The Dragon Waiting (1983)

It was an engrossing story and I liked it. Vampires, wizards, Plantagenets, what's not to like? Ford knows a lot about the history of the late middle ages, and it shows - this alternate history is well grounded in real history. However the novel has an oblique style that I found a bit frustrating. Major parts of the story seem to take place essentially off stage.

He would lead you right up to some happening; a knife is approaching the character and then, pphhmmmff, you are somewhere else with some other character who is having lunch. A couple chapters later the character who was being approached with a knife shows up with a bandage on. Nobody really discusses what happened. A character is fleeing through the forest, a shot rings out, zip, you're at the lake with a different character. Later the forest guy shows up with a limp. A character has a secret. Three chapters later everyone knows the secret. How? I dunno.

A couple times I actually checked the pagination to see if maybe there were some pages missing or I'd had some sort of memory lapse. So I found that odd and a little irritating. Kind of like when you were a kid and the grown ups wouldn't tell you what was going on so you had to guess based on observation. ( )

"The Dragon Waiting" is set in a late mediaeval Europe which is mostly ruled by the Byzantine Empire, and in which Christianity and Islam never became the dominant religions that they were in our world at that time. I had to look up the dates of various historical characters in Wikipedia in order to guesstimate when the events of this novel were taking place, since there were a multitude of different dating systems in use. The Byzantines impose their laws on the lands they conquer but not their language (Greek) or religion (Mithraism), so that their subjects have less reason to rebel against them, but there are still regions of Italy and Eastern Europe holding out against the encroaching empire at the time this story is set. Three hundred years ago, England and the Byzantine empire partitioned France between them, leaving a small French-ruled buffer in between, but now the Byzantines are secretly supporting the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and planning to take over England and the rest of France. The protagonists of this story each have their own reason to hate the Byzantines and set off to England in an attempt to foil their plots.

I tend to mentally divide alternate history into science fiction (could have happened if things had turned out differently), and fantasy (stories including magic, fairies, dragons, psychic powers, etc.). I much prefer those that I classify as science fiction, so I was disappointed to realise that this book included magic and vampires, even though magic was hard to do and slow to achieve its aims and vampires were seen as people suffering from a disease rather than supernatural beings.

I was also irritated by the characters, who seemed to react and over-react in the most unlikely ways, and although no-one expressed any surprise about Cynthia Ricci was a doctor, I found it it jarring that she was the only woman with an anachronistic (for our world) career, apart from a brief mention of a Valkyrie regiment of women soldiers at the end of the book.

Also, from the time the protagonists got together I found it very hard to follow exactly what was going on, and more importantly why. The politics were impenetrable, as were the doings of the magicians, and the characters were always hinting things to each other and letting their sentences trail off, leaving me very confused. It would have been helpful to have had some idea why Cynthia and Peredur spent two years wandering around Wales and to have understood the point of the Robin Hood references, and I'm still unclear as to whether Peredur considered betraying Richard at the Battle of Bosworth.

It's not that I expect everything to be laid on a plate for me, but this book was so much of a struggle that I could hardly be bothered to finish it. It won the World Fantasy Award and I was expecting to enjoy it, so it was a big disappointment. ( )

Odd and compelling historical novel concerning the advent of Richard III, and how a quartet of special individuals, including, among others, "an ageless Welsh wizard and a German vampire," thwart a conspiracy to keep him off the throne.

The de'Medicis make an appearance, along with other contemporary figures. If you like historical fiction, especially that set in medieval Europe, it's worth the effort to locate this novel. (The fantastic elements are not overwhelming.) ( )

4 stars for setting, 3 stars for plot.

What if magic and more existed during the time of Richard III? How would he come to power?

The setting is exciting. John Ford keeps putting new twists on history and what could have happened. The overall plot however is a little bland and at the end I was left with a somewhat empty feeling. ( )

(wrong jacket above, but the paperback I got is very dull looking) Dull is the wrong thing for a book about a vampire infested alternate renaissance in which the byzantine empire never fell and Christianity never triumphed. With Christianity as one more sect among many, mages, vampires, Plantaganets and engineers intrigue and struggle.

It took a while to bring the disparate gang of characters together and build the world, but was worth the time and attention. The ending is abrupt and (to me) felt a little unresolved. ( )