Spine of the Dragon

April 1, 2019
Anderson begins a new high fantasy series, Wake the Dragon, after recent diversions into science fiction (The Dark Between the Stars, 2014, etc.). Long ago, the nonhuman wreths created humans (with whom they can interbreed) as servants, then occupied themselves with killing their hereditary foe, a huge, evil dragon. This caused great destruction, depleted the land of magic, and ultimately failed, after which they disappeared, leaving the world to humans. Many years later, two continents, the Commonwealth of the Three Kingdoms and Ishara, fought bloody wars; desultory raids across the sea continue. Now, astonishingly, Queen Voo and her sandwreths show up to inform Adan Starfall, king of Suderra, that they are resuming their quest. Somehow, they still have magic; worse, they're going to fight Queen Onn and her frostwreths first. Voo offers Adan an alliance against the frostwreths. What to do? Well, nobody's ever accused Anderson of writing bleak, hard-edged realism, and the oft-repeated mantra "the beginning is the end is the beginning" is as profound as he gets. Instead, he builds momentum with a measured but relentless pace, introducing multiple characters and points of view in different locations and steadily increasing complications with glimpses of plots within plots, motives behind motives, and secrets inside secrets. Thus we learn of Empra Iluris of Ishara and her dangerously belligerent rival, Priestlord Klovus. Blood-magic halfbreed warriors called Brava are sworn to protect the Commonwealth and Konag (high king) Conndur, whose son and heir, Mandan, has no interest in statecraft and prefers to paint portraits. Elliel, an outcast Brava, labors in the mines where the wreths' dragon probably slumbers. And so forth. Piecemeal, it's undistinguished. Aggregated, it's seductive. The pages turn almost by themselves, because you absolutely, categorically have to find out what happens next.

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Starred review from May 6, 2019
Anderson (the Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series) smoothly tells a harrowing story of powerful magic and gritty battles on a world where the two continent-spanning empires, the Commonwealth and Ishara, are at war. The wreths, the long-vanished creators of the human race, return to wake a dangerous dragon and destroy the world that humans have built. The wreths had become no more than old stories; then the queen of the sandwreths appears after a sandstorm and asks to become allies with a human king, while another king finds everyone in his daughter’s village killed by frostwreths. When a fiery explosion destroys a mountain range, it becomes evident that the legends of a dragon are also true. But when the leaders of the Commonwealth ask for peace with Ishara to fight the wreths together, they find that opposition from their own people may be the greatest danger. Scenes of rape and incest and mentions of pedophilia may be difficult for some readers. This epic fantasy takes readers on a sometimes brutal, often enthralling journey through marvelously detailed lands with intriguing characters, and Anderson does an impressive job of juggling numerous points of view and levels of story. Grimdark fantasy fans will find this an enticing series start. Agent: John Silbersack, Bent Agency.