Rating: 
Summary: Best book I read in 2000
Review: I ordered this title sight unseen, with no prior knowledge of its storyline or quality. With "Dragon" in the title, I figured I was getting another good gritty dark fantasy novel. Even a weak Glen Cook paperback is worth paying out of print bookseller prices, so I went for it.I was pleasantly suprised to get this particular book in the mail! Space opera is the best way to describe the genre, showing all sides of a declining, far flung insterstellar empire maintained by a remote administration. Policy is made and enacted by a fleet of dreadnaughts that are few and far between the stars. They protect their empire against remote hostile alien forces, and against the enemy within, nascent kingdoms of merchant princes scheming to master not only their own solar systems but the big catch -- capturing a stellar warship! All sides have their idealists, their practical realists, and their outright fools, and all put forward extraordinary effort to advance their agendas. Many of Glen Cook's books have an epic scale, but this one is amazing, with hundreds of combat ships duking it out across whole solar systems, dead soldiers resurrected in their own cloned bodies, star fleets dispatched by computer, dead tactical officers' minds manifested as vertual beings that gradually lose touch with humanity, intelligent starships generating animatrons who can be seduced by a nymphomaniac spoiled heiress, manhunts over a whole arm of the galaxy, and a breathtaking chase sequence that made me think of the opening credits from the original "Star Wars". As always Cook shows us these events from the point of view of those who do the work. Oh, the title is a metaphor. The empire of humanity is a pile of jewels sought by avariscious beings within and without. The "Dragon" who guards it is the interstellar fleet that must be constantly vigilant, and not always nice. Thus, their fleet directive ... "The Dragon Never Sleeps". Some of the characters are aware of where they stand in relation to this metaphor, some are not. There's a great sequence where the tragic hero of the piece, recruited by petty empire grabbing employers, puts them in their place by saying "I've dealt with thieves before." Did I mention this was the best book I read in the year 2000?
Rating:
Summary: Best book I read in 2000
Review: I ordered this title sight unseen, with no prior knowledge of its storyline or quality. With "Dragon" in the title, I figured I was getting another good gritty dark fantasy novel. Even a weak Glen Cook paperback is worth paying out of print bookseller prices, so I went for it. I was pleasantly suprised to get this particular book in the mail! Space opera is the best way to describe the genre, showing all sides of a declining, far flung insterstellar empire maintained by a remote administration. Policy is made and enacted by a fleet of dreadnaughts that are few and far between the stars. They protect their empire against remote hostile alien forces, and against the enemy within, nascent kingdoms of merchant princes scheming to master not only their own solar systems but the big catch -- capturing a stellar warship! All sides have their idealists, their practical realists, and their outright fools, and all put forward extraordinary effort to advance their agendas. Many of Glen Cook's books have an epic scale, but this one is amazing, with hundreds of combat ships duking it out across whole solar systems, dead soldiers resurrected in their own cloned bodies, star fleets dispatched by computer, dead tactical officers' minds manifested as vertual beings that gradually lose touch with humanity, intelligent starships generating animatrons who can be seduced by a nymphomaniac spoiled heiress, manhunts over a whole arm of the galaxy, and a breathtaking chase sequence that made me think of the opening credits from the original "Star Wars". As always Cook shows us these events from the point of view of those who do the work. Oh, the title is a metaphor. The empire of humanity is a pile of jewels sought by avariscious beings within and without. The "Dragon" who guards it is the interstellar fleet that must be constantly vigilant, and not always nice. Thus, their fleet directive ... "The Dragon Never Sleeps". Some of the characters are aware of where they stand in relation to this metaphor, some are not. There's a great sequence where the tragic hero of the piece, recruited by petty empire grabbing employers, puts them in their place by saying "I've dealt with thieves before." Did I mention this was the best book I read in the year 2000?
Rating:
Summary: Reviewed ten years later
Review: I read this book ten years ago. Why am I reviewing it now? Because it's THAT good. Glen, please! Write a sequel! Mr. Publisher, please REPRINT IT! PS: Are you still building trucks?
