know where the story is going .....

[Chad Kovac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything Robert writes is carefully planned and executed. His depth and attention to detail never leave me wondering but always inspired.