Turtlemoths and the Darkstar Dragon await in this version of Sinbad the Sailor set in the Darkstar dimension. Min is First Officer of an expedition’s ship, but in her universe, she is aboard a skyship called Melodious Narwhal. We’re not at home anymore, and neither, after falling into a sudden rift in space-time, is the ship.
THE FLIGHT OF THE DARKSTAR DRAGON is a vigorous swashbuckling fantasy by Benedict Patrick, a Northern Irish writer now living in Scotland. I love his earlier Yarnsworld books, and still prefer them for the immersion in New Zealand and Oceania myth. After all, one mutinying scurvy crew is much like another. Even if the dimension is composed of black sea, a glowing purple star, with irregular islands, rifts, and luminous fish. To raise the personal component, we get to know some of the senior crew, including Jedda, an artificer who steers the harnessed magic of the skyship. But with the magic now drained, Jedda isn’t good for much but her knowledge of Eshak, a chess-like pastime.
Abelandu, an impatient, unpleasant wealthy young man, is financing the expedition and doesn’t enjoy losing his comforts and status. He’ll do anything, including inciting the crew to mutiny, to get home. And an old man named Brightest who makes a temporary landing spot available, has his own motivations, which are not always clear. I enjoyed the sharp contrasts and undeclared backgrounds and loyalties. The hardworking Min never really knows who to trust, so the reader does not relax either.
Min’s academy training back at New Windward didn’t include anything about rifts that open and swallow a ship, nor how to keep order indefinitely without real backup. She’s relatively ineffective, and it doesn’t help that her formal rank is First Officer, not captain. Comparisons and contrasts could be made between Star Trek – Voyager and THE FLIGHT OF THE DARKSTAR DRAGON.
Since the second in the series has now been published, no harm can be done by saying that the crew will continue to explore and rise to new challenges. RETURN OF THE WHALEFLEET is another cruise through inventiveness, danger and finding your courage. Both novels have striking cover art created by Jenny Zemanek. I recommend them to fantasy fans.
Ambitious, brilliant, and resolute, Min graduates from naval college determined to make the seasoned crew of her first assignment trust in her command. But when her ship is drawn by strange magics into a dream-like, unfamiliar land, Min’s first command could prove to be her last.
Nothing here behaves the way it should:
Flying manta rays bounce between the floating rocks in the sky above.
The sea has become an endless twilight, lit by the luminous fish that swim in it.
And worse yet, off starboard there’s a horizon-spanning dragon that is looking particularly hungry.
Despite her youth and inexperience, Min knows she can bring her ship home from the Darkstar Dimension. But first she will have to tackle her mutinous crew and earn their trust and respect, a task as seemingly impossible as the new ocean itself. Failure to do so, however, will cost them their lives and lose their ship to the depths of the twilight sea.
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