Reviews

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford

rbreade's review against another edition

The story of how this award-winning novel fell out of print and after twenty years finally returned to bookshelves--Isaac Butler's " "The Disappearance of John M. Ford", in Slate, is worth its own read.

Ford's wonderful "what if?" premise goes like this: What if the Emperor Julian followed through with his resolve not to have a favored religion for the Byzantine Empire, reversing Constantine's support for Christianity, so that instead of monotheism, the existing pagan religions continued to flourish alongside Christianity, and what if magic of a spooky, dangerous sort existed, as well as vampires, of a sort, and finally what if a group of people--a Welsh wizard, a Florentine doctor, a Byzantine mercenary, and a German vampire/artillerist--banded together to thwart a literal Byzantine plot to establish its puppet on the throne of England, pushing the claim instead of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the historical Richard III?

Ford has the writing chops to pull this off in literary style, writing as tight and as crackling a sentence as anyone in any genre. And when he says, in that Butler story, that he "has a horror of being obvious," he's not kidding around: if you blink or nod, you'll find yourself lost. Even if you're reading closely, you might need to flip back and reread sections: Ford isn't going to serve his reader pre-chewed plot points and inferences!

nedhayes's review against another edition

4.0

Fascinating historical fiction by a grandmaster of fantasy I've never read before. Interesting premise... but an odd approach to the plot momentum. One is never quite sure what is happening or why. Nevertheless, enthralling.

condorsalfin's review against another edition

4.0

This was a clever twist on some Medieval European history with well-blended fantasy elements. I thought it was quite interesting to see this age of the world without the influence of Christianity but instead with paganism as the main belief system.

duriangray's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bozonbozonski's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

archergal's review against another edition

4.0

Read for our SF/F book club.

I'd known of John M. Ford for some time, but hadn't read much by him. Part of it was the reputation of his books being difficult reads. I prepared for this by having a page open to the Draco Concordans page. I had the audiobook as well as the ebook. Following the words with my eyes while I hear the story with my ears sometimes helps ME with challenging texts.

Well, honestly, I'd probably have been okay without all that. The Draco Concordans DOES give some additional info and insight, especially about the history of the time. (Most history is a closed book to me.) A few additional glosses on the texts helped, but not as much as I expected it to, TBH.

As the introduction says, if you've read the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian, you should probably be ok with following the text. I always read introductions last. By the time I read the intro to this book, I'd already decided that yes, Mr. Ford writes a lot like O'Brian. (Also, apparently, like Dorothy Dunnett, who I haven't yet read. But she's on my list.)

I quite liked the writing, and the audiobook narrator was quite good too. The characters are memorable. I expect they'll float around in my brain for a while.

Good stuff. Maybe I'll try another John M. Ford book now, besides [b:How Much for Just the Planet?|268442|How Much for Just the Planet? (Star Trek Worlds Apart, #2)|John M. Ford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388927639l/268442._SY75_.jpg|209995] :)

changeablelandscape's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I read this once on an airplane in the late 90s and remembered nothing about it except that

Richard III showed up and that there were vampires

, so I am glad I took the time to reread it!  It's an interesting alt-historical world in which Christianity didn't take hold in the west but the rest of European history happened on track, which honestly doesn't hold up *at all* if I think about it -- but whatever!  Ford wanted 15th century Europe but with magic and Mithras, and so that's what he did.

My challenge with this book is that Ford famously had a horror of being too obvious in his writing, which means this is not a straightforward book -- what happens plot-wise is complex enough, with lots of intrigue and double-crossing and jumps in time and space, but what happens emotionally for the POV characters is even more complicated.  At times a character would have a huge emotional reaction to an event and I'd be completely at a loss to understand why, needing to go back and reread several times to pick up the tiny hints Ford drops about who loves/hates/wants whom, which makes for a very un-immersive book!   When I was younger I used to love that about Ford, and I hope I still will in some of my favourite work by him, but this time around it made things slog -- I'm not sure I'll reread this again, or at least not for a long time.

elros451's review against another edition

5.0

A very unique combination of historical fiction and fantasy. Having cursory knowledge of the War of the Roses is really helpful to read this. The writing is complex but amazing. The story telling is also complex but it makes following the plot fun instead of a chore. The four main characters were all really good. There is also wonderful murder mystery in one section of the book that I enjoyed a lot as well. It made me want to re-read almost immediately because I wanted to catch more things.

secretlyadoombot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

irish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0