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From: ecl@ahutb.UUCP (e.c.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.books
Subject: THE DRAGON WAITING
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Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 11:39:18 EST
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Posted: Mon Apr 15 11:39:18 1985
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                     THE DRAGON WAITING by John M. Ford
                             Avon, 1983, $3.50.
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper

     The hard-cover edition of this novel was published two years ago and
won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel at last year's World Fantasycon.
So I eagerly awaited the paperback publication of THE DRAGON WAITING (okay,
so I'm cheap!).  Well, it's finally available.  Was it worth the wait?  I'm
not sure, but I think it was.

     The problem, I think, is that I'm not a historian.  I know some
history, but there is so much history in this book--and it's not all real.
Though the book is chock-a-block with real historical characters (Richard
III, the Medicis, Louis XI, etc.), no one seems to be quite the way the
history book describe them--in fact, none of them seem to be Christian.
Everyone seems to belong to some strange cult or other, each with its own
special symbols and rites.  Since my knowledge of *real* Fifteenth Century
history is perhaps not all that it should be (especially in Italy and
France, where most of the beginning of the book takes place), I spent most
of the novel telling myself that I was merely confused.  Well, yes, when
they introduced the German vampire and the Welsh wizard, I knew that this
was not historically accurate, but I figured that this was just one small
bit pasted onto reality.  It was not until I read the historical notes at
the end that I realized that Ford had constructed an alternate universe, one
in which the Emperor Julian re-established paganism and in which Justinian I
had time to consolidate his gains--in short, one in which Byzantium did not
fall to the Crusaders and in which Christianity remained merely another
strange sect (here called the Jeshites).  I relate all this so that if *you*
read the book, you'll have a better idea of what is going on.

     If I factor out my confusion in what the heck was going on with
history, I would have to say that I enjoyed the book.  The characters were
interesting (though so many of them did tend to be confusing at times) and
the story, centering around Arthurian legends and what really did happen to
those two nephews of Richard III, was involving.  The descriptive passages
are well-written (as one has come to expect of fantasy) and I suspect if you
can follow what's going on without the confusion that I had, it would be
completely involving.  Do I recommend this novel?  Let's put it this way--
now that I know where Ford is coming from, so to speak, I want to go back
and re-read the book.  If that's not a recommendation, I'm not sure what is.

     By the way, this is a prime example of why alternate history novels are
so hard to do well.  They're either too heavy-handed about the dividing
points, making them very important and obvious events like the Crucifixion
or World War II, or they are too subtle, as in this novel.  The heavy-handed
ones seem to feel that one can make large-scale changes without having them
filter down to small ones.  (If World War II never happened, Kennedy would
never have been elected President, though one alternate history has that
pair of events happening.)  The subtle ones leave the world so similar as to
confuse the reader.  Perhaps only historians can really enjoy well-written
alternate history stories like this one.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
For now, I am				...ihnp4!ahutb!ecl
But, on May 1, I become			...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl