I had no idea what to expect coming into this book. The dragon on the cover indicated fantasy, but playing poker? What the heck? And by the author of Phule's Company? Comedy? Farce? I wasn't sure when I cracked it open, with some hesitation, I must admit. After a few chapters, I found myself in a light romp of a fantasy story. With dragons. Playing poker.

Starting with the now familiar device of "there are secret supernatural beings that control the world" trope at the heart of more stories than I care to think about, Asprin takes it in new direction with the supernatural beings being dragons. Our main character discovers early on that he is in fact a dragon, and one at the center of quite a bit of political machination, and flees for the hills, or rather, New Orleans, to become the head of an illegal gambling syndicate. Like you do. Shenanigans, and that really is the best word for it, follow.

Asprin's writing is a little clumsy at times, but he otherwise keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace and planted firmly in the realm of a "yarn" rather than a "novel." The only real complaint I have is that he seems to fall into the trap that so many other New Orleans writers fall into, which is to lapse rhapsodic about the city at great length for no real purpose. There are times when the book reads like a Fodor's Guide on the French Quarter.

Judging from the cover -- yes, yes, you aren't supposed to do that -- DRAGONS WILD is the first in a new series, and that introduces of the biggest problems into the book. Namely, there isn't much of a plot. There is plenty of plotting, to be sure, but precious little that can be described as a story arc. Threads keep getting added into the mix with no sign of resolution, or much in the way of development. The series could be great, but as of the end of book one I have no way of saying. I can't even be overly sure of what sort of metaplot there is, if any.

Which isn't to say that DRAGONS WILD is bad. In truth, I rather enjoyed the way new elements kept getting added as I could never be sure what was going to show up next (voodoo? vampires? witches? marmosets?). I'm going to have to read book two, if only to figure out whether book one is as good as I think it might be.