(no subject)

[skygiants]

Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane was one of the first books I ever put on my Kindle but I only got round to reading it last week, I don't know why, it just felt like the stars had aligned.

Dragonsbane, definitely written in the eighties, is a fairly intentional deconstruction of Heroic Dragonslaying Tropes, ft. as protagonist Jenny Waynest, a middle-aged witch who is constantly having Relatable Struggles Between Her Career and Her Family, which is to say between having enough study time to complete her dissertation become truly excellent at magic and the distractions of her boyfriend and their two kids. Aforementioned boyfriend, John Aversin, happens to be the lord of a fairly impoverished region and also the only living person to have ever slain a dragon (with significant assist from Jenny.)

This becomes relevant when a naive baby knight named Gareth comes riding up demanding help to slay a dragon.

NAIVE BABY KNIGHT GARETH: I am here to request the aid of the GREATEST hero in ALL THE LAND --
JOHN: Yes sorry pardon all the mud etc. but we are a very small holding here and I am busy with the pigs?
JENNY: Hey babe, long time no see, how are the kids?
JOHN: Oh, fine, fine, hope your months alone studying witchcraft in the woods went well?
NAIVE BABY KNIGHT GARETH: Pigs? Witches? Illegitimate children?
JENNY: Kiddo do you maybe need a moment to go off and clutch your pearls --
NAIVE BABY KNIGHT GARETH: YES, WITCH HARLOT, YES I DO.

Anyway, although John is reluctant to leave the pigs etc. to go kill somebody else's dragon, baby knight Gareth promises gratitude and significant financial aid from the king for the impoverished region if the quest is completed, so Jenny & John & naive baby knight Gareth ride off a-questing!

The first approximate third of the book after this is basically just The Road Trip That Shattered The Last Of Poor Baby Gareth's Illusions. However it soon turns out that what is ACTUALLY plaguing the land is the king's evil sorceress mistress who is evil, very evil, one hundred percent evil, you never can trust the pretty ones (my one complaint with the book) and the dragon is just sort of a byproduct to this, although still a byproduct that needs to be sorted out one way or another.

But, I mean, the whole political/magical plot is kind of all just a narrative excuse to force Jenny to resolve the central question of her life anyway -- whether to pursue various opportunities at power & magical knowledge & freedom (including an offer from an unexpectedly smitten dragon who's like 'RUN AWAY WITH ME, JENNY, TURN INTO A DRAGON AND RUN AWAY WITH ME TO LIVE YOUR BEST AND MOST DRAGON-TASTIC LIFE!' and honestly who among us would not find this tempting) or whether she can continue with the life she's currently leading, constantly torn between her personal potential and the needs of the people who love her, whom she loves as well, but also can't help but resent.

Which: it sucks that this is a binary choice, but I can't say the dilemma isn't real. The choice is never easy and the answer is never obvious, and I spent most of the book unsure myself what I wanted Jenny to do, which really is the biggest mark of success for this book.

A sidenote: I am told this book has sequels that should NEVER, EVER BE READ. So I am not going to read them, but the people who have read them and explicitly told me not to read them (I'm looking at you, rachelmanija and coffeeandink) could maybe make it easier for me by satisfying my horrible curiosity in detailed ROT13 or something in comments. >.>

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I've read one sequel but instantly, deliberately forgot it, which is of no immediate help. Sorry! I remember not being sure how I'd prefer Jenny's choice to be worked out or through, too; Hambly's careful balance was unique or nearly so in my reading experience at that time (circa 1992). In fact, I had to try reading the book twice--once circa 1987, after I loved unabashedly her first ST:TOS novel (I have no idea about the other tv show that underpins it, but the setting was a beautiful mashup that worked quite well within TOS confines of characterization), because in 1987 I was too young to understand that Dragonsbane was offering a choice and that that choice was extremely rare, in life or in fiction. Without that awareness, it seemed like a very dull, plodding thing. The second time, Jenny was like imprinting.

Um. Apparently I have Feelings--sorry for that very long sentence, but I'm not sure how to rewrite it better at the moment without making this clumsy comment even longer.

[skygiants]

It's so hard! Like in principle I think every woman should be able to live their best and most dragon-tastic life if they want, but also, augh.

It is a definitely an eighties book, one can tell that it is an eighties book, but also I cannot think of a book that does the same thing as well now, and the choices are still very much the same.

