Dragon and thief : a dragonback adventure

Format:

Book

Title:

Dragon and thief : a dragonback adventure

Author:

Zahn, Timothy author

ISBN:

9780765301246

9780765342720

9780765387882

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : Tor, 2003.

Physical Description:

254 pages ; 22 cm.

Series title(s):

Dragonback ;

Number in series:

BK. 1.

General Note:

"A Tom Doherty Associates book."

Jacket art by Jon Foster.

Summary:

Falsely accused of stealing from the powerful corporation, Braxton Universis, orphaned fourteen-year-old Jack, accompanied by his "virtual" Uncle Virge, flees to a remote planet where he meets and develops a mutually beneficial relationship with the dragon warrior, Draycos.

Program Information:

Accelerated Reader AR MG+ 5.4 9.0 67374.

Reading Counts RC 6-8 6.1 14 Quiz: 36374 Guided reading level: NR.

Subject(s):

Dragons -- Fiction.

Life on other planets -- Fiction.

Fugitives from justice -- Fiction.

False testimony -- Fiction.

Fantasy fiction, American.

Science fiction, American.

Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction.

Genre:

Science fiction -- Young adult.

Added Author:

Foster, Jon, 1964-

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Dallas Public Library	SF FANTASY Zahn, T. Dragon	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	Zahn, T.	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Timothy Zahn has been entertaining science fiction readers young and old for more than twenty years with exciting, thought-provoking adventures; now, with Dragon and Thief he offers his first new series in a number of years, one that's sure to delight all his fans and gain new readers as well. It's called Dragonback because Jack Morgan has a dragon on his back - literally. We think of dragons as enormous fire-breathing, flying creatures of myth. But in Jack's universe, dragons - or, more precisely, the dragon like K'da - are big, but they also depend on being in a symbiotic relationship with a humanoid. And when the K'da warrior known as Draycos is the sole survivor of a space battle and must find a new bondmate or die, for better or worse Jack happens to be the only available host.They may be an odd couple, but together they're more than the sum of their parts; they are destined to travel far and wide, facing many perils - human, alien, and other, as they seek justice and safety - Jack for himself, and Draycos for his people.

Author Notes

Timothy Zahn was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 1, 1951. He received a B.S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in East Lansing in 1973 and a M.S. degree in physics from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1975. In 1975, Zahn began writing science fiction as a hobby. When his thesis advisor died in 1979, effectively wiping out three years of work, he decided to try making a living at writing. Since then, Zahn has published short stories, novelettes, novels, and short fiction collections. He is best known for writing the Star Wars the Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. The novella, Cascade Point (1984) won a Hugo Award. He also writes numerous series including Cobra, Blackcollar, Dragonback, and Conquerors' Trilogy.

Zahn co-authored with David Weber A Call To Duty, the first book in the Manticore Ascendant Series, which made the New York Times bestseller list in October 2014.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Less complex than such recent novels as Manta's Gift and Angelmass, this start to a new SF adventure series from Hugo Award-winner Zahn will appeal largely to younger readers. Fourteen-year-old orphan Jack Morgan, former small-time thief, is on the run, framed for theft from megacorporation Braxton Universis. Hiding out on an unoccupied planet, his only companion an artificial intelligence programmed with the personality of his con man uncle Virge, Jack witnesses a battle between incoming spaceships. While looking over the wreckage, he meets Draycos, a dragon-like K'da, sole survivor of an advance team of K'da and their Shontine allies-murdered by their enemies, the Valahgua, with a terrible energy weapon called "the Death." With Valahgua-backed mercenaries searching the planet for survivors, Jack and Draycos work together to escape. Despite Virge's continuing doubts, Jack agrees to help Draycos find out who betrayed his people; but first they must prove Jack's innocence and get the police off his back. Along the way, each will earn the other's trust as they learn to work together as a team. Zahn keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, maintaining excitement even when the plot becomes clichd. (Mar. 12) Forecast: Fantasy fans attracted by "dragon" in the title may be disappointed, while SF readers may pass it by, thinking it's just another dragon fantasy. Zahn is the author of the bestselling original Star Wars tie-in novel, Heir to the Empire. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Orphaned, 14-year-old Jack Morgan, raised to be an assistant to his now-dead con-man uncle, Virgel, is on the run after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. He is hiding out in his uncle's spaceship--whose computer program, Virge, is a virtual Virgel--on a remote, uninhabited planet when another spaceship crashes after a fierce battle. The only survivor is the K'da warrior Draycos, a dragonlike being who cannot live apart from a symbiotic relationship with a humanoid host. Teaming up to clear Jack, the boy and Draycos embark on a fast-paced chase across space and into danger. Characterizations are intriguing, to say the least, as is Jack's wrestling with ethics and morality, but essentially the opener of the Dragonback series is a romp of a space thriller, provided you don't take it too seriously. Very YA in tone and plot, it would have fitted nicely into the short-lived, late-1980s YA sf line written by such adult sf luminaries as Silverberg, Zelazny, and Gerrold. Readers will welcome further adventures. --Sally Estes