Dragon Rigger

Magical - AND SF!
A fantastic turn through space, with a fantasy - but not fantasy - theme. Hard to describe, but in the realm of space opera, so often filled with military campaigns and battles, this Tolkeinesque story of spaceships and dragons was ... refreshing. And the themes of risk and sacrifice were deep and meaningful - not simple adventure.

This really felt like a fantasy wrapped in a science fiction shell. Both parts were well written, but it seemed the fantasy story dominated the novel. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I don't know if I will read more in the wider series yet. If there were another with a focus (even minor) on the dragons, I certainly would.

I think you need to like both science fiction and fantasy to enjoy this book. If you do, I urge you to start with Dragons in the Stars and continue on to this one.

The first book in this duology is a simple story of the star rigger Jael - a young woman wrestling with personal issues regarding her dishonest father, and her lack of success in her chosen profession. Desperation leads her to take a commission with a decidedly shady star captain - who, sure enough, tries to enslave his new navigator with banned drug technology, and assaults her when she protests.
However, Jael finds unlikely allies - in the 'warp' space known as the flux, which riggers 'visit' as a mentally-generated landscape, she finds that there has been some truth to the unsubstantiated rumors of dragons in space...
A very light and simple story - I almost felt that it would have been better as a short story rather than a novel.

The show more sequel, Dragon Rigger, is much more complex - one almost feels as if the first book was merely an introduction to the characters and scenario. Now, the realm of the dragons is torn by a vicious civil war. If the Enemy wins, he may even break out of the Flux and subsume human space with his evil plans.
However, an ancient prophecy seems to indicate that Jael may be involved with the end of the war - the good dragons hope that this means she will help them - but it could equally be interpreted to mean that her death will spell the end of the dragons' Realm. Better than the first one, I thought, but the book suffers from weak individual characterizations and a fairly typical fantasy plot.

(But I liked the parrot - more spaceships should have a cyber-parrot!) show less