Zhan Immur left home to begin the arduous training to become an elite warrior dedicated to battling their people's cannibal enemies. However, this is not to be her fate. A horrifying situation prematurely removes her from this training: her grandfather has fled accusations of murdering a village. Uncle Seth is to pursue him, and Zhan is to accompany him; their goal is to kill this murderer. Their journey will take them far from their snowy and isolated homes, immersing them in wholly different cultures rife with xenophobic hatreds but also delivering them a company of unforgettable allies, including Adel (a paladin who served at the side of the last dragon), Fest (a mercenary looking to somehow redeem the damnation of a life of slavery), and Korinyes (a gypsy woman who houses many secrets).

Oftentimes, fiction approaches memory in a linear fashion: one sequence of events follows another, as though the act of recollection were an act of following a timeline, reciting historical events. Last Dragon is not at all satisfied with this approach. Instead, it pushes the boundaries of the familiar, giving us a much more nonlinear approach. Under the guise of Zhan's letters, written as meditations upon events from the past (taking to heart the advice proposed by William Wordsworth), we get sixteen chapters comprised of dozens of what initially appear to be disjointed sequences (running in length from a sentence to several pages). While the narrator recalls whole scenes with clarity and emotion delivered in a lyrical fashion reminiscent of the Romantic era authors, these sequences are not placed chronologically but in the manner of a wandering mind's recollections. While ultimately they dovetail into a singular story, this comes about only after a mix of tangents, poignant repetitions, and the occasional dead stop of a complete non-sequiteur. The effect is nothing less than kaleidoscopic.  Several different story lines are related in only a few short pages; however, the author here demonstrates a talent by handling this gimmick in such a fashion as to minimize reader's confusion. Initially, of course, it is disorienting (particularly since quotation marks are absent; the author uses italics instead), but a close reading reveals the delicate threads between what might initially appear to be disparate topics.

The imagery is quite moving and poignant, reveling equally in both the light and dark. In this regard, a high fantasy novel like Last Dragon is of more than passing interest to this reader, and I recommend it to my fellow Horror Readers. There is a dirty quality to things as well as events. From the grand, to the small, the darkness is evident. From the cities visited (not pristine jewels shining across a bright world but older dirtier places strewn about a land with a bloody history) to the human body (this horror reader has not seen such a poetic and terrifying use for ants outside of a Clive Barker fantasy) to the difficult situations and choices forced upon our protagonist and her band, there is much to recommend to fans of the dark. Best of all, the novel is not afraid to take chances with its cast of characters, and through a sensitive attention to language, the painful situations these characters endure make for affecting reading.

Unfortunately, these gifted qualities do not carry the novel through the more lackluster moments. While Last Dragon features a strong opening and first two thirds, the story eventually spirals back into far too familiar territory:  epic conflict must somehow be averted by our protagonist and her ragtag band of allies. Not even the creative evocation of nonlinear memory saves the story from this reader's "been there, read that" response. This ultimate descent into predictability is disappointing after such a strong, original opening.

Readers might also be surprised to discover that the choice of perspective character is as unstable as the method of narration. Instead of giving the reader a reliable unreliable narrator (or at least a singular one), sometime after the halfway point of the book, the protagonist we have grown accustomed to steps out, allowing another to take over (if only temporarily). This steers a little too far beyond the line between an innovative twist on a unique narrative tool and a frustrating one. For approximately two chapters, this reader found himself wondering which of the two possible characters (as all of these passages are first person) was speaking. While contextual clues often offer definitive answers, a couple of occasions I was left floundering for what seemed inordinately long before a definitive answer was given (and sometimes this answer was: well, both characters were speaking). While this reader is not averse to difficult, challenging prose, I do like to have a sporting chance...

Yet, when I finally closed the covers and set the book aside, I found myself longing to revisit this strange world and its characters. Passages linger in the imagination, burbling up in my own nonlinear memory tract, bringing with them a shudder or a smirk or a frown or a longing sigh.

In Last Dragon, J.M. McDermott successfully accomplishes what many first time authors only aspire to: he reveals himself to be an incredibly gifted writer.  This reader is curious to see what literary avenues this author will travel in the future.

Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott
400 pages
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries
Published February 2008

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