Dragon America

Continuing with the all-historical dragon theme, I decided to pick up Mike Resnick's DRAGON AMERICA from the library. The dragons in this book only resemble Naomi Novik's in shape and size. Otherwise, the books cannot be more different. In this America, dragons exist to fill the niche of large predators and herbivores. While some larger species like bison exist, the dragon occupies all niches from insetivore to scavenger to large man-eater. And some of them breathe fire too. However, the dragons are little more intelligent than animals and are used more as food or labour. There is no discourse with them as Novik plotted. Instead, the dragons are trained or lured into the fight to assist the Americans in their fight for freedom. Our characters (Daniel Boone, George Washington, and others) use their own creativity to win the day and the dragons are just a tool for victory.

DRAGON AMERICA is a fun short novel and leaves open the possibility of future stories. Resnick is one of the great short story writers in science fiction and his novels are not bad either. I think his KIRINYAGA is in my queue somewhere and I suggested the use of a couple of those stories to a professor some months back.