The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford - REVIEW
The Dragon Waiting is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American author John M. Ford. In 1984, it won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating – amongst others – George R.R. Martin’s The Armageddon Rag and Jack Vance’s Lyonesse.
The Dragon Waiting is set in an alternate history where Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, enjoyed a much longer reign than he did in our world. Julian successfully manages to dislodge Christianity’s grip on the Western world, resulting in a medieval Europe that is far more religiously pluralistic than was our own. Our story takes place at the tail end of the Middle Ages, and the weaves the complicated political threads of Plantagenet England, Renaissance Italy, and the Byzantine Empire into one thrilling narrative. We follow three central characters; Hywel Peredur, a Welsh magician who just so happens to be the nephew of Owain Glyndwr; Cynthia Ricci, doctor to Lorenzo de Medici; and Dimitrios Ducas, a runaway Byzantine prince turned mercenary. Through the twists and turns of fate, these three find themselves embroiled in the world of intrigue surrounding England’s Wars of the Roses. If this weren’t enough, Ford has also added vampires and wizards into the mix, conjuring up a fantastic farrago like no other.
The first thing to be said about The Dragon Waiting is that it is a very complex book. The conspiracies, the allusions, the tricks and references…nothing in this book is straightforward or as it seems. Many passages, and even whole chapters, required extensive rereading and note-taking. Trust me, without a notebook at hand you’ll be completely lost as to what is happening on the page. Whilst at first I enjoyed the challenges presented by Ford, I found myself feeling piqued the more the novel wore on. Perhaps I just wasn’t careful enough in my reading, but I felt myself getting irritated by Ford’s sleight of hand tricks until I could no longer really bring myself to care much about how the plot would finally be resolved. I fully appreciate challenging your readers, but you have to at least make them care about what’s going on.
Part of my problem with the novel lies in how its structured. The Dragon Waiting has three acts, all of which provided differing levels of enjoyment. The first act, dedicated to setting up our characters and their backstories, was far and away my favourite portion of the book. Ford does an excellent job at building the motivations of his protagonists, and fleshing our their places in the world he’s created. I was invested in Owain, Cynthia, and Dimitrios, and was excited to watch them grow as people.
Distressingly, such hopes were dashed in the second act. A time skip sees our heroes fully grown and in their prime. Forget character development! We’re bypassing that so a Welsh wizard, a Florentine physician, and an exiled Byzantine prince can walk into an inn and busy themselves in one of the most convoluted murder mystery plots ever conceived in literature. I only wish that there was a punchline. This section of the novel goes on for far too long and squanders most of the investment I had up to this point. Thankfully, the book does slightly pick up again in the third section when we finally get to the political machinations and subterfuge of the Wars of the Roses, but that wasn’t enough to save the book for me.
I’m just frustrated by the prospects of how good this book could have been. There was so much potential, and much of it went to waste. I actually think that this is one of the few books that would benefit from being made into a series – a trilogy of high fantasy doorstoppers. If it were, our protagonists may have had the character development they so desperately deserved, whilst the intricate web of plots and conspiracies could have been built up over more pages. Alas, as it stands, I cannot rate The Dragon Waiting all too highly.
Rating – 4/10
