Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Dragonback Adventures

The set of six books: Dragon and Thief, Dragon and Soldier, Dragon and Slave, Dragon and Herdsman, Dragon and Judge, and Dragon and Liberator, by Timothy Zahn is an entertaining read, even if directed at young adults (in fact, it won a young adult book award). Our heroes are a boy, Jack Morgan, age 14, and a symbiotic tiger-sized dragon, Draycos, a poet-warrior of the K'Da. The symbiosis is that the K'Da regularly need to assume a two-dimensional form and need a host to sustain them during that period. The setting of the novels is a space-faring galactic culture. Jack and Draycos need to collaborate to clear up Jack's problems and to save Draycos's people from genocide.

Nicely done set of books. Only because they will not be universally to everyone's taste and therefore are not must-reads, I give them a 4 out of 5 stars rating.