Predictable plot, sketchy locale, good dialogue, sterotypical characters individuated by anachronistic twentieth century quips in an otherwise medieval mileau. The author has written this book several times under different titles with re-named characters in various locales. Reminiscent of Heinlein's "Glory Road" without fully realized characters. If you haven't already read one of Lawrence Watt-Evan's books it's definitely worth the price, worth reading for enjoyment, not worth re-reading. If you have read one of his books you know what your getting. Buy it, if you want more of the same. I borrowed my copy.

I have probably read this book more than any other in the series, and I enjoy it more each time. While the Misenchanted Sword is the primer, and Single Spell sets the tone for the rest of the novels, this book gives the best examples of all the varieties of magic in this world. It also has a likable character forced into extreme circumstances who uses brains he never knew he had. A real treasure.

Watt-Evans, one of my favorite authors, writes another story in the world of Ethshar. Not really connected with any of the others, still a very good read. It has the same style as "The Misenchanted Sword", the same feel to it. I liked both the novels, and highly recommend them both.

I thought this book was pretty cool. A bunch of vacationing misfits from an ultra advanced civilization take up residence for a couple of hundred years on an out of the way planet. They are interpreted by the locals, ancestors of a colony ship that wrecked on the planet about 600 years ago as gods similar to those in greek and roman mythology. The locals are primitive, technologically speaking, and with their superior technology this group of vacationers basically lead experience self indulgence to the fullest. the plot is quite simple, one of these vacationers, who was a deposed galactic emperor thousands of years ago wants to rebuild his empire, using the planet of "short-lifers" (technologically deprived) as a starting point. Most of the immortals (who really just rely on all kinds of neat gadgets) are mostly all too complacent and wrapped up in their own twisted worlds as demi-gods to care much about it. A short-lifer and one of the demi-gods know has "Gest" (for his penchant for playing pranks, the equivalent of Pan I would say) stumble onto this empire building scheme and attempt to foil it. In the course of trying to recruit help and stop the would be conqueror, the short-lifer, Aredon, learns the secrets of the immortals and simultaneously changes the snobbish viewpoint the vacationers have held of the locals.

Anyway, there are some cool ideas like bent space storage, skull liner computers, and AI's and other techniques the vacationers use to live in a world of total indulgence. At the beginning of each chapter, a story told in the form of a myth, or encounter with a god, is told from the perspective of the local storyteller describing an encounter with one of the "gods"

I found it randomly at a used bookstore and am glad to have read it. If you see it, pick it up!

Arthur C. Clarke said "and sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishible from magic." Denner's Wreck takes that concept to the logical extreme.

Imagine, if you will, that a group of bored vacationers, made nearly immortal and omnipotent through technology, come upon a planet populated by the decendants of colonists who crashed there centuries earlier. This "native" population, which has reverted to hunter/gatherer and subsistance farmer society, views the newcomers as gods, and swiftly include these "Powers" in their mythology. If you can imagine that, you've got the premise for Denner's Wreck.

Several different stories some together to form a seamless tapestry which is a joy to read. One one level, Bredon the Hunter must come to terms with the idea that the gods he has grown up beliving in are merely people not unlike himself who posess sophisticated technology beyond anything he could have imagined. Intertwined with that are several moral issues: Are the "natives" of Denner's Wreck less human because they lack the technology? ... ...

The author laces all these ideas (and more) with a good dose of humor that makes the book a fun a surprisingly quick read. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who comes across a copy.

Arlian comes back from Desolation after participating in the events leading to the demise of Lords Enziet and Drisheen, pondering ways to fulfill his vow of ridding the world of the dragon plague. Immediately we are thrust back into the political machinations of the upper-crusty society of Manfort. Too much time is spent with Arlian thinking "but oh...the dragons...they are evil and must be stopped!". 90% of the novel takes place within the confines of Manfort, where the previous book gave us a more complete picture of Arlian's world.

That said, I got a real feel for the characters, Black and Toribor in particular. Arlian is a tad one-dimensional in his quest. He is MUCH too misunderstood, too martyr-like in his quest to be interesting. Thankfully, the other characters in the novel are significant enough to shoulder the weight of the narrative.

As another poster mention, this definately feels like "the middle book". While there is a definate ending to the book, its not particularly satisfying. The dragons are fleshed out a bit further as a major threat, but we don't see much of them. When one finally does make an appearance, it doesn't feel like the revelation it should be.

But I have faith in Watt-Evans. His "Book of Silence" series with Garth the Overman is my favorite fantasy series of all time and I have high hopes for his latest. I'm sure whatever he comes up with next, it will have made The Dragon Society a worthwhile read.

