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Monday, June 17, 2019

Review: Spine of the Dragon by Kevin J. Anderson Part 2

A Utauk camp

In Kevin J. Anderson’s novel Spine of the Dragon, the mainland is controlled by the Commonwealth, which is made up of three separate kingdoms. But more people inhabit the Commonwealth than just the citizens of Norterra, Suderra, and Osterra. Two groups in particular live within Commonwealth borders, but outside Konag Conndur’s control.

First there are the Bravas, who send their members to protect civic and business leaders. Bravas can channel magic via their mixed Human and Wreth bloodline. They utilize this magic to protect those they serve. But this power comes with a price. Each Brava lives by a strict code. Fall short of it, and not only does the Brava community cast you out, but they strip you of your ability to ever wield power again.

The Utauks, a nomadic people who live within and yet apart from the Commonwealth, support their communities by facilitating trade between the Commonwealth and the island kingdom of Ishara. As with the Brava, the inner workings of their communities largely remain a mystery to outsiders.

Yet their members also lay claim to their own forms of magic. One kind is the heartlink that reptilian birds called Skas can form with Utauk women. King Adan Starfall is aware of this, as his wife Penda has a Ska named Xar. Another is the way they can usually channel the unpredictable rules of chance to their own ends. But there are other mysteries, deeper magics and sources of strength, which the Utauks hide from outsiders.

After the Sandwreths return, his wife Queen Penda and his father-in-law Hale Orr agree that the stakes are sufficiently high to share this treasured lore with King Adan Starfall. They take him on a long journey, until they reach a Utauk camp in a verdant valley. There they introduce him to Shella din Orr, Penda’s great-grandmother. Aware of the threat posed by the return of the Wreths, she reveals vast resources of knowledge, and shows Adan ways by which the Utauks serve as stewards of the land and its peoples. Exactly how he can use that knowledge to protect his kingdom against the Wreths, and rely on those who have always remained apart from the Commonwealth, is a mystery he will have to discover on his own.

Utauk Matriarch
Shella din Orr

Each new book carries with it shades and flavors of every book the author has previously written. In Spine of the Dragon, an obvious source of comparison is the Fremen people, desert nomads originally created by Frank Herbert, that Kevin and Frank Herbert’s son Brian have utilized in their Dune novels. Both the Brava and the Utauk bear similarities to the Fremen. Yet due to the way Kevin builds up these two communities, they form their own unique cultural identities.

In addition to inviting comparison with the author's previous novels, each new book carries with it points of comparison with every book other authors have written. In Spine of the Dragon we meet two Utauk women, Queen Penda and the orphan Glik. Both have formed a Heartlink with flying reptilian creatures called Skas. In Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, a few people are fortunately to have formed a psychic link with reptilian birds called Jheregs. Vlad and his Jhereg-friend Loiosh converse psychically, and each knows he can rely on the other.

While the Skas in Spine of the Dragon form an emotional bond with their Human companions, the ways they interact with each other are different from that of Vlad and Loiosh. Instead of humorous banter, the Skas communicate visually with their Human counterparts. Utauk women like Penda and Glik can see through the Ska’s eyes. They also see visions in a way reminiscent of legendary Greek oracles.

In Spine of the Dragon, Kevin J. Anderson has introduced us to the Commonwealth and Ishara, two communities we can readily understand. He has also crafted two more mysterious communities, the Bravas and the Utauks. He has summoned up each community with all the magic of a seasoned author, and left me wanting to know more about these two, unique peoples. I can only hope that this level of character development and worldbuilding carries over into subsequent installments of his Wake The Dragon series.

Dragon Dave

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Review: Spine of the Dragon by Kevin J. Anderson Part 1



From memorable characters to mythical creatures, from epic adventures to world-threatening wars, High Fantasy stories have long stirred readers’ souls with the romance of a forgotten age. Kevin J. Anderson is a respected and beloved writer of the genre, with roughly 160 titles to his credit. His latest novel, Spine of the Dragon, promises to delight existing fans, while winning over those who hold J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and George R. R. Martin in high regard.

The novel begins with a kingdom in crisis. King Adan Starfall of Suderra races from Bannriya Castle, and rides through the streets of his capital city, to prepare his citizens for an approaching sandstorm. Beside him rides his wife Penda, a member of nomadic Utauk peoples. After helping their subjects seek shelter, the royal couple race back to their castle. The storm howls and beats at the castle walls, tears aside shutters, and breaks windows. Aided by the servants and his father-in-law Hale Orr, Adan manages to keep the windblown sand from invading his castle.

When the storm passes, Sandwreths arrive outside the city gates. Although their crumbling statues remain in Bannriya, this ancient race has not been seen for two thousand years. Some consider the Wreths little more than the creations of storytellers, invented to explain the prehistory of the Commonwealth. 


But as their Queen Voo walks through Bannriya, and banishes the sand clogging the city’s streets with a wave of her hand, King Adan Starfall realizes that Humanity’s former rulers have returned.

Adan’s father Conndur, king of Osterra--and overall leader, or Konag, of the Commonwealth--faces more pressing concerns, when Isharan warships attack his coastal town of Mirrabay. Conndur sends his Brava Utho to mount a defense. With the magic fire a Brava can summon, Utho rallies the townspeople. But they can do little to fend off the ravages of the godling, a primal force born of Isharan beliefs, the magic that suffuses the Isharan land, and the hatred of their priests for the Commonwealth.



Like his brother Conndur, and his nephew Adan, King Kollanan of Norterra, the final member state of the Commonwealth, faces a new and unexpected threat. A relaxed and solitary journey to visit his daughter’s family ends in a confrontation with powerful beings who have frozen the town before its people could flee. Kollanan survives the encounter, and races back to Fellstaff castle. The Frostwreths have returned!

Aside from mourning their lost family members, as well as the other slain townspeople, Adan and Kollanan fear a resumption of the Wreth wars. Commonwealth lands may not compare with the rich magic teeming in Isharan soil, capable of summoning the awesome energies of the godlings. But at least the soil of Osterra, Suderra, and Norterra can grow plants again, and Commonwealth citizens live more than a hand-to-mouth existence. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Furnace, a wasteland filled with deserts, valleys cluttered with rocks so slick and sharp that a slip-and-fall means death, mystical Wreth ruins, and soil still lifeless after two millennia of rest.

Konag Conndur hasn’t seen the Wreths. Although he holds his son and brother in high regard, Adan and Kollanan’s stories seem too fantastic to be believed. Besides, he’s got the brutal assaults from Ishara to worry about. His Brava Utho likewise puts little stock in the other kings’ reports. This seems strange, as Bravas can summon magical fire due to their Wreth-and-Human heritage. But then, Utho burns with anger at how the Isharans killed his family in an earlier attack on Mirrabay, during the last war between Ishara and the Commonwealth. Nor can he forget how the Isharans nearly exterminated his halfbreed race. 

All told, it's a powerhouse opening from a masterclass writer. (And it only gets better from here, folks).

Dragon Dave

Spine of the Dragon, the first volume in the Wake The Dragon series, goes on sale today. Secure a copy quickly, before they all sell out!