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A review by phantominblue
The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson
So, I've had a paperback copy of this book since... middle school? When I discovered that the plot was a lot of the basis (although not fully) of the movie Flight of Dragons, which I looooved as a kid.
I started it back then with a great deal of excitement, but never made much headway which, honestly, is quite odd for me at that age. I plowed through EVERYTHING that was set in front of me, especially things where I wanted to like them. Especially things about dragons.
Fast-forward ((mumbledy)) years and I'm browsing Audible's new freebie-catalog looking for something I don't have to put too much work into listening to and won't be something that gets soured by 2020 election-ness (begun reading ON election day). BINGO. I will finally finish this. It will combine nostalgia with dragons and I will be happy.
So I start it.
1. The main character is an asshole.
2. Seriously, an utter douchecanoe.
3. WHY?
I'mma continue because I've finally reached dragons and I think his awfulness is going to get a bit of pushback.
But the book opens with him grumpily waiting for his girlfriend?fiancee? outside the building where she works and he's grumping because her boss kept her late again and her boss wants to date her/doesn't want to let her leave on time to go see him, her rightful boyfriend. Some other bro comes out of the building and they chat about volleyball and we get told about how tall and athletic our MC is, they go on, and the girlfriend eventually rushes out and into the car just as he's about to storm into the building.
They're off to see a place to rent, and we find out they're trying to get their own place and she's working 2 jobs while he works 1 trying to make ends meet, they're both academics but she's put her dissertation on hold while he works on his (in Medieval studies) and there are office politics, and she doesn't want him to put his on hold and take up a second job because she's already put hers on hold, no matter how much they need the money. He thinks ah, wouldn't it be nice to be back in the olden times when money wasn't an issue and all conflicts were things you could actually fight. (Me, not a medieval scholar: WUT? Like... money is always an issue.) He instructs her how to behave at her job in a really controlling/overbearing way. The whole time he's been all "don't let your boss use you in the experiments" and she's just like "sure".
Anyway, then there's a series of disappointments, he goes back to pick her up and she's late enough that this time he DOES storm in... just in time to see her disappear. As part of the experiment. And he LOSES IT. Like, this man has been a barely-controlled pot of simmering rage this whole time and I cannot see what his girlfriend sees in him. But ok.
____
HERE IS WHERE MY FINISHED-BOOK REVIEW BEGINS:
So, wow, once things got going past the intro section, it really did start to line up pretty well with the movie I remember. Not exactly, but essentially the movie seemed to cut out almost all of the most grating parts of the book (that is: the main character).
Jim is pretty awful all throughout, and some of that is passed off onto Gorbash at the end, and just being the nature of dragons, but honestly Jim-aka-toxic-masculinity-incarnate still has a long way to go before he can be redeemed in my mind. It's funny because at one point the book seems to actually imply that toxic masculinity is bad! But then it goes back on doing what it does.
Angie/Angela/the damsel in distress is honestly the limpest excuse for a character I can imagine, and I can't understand anyone wanting to date her any more than I can understand her wanting to date him.
But the adventure bits? Those were pretty enjoyable. We've got yet another largely-male (though we do meet one female warrior, because of course, and she immediately wants to marry Jim even though he's both engaged and in a dragon at the time, and is jealous of Angela because ??? women, eh?) book. Among things that have not aged well: Dick Innkeeper is is name. Now, if Jim had been named Dick, I'd have thought his entire personality was on purpose.
Everybody seems to be either brave and proud, evil, or sniveling. And since Jim isn't clearly evil and isn't sniveling, people give him a lot of credit for being brave when he's actually just bumbling confidently. Okay so is this also white male privilege: the book? Maybe.
Did I mention there were some actually fine and enjoyable elements? Because the magic system was interesting and I think meant as an actual joke, not just a 'surely joke because it hasn't aged well' joke.
But I felt myself questioning the whole time whether the author was writing this character as this terrible on purpose as a joke or not. I think not.
I started it back then with a great deal of excitement, but never made much headway which, honestly, is quite odd for me at that age. I plowed through EVERYTHING that was set in front of me, especially things where I wanted to like them. Especially things about dragons.
Fast-forward ((mumbledy)) years and I'm browsing Audible's new freebie-catalog looking for something I don't have to put too much work into listening to and won't be something that gets soured by 2020 election-ness (begun reading ON election day). BINGO. I will finally finish this. It will combine nostalgia with dragons and I will be happy.
So I start it.
1. The main character is an asshole.
2. Seriously, an utter douchecanoe.
3. WHY?
I'mma continue because I've finally reached dragons and I think his awfulness is going to get a bit of pushback.
But the book opens with him grumpily waiting for his girlfriend?fiancee? outside the building where she works and he's grumping because her boss kept her late again and her boss wants to date her/doesn't want to let her leave on time to go see him, her rightful boyfriend. Some other bro comes out of the building and they chat about volleyball and we get told about how tall and athletic our MC is, they go on, and the girlfriend eventually rushes out and into the car just as he's about to storm into the building.
They're off to see a place to rent, and we find out they're trying to get their own place and she's working 2 jobs while he works 1 trying to make ends meet, they're both academics but she's put her dissertation on hold while he works on his (in Medieval studies) and there are office politics, and she doesn't want him to put his on hold and take up a second job because she's already put hers on hold, no matter how much they need the money. He thinks ah, wouldn't it be nice to be back in the olden times when money wasn't an issue and all conflicts were things you could actually fight. (Me, not a medieval scholar: WUT? Like... money is always an issue.) He instructs her how to behave at her job in a really controlling/overbearing way. The whole time he's been all "don't let your boss use you in the experiments" and she's just like "sure".
Anyway, then there's a series of disappointments, he goes back to pick her up and she's late enough that this time he DOES storm in... just in time to see her disappear. As part of the experiment. And he LOSES IT. Like, this man has been a barely-controlled pot of simmering rage this whole time and I cannot see what his girlfriend sees in him. But ok.
____
HERE IS WHERE MY FINISHED-BOOK REVIEW BEGINS:
So, wow, once things got going past the intro section, it really did start to line up pretty well with the movie I remember. Not exactly, but essentially the movie seemed to cut out almost all of the most grating parts of the book (that is: the main character).
Jim is pretty awful all throughout, and some of that is passed off onto Gorbash at the end, and just being the nature of dragons, but honestly Jim-aka-toxic-masculinity-incarnate still has a long way to go before he can be redeemed in my mind. It's funny because at one point the book seems to actually imply that toxic masculinity is bad! But then it goes back on doing what it does.
Angie/Angela/the damsel in distress is honestly the limpest excuse for a character I can imagine, and I can't understand anyone wanting to date her any more than I can understand her wanting to date him.
But the adventure bits? Those were pretty enjoyable. We've got yet another largely-male (though we do meet one female warrior, because of course, and she immediately wants to marry Jim even though he's both engaged and in a dragon at the time, and is jealous of Angela because ??? women, eh?) book. Among things that have not aged well: Dick Innkeeper is is name. Now, if Jim had been named Dick, I'd have thought his entire personality was on purpose.
Everybody seems to be either brave and proud, evil, or sniveling. And since Jim isn't clearly evil and isn't sniveling, people give him a lot of credit for being brave when he's actually just bumbling confidently. Okay so is this also white male privilege: the book? Maybe.
Did I mention there were some actually fine and enjoyable elements? Because the magic system was interesting and I think meant as an actual joke, not just a 'surely joke because it hasn't aged well' joke.
But I felt myself questioning the whole time whether the author was writing this character as this terrible on purpose as a joke or not. I think not.