While most Watt-Evans books I have read have been of a rather light-hearted nature, this recent "Obsidian Chronicles" series about dragons has been an attempt at more serious, thought-provoking storylines.

This volume took on such weighty subjects as vengence, betrayal, genocide, and slavery. It does so at length, weighing in at about 460 pages. The problem is, much of this is fluff, and if you really narrow down the actual storyline, not that much is happening. I found it exhausting as the author constantly reassesed the entire situation at length with each new occurance, while the audience could certainly assess the implications without explanation. For every 2 pages of action, it seemed we got 3 pages of how the main character felt about it. It is like explaining a joke after telling it, it sort of ruined it. My only other complaint is that the 'seven-dwarves' style descriptive character names (like Belly, Stammer, Black, Sweet, Hasty, Kitten) sort of made me feel like I was reading a children's book.

But, while the 'tell, don't show' attitude of this book was certainly exasperating at times, there were also moments of really nicely done, nail-biting suspence. The conclusive confrontation, for one, was very satisfying. It's a mixed bag, but I would say that, if you have enjoyed previous works by this author, you would probably enjoy this one.

I'm the first person to admit I'm a mark for LWE's work, but this series is outstanding. LWE is certainly not the most eloquent writer, but he doesn't have to be because he ALWAYS has a great story to tell, and this one is no different.

The dialogue is fantastic, and the reader is generally left with a sense of impression and understanding about the characters. Each character in Dragon Weather and Dragon Society has a unique role to play for our "hero", and throughout the course of the book, LWE continually provides you with snippets as to each character's motivation. Good stuff from a highly underrated writer.

Some of Watt-Evans books are pretty good, so when I saw this one I picked it up. Big mistake. Did he consciously try to write the most generic story possible? Village blacksmith, disliked by his peers, is "touched by the gods" with supernatural powers, and is fated to go forth and save everyone from an evil power, blah, blah, blah. People, just because you like sci-fi/fantasy doesn't mean every such book is great. The other reviewer was right - go pick up a book by Guy Gavriel Kay ("A Song for . . ."), George R.R. Martin, or even Steven Brust.

I enjoy almost any story written by Mr Wyatt-Evans and this book was no exception. I thought the story came from a different perspective and I enjoyed the way the story moved along. From my view, this is a different kind of "hero saves the world" story.

Touched By The Gods was consistent with its own rules, the characters were developed in an interesting way, and the plot was reasonable within the framework of the world Watt-Evans presented. Plot development was adequately complex without turning into a mystery novel. I enjoyed this book tremendously; my favorite authors are Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, C. J. Cherryh, J. V. Jones, and yes, David Eddings. I've enjoyed this book as much as from these other authors.

I'll start this review by stating the Lawrence Watt Evans is my favourite author. Sadly, I can not recommend this trilogy. I heartily enjoyed ALL his books save this series. Other reviewers have pointed out that characters they cared about were killed for no reason, sadly, I wasn't drawn to any of the characters enough to care about their deaths.

If you have read another Lawrence Watt Evans book, and are looking to read more of his work, don't make this trilogy it. Read ALL his other books first, then wait for new books to come out as you will be disappointed by this work.

I picked up this book and the third one in the series awhile ago at a used book store and I just got around to reading it. This is the second book by Lawrence Watt Evans that I have read, and I picked it up because I really enjoyed his collection of short stories, Crosstime Traffic. This book starts out as a fun and innocent fantasy novel, and there are several amusing passages towards the beginning. However, the book takes a drastic turn towards the dark side near the end. Two likable characters are killed off in a rather sudden manner. However I still enjoyed the novel, and I'm looking for a copy of the second book.

Dear 'A Reader'.

The violence towards women being 'unnesacary'? Man, are you ever out of touch. This series is brutal. It's nasty. Scary, evil horrible, awful stuff happens because that's the kind of place The Empire IS.

Anywho, it's a book. I enjoyed it in my own way but it is NOT reality.

My, my, what a cocky hero we've got here. For years he has lived in frozen Pennsylvania, to be picked up by aliens who rule the earth. Though our hero hasn't seen much of the world and has lived like a caveman for years, he manages to keep out of the hands of the real rulers, who are after a secret, hidden in the DNA of his yellow eyes. It is thanks to his anti-social behaviour and his rude manners that he manages to shake them off all the time. Our unsympathic hero gets help everywhere, but never a moment of gratitude, which seems to be his survival.
I didn't find this novel half as entertaining as the other reviewer, but I've read worse.

In the 1990s, the Earth plunges into an Ice Age. Aliens come to rescue us, but really come to search for a person with golden eyes whose chromosomes contain the secret of how to blow up a star, encoded into his genes by a genetic engineer 35,000 years ago... A zillion wild ideas thrown at you machine gun style...a wild ride for a sci-fi-fan!

