Dragon Wing is a
1990 fantasy novel by Dragonlance
core authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and the first in the seven-volume
Death Gate Cycle. Here, in one of
four realms created following the apocalyptic sundering of the earth, an
assassin is hired by the king to kill the prince, a dwarf works for social reform
among his people, and the vanguard of a powerful, long-imprisoned race foments
discord while searching for his erstwhile captors.
In Dragon Wing, Weis
and Hickman have taken the old, worn blocks of fantasy fiction – elves,
dwarves, dragons, wizards – and constructed something very interesting. The
vertical world of Arianus is imaginative in terms of both its geography and its
denizens. Yes, a number of characters wander too far into caricature at times,
and if the evil wizard had a mustache, he would twirl it every chance he got,
but the protagonists feel natural: there are no real heroes, only people with conflicting
agendas, and for the most part, their arcs are well handled (although in the
interest of time, Limbeck’s arc falls rather by the wayside at the end in a
manner the reader may find disappointing).
This lack of an obvious hero (apart from Limbeck) gives the
book suspense and uncertainty, and the authors use it to good advantage, as the
plot takes several nice turns. Dragon
Wing also shows evidence of a well-thought-out magic system, which is vital
to fantasy of this sort.
While Dragon Wing does
a lot of obvious setup for the rest of the series, it also works well as a
stand-alone novel (in fact, the protagonist of the series doesn’t appear until
page 120, and is never more than a supporting character). The world building –
and there’s a fair amount of it – is never unduly expository. There are
footnotes, an appendix, and sheet music, but most of the backstory and setup
are incorporated naturally into the story itself (given the inclusion of four
distinct worlds in this series, the authors are forced to paint much of Arianus
with broad strokes and vignettes, but it suffices).
In the end, while it has some rough edges, Dragon Wing amounts to considerably more
than the sum of its parts. It’s immersive and cleverly done, and it practically
begs further reading of the series.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
