Dark Heart / Margaret Weis & David Baldwin

Dark Heart

category: fantasy, author:

Margaret Weis & David Baldwin

book 1 of Dragon's Disciple
original copyright 1998,
read in November 2010 (and before, in August 2005)

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

It's five years since I first read this book. On the re-reading it was familiar -- but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. And I definitely gained something from the second reading...

Justin works for The Dragon. Sandra is still recovering from an abusive husband. This time, I could see the similarity even before it was announced by the author...

That's a benefit of a second reading: I find extra depth -- sometimes extra idiocy! -- after the often-too-fast first reading.

So what's it all about? Well...

Weis writes about dragons... I can see that during a quick browse of the "W" shelf at my local library. Dragons are traditionally associated with (or against) men scantily clad in leather armour and wielding huge swords. Sure enough, there's the man-with-sword -- fighting dragon -- on the front cover of this book.

And then it gets non-traditional...

Perhaps Baldwin writes tough-city-detective pot-boilers? I don't like to look until I've written my own views. At a guess, though, Weis put her name to a dragon book and Baldwin set the book in his familiar tough city streets of modern-day Chicago. ("Assume the position, punk. You know the position." The punk knew the position.)

This requires an interesting take on dragons... And makes for an enjoyable book with a mix of background expectations.

Perhaps the tough Chicago cop scene is overdrawn. The main characters unbelievably good and unbelievably evil. (I do like the way the evil guy punishes his errant henchman. Though it still makes me wince in sympathy.) Perhaps it just takes a while to adjust to fantasy extremes in a modern city setting? Or is the style just a bit too melodramatic...

Why do all of the mysterious but helpful strangers have to be Chinese? Has there been no intermarriage in the last few centuries?! And why do nice people have to die? Okay, I have a strong preference for books where they all live happily ever after :-)

Not a great book but a very enjoyable book. I hope that Book Two was actually written... and I look forward to tracking it down and following the story further.

---

Oh well.

I like to write my review before I search the web for background information... Keep my opinions untainted... And now I have discovered three facts:

(1) David Baldwin is Margaret Weis' son, (2) There is no Dragon's Disciple book two, and (3) David Baldwin is deceased.

Behind every story is another story.

True life can also have unhappy endings.

..o0o..

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