Reviews for Dragon Quintet

The average rating for Dragon Quintet based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-27 00:00:00 Valera Knight Well now. I know I have owned this 2003 book for at least 10 or 12 years, because it is from the Science Fiction Book Club that I was a member of for many years. But when I started what I thought would be one of those After Many Years Re-reads, I could not remember a single thing about any of the stories. Nothing about any of them ever became familiar or jogged my memory at all. So I wonder how I managed to miss reading this?! But it doesn't really matter, other than for curiosity's sake. Point is, I have read it now and it was GREAT!! Well, four out of five of the stories were great, the fifth I didn't finish, it was too weird for me. But I digress. Five stories about dragons written especially for this book by authors such as Orson Scott Card,In The Dragon's House; Elizabeth Moon, Judgment; Tanith Lee, Love In A Time Of Dragons; Mercedes Lackey, Joust; and Michael Swanwick, King Dragon. There is an interesting introduction by editor Marvin Kay, and he also adds a short bit about each author before each story, and even a few comments afterwards about where to find more books about dragons. Not sure if those websites are still up and running all these years later, but the list is there anyway. I really enjoyed the first four stories and if I had liked the final one by Swanwich I would have gone to five stars. But i never could get into that tale about a part mechanical part flesh and blood dragon. He was up to no good, I could tell, but other than that I was not as captivated by it and chose not to finish that one. Card's story about the dragon house was so sweet and innocent until the end. Tanith Lee's offering was a steamy sort of dragon and maiden tale, and Mercedes Lackey liked her own story so much that she later created an entire novel around the character Vetch. And then there was my favorite, Elizabeth moon's Judgment. Plenty of magic here: shape-shifting dragons, gnomes, and a young man learning to be who he is meant to be. Not to mention this thought, spoken by the dragon himself: "Wisdom without power is wind without air. . . it can do nothing of itself. And power without wisdom is fatal. Power without wisdom is a mad bull running through the house. . . A fool should have no power, lest he bring ruin with him."

Review # 2 was written on 2011-05-31 00:00:00 Mark Wojtkielewicz I started each story wary of its manner of responding to the story-about-dragons prompt. But each story flouted my low expectations and left me pleasantly surprised. I found Orson Scott Card's modern-day story to be atmospheric and full of endearing characters. The pace of "In the Dragon's House" was slow, and at first I was irritated by the seeming absence of any dragon. But the story rounded out nicely and left me kind of loving the people and the house and even the dragon that had initially irked me. Coming after Orson Scott Card's story. Elizabeth Moon's "Judgement" felt almost too action-packed. But the medieval-esque fantasy world pretty much set the tone for the rest of the stories. And it didn't conform to the happily-ever-after conclusion I thought I saw coming. "Love in a Time of Dragons" was the most polarizing of the stories for me, with all its twists and surprises. It kept writhing out of the judgments and definitions I tried to place on it. At first it seemed grossly un-feminist, then like a pandering bit of shock-for-shock's-sake convention defiance, but then it got kind of lovely and ultimately became something which--though I'm reluctant to say I liked--impressed me. As in, it left me with...impressions. Mercedes Lackey's "Joust" just kept reminding me of Jane Yolen's pit dragon trilogy. I really have nothing else to say about it except that I read Yolen's trilogy first and therefore like it better. Aaaand the last story. The "King Dragon" novella. It was...odd. Not a conventional oldie-timey-mythical-land setting. Not a contemporary tale either, really. But it still drew on modern-day machinery (steampunk? not quite...) as well as mythical/fey conventions (the power of names, truth-telling hags, scrying and magic and a "fey" world where magic is normal and normal mortals are aberrations...). The atmosphere of the story reminded me of The Stones Are Hatching, and I felt a similar sort of ambivalence about "King Dragon" upon first reading it. Maybe I'll end up re-reading these stories? I definitely don't feel like I've ruminated on them enough to pass my final judgment. And I feel like lingering more on each story would solidify my opinions on them all one way or another. But at the moment I just--as they say in England--can't be assed.