Dragonslayer
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A Twitterlight Story
Kill the dragon, marry the princess, and rule the kingdom. It’s a fantasy come true… if you’re straight.
Adam is a chemistry student and martial artist, active in his local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism. But none of that prepares him to be the savior of a faraway land locked in perpetual dusk.
In a world of shape-shifters, necromancy, and religious politics, Adam is fated to slay the golden dragon, Khalivibra, and defeat its mind-controlling sorcery to help Princess Esmeralda of Aergon retake her city. Tradition dictates he’ll rule by her side—but Adam is much more interested in Duin, a warrior who changes to beast form in the light of the sun… or fire.
Adam hopes he and Duin might end up together when their ordeal ends. But first, the reluctant hero, the spell-casting heir to the throne, the beast-shifting object of Adam’s desire, a six-legged cave lizard, and any allies they can gather must do the impossible… and live to celebrate their victory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Romance author Lang (The Way You Are) steps grandly into erotic portal fantasy, but his invented world is mired in exposition and stereotype. Gay Melburnian undergraduate and medieval battle reenactor Adam is summoned into Aergon a pulp-style land of lizard mounts, four-armed foes, and cavern kingdoms by stranded Princess Esmeralda. Her quest for him: to slay mind-controlling dragon Khalivibra with a legendary sword and reclaim the sun-stopped surface world Khalivibra once conquered. Adam must rise from hobbyist to hero or never return home. Fortunately, he has a guide, the werewolf-like Duin, whom he soon falls in love with. Attention to ecological detail and evocative description pervade this adventure, entertaining the reader but destroying the plot's pacing. Secondary characters remain stock, to harmful effect: the antagonist kanak race combines cannibalism, shamans, dreadlocks, and "dark brown skin" into a racist caricature. Adam constantly ogles other men in situations where he would reasonably be expected to be thinking more about threats to his life. Modern pulp readers will be disappointed by the belligerent, objectifying protagonist and retrograde fantasy racism.
