|
A family has gathered together following the death of a patriarch,
and now his children are jostling to see who will be his replacement.
The eldest son is a member of the church and is worried about
the deathbed confession he heard, while the youngest wants
to go to law so he can get more than his share of the inheritance.
Meanwhile, one of his daughters is passionate about abolishing
slavery, another is set to follow her heart and find love…
This sounds like the plot of many books in various different
genres. There is going to be conflict, intrigue, maybe murder
and a certain amount of romance, and a reviewer has likened
it to the work of Jane Austen. But there is a twist; because
all the characters have one thing in common; they are all
dragons! Hence the title and fantasy designation, although
this is essentially more similar in many ways to 19th century
novels and intended to be as it says in the introduction.
Ms. Walton has created a world that has many of the trappings
of the Anthony Trollope novels she is emulating a rigid class
system, arranged marriages, slavery etc., but many of its
own as well. The characters all neatly fit into the stereotypes
you expect to find in old novels and for once this does not
matter, as this is one of the points of the book. It suffers
somewhat from info dump in the first few chapters as the reader
tries to take it all in and is not one of those exciting fantasies
with battles, quests and the like but something more imaginative
and unusual. You can't prop a door open with it for one thing,
and it is not part of a trilogy but this all adds to its appeal;
it truly is something very different. I felt it was a breath
of fresh air in a genre that usually needs one, and proof
if you need it that Ms. Walton is an author to watch.
|
