Review: A Pleasant Surprise
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2013
A surprise because I did not think I could be interested in stories about dragons. I prefer to read about people, so I wasn't sure as I started to read the first story in this collection. Then I was hooked. The first story, a noir detective yarn written in the style of the best of Raymond Chandler, pulled me in and I found I was actually enjoying the read very much. Then came something so different, it made me stop for a second to regroup."Under the Breach" by Jason Andrew is an historical, set during WW I, and the dragon does not come into the story until the end. For most of it, the reader is in a trench with a wounded man as he waits for his lieutenant to return from a battle. We get to know a little of what it was like to be a soldier during combat, and that experience is never pleasant. I found that I liked the central character quite a bit and shared his sorrow when the soldiers he was caring for in the trench died, one by one.In an abrupt turn of tone and genre came "The Dragon of Sullivan Hall" by Marian Allen. This story was also an historical, set in the late 60s in a college dorm where a small dragon has made a home. The story is more narrative than live action, which is usually a problem for me, but this was written with such a clever tone and bits of humor, that I kept with it. The dragon, compared in size to a Chihuahua, has the same snarky attitude that many small dogs have, add the magic and you can guess what havoc this little creature can cause. A fun read.In another change of pace came a story with a touch of fable and a touch of romance. In "Dragon Seeks a Wife" by Sandra Graves, the dragon is the central character and he has to take on human form and find a wife, otherwise he will die. As in the other stories in this well-done collection, the magic and myth blend well and everything is believable. Even for someone like me who had never met a dragon she liked before.