★★★★☆ Identify the Trout!

Dragonfall

LR Lam

Everen is a dragon. Dragons live in a dying world. Hundreds of years ago they lived in a green, growing world in partnership with humans. But the humans betrayed the dragons and exiled them to this dying world. That, at least, is the story as dragons tell it. Humans have a different story.

Everen falls into the human world, where he finds he is magically bonded to Arcady, a thief in the city of Vatra. Everen's sister Cassia tells him he can use this magical bond to allow dragons to escape their dying world

--Yes, she said, as she faded from view. Make your little human love you. Do what you must. And then kill it. Her gaze was unblinking. Bring us home, Everen. Give us our world.

This immediately reminded me of something I read long ago in Glory Road by Robert Heinlein,

You tickle trout by gaining their confidence, and then abusing it.

(Trout tickling is a way to catch trout with ones bare hands.) So, it transpires that Cassia has sent Everen on a fishing expedition. He is to catch the human world by gaining Arcady's confidence, then betraying it. Dragons view humans as treacherous vermin, so it is plausible that Everen and Cassia would have no more compunction about betraying a human than Heinlein's hero Oscar had about betraying a trout. By the way, what I've told you so far is in the publisher's blurb, so no spoilers yet.

But then I thought, "I know how stories like this go. Will Everen go through with it, or will he have sympathy for Arcady and decide he can't betray them? In fact, who is the more adept at treachery: Everen the isolated dragon prince, or Arcady, the thief of the corrupt city of Vatra?" The question answers itself. Perhaps Everen, not Arcady, is the trout. And then I thought further, "L.R. Lam didn't fall off the apple cart yesterday. Surely they know their readers will see these plot twists coming. Perhaps they are trying to trick me into expecting the obvious plot. In fact, this is advertised as the first book of a trilogy, so we need something unexpected. Am I the trout?"

Now, to be clear, these were just my thoughts as I began to read. I am not telling you that the things I just hinted at happen. I am not telling you that they don't happen. I am telling you only that Dragonfall is a book about treachery. Treachery and magic and dragons and perhaps friendship and love, but definitely treachery.

Dragonfall has the now familiar structure of a multiple first-person point-of-view novel. Each chapter is told by a single character. There are three main points of view: Everen, Arcady, and Soren. I have not mentioned Soren before. Arcady and Soren have twisty minds, and I enjoyed their points of view a lot. Everen was a little less fun, but I expect him to become more interesting in the next books.

I certainly look forward to the future books and intend to read them.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy of Dragonfall. This review expresses my honest opinions.

Amazon review

Goodreads review

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AnonymousMay 6, 2023 at 3:13 PM
Interesting review
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