Dragon in Chains

Told from the point of view of several people, including Han, the scribes boy enslaved by a pirate and spelled to hold a dragon chained below the ocean, Mei Feng, a fisher girl turned emperor's friend and concubine, and Yu Shan, a jade miner with powers granted by special jade properties, this is a marvelous tale. An emperor in exile, a populace brutalized by war, a pirate who was once someone else,a ll roiling about a medieval China that never was, but should have been.

Based in medieval China, Dragon in Chains is the first part of a trilogy written by Daniel Fox. Magic is very much real in this alternate universe, but subtle enough that many don't realize it exists. A young emperor flees to the island of Taishu with his court, escaping rebel soldiers. He must make his final stand on this small island with a slowly dissolving army and a population that dislikes him. Meanwhile, a miner finds a huge piece of jade and sets out to give it to the emperor, slowly changing into something different and more powerful. And, even more pressing yet, a dragon lies beneath the island, and a slave must take the duty of keeping it under control when a pirate kills the monks that were pressed with that duty before. With multiple threads converging on one tiny island, this book is fast-paced and can keep anyone reading, and is a superb start to this new trilogy. Reviewed by James Rojek

From first page to last, reading `Dragon in Chains' you know you are in the hands of a gifted storyteller. The story has a wonderful quality of old-fashioned adventure: flight and fight, peril and escape, great courage in unexpected places--and really, never a dull moment. The cast of characters is colourful and distinctive, ranging across all walks of life from slave to Emperor, old man to young girl, and pretty much everything in between. My knowledge of Chinese history and culture is pretty thin, but I was instantly drawn in to a vivid sense of place and time, involved in the characters' often dramatic change in fortunes in a war-torn land. The author doesn't flinch from describing brutality, violence and degradation at its worst, but even the most shocking of this is never gratuitous, handled with sensitivity and compassion. I was particularly impressed with the way the magical elements were at once understated yet utterly essential to the story. This is a tale that has the integrity of a jewel: it may be complex, but it is not a collection of parts thrown together for effect, but a shining whole. And the writing? Exquisite. I'm looking forward to much more from Daniel Fox.

The pirates of the ship Shalla led by Captain Li Ton kill Master Doshu the scribe and take prisoner his young apprentice-servant Han. Another pirate raiding party brings a boy Yerli they captured from his master a fake magician they killed. Li needs a new cabin boy, but only wants one child who will obey once he loses a finger or two. He asks the candidates what skills they possess. Han says he can read; Li explains he is not needed as he is the only one allowed to read. Yerli says he can see the future; Li insists only he chooses the future. Li forces a dual between the boys with the winner having a job and the loser a swim. Instead Yerli shows Han what he sees before leaping into the sea; Han becomes contaminated with magic even as he is the new cabin slave. On Taishu Island, the exiled young Emperor Chien is in hiding when a local brings him a magical jade. Meanwhile Li and his crew kill monks who kept an ancient sea dragon chained just off the island; Han takes over the burden of keeping the monster contained. Their adventures have just begun. This is a terrific medieval fantasy that captures the essence of Chinese mythology. The story line is fast-paced as Han ends up in one misadventure after another while serving a brutal pirate captain. Fast-paced from the onset, the opening adage sums up the saga: "When dragons bleed, they bleed in gold. When they weep, they weep in jade". Humans want both so they need dragons to bleed and weep. Fans who relish something different in their quest fantasy will appreciate DRAGONS IN CHAINS as pirates, monks, mages, and two boys make for a stirring Chinese historical fantasy. Harriet Klausner

This gorgeously written book is the first part of a new fantasy trilogy which draws on medieval China for its inspiration. It's an alternate universe China, of course, and one of the ways in which it's alternate is that magic is real, if largely subtle. Subtle enough that some characters do not realise that the magic is there. Even the dragon of the title is a background menace in this first book, thought of as myth by the people who don't live in her territory, although she's a key part of one of the main plot threads. That's plot threads, plural. One of the joys of the book is that there are multiple plot threads, skillfully balanced by a writer who knows how to use them to create a complex story with several distinctive characters. All of these threads converge on Taishu, a remote island on the edge of empire. On the physical edge, at least. Taishu may seem remote and insignificant to most, but it is the source of the jade that underpins the power of the Jade Throne and the Emperor who sits on it. He who holds Taishu holds the empire, in a very real sense, and Taishu is about to become the centre of more than one conflict. These could all easily become a cliched story, but here they are in the hands of a master storyteller. Fox weaves them together to make a multi-layered story where subtle clues are laid well in advance, creating an "oh, of course!" as the hints finally slot together to make the full picture. It's no surprise that this works so well, as "Daniel Fox" is the pseudonym of an award-winning writer with a depth of experience in both crime fiction and fantasy. The world he has created is strongly grounded in reality, but has magic added, and the consequences of that are woven into the world he shows, rather than the magic being thrown in with no thought for how it might affect things. This world and its characters are described in beautiful and beautifully controlled prose. The result is a richly detailed fantasy that explores new ground rather than treading well-worn paths. Dragon in Chains is quite definitely the first part of a single story, but there is enough plot, and intermediate resolution of various plot threads, to make the book a satisfying read in its own right rather than merely a cliffhanger designed to get you to keep buying the series. This is a complex and enticing dark fantasy that is well worth the wait for the next part.