Last Dragon

by J.M. McDermott

Book Overview

The debut of a brilliant new voice that will change the fantasy genre forever. An intricate web of stories weave together to tell a tale of revenge, justice, ambition, and power. Zhan has been sent to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786948574
• ISBN13: 9780786948574
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 390 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Dragon All Gone

"Last Dragon", published as the first of the Wizard of the Coast Discoveries, is like no Fantasy novel I've ever read. It's non-linear, told as a series of letters? reminiscences? campfire tales? that flit about events and times yet slowly and inexorably bring the reader to the book's conclusion. To sum up the principal narrative, primary narrator Zahn is on the verge of qualifying as a Rider, a warrior who fights on bison-back, when news comes that her putative grandfather has murdered her mother and all her illegitimate siblings, plus the village shaman. Now Zahn cannot be a Rider; she must follow the shaman's path, instead. But first, she and her uncle Seth must hunt down her grandfather, and exact retribution. She and Seth travel to distant Proliux, where they are separated. Only when Zahn falls in with heretic paladin Adel does she make progress towards her goal. But mercenary forces threaten Zahn's homeland, and perhaps only she and Adel can save it. Yet when we first meet Zahn, she is an old woman, looking back on her life and grieving for her lost lover, Esumi, and her murdered child. History, it seems, has repeated itself. It's a sad tale, littered with betrayals, and at the same time uncompromising. No convenient explanations are offered for what sometimes seems inexplicable--what was Adel's motive, after all? Perhaps Zahn and her quest take the place of the lost dragon to whom Adel previously gave her allegiance, but if that's so, the novel isn't going to give up the information easily. This is a book that demands to be read, pondered, and re-read, if it's to be understood by the reader. One barrier, for me, to engaging with the narrative was that when it changes time and/or place, it makes no overt attempt to clue the reader in. Given the book's told in a lot of short snippets, some only a couple of pages long, some less than a page, this means the reader is constantly jarred by the need to work out where they are and what's going on. This choppiness leads to disengagement, and also means that important information at the beginnings of scenes is lost in the struggle. Further, when the book changes narrators, it doesn't change voice. Towards the middle, it's hard to know if it's Zahn talking to us, or Fest, a mercenary who joins her crew. The overall effect is a bit like trying to understand a radio play when someone--without any warning--keeps switching the channels. This book will reward the reader who seeks not immersion in the fictive dream, but the challenge of putting together a disjointed narrative into a text that has meaning for them. [Reviewed by Debbie Moorhouse]

Doesn't mess around

I really liked this book. I got it at the library off the new fiction shelf just for the hell of it, and because the back cover made it sound interesting. It reminds me a little bit of the way Le Guin writes fantasy. In fact, for the first few chapters I thought maybe this was a female author, and I mean that as the highest kind of compliment. The format is a little hard to get used to at first, and it jumps around a lot in the story, but it is masterfully written considering it is a debut. I look forward to more from this author.

Did I lose the last few chapters?

I admit I bought this book completely on a whim... based solely on the fact that the cover was enigmatic, yes, I am a sucker for good cover design. I had no idea what I was in for. And I still haven't quite decided how much I liked it. Like another reviewer said, it is very Tarantino-esque, with the story line jumping from time-line to time-line.. even switching characters completely with hardly any indication. But after the first few chapters, you start to get a hang of whats going on, even though it still would take me a few sentences (often the entirety of the chapter) to figure out exactly where and when and who you are. At about 3/4 through you start to see where everything is going, and near the end the pace really picks up as the bits and pieces start to fall into place. But it was the end that really put me off. I honestly felt that several chapters went missing, or that it should have ended at a previous chapter... something just wasn't right and left me with this empty feeling that I somehow bought the teaser version of the story, or I'd just watched a J.J. Abrams film. The story itself is rich and dramatic, the characters each unique with races parallel to our own reality. I dunno... maybe I liked it so much I was left wanting for more?

You'll Never Look At Ants The Same Way

At first, I purchased this for the novelty sake that the arthor and I share the same initals and last name. What I bought was a great work of fantasy that differed from all the other pulp. The delivery was inticing, and served in a manner like the directive styling of Quentin Tarantino, minus cliched lines and buckets of blood. Follow the broken memories of a dying Empress from her youth in mountains to how she was pivotal in creating an empire. Zhan is a young woman whose grandfather has killed her whole village, leaving only the shaman's apprentance, Seth (his own son), and a simpleton boy. Seth and Zhan set out to find their relative in a strange city where they are seperated. Seth falls inlove with a gypsy woman, and Zhan is taken in by a paladin that served the last dragon. Together with a mercenary this unlikely fellowship travels in search of the murderer, and give a new meaning to the idea of a golem. They are thrust into power plays that will change the world beyound what they could imagine. Sound good? It's because it is.

Beautiful and different!

I thoroughly enjoyed Last Dragon. It's beautifully written and incredibly atmospheric. The story is unusual too, never a bit predictable--it was great to read it and not know where the plot was going. The shifting of timelines is well done and contributed to the moody, almost dreamlike feel of the book. It's a great debut novel, and I'm looking forward to reading more by McDermott!