Jayel Gibson's latest effort in her Ancient Mirrors Tale series is called Dragon Queen. It is a reworking
of her first two books, Into Abaddon's Abyss and The Dragon Queen, which were released through a
different publisher in 2005. Now, with Synergy Books, Gibson has combined these stories into a fluid tale that
fills in the history of her first Synergy publication,
The Wrekening, which came out
last year.
The resultant combined story in Dragon Queen is an epic undertaking, revealing Gibson's skill at
elaborate world building. An avid role-playing gamer, the author drafts characters and cultures that are
multi-layered and intricate. The quests and adventures are straightforward and many. Some of the characters and
storylines were crafted in collaboration with Sean W. Anderson who also is a gamer.
In 581 pages, Gibson presents detailed maps, a glossary, and a story in three parts. The first two sections
are from Into Abaddon's Abyss and comprise the majority of the book. The book presents the calling of
the Ancients, then the Guardians, and finally the creation of three races. The story centers on Yavie, a
Guardian, who discovers that she has a destiny as heir to the throne of the Dragon Queen, and who has made some
powerful enemies.
I enjoyed Dragon Queen, though I found the story almost as complicated as War and Peace. There
were a lot of characters and several different worlds to keep track of. At times, the story read more like a
narrative history. At other times, it presented small pieces of a broader panorama, as if someone were picking
up the threads of an established world and showing me this little piece and that little piece. There was a sense
of the well-trod expanse of a game with which I was not familiar..
Though I was interested in the characters, I'm not sure I felt enough empathy for them because the plot
wasn't clear where it was going with them, even after a hundred pages. Later, the story did pick up, but still
there was that sense of history unfolding instead of a story being told. This may be because I'm not a gamer,
and I needed something more to carry me through the story.
Still, Dragon Queen is grand fantasy. Look for The Wrekening and the third book,
Damselflies, which comes
out in November 2007.