The Dragon Has Some Complaints

Nebula Award winner Wiswell (Someone You Can Build a Nest In) delivers an entertaining but simplistic high fantasy about dragons and their riders. Readers meet three-headed dragon Garrodigh as he flees a battle taking place in the sky above him and raining cannonballs below. Now injured and Earth-bound, Garrodigh’s Centerhead—the main narrator—poses as a domesticated dragon for a spot aboard a flying ship to the floating city of Kardoša. He intends to get revenge on the humans who live there for the havoc they’ve wreaked on his home, including killing Lefty, Garrodigh’s late fourth head. The two others remaining, Upperhead and Bottomhead, largely serve as one-dimensional comic relief: Upperhead believes he’s a human suffering from delusions, and Bottomhead is food-focused and unintelligent, providing a running commentary of cartoonish sound effects (“Nuh!” “Yurk!”). There’s fun to be had as, in Kardoša, Garrodigh is adopted by a young dragon rider named Rania, whose obvious care for him begins to soften even Centerhead’s antihuman views, but the juvenile tone and unnuanced characters give the story a middle grade feel. Readers may have fun, but many will long for more substance. (July)