The good news: This book is, in my opinion, the strongest book in The Dragonvarld Trilogy.The bad news: Considering the first and third books use dragon rape as a major driving force, I'm not so sure if this is a distinction this book can be proud of. (and I'm not being flippant about this either; the third book in particular is pretty gross)Oh boy, despite my complete disgust with the first book, I decided to forge on through with the sequel. Call it bile fascination, a chance for redemption, or just plain stupidity, but I had to see what the first book set up play out. And, surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't good, but it felt like a huge improvement nonetheless.This book is not as action-packed as the first and third novels in this series and mainly involves the two sons of Melisande and their two different struggles in growing up with two very different forms of dragon magic flowing in their bloodstreams. Ven is the son of Grald (aka a dragon with a lot of problems) and he's physically a scaly monster from the waist down. Marcus is the son of King Edward but inherited dragon magic from his mom that allows him to enter trances and listen in on the dragons' telepathic conversations. There is some intrigue involving dragon politics, there is a traitor in the dragon council, Draconas is still trying to stop an impeding war, and the two main dragon villains are still kicking around, but the sons are the main focus and the pace kind of slows down a bit as we watch these two boys grow up.Out of the two sons, I ended up liking Marcus a lot more just because Ven falls into the brooding antihero "I will never experience true love" category without offering much of anything new. He mopes, he considers himself a freak and an outcast, he has some near misses with his many disguises, his home life is not ideal (even though I kind of wish Bellona would acknowledge her past relationship with Melisande; did the explicit lesbianism not get past the censors the second time around?)...meanwhile, I ended up empathizing more with Marcus because his status of being an outcast was more subtle. The people in his life don't hate him so much as pity him and coddle him because they fear he might have a mental illness. Marcus is overall a more pleasant character to read about.I think what bumped up my opinion of this book is the cast of characters. The cast of Mistress of Dragons was, for the most part, pretty boring at best and annoying to downright revolting at worst. The Dragon's Son at least improves things a little bit by introducing some characters that carry the story a lot better. Bellona, now embittered by the death of her former lover, tries to craft the freakish half-dragon adopted son of hers into a tool of vengeance (hence his name; this is the same universe where Draconas is an appropriate name for a disguised dragon). Ven and Marcus, while not terrifically exciting main leads, are a huge improvement over the King and Melisande in the first book. The King from the first book is back but he's matured and we even get some personal conflict from his wife as she's raising his bastard child.And then we get to Evelina and her father, swindlers who run a freak show and kidnap Ven. Margaret Weis has a peculiar strength in writing engaging con men and the moment Evelina shows up in the book, she sweeps the carpet underneath our brooding male protagonist and steals the entire show just by how over-the-top she and her father are. Easily my favorite parts of the book were Evelina's parts, especially when she would learn of someone's social status and instantly change her behavior after being rude to them in hopes of gaining a piece of that princely pie. In terms of actual story, it's typical "time skip in a series" fare in that most of it is setting up the new cast of characters and laying down the groundwork for the final book. No actual progress is made for the good guys and there are some fight scenes that actually were kind of neat but aren't actually important to the plot. It was just pleasant to read. Not the best, but I had to see the book through to the end rather than slog through it in vain hope that it would improve and that's the best praise I can give it. There is a twist at the end involving Ven...it feels abrupt and there isn't much development that leads up to it. But I at least felt compelled to read what happened after said twist, which is more than what I can say about the first book.All in all, I think this book, this poor beleaguered piece of literature attached to a very lackluster trilogy, could almost make it as a standalone book. If you have to read a Dragonvarld book (and honestly, why would you, when Weis has written dozens of books far better than this in her career), the events of Mistress of Dragons are effectively summed up in this book and it would be better to imagine your own ending than dive into Master of Dragons.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.This typical middle novel concerns the twin sons born to Melisande: Marcus, the son of the King of Idlyswylde, and Ven (short for Vengeance), the son of the dragon who (in the body of the human Grald) raped her. Most of the book focuses on the development of both boys from age 6 to 16. Neither of them know about the other. Ven is half dragon (his legs are dragon's legs) and is being raised by Bellona (Melisande died at the end of Mistress of Dragons). Bellona keeps Ven hidden from the world as best she can. He is, of course, frustrated and lonely and feels like a freak. Marcus is a bastard prince who lives in luxury but possesses some form of Melisande's Dragon magic, so he kind of feels like a freak, too. The rogue dragons Grald and Meristara are looking for the boys, but Draconas watches the boys from afar and occasionally intervenes when necessary, telling the boys not to open their minds to "The Dragon" (Grald).Things finally get going when Ven encounters a thief and his daughter Evelina (by far the two most interesting and well-done characters) who find out he's a monster and manage to capture him and sell him to a travelling freak show. In desperation, he calls for his father, and Grald and Maristara show up in human bodies to rescue him. They take Evelina, too, which makes things more interesting because she's such a greedy opportunist. So far, she's been completely repulsed by Ven, but when they arrive at Dragon Keep and she finds out he's the prince, she changes her tune.Belona, desperately searching for Ven, finds Marcus and asks for his help because she somehow guesses that the boys can contact each other through their minds. So, off go Marcus and Belona to save Ven. They arrive in Dragon Keep and the boys finally meet each other. The fun part is when Evelina finds out that Marcus is a prince, too, and again changes her tune. Evelina is an entertaining character so far, and Weis handles her deftly, but too much more and it would be over-the-top. In fact, Margaret Weis's strength is excellent characterization and her villains are especially well-done.There is a surprising betrayal at the end of the book and, in addition, it is unclear whether Ven will choose to go the human way or the rogue dragon way, therefore, the reader feels compelled to finish the trilogy. In fact, The Dragon's Son is a typical middle novel in that it doesn't accomplish much except to set up the scene for the final act.I listened to this on audio. The readings are divided between a male and female reader. The male reader did a fine job (though this is clearly not up to the standard of Recorded Books or Blackstone Audio), but the female reader was annoying. Rather than just read, she sort of acted out the parts and often chose a whiny wheedling voice that really got on my nerves. Two and one half stars.
What do You think about The Dragon's Son (2005)?
This book beats the first one in the Dumb Names Dept., Melisandre's (spoiler alert) child by dragon rape child who is raised by her lesbian lover is named Vengenance, shortened to Ven. I can't even...
—Amanda Hamilton
This answered my unanswered questions from book 1 so that is good (read book 1 review if you care). But my new questions are why aren't Marcus and Ven crazy like the Monks, instead they are "special"? They were created with the same format I believe. I don't understand why Ven is cruel sometimes and compassionate other times.. I don't see his motive for being cruel, it seems out of character for him. And, I can't wait to see Eva-leena get what's coming to her. I hate that girl!I don't really und
—Corinne