From these short stories I got the feeling that William Spencer is good game for taking the place of Ira Levin in popular fiction: Great premises, underdeveloped plot and characters, and plain jane prose.

The man CAN write, I'll admit to that. He drops ingenuous metaphors and literary references. But the stories hardly feel as a whole, just some witty tidbits tied together in a bundle.

Frankly, Spencer sets the trap for himself with his introuction, where he analyzes the state of short fiction as a playground for writers, where stories are used as prose exercises of preciousist writing, with little fun in the tale to tell. He admits by the end that some of his own stories can be held for having the same (un)qualities... but it seems they had a lot more of it than he expected.

So, this is my scorecard:

"The Entomologists at Obala" is, arguably, the most enjoyable of this stories. A minimalist reworking of Romeo and Juliet, with young lovers fighing through family feuds over exotic insect and aracnid species.

"Looking out for Eleanor" is a psychological suspense story, and the lenghtiest story in the book. That may be key to its success, for it allows the characters to develop their traits and the plot to move at a pleasurable pace.

Spencer adds three literary exercises in character description through metaphor: "The Wedding Photographer in Crisis", "Pep Talk" and "Snow". They may need to be read more than once to sink in, because they somehow feel flat.

There are also three tales I could envision featured in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", exercises in twist ending: "Haunted by the Horror King", "The Return of Count Electric" and "Best Man". Sadly, by the time the twist came I was expecting it, and failed to shock me.

Lastly, there are "Graven Images", "A Child's Christmas in Florida" and "Daughter Doom", tales where several elements are left intentionally obscure, and which I found to be the most disappointing from the whole lot.

As I said, Spencer can write, and this book may keep you entertained as you read it. But you shouldn't be surprised if, like me, you finish it feeling nothing really happend while you were at it.

This guy is really funny and dark at the same time. His style flows and is really easy to read. I don't usually like stuff that's this 'normal' but I plan on reading everything this guy has. By normal I don't mean boring I mean there were no 'fantastic' elements in it like magic or monsters, just people and situations. I thought almost all the stories were very original but the last two were definitely the worst. I think I will like his novels even more than his short stories.

If you already have the sourcebooks for Vampire: The Masquerade or The Guide to the Camarilla, you may not want this book. It provides some information about each of the clans in the Camarilla (Pre Gangrel departure, vampric vernacular, explanations of some terms, the Traditions of the Camarilla as well as the Book of Nod. You may like to buy the book for the stories it contains or for allowing a beginner to read it and get a feel for the World of Darkness rather than throwing the game books at them. I believe that would be the most useful part of this book, for loaning to someone who has not played Vampire: The Masquerade before to learn about what they may have to expect in the games as well as observing current gaming sessions. The stories may give an insight to the new player of the adult horror and themes of Vampire.

I'd like to apologize to LWE for writing this, since he is by far my favorite author. I realize that this is his most beloved Ethshar novel, but I could barely get through this book both times I read it. I read it twice just to make sure I didn't gloss over some deeper hidden meaning. I didn't. This book is about a journey. A rather loooooong one. I felt like I was there, too, eating all the dust and sweating in the sun with them. I just missed all the fun that I really think LWE wanted in the tale. Try any of the other Ethshar stories, you won't be disappointed.

Overall the book is worth a read, if you want to read the whole Ethshire collection. But if you want to read a good story look at some of Watt-Evans other books. The story centers on a young man, going in search of his fortune, a tired old cliche, he runs across a young woman with wings who doesn't want to grow up and has the magic behind her to make it happen. He faces the problem of falling in love with the perpetual child as he himself grows up. Add to this situation an old man, magicly smitten with the adolescent angel. The best part is a cameo appearance of Valdar the innkeeper, from The Misenchanted Sword, a much better book.

Kelder of Shulara (Kelder is a very common name in Ethshar) has spent his young life dreaming of leaving his small provincial town with its boring way of life. Now, armed with a fortuneteller's predictions, he sets off to find fame, magic and love. When he meets Irith, a magical young woman who can change her form, he finds that his future is coming together. But, there is something disturbing about Irith, and Kelder finds that he has a few questions that must be answered.

I must say, right off, that I am a huge fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans. Admittedly, this is not his best book, but it is a good solid Ethshar book, one that I enjoyed reading. I'm not sure about any hidden meanings, but I did find Kelder's interaction with this female Peter Pan to be absolutely fascinating.

If you are looking for a book of High Fantasy - of swords and magic, and kingdoms overthrown - then you will be disappointed in this book. However, if you interested in a fascinating book set in a magical milieu, then I highly recommend this book to you.