Archive for the ‘Dragon and Slave: The Third Dragonback Adventure’ Category

This is a spoiler conscious review of Dragon and Slave: The Third Dragonback Adventure by Timothy Zahn.

Timothy Zahn is a very good writer at keeping you guessing, and he usually ends the book in a way you never expected.  Dragon and Slave fits this bill.  If you have read Dragon and Solider: The Second Dragonback Adventure, you remember that Jack joined a mercenary group trying to find out which mercenary group is assisting the Valahgua in the Orion Arm galaxy.  The Zahn twist in that novel, and here will be a spoiler, is that Jack and Draycos fail in their quest.  It is rare in action novels for the heroes to not succeed in their goals, so that was surprising.  In Dragon and Slave, Jack is going to become, you guessed it, a slave for the same purpose of trying to discover which mercenary group is helping the Valahgua, so they can find a way to save Draycos’ people the K’Da. 

First, what makes this novel series special is the character interaction between Jack, Draycos, and Uncle Virge.  In this novel you see Draycos’ and Uncle Virge’s relationship develop, which was fun and like Zahn is want to be unexpected.  These three characters are great.  Also, Dragon and Slave has the best active villain so far in this series in Gazen.  He is the first villain that Jack has faced that can out street smart and somewhat out con him, and that made Gazen fascinating to me because he actively engages Jack in a mental contest of trap and counter trap that I enjoyed.  Also, Gazen is a slave master and slave trader, which makes him incredibly vile.  I surely wanted to see Gazen get his comeuppance.  I was disgusted by him and had to recognize his intelligence, which made for a good villain. 

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