The Temptation of Dragons by Chrys CymriMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The title included the word dragons so I should have been prepared for the fantasy story I was about to read, but it was a pleasant surprise, nevertheless, to find my imagination so quickly challenged by so many quirky characters: dragons, vampires, unicorns and a gryphon who advises the main protagonist. The main protagonist happens to be the recently widowed vicar, Penny White, who is an ardent fan of the Doctor Who series. She is suddenly plunged into a mystery and invited to become the Vicar of Incursions in the parallel universe known as Lloegyr. The combination of dragons, the author’s name, Cymri, and various words like Lloegyr lead me to think that there is a very strong link with Welsh and Celtish legends behind this fantastical tale. I understood Lloegyr to be the old Welsh name for England. Whatever the truth of it I found Chrys Cymri’s imaginative story to be completely captivating – even though this genre is definitely not my usual preferred reading matter!
This book is a very well written one, full of amusing phrases, conversations and situations from beginning to end. However, there are more serious matters for the reader to contend with, like murder, Christian faith and biological pairings between dramatically different “species”, such as dragons and humans or elves and unicorns! Penny is a strong and well-drawn character who I found I was rooting for despite my own lack of religion. Somehow the author manages to ascribe personalities and beliefs to the various dragon bishops, vampire clerics and co, such that one forgets the incongruity of it all. The ending was a little too enigmatic for me but there is a probable intriguing hook there for another similar book. It is a story that would most likely appeal to young fans of Buffey, The Hobbit and maybe Doctor Who etc.
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