Book Review - 'The Dragon Waiting' by John M. Ford
‘The Dragon Waiting’ by John M. Ford
‘The Wars of the Roses have put Edward IV on the throne of England; Lorenzo de Medici’s court shines brilliantly. But this is a changed world, and Europe is dominated by the threat from the Byzantine Empire, while from Milan, Sforza, the Vampire Duke, marshals his forces for his long-planned attack on Florence.
The winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, The Dragon Waiting is a rich and powerful novel, full of swordplay, wizardry, vampirism, political intrigue and passion, that brilliantly explores an alternative world in which Byzantium was not extinguished in 1453.’
Continuing my goal of reading the books I own that I haven’t read yet, instead of continuously buying new ones.
I bought this book some years ago, along with a couple of others in the ‘Fantasy Masterworks’ series.
Never having read anything by John M. Ford, I got this purely on the description, and had high hopes for it.
The book is divided into 5 parts, and in the first part, we’re introduced to the 3 main characters in turn, starting with Hywel Peredur.
His story begins in Wales and Hywel, aged 10, works at a tavern owned by the couple who took him in and raised him.
His vivid imagination offsets the mundane daily routine:‘… Hywel stood on the Roman paving below the innyard, and was King of the Romans.
Fields all his dominion rolled out forever before and below him, lined and set with trees that from the height were no more than tufts on a cloth of patchwork greens and browns.’
His imaginary play is interrupted by the arrival of English soldiers and a prisoner, a wizard, on their way to York for the prisoner’s execution.
Hywel’s curiosity is piqued when he learns the wizard is ‘“… an eastern sorcerer…”’ from the City of Constantine.
The arrival of the wizard sets Hywel on a path beyond his wildest imagination.
The next chapter takes us to Gaul and our second main character, Dimitrios Ducas, whose father was made governor of the province a few years previous.
Dimitrios, in his mid-teens, is close to and admires his father, Cosmas Ducas, whose ancestors had held the throne of the Byzantine Empire before being displaced.
His seemingly secure life is abruptly thrown into disarray by a series of unforeseen events.
Finally, we’re taken to Florence, and our third character, 22-year-old Cynthia Ricci.
She and her father are doctors to ‘the most powerful magnate in Italy… Lorenzo de’ Medici, il Magnifico, head of the Medici Bank and ruler-without-portfolio of the Florentine Republic…’
Frustrated at not being able to act freely because of a family secret, Cynthia is inadvertently drawn into political intrigues, finding herself on a path she doesn’t want to be on.
I enjoyed Part 1, especially the first 2 chapters about Hywel and Dimitrios.
Ford gives a good portrayal of the strong bond between Dimitrios and his cohort of friends, all local boys.
Unfortunately, I found Cynthia’s chapter confusing.
There are lots of characters and names to follow, which I don’t usually have a problem with; maybe it’s something to do with the Italian names, I don’t know.
In Part 2, the characters come together, and a fourth is introduced, Gregory von Bayern.
It’s from this point that I started to feel the plot was becoming somewhat… vague, is the word that comes to mind.
It wasn’t immediately obvious who the characters were as they were using alternate identities.
The plot goes off on a tangent, reading more like an Agatha Christie novel as they try to solve a whodunit murder!
One thing I found annoying because it added to my confusion is the lack of dates and no hint whatsoever as to how much time has passed and what the ages of Hywel, Dimitrios, and Cynthia now are.
Anyone who knows the history of the Byzantine Empire and England around the time of the Wars of the Roses will have quite the advantage as there are tons – and I do mean tons – more characters who appear in Part 3 and beyond.
Not only are there new characters and names to keep track of once we’re in England where royal sons tend to have the same names as their fathers, nobility also have titles, which are extensively used.
As an example of my level of confusion, one of the characters is Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, Earl Rivers.
In the same paragraph, Ford refers to him as Anthony; Scales; and Rivers!
Another thing, not one person seemed surprised that Cynthia is a doctor.
All the other women we encounter are what we’d expect in a story set in this time – nobility, royalty, peasants, servants, healers, tavern workers – yet not once does anyone express surprise about her career choice.
As the story progressed, my heart sank as I realised Cynthia is a Mary Sue!
Suffice to say, that coloured my perception of her, and I wasn’t even halfway through the book.
I had no trouble with Ford’s style of writing, which is straightforward enough, unlike the plot.
His description of Byzantium, the City Beautiful:
‘… the miles of triple walls, patrolled by men in armor of hammered gold, pierced by seven times seven gates plus one… Byzantium’s wide streets met at forums set with columns of porphyry and ivory and gold… wound into bazaars at which all the fruits of Earth and crafts of Man could be purchased… Stone-arched aqueducts brought pure water to the City. Manmade tunnels carried its waste away. In Byzantium were more palaces than most cities had temples, and more temples than cities had houses. And at the heart of the conurbation, glory among glories, stood the Pantheon Kyklos Sophia, the Circle of Wisdom.’
I particularly liked this description of an old boar:
‘It was a big beast, nearly white, as if stones and branches and dirty snow had grown tusks and a temper.’
As the end of the book drew near, I could no longer be bothered about proceedings.
Everything was so vague with characters hinting at things, leaving sentences unfinished, and I couldn’t get a handle on the politics.
I didn’t feel any peril, and because I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, apart from Dimitrios, I didn’t care for their fate.
The ending left me very underwhelmed.
Much as I hate to say it, I was disappointed with this alternate history in which the Roman religion remains the dominant religion and not Christianity or Islam, the Byzantine Empire continues to influence most, if not all, Europe, and vampirism appears to be accepted although vampires are loathed.
Obviously, this is my personal opinion, and it would appear I’m in a minority; enough people have enjoyed this going by the reviews and it did win the 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
If this period and alternate histories are your thing, and you haven’t read this yet, you may like it.