I'm planning to talk
about various fantasy novels involving dragons. Next time my target
is Dragonflight (and I know it is supposedly science fiction, but it
is SF with a strong fantasy style). This time, though, my subject is
the Dragon and the George, by Gordie Dickson.
First published in
1976, this took the well-known trope of the young man from our world
who finds himself in a fantasy realm trying to rescue an imperilled
heroine, and turned it on its head. This time, the hero was not
trying to deal with the dragon – he is
the dragon. The reasoning behind this is relatively thin (a mind
transference project that went horribly wrong) but is simply the
means to the author's end – setting up an extraordinary situation
for the hero to cope with.
And
cope he does. Jim Eckert is a reasonably competent hero who manages,
after a few troubles, to cope with his new shape. He – as is
traditional in this sort of story – picks up a rag-tag of
companions, including the talking wolf, Aragh (probably the best
character!), Danielle, the sexy archer-maid, an incompetent knight,
and a couple of other dragons. Their main opponents are the Dark
Powers, a rather bland and character-less ultimate evil that is out
to change the balance of the natural order within the world.
Advising
Jim – or Gorbash as his dragon-form is named – is an aged wizard,
Carolinus, who wants to be Gandalf but comes across more as
Rincewind. And the quest is to travel to the Loathly Tower to rescue
Jim's imperilled girlfriend, Angie, another transferree from the real
world.
Reading
it now, the book doesn't seem as extraordinary as it was in 1976, but
it is still a good, entertaining read. It has a broad strand of
comedy flowing through it, and certainly doesn't need taking
seriously. It also has a reasonably good plot though it fades a
little in the finale. It isn't as lengthy as many fantasy tomes, and
the characterisation isn't exceptional, but for a light-hearted
fantasy with a slight air of self-mockery it works very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment