Dragon and Slave (Dragonback Volume 3) [Hardcover]

Dragon and Slave (2005) is the third novel in the Dragonback Adventure series, following Dragon and Soldier. In the previous volume, Jack managed to con both sets of mercenaries who were fighting over the deep mine of the natives. He also obtained an information dump from a Shamsir computer system. Although it did not contain any useful data on Djinn-90 fighters, Uncle Virge did note that various Brummgas who were working for the mercenaries had come from the same place.

In this novel, Jack takes the Essenay to Brum-a-dum. All the Brummga mercenaries have come from the Chookoock slave compound on this planet. He sets up a scam that allows Uncle Virge to sell him to the Chookoock family estate so that he can rummage through their computers.

Everything goes according to plan until Gazen, the human slavemaster, sends Jack to the hotbox to correct his manners. Maerlynn, a Ysanhar slave, takes a chance and gives him a blanket; it protects Jack from the severe chill of the night. Of course, it helps to have a large, warm dragon sharing the hotbox with him. The blanket also protects his back from burning on the hot metal during the day.

As the slaves are escorting -- almost carrying -- him to the barracks, Jack returns to full consciousness. Although he declares that he can walk unassisted, Maerlynn suggests that he forget his pride and keeps on helping him to walk. She provides him with a hydrating drink and food and also takes away his clothes to wash as he changes into a sackshirt.

Draycos checks out the gaps in the hedgerow across the slave area and finds that the one they had enterred by is abundantly alarmed. So he locates another place hidden somewhat by brush and starts a tunnel through the hedge. Later, he finds his tunnel being watched by Brummga troops.

Jack comes up with Plan B: he displays his entertainment skills in front of a spoiled Brummga child and is chosen as her next toy. He is taken away to the Chookoock mansion, fed, bathed and clothed is a funny costume. Now he is charged with entertaining Her Thumbleness and her friends. Unfortunately today is her High Day and all her friends want to see her new toy perform. At the end of the second day, Jack is left to sleep at the foot of Her Thumbleness's bed.

Jack waits for all activity to cease. Her Thumbleness sleeps like the dead, but older Brummgas and their servants are still about. He falls asleep as he waits, but Draycos wakes him when all is quiet. Jack heads down the stairs and breaks into Gazen's office, only to find that the computer uses an old Brummga operating system. He sets up a tap on the security camera. takes a crystal paperweight, and returns to Her Thumbleness's rooms.

After a short nap, Brummgas wake him and carry his down to Gazen's office. Although Jack expects some reaction, he finds himself being out-maneuvered by the savvy slavemaster and is soon sent to the frying pan. This is a standard hotbox with modifications, including electric wires to shock him at random intervals.

This novel illustrates both Jack's smarts and his limitations. He reads Gazen very well, but doesn't expect the attitude of personal disinterest displayed by the slavemaster or members of the Chookoock family. They are all like Her Thumbleness, used to having their own way despite the desires of their toys.

Jack has had himself sold into slavery and doesn't like it at all. The slavers are just as self-centered, egotistical and arrogant as young spoiled children or maybe Jack's Uncle Virgil. On the other hand, most of the slaves are generous and protective of each other, at least while they are slaves; maybe they would become less devoted to each other if freed from the slavemasters.

Highly recommended for Zahn fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure and strange cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Timothy Zahn won't disappoint the fans of Jack Morgan and his symbiont sidekick, Draycos. Jack places himself in great danger, as a slave, hoping to extract information about who is behind the to destroy the last of K-da and Shontine societies. He get the first hints of Draycos and Jack both changing biologically as well as the subtle personality changes. The action is a little slow to develop, but once it does, the pace is non-stop, as we get to see a K-da warrior-poet unleash his full powers. Probably the best sci-fi series for reluctant reading boys, 10-15.

Dragon And Slave is the third book in Timothy Zahn's Dragonback series, picking up shortly after where Dragon and Soldier left off. As readers of the first two books will know, Jack, an orphan con-artist/thief (reformed, he insists) and Draykos, a warrior/poet of the dragon-like K'da, are working against a deadline to find out who was behind the attack on the advance fleet of refugee ships that Draykos' people were traveling on, an attack that left Draykos the only survivor. They only have two clues -- that the attack was carried out by mercenaries, and that the mercenaries had aliens known as Brummgas in their ranks.

Having been unsuccessful in their efforts to uncover information by joining a mercenary group, Jack and Draykos now turn to their only other option - infiltrating a prominent Brummga estate on their home world and accessing their computers for records on Brummgas in mercenary groups. Unfortunately, the only way Jack can get into such a household is as a slave. It's another desperate move, even more than joining up to be a mercenary was, but again Jack and Draycos are working against an ever-shortening deadline: they must find out who was behind the attack in order to save the rest of the refugee fleet that will arrive in less than six months time.

Zahn does come up with some clever tricks for getting Jack sold and into the Brummga estate, and even more for getting him out of it later on. And Zahn does a good job of conveying just what it means to be a slave and to have that be the only life some have ever known (one can only wish Zahn had given some pointers to George Lucas before he made The Phantom Menace).

"Jack clutched at the hand wrapped around his neck, gasping for breath. He tried to say something -- to plead, to apologize, to say _anything_. But he couldn't get any words out past that grip. Maybe the Bruggma was too drunk to know what he was doing.
--He looked around frantically, at least as far around as he could with his head held this way. If someone else was paying attention to what was happening here -- if he could just signal that the drunken Brummga was in danger of killing a valuable slave.
--They _were_ watching. They were watching, and laughing, and cheering their drunken friend on.
--And with that the message finally got through. The message that the berry-picking and the slave colony and even the hotbox hadn't been able to teach him.
--No one cared about him here. No one cared if he was happy or hungry, or whether he lived or died. He was a slave. He was property. He was a child's toy.
--And if he got broken, well, Her Thumbleness would just go back out through the thorn hedge to the toy store and pick out something else."

The action is not as fast-paced as it was in Dragon And Soldier, but Dragon and Slave is still a fairly quick read. My only quibble, and it's not a small one, is that on a couple of occasions in the book, some of Jack's actions are determined by the needs of the plot rather than what the character seems like they would actually be doing. I can't go into specifics without giving things away, but one involves Jack (and Draykos) accepting something without being suspicious when they have very good reasons to be, and the other involves them simply letting a key adversary go when they have every reason to want to hang on to him, at least for a while. For this reason, I'm rating this volume 3 stars instead of 4, which is what I gave to the first two Dragonback books.

All in all though, this is a still a good continuation of the series and we can see Jack and Draycos continuing to evolve as characters. Recommended.