Dragonslayer

by Duncan M. Hamilton

Overview

"Successfully mixes swords, sorcery, and skullduggery with complex characters. Dumas fans will especially appreciate the faux-French setting. This is pure adventure fun with plenty for epic fantasy readers to enjoy.”—Publishers Weekly

With the dragons believed dead, the kingdom had no more need for dragonslayers.

Drunk, disgraced, and all but forgotten, Guillot has long since left his days of heroism behind him.

As forgotten places are disturbed in the quest for power, and things long dormant awaken, the kingdom finds itself in need of a dragonslayer once again, and Guillot is the only one left...

"Charming [and] entertaining. Recommended for fans of dragons and medieval settings.”—Library Journal

The Dragonslayer Trilogy:
1. Dragonslayer
2. Knight of the Silver Circle
3. Servant of the Crown

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250306739
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Series:	Dragonslayer Trilogy Series , #1
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	343,660
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Duncan M. Hamilton holds Master's Degrees in History and Law, and has practiced as a barrister. He lives in Ireland, near the sea. Hamilton’s debut novel, The Tattered Banner, first of the Society of the Sword trilogy, was named one of BuzzFeed's 12 Greatest Fantasy Books Of The Year in 2013. That book was followed by The Huntsman’s Amulet and The Telastrian Song, and by Wolf of the North, a Norse-inspired fantasy trilogy.

Editorial Reviews

06/10/2019

Hamilton (The Blood Debt) puts his own spin on the classic man vs. dragon story in this strong fantasy trilogy opener. Guillot “Gill” dal Villerauvais was once a hero in Mirabaya but is now a drunken country lord. He’s disgruntled when Nicholas dal Sason, messenger from King Boudain the Tenth and Prince Bishop Amaury dal Richeau, comes to summon Gill to court. Before they leave Villerauvais, though, Gill witnesses the depredations of a dragon, unheard of in his time. Vowing to return with reinforcements, Gill and Nicholas travel to the capital, along the way rescuing Solène, a young woman who’s about to be burned as a witch. Solène is quickly recruited by the unscrupulous Prince Bishop into his secret Order of the Golden Spur, a force of mages and soldiers that he hopes to use to spread his power. Meanwhile, Gill and Nicholas take a squad of Spurriers to confront the dragon, who, unbeknownst to them, has his own reasons for his sudden assault on the kingdom. Hamilton successfully mixes swords, sorcery, and skullduggery with complex characters. Dumas fans will especially appreciate the faux-French setting. This is pure adventure fun with plenty for epic fantasy readers to enjoy. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Hamilton successfully mixes swords, sorcery, and skullduggery with complex characters…This is pure adventure fun with plenty for epic fantasy readers to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly

“...a charming narrative. Recommended for fans of dragons and medieval settings.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

2019-04-14
Set in the same pseudo-medieval European world as some of his previous works, the first installment in Hamilton's (The Blood Debt, 2017, etc.) Dragonslayer series is a fantasy adventure chronicling one man's redemptive journey that involves slaying a mythic beast—and quite possibly changing the course of history for all the kingdoms in the entire Middle Sea realm.

Lord Guillot—who is the Seigneur of a small village of Villerauvais—was once a great swordfighter. He is, in fact, the last surviving Chevalier of the Silver Circle, a legendary fighting force that protected the kingdom from its enemies. But after the tragic death of his wife, Gill, as he is called, has become a drunk, seeking solace at the bottom of a bottle. Five years of almost constant inebriation has turned Gill into a shadow of the man he once was. But when a dragon starts terrorizing nearby settlements and killing its inhabitants—though the beasts were believed to be extinct—Gill is forced out of his alcoholic stupor. When he is told by the king to kill the creature, he accepts the mission—but is unaware that he is a pawn in a much larger game being played by an evil Prince Bishop who is secretly plotting for magic use to become legal and culturally acceptable again. The addition of Solène, a young woman persecuted because of her innate magical abilities, introduces another layer to the story. But while the writing is certainly fluid, the storyline is banal and filled with numerous sequences that come off as contrived (like Gill's stumbling across a rare artifact that just happens to be monumentally significant to the story). Additionally, the characters are all stereotypes with no emotional connectivity. The novel feels like a story that fantasy fans have read countless times before; two-dimensional characters, a predictable plot, and an unsurprising ending make for a forgettable read.

Uninspired.

Kirkus Reviews