The Summer Dragon

reviews.metaphorosis.com

Todd Lockwood has assembled all the classic pieces in The Summer Dragon - feisty heroine, majestic dragons, buried cities, ancient knowledge, stiff hierarchy, dark horrors, and some origin mystery thrown in. The plot overall is well thought out, if fairly familiar. Unfortunately, there's not much subtlety in it. Lockwood hits his marks a little too hard, and too often. Things work out almost entirely as you might expect of a standard fantasy, and while there are points of interest, there's little to be surprised about.

Lockwood's not entirely consistent in his handling of some issues - they seem to change to fit authorial whim or need, rather than as an organic part of the story. And some are simply left too vague - the dark Horrors the heroes fight tend to be invincible, until they suddenly drop dead for no clear reason. The philosophy of the rigid priesthood is uncompromisingly wrong, while the ancient wisdom of another priesthood - which seems to consist entirely of vague platitudes - is just as right.

The ending of this first installment is more an exercise in loose-end wrapping than a resolution. People urgently need to head off for other parts, but then hang around for weeks for no clear reason other than to give Lockwood space for goodbyes. Philosophies are introduced with no real foundation in the preceding hundreds of pages.

All in all, it's a passable read that hits most of the right notes, but it's not a book you're likely to remember for long. I feel no compulsion to go on to the next book and find out what happens next.

Lockwood is better known as an artist, and the book has plenty of interior illustrations, a map, etc. Theyr'e technically well executed, but, as with the book, don't stray far from convention. The dragons look like most other dragons of recent decades, and even the Horrors don't offer much that's new. Some of the most interesting, art-worthy scenes, aren't illustrated at all, though given the large number of full-page panels already included, that's a decision that's hard to argue with.

You know, I have serious issues with the way many authors handle teenage characters and their relationships with the adults surrounding them. I find it especially bad with teen girl protagonists, so when I saw this had a teen girl as a protagonist, then I found out it was first person narrative... lets just say I wasn't too excited.
It seems I had a good reason for it.

Maia's family lives out in the mountains in their little village, being the local dragon breeder clan, providing animals for the country's dragon division in the army. Right now some other country is trying to attack them, stealing their dragons and turning them into strange, sinister Horrors, just all around wrong, demonic dragons with equally horrible riders.
When Maia and her brother see the Summer Dragon, one of the figures of the local religion, she feels it is the sign she needs to claim her own dragon, but of course things go wrong and some religious messing around ensues, with Maia as the centre of it all.

I will be honest, the reason why this got 2 stars was that I absolutely loved the beginning that showed people dealing with dragons. Cleaning up after them, feeding them, just generally making you feel like we're talking about real animals. They didn't feel distant, magical things, but perfectly plausible animals like horses or dogs. Just... bigger. And with the ability of flight. And can speak a tiny bit. Okay, whatever, I get it, but as close to normal animals as we can get.
Something about the routine-like way of the people working with them was pretty nice and for some time I thought this was going to be awesome, no problem with it at all.

But we had Maia. Teen girl. Extra magical. Better than everyone. Gets in trouble all the time, but it's good, she is right, she is morally superior. More competent than anyone. Oh, she endangers people with her ridiculous wilfulness? It's all okay, Maia is the chosen one and being rational and ready to compromise is not how she should be, because things will all sort themselves out to make Maia right at the end.
Then of course her perfection doesn't stop in the face of any adult; adults are there to be either useless or evil, so Maia can shine and school everyone. The only exception is Jhem, her sister-in-law, who also fucks up a lot and at the same time she is so much better and such a little victim of everyone being angry when her weakness causes her dragon to harm people. Also, she has a fetish of squeezing Maia's hand every 2 minutes. Whatever happens, squeeze the hand and it's fine.
A conspiring government priest man called Bellua is the antagonist, who is such a shitstirrer and Maia is convinced he'll totally rape her because he looked at her boobs. I mean it's inappropriate, but we went from him glancing at her to “100% rape at any minute tho, #truth” at the speed of light.
The rest of the characters are so forgettable, it hurts.

Which is extra horrible, as there are parts of the book when everyone is at the same place, talking and doing things at the same time, with all the names in the span of a couple of sentences. If you have any issues with remembering fantasy names... I don't envy you. When dragon names AND official titles also mix in, I just wanted to headbutt someone.