Rating:
Summary: Glen Cook's Hugo Award Winner that never was
Review: Set in a well constructed far future, The Dragon Never Sleeps was the subject of many positive fan reviews.
I read it after a note from a friend that it was the best book he had read that year -- he had literally not slept from start to finish.
The book is hard science and hard technology, and reflects what a military would really be like, given time and the rational limits of technology.
There would have been a sequel if the book had caught on. There should have been a Hugo award.
Rating:
Summary: Glen Cook's Hugo Award Winner that never was
Review: Set in a well constructed far future, The Dragon Never Sleeps was the subject of many positive fan reviews.I read it after a note from a friend that it was the best book he had read that year -- he had literally not slept from start to finish. The book is hard science and hard technology, and reflects what a military would really be like, given time and the rational limits of technology. There would have been a sequel if the book had caught on. There should have been a Hugo award.
Rating:
Summary: The Dragon Never Sleeps
Review: Simply put this is Glen Cook's BEST!It isn't an easy read,you don't figure it out in the first 100 pages. It Absorbs you and ties together at the end.It's a book you can read and re-read.If you like The Black Company give this book a try.
Rating:
Summary: Pax Romanum in Hyperspace
Review: The Dragon Never Sleeps is a tale of turmoil in a nearly stagnant stellar empire. Every few centuries, revolutions stir and blaze briefly across Canon Space, only to be put down by the might of the Guardships. Cook takes the above rather formulaic premise and weaves an atmospheric and engaging story. Naming the guardships after the Roman Legions and giving them distinctly different characters (VII Gemina is harsh but fair, XII Fretensis is totally fanatic, I Adjuxtrix is ghost-ridden and unpredictable) makes the whole thing come alive. The whole atmosphere is similar to the Pax Romanum in space, with the rebels cast as the Germanic tribes trying to tear down the walls of civilisation. As usual, Cook manages to portray both sides of the conflict without reducing everything to black and white and one is left feeling sympathic to the rebel general whilst secretly hoping that the Guardships wipe everthing out because they are basically so cool.
I enjoyed the Dragon Never Sleeps greatly. It is a real pleasure to find a book that manages to evoke a whole culture in a single volume the needs to sequels. As a portrayal of a future war it lies a brave second to Haldeman's "The Forever War", ro which it bears a certain family resemblence.
It should be reprinted now!
Rating: 
Summary: The Dragon Never Sleeps
Review: This is intelligent, mostly well-written far-future military SF. It's the kind of novel where there are multiple plotlines and hordes of characters, and it's fair to say that that's not my favorite format, which no doubt affects this review. Cook invents some of the coolest warships in SF, as well as a both intriguing and plausible interstellar travel system. Society is threatened by a really gruesome alliance of scary aliens, abetted by strangely changed and foreign humans. It's got all the ingredients of a great book. But... for me, they're not quite put together right. There's too little focus on the more interesting factors, and too much on those which were less so, for me. POV characters die offscreen. Loose ends are never tied up. Perhaps most of all, Cook's writing is sometimes simply unclear. That makes the book annoyingly hard to follow. I respect the book, and I really like the way it ends, but the details of the plot needed more focus and attention.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Awesome
Review: This is one of those bookks I just keep rereading. The imagery in it comes to mind even six months after putting it down. The multiple story arcs are all facinating, worthy of their own books. Here they are woven into a epic tapestry, a true work of art. The characters are all strongly written, I found myself cheering out loud at points. A great read, with a powerful ending. Thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Simple Awesome
Review: This is one of those bookks I just keep rereading. The imagery in it comes to mind even six months after putting it down. The multiple story arcs are all facinating, worthy of their own books. Here they are woven into a epic tapestry, a true work of art. The characters are all strongly written, I found myself cheering out loud at points. A great read, with a powerful ending. Thumbs up!
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