Glass Dragons (Moonworlds Saga)

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first
Review: The second book in a fantasy series by the imaginative and fairly funny Sean McmMullen. Set in a parallel world with somewhat different kinds of humans and magic as a form of technology. This is a better book than the first book in the series, Voyage of the Shadowmoon. Glass Dragons has a more focused plot, a smaller cast of characters, and more dramatic integrity than Voyage of the Shadowmoon. Most of the characters are carryovers from the first book and a limitation of this book is that it is more enjoyable if you've slogged through the first book. It also has a similar theme to the first book. A large scale and destructive magical device is created and the book is about efforts to destroy it. This is McMullen's recurrent theme, the dangers of attempting large scale manipulation of the natural world, which appears in this series and also in a slightly different way in his prior Greatwinter trilogy. Despite the joky tone of his writing, it appears that McMullen is producing books that are, in part, allegorical commentaries on the dangers of modern attempts to control the natural world.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: The second book in a fantasy series by the imaginative and fairly funny Sean McmMullen. Set in a parallel world with somewhat different kinds of humans and magic as a form of technology. This is a better book than the first book in the series, Voyage of the Shadowmoon. Glass Dragons has a more focused plot, a smaller cast of characters, and more dramatic integrity than Voyage of the Shadowmoon. Most of the characters are carryovers from the first book and a limitation of this book is that it is more enjoyable if you've slogged through the first book. It also has a similar theme to the first book. A large scale and destructive magical device is created and the book is about efforts to destroy it. This is McMullen's recurrent theme, the dangers of attempting large scale manipulation of the natural world, which appears in this series and also in a slightly different way in his prior Greatwinter trilogy. Despite the joky tone of his writing, it appears that McMullen is producing books that are, in part, allegorical commentaries on the dangers of modern attempts to control the natural world.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first
Review: The sequel to the Voyage of the Shadowmoon, The Glass Dragon again unites the main casts to confront a new danger that might again destroy the world.
If the ending to The Voyage of the Shadowmoon, left you with a warm fuzzy feeling, my advice to you is to treasure that moment and avoid this book. The main issue I had throughout The Glass Dragon was a lack of a definitive antagonist. With Shadowmoon, there were active characters who were intent on using Silvedeath to gain power (Warsovran, Feran, etc). The Dragonwall is a danger that is similar to Silverdeath in that it's a weapon of doomsday potential that is available to anybody. However, unlike the pursuers of Silverdeath, the Dragonwall's "people" were all annonymous who might or might not have used it for their selfish purposes once they realized it's true potential. Also, about 30% of the story was actually devoted to Dragonwall. The majority of the book was focused on the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-like antics of Andry and Wallas, who go from place to place with no rhyme or reason with little or no relation to the overall plot. Personally, I thought the book would have benefited if the story focused solely on the antics of these two instead of confusing the overall flow of the story with intermittent scenes about the Dragonwall. In all honesty, if it wasn't for the Terry Pratchett-like humor and dialogue I probably would have given this book a lesser rating.