We got some really sweet illustrations, though. Mr. Lockwood is a fantasy artist, so of course he put in some of his work and man, I appreciated it. They fit to what I imagined, which tells me the descriptions were successful.
Honestly, other than the name overload in places the prose was fine. I was okay with it and without other issues, I could have been fine with reading a whole series in this style. Even the first person would have been okay if it wasn't Miss Magical Perfection, but someone else. Even Total Actual Rapist I Swear Guy, I would have loved to see if his religious crazy was honest or just him trying to get power and influence.

The pacing, though... not to my liking. According to my estimation about a fifth of the story or so was spent on this one long sequence of events leading to something you KNEW was happening. The characters struggling in caves, enemies, running, OMG, dragon is coming, etc. It was a repetition of the same issues, drawn out, especially frustrating when it was just the road connecting between the beginning and an obviously inevitable thing.
(Can we talk about Maia being annoyed about her brother suffering life-threatening injuries and serious bloodloss not being as competent as she is towards getting the thing she wanted? Dude is bleeding out and he DARES to drink a lot of water, the jerk.)

I will be honest, this book is not for me. It's just way too YA and inhabited by characters I dislike for one reason or another. I loved the dragons, not so much the riders. A shame, as I was pretty excited about the story.

Good evening and for now I am content with just having a dog, thanks.

This book was okay.... I felt like I had such great expectations after the first 2 chapters, and Maia ended up being a whiny brat. I made it to about 50% and I just cant keep going, I feel like the story could have had a perfectly good ending before the next part of the book, and I am perfectly happy thinking that is the ending. I just cant stand Maia, or her brothers to keep reading this.

Pros: great characters, interesting plot, immersive storytelling

Cons:

Maia's always wanted her own bonded dragon to raise, and this year's larger than usual clutches have given her hope that her time has come. But a northern aerie has been decimated by the Harodh and their unnatural horrors, its qits killed or taken, and the Dragonry's needs for new dragons to fight the menace trump a young woman's.

The appearance of the fabled Summer Dragon, witnessed by Maia and her brother, puts them at the center of a power struggle between their aerie, the Dragonry, and the Temple. Because Maia's getting her dragon this year, one way or another.

With the exception of two prequel scenes, the novel's told from Maia's point of view. Maia's a fascinating character. She wants a lot from life but she's willing to put the work and effort into earning things for herself. She courageous in the face of horrors, and determined to do what's right. She's a character who speaks her mind and tells truths the adults around her are too tactful, or scared, to say.

There are a fair number of twists to the plot, especially towards the end of the book. The pacing is great, with some time to get to know the principle characters followed by several tense chapters, then some down time to learn about new characters before things get tense and dangerous again.

The storytelling is descriptive enough to draw a picture of the location and action, but not so detailed so as to bog down the narrative. When the action is on, reading this is more like watching a film, incredibly immersive.

I loved learning about dragon raising and riding. Lockwood introduced the necessary terms along with their meanings so there's no sense of feeling lost, unaware of what's going on. There's also no unnecessary exposition. We learn with Maia and the qits.

The focus of the book is on a fairly small area. There's a map that shows the wider world, and a few times events happening elsewhere are recounted. People and dragons with various colourations are mentioned, along with which geographic area they come from. The religion is cribbed from aspects of Christianity, though it's not a direct representation.

There's an overwhelming sense of hope in this book - that hard work, courage, and determination can overcome all obstacles. This made it feel like the fantasy novels that came out in the 80s, rather than the grim dark currently popular. It's got a freshness to it that I enjoyed. Having said that, there are some very dark moments and I could not believe some of the revelations.

Todd Lockwood is one of the best fantasy artists ever, so it should come as no surprise that he's drawn his own cover, map, aerie schematic, and section illustrations. The interior artwork is all black and white sketches, but they are gorgeous.

The only negative I found, is that while I got to know the protagonists really well, I didn't feel much connection to the supporting cast. One character in particular I would have liked to know more about, and events with them during the climax didn't hit me with the emotional punch they might have, had that connection been deeper.

I've long admired Lockwood's artwork and now I admire his impressive writing skills too. This is a fantastic debut, one that's perfect as an introduction to the genre as well as for long time dragon lovers.