Dragon Wing - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Bantam Spectra, copyright 1990, 430 pages

ISBN 0-555-28693-0

Read December 2014 (age 36)

First time read

What to expect:

Book one of a seven book cycle, it's a high fantasy with a steep learning curve.

From the back cover:

Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms - sky, stone, fire and water - then vanished.  Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms, and forgot the others.  Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms - and even they have yet to unravel the mysteries of their severed world...

In Arianus, Realm of Sky, humans, elves and dwarves battle for control of precious water - traversing a world of airborne islands on currents of elven magic and the backs of mammoth dragons.  But soon great magical forces will begin to rend the fabric of this delicate land.  An assassin will be hired to kill a royal prince - by the king himself.  A dwarf will challenge the beliefs of his people - and lead them in rebellion.  And a sinister wizard will enact his plan to rule Arianus - a plan that may be felt far beyond the Realm of Sky and into the Death Gate itself.

My reactions after the jump.

Overall:

This book wasn't worth the read.  The setting was cool, but the story was lacking.  Rather than the first installment of a great series, it felt like we were taken on a tour of the cool setting, and then the book ended.  I'm told that the series gets better, and that there's just so much setting to establish that the first couple of books are weak.  Anyway, this one didn't stand well on it's own merits.

Rating: 2

Premise:

The premise is the setting - a well-fleshed out world of mostly air and lighter-than-air coral, which provides the floating islands.  There's a human-elven war going on, and the elves have basically enslaved the dwarves as water farmers.  There are a few mysteries, but they're basically finding out details of the setting.

Plot:

The plot failed on several levels, including not introducing the main (for this stage of the series) villain until near the end of the book.  There were four main plotlines that I noted:

1. Hugh the Hand and Bane - Hugh tries to get around to killing Bane, (a small child) while also trying to figure out what he's all about.
2. Limbeck and the dwarves - Limbeck, a reluctant rabble-rouser, gets persuaded to lead his people to war against the 'gods'.
3. Haplo goes out and looks around.  This one was really weak.  Apparently his job is to be an advance scout for an entire world, and soften it for an eventual invasion.  It just didn't work for me.
4. Sinistrad is trying to use Bane to... take over the world!  Semi-legitimately?  I don't know.  It was really contrived, was introduced really late, and never made much sense.

The only real plotline that I enjoyed was #1 - Hugh was sympathetic, and the mystery of Bane was something to enjoy coming back to.  Limbeck was just annoying, and the other two...  #3 seemed like just a reason to show off the setting, and #4 because there needs to be a cackling evil failed genius in every fantasy novel?

Setting:

The setting was really cool - basically floating islands, dragons and magical airships, an economy based on water (really rare in the inhabited areas), and a giant storm just because.  It was a strength of the book, and I assume that the travelogue that we were subjected to will be used for actual storyline advancement later in the series.

Characters:

The characters were all right, I guess.  They felt more like well-developed RPG characters than people.  Larger-than-life, with reasonable back-stories, a bit of development, and just a little bit off.  They were sufficient, but couldn't carry the weak plot through just enjoying being around the characters. 

Readability:

The book was slow.  There were a bunch of random words added in for concepts that do actually have words, and it just was a bit of a slog.  Not difficult reading, but not enthralling, so I struggled through it.

Other Opinons:
RawBlurb
Pretty much my experience, but the ending salvaged it for him.

Reading by Starlight
Also pretty much my experience.

The Book Review
Much more positive.