[thistleingrey]

and the choices are still very much the same

Yes, sadly.

[ceitfianna]

I loved this book and I feel like I read it on your rec. Don't read the sequel. My library had it, I read it and wished I didn't. There was a demon queen and weird temptations and a mess. I do love Gareth though and for all that he's naive, he adjusts well once he realizes, welp, this is my life now.

[skygiants]

It was not on my rec because I've never read it! But maybe someone in comments? I know it's been discussed extensively on previous Barbara Hambly posts.

[sovay]

Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane was one of the first books I ever put on my Kindle but I only got round to reading it last week, I don't know why, it just felt like the stars had aligned.

I know I read this book in high school and I have vague positive feelings toward it, but I can remember absolutely nothing about it except for descriptions of the quality of light and somebody's glasses.

[skygiants]

The book definitely contains both these things! For a story set in a pre-industrial society Dragonsbane includes an awful lot of glasses-wearing individuals.

[leecetheartist]

The scariest moments in that book have nothing to do with the dragon.

I'm looking at you smurfs (not their real name). And the other weird nasties in the same area that there doesn't seem to be any defence against. Scared me for quite a long time, those.

[skygiants]

I'll admit that the smurfs or whatever it is almost threw me out of the book -- I'm kind of with Gareth on that one, I'm not into shooting tiny old men and women on sight EVEN IF they are probably murder cannibals in their off-hours.

[leecetheartist]

It was pretty grim. I can see what Hambly was doing, showing us how people were affected so badly by conditions in the area, but geez.

[davidgillon]

I loved Dragonsbane, though I'm not certain I've read it since shortly after it came out. I do remember reading a sequel, but I'm damned if I remember anything about it!

[skygiants]

From what other people are saying, that's probably for the best!

[varadia]

I wanted her to run away with the dragon SO BAD.

[skygiants]

Lynneface, there is no possible universe in which I could conceive of you wanting any other conclusion.

[oracne]

I recall LOATHING the sequels, which is pretty bad, because I am a total Hambly stan.

[skygiants]

Everything I have ever heard indicates 'run screaming, do not pass Go, do not collect two thousand dollars' but this is not enough for me, I want GORY DETAILS as I run!

[silveraspen]

Dragonsbane is awesome.

Dragonshadow is hideously depressing. The OTHER sequels cross time and space and worlds to Earth and are AWFUL. AVOID.

[skygiants]

omg, I had heard about grimdark demons but had not heard about REVERSE PORTAL FANTASY, tell me more! (she demanded with no sense of self-preservation)

[rachelmanija]

I don't remember much because I literally tried to erase it from my memory and I DEFINITELY do not consider it canon. I think Hambly may have said in an interview that she was depressed when she wrote them. What I vaguely recall is

Gurer ner fhqqrayl qrzbaf sbe ab ernfba, va n havirefr juvpu unq abg cerivbhfyl orra zragvbarq gb unir qrzbaf. Gurer'f n qrzba dhrra jubz Wbua purngf ba Wraal jvgu, nyfb abg ernyyl sbe nal ernfba bgure guna orpnhfr jr ner fhqqrayl va n tevzqnex NH. Wraal vf fbzrubj frireryl ohearq naq ubeevsvpnyyl qvfsvtherq. Wbua naq Wraavr ungr gurzfryirf naq rnpu bgure.

Gura gurl tb gb YN. V sbetrg jul be jung unccraf gurer. Znlor Zbexryro ernccrnef? Naljnl, rirelguvat vf ubeevoyr sbe guerr obbxf, ohg ng gur irel raq bs obbx guerr Unzoyl frrzf gb pbzr gb ure frafrf, guvax, "Jung unir V qbar?" naq unfgvyl gevrf gb ergpba/qent n uncclvfu raqvat bhg bs gur qvfnfgre.

Yvxr V fnvq, nf sne nf V'z pbaprearq, gubfr obbxf QB ABG RKVFG. Gurer vf fbzr ernyyl fgenatr, BBP, abiry-yratgu qnexsvp bhg gurer juvpu vf fnqyl gur bayl svp V'ir frra.

[rachelmanija]

Also, I love this book, I love most of the characters and how many of them are so much more than they seem at first, and I love Jenny's choice, that it's a real choice and not an obvious or easy one. If she could have it all, the book wouldn't be half so haunting.