Dragon and Judge

by Timothy Zahn

Book Overview

Orphaned at the age of three, brought up by his con man Uncle Virgil, Jack Morgan has done things that even in the future in space are unusual. But when he rescued Draycos, a dragon-like symbiont, from certain death, his life became a series of breathtaking adventures. With the help of Draycos, who can leap onto Jack's back and become what looks like a tattoo, Jack has been doing everything he can to find out who ambushed the scout-fleet of Draycos's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076535277X
• ISBN13: 9780765352774
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Starscape Books
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 5 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

One Giant Step Forward

Dragon and Judge (2007) is the fifth SF novel in the Dragonback series, Following Dragon and Herdsman. In the previous volume, Jack, K'da and Alison herded the Erassvas and Phookas through the forest. They outmaneuvered the Malison Ring mercenaries several times. Then Frost drove them to the river with a forest fire. Unfortunately for the mercenaries, Uncle Virge was lurking in the river and damaged the transport vessel. Jack and his friends then left the planet in a very conspicuous manner. In this novel, Jack Morgan was a con artist before he met Draycos. Now he is a young man who hosts a K'da. Draycos is a K'da, a species that is symbiotic with other beings. Draycos can spread himself over Jack's body like a tattoo. Draycos is also a warrior-poet with the mission of warning his people of the ambush that killed his comrades. Alison Kayna is a thief and spy. She had escaped with Jack from the Malison Ring mercenary unit on Sunright. Now she has become the host of Taneem. Taneem is a K'da, but knows little about her species. She had been a symbiont of an Erassva on Rho Scorvi and thus lacked education and training. Now she is Alizon's symbiont. Uncle Virge is a simulated personality within the computer on Jack's ship. He is a copy of Jack's Uncle Virgil. He has most of Virgil's skills and quirks, but cannot override orders from Jack. Maximus Frost is a Colonel within the Malison Ring mercenaries. He is a rogue, on the payroll of Arthur Neverlin. They apparently arranged the ambush of the Shontine/K'da advance party. In this story, Taneem is learning to read. She learns the lessons with some difficulty because of the idiosyncrasies of the language. Draycos supplements her reading with stories of the K'da and their Shontine hosts. Jack is trying to hack into another Malison Ring computer system, but it locks him out. Alison offers to help, but Jack is mot willing to give her have access to the communicator. He still doesn't trust her. Jack and his friends need to discover where the Shontine and K'da are planning to meet with their contacts in this space. They assume that their enemies know the rendezvous point. Now they have to pick another Malison Ring station to try again. Uncle Virge tells them the location of the two nearest stations. Although Montenegro is closest, Jack tells him to go to Vers'tekim. When asked why, Jack says that he wants to go to Semaline, which is on the way to Vers'tekim. Virgil had often stopped at Semaline. When he went to the bank at the spaceport, Jack was always left behind. Now Jack wants to see what is inside Virgil's lockbox. Arriving a Semaline, Jack goes to the bank with Draycos spread on his skin. Before he reaches the bank, however, three natives smell his scent and declare him a Jupa. They take him -- despite his protests -- to their home in a desert canyon. Later, Alison goes to the bank to find Jack, but without success. She does retrieve the items within the lockbox

Best yet?

I think this may be my favorite of the books so far. It brought back some of the mystery that was missing from the last one.

Another Winner

In this the fifth book of the series, Zahn does something that he's very good at. He separates his characters and has his two stories running parallel. While Jack and Draycos are finding out what really happened to Jack's late parents, Alison and her symbiant find themselves back on the slave planet of Dragon and Slave: The Third Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback). Alison has been captured by The Malison Ring in order to help them obtain the information of where Draycos's people will arrive. Once again, the relationship between Draycos and Jack takes a new and unexpected turn. A must read.

Fun Book

Zahn is a wonderful writer who has immersed his characters into a new sci-fi setting. This story is a great whodunit and and is well written. The story keeps your attention and skillfully has the characters grow before your eyes. I would compare this book to ones as written by J.K. Rowling. Zahn has a way of making even adults love the characters. In the world of Jack and Draycos, you will be thoroughly entertained throughout the experiences of these two key characters.

An extraordinarily well-told story from a master writer!

I have been a fan of Timothy Zahn since Heir to the Empire, and it has been a pleasure to watch his work subtly change and mature over the years. The Dragonback series, thus far, has been potentially his most engaging work yet, although The Icarus Hunt has historically been my favorite. Dragon and Judge might have changed that. I am amazed at what Zahn has managed to do in this so-called children's series - he has taken very real characters, warts and all, through deep personal struggles that most authors would not dare to plumb in literary fiction, much less sci-fi "youth" fiction. And he has done so in the midst of a fast-paced, action-filled story brimming with gloriously witty writing. Is it a sci-fi? A coming-of-age? A gritty social commentary? A deep psychological drama? A tantalizing mystery? A modern morality play? A suspenseful nail-biter? Or perhaps even an intricate allegory of deeper truths? Zahn has that wonderful knack of taking other genres and plopping them with great skill and believability into a sci-fi setting. The Icarus Hunt was a classic whodunit; Night Train to Rigel was a deco-era spy thriller; The Green and the Gray was a clever spin on gang warfare. What Zahn has done in the Dragonback series is perhaps even more impressive, more well-rounded and well-crafted. The story continues seamlessly as the pieces of this intricately woven tapestry begin to come together with amazing skill. The characters are consistent - growing and changing as people do in real life, reacting in believable ways to extraordinary circumstances. May I, for a moment, risk offending fans of the great J.K. Rowling by comparing these two series? I am a dedicated Harry Potter fan, but it is clear that while she is extremely talented and creative, Zahn is the superior storyteller. His characters are more consistent than hers, his suspense better sustained, his surprises more genuine, his story more flawlessly executed. I have read many books, and I have written many myself, and I have become extremely difficult to impress. But Dragon and Judge impressed me considerably. It is a mature novel from a mature author, who has the courage to write a very moral story in an increasingly immoral world, and to do it with excellence that I know from experience is almost impossibly draining. Especially when the series has not even attained much renown. That is a mark of integrity. To those who have not yet discovered the Dragonbacks, or Zahn fans who are hesitant to read a "kid" series, I challenge you to immerse yourself in the world of Jack and Draycos, and see if you can emerge from it without being changed. You are unlikely to encounter, in any series or novel or story, two characters you care about more than the noble ex-thief and his K'da poet-warrior. And that is what separates a good story from a great one. Dragon and Judge is a great one.