Monday, September 14, 2009
Duel of Dragons
**** Duel of Dragons by Gael Baudino. Fantasy.
This is the second book in the Dragonsword series, following Dragonsword (#26). One of the reviews on Amazon called it the best in the series, but I didn't like it quite as well as the first. I think the first, where Suzanne Helling is trying to figure out the new world, is more compelling. Obviously, YMMV.
In Duel of Dragons, Suzanne is now the one in charge, and she has to face the fact that she's also responsible for the negative things in Gryylth. The ex-wife of Sol, the professor who originally created the world, shows up, and as in the previous book, there's some heavy-handed social commentary. Only this time, the story wasn't quite compelling enough for me to ignore it.
Or maybe it's that the social commentary in this one was more skewed toward the anti-male version of feminism. Still, it was an entertaining read, and I enjoyed how Suzanne's psyche ended up putting modern-day weapons in what had been a medieval setting. And the psychology of characters who know they've been created by someone's imagination was nicely thought-provoking.
Categories: Books, 4stars, Fantasy
Labels: 4 stars, books, fantasy
