📕 Black Leviathan & My Ideal Dragon Novel
Earlier this year, I made a post about books, and how I went about deciding what genre I like. My favorite books are about dragons - but what I didn't get into in that post is, I'm not really all that into dragon rider stories. They're not bad, but I feel like they tend to devolve into magical talking (or telepathic) pets. While I haven't read much of the Pern series, which may be surprising, other books that have been inspired by Anne McCaffrey haven't really captured the magesty of dragons for me. This is something that maybe Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly set a standard for me.
When I look for a book on dragons, what I want is:
- Magic given form. Dragons are magical, therefore mysterious and powerful. Dragons are a premiere fantasy monster that are incredibly maliable for any particular story; but in novels, I'm typically looking for the classic scaly, fire-breathing, giant flying lizard. They are awe-inspiring, fear-enducing, or both.
- NOT "talking pets," and not "human-minded." The way a dragon thinks should be distinctly non-human. Either animalistic or beyond human understanding.1
- Capable of being the villain in the story setting. The heroes, if they don't fight the dragon, at least prepare themselves for the high likelihood they will.
I will accept exceptions (I have a few dragon riding books I haven't gotten to yet on my shelf), but this is what I really want out of a book. My ideal story.
Which brings us to Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies.
Black Leviathan: Moby Dick, but with Dragons
Described on the back cover as Moby Dick, but instead of whalers, it's about drachenjagers (dragon hunters) traversing the Cloudmere in their magic crystal-levitated ships. Much like whaling, dragon hunting is dangerous business. And much like Moby Dick, here a jager captain's crew was struck with tragedy when a monstrous dragon of myth known as Gargantuan, aka the Black Leviathan, attacks his crew and kills nearly everyone on board. The bulk of the story takes place five years later and follows Lian, a young man studying crystal carving, who suddenly finds himself in a bind and has to flee his home. Lian snatches up a job as a jager on said captain's ship, but wonders: why did none of the experienced jagers who heard the recruitment call take it?
I found this while wandering Barnes & Nobel with my boyfriend (now fiance.) I'd picked up yet another dragonrider book and convinced myself that maybe it won't be a bummer, as the last one I'd tried to read absolutely was. Most dragon books I find are dragonrider ones, so I find I have to settle with them more than anything. But then I saw this cover and my hopes flew sky high. A dragon hunting book! This has such a good chance of being what I'm looking for. And such a beautiful cover. "Don't judge a book by its cover," yeah, but I always do. I have been pulled in by beautiful covers before only to be hideously disappointed, but I promise I will fall for it again in the future. Excited, I bought it (and the other dragon rider book, to be honest.)
This was exactly to my tastes. It hit all the marks for me for what makes a good dragon story. Skargakar is a town on the edge of the Cloudmere where dragon hunting is THE way of life. Dragon hunting, dragon meat for food, dragon-oil lamps - much like the old whaling towns. Dragons are dangerous beasts and being a drachenjager is one of the most dangerous jobs you can take. One false step and you could be sliced in two by the blade on a dragon's tail, or grabbed its talons and carried off into the clouds as their next meal. The danger is high but so is the pay.
I'll clarify I haven't read Moby Dick. I don't know how closely this book follows it - if it's literally a retelling of the original story, or if the concept is just inspired by it. Either way, this was a fun read. The story is paced very well with very little "fluff" time - it feels just right and gets back to the action after not too long. While the exact magical properties of a dragon aren't widely discussed, there are hints that they definitely are tied to magic.
Another thing this book does that I think is just grand is: it poses a lot of questions that aren't answered. I feel like authors sometimes try too hard to answer all the "what ifs" and "what's going on here" for the sake of world building or satisfying the reader. In Black Leviathan, there are many questions on the nature of dragons, magic, and the Cloudmere. Some are answered. Many are not. After all, if our mission is to slay dragons, how or why would we get such deep answers to the nature of the world? It's more reasonable, to me, to leave questions for the reader to mull over.
So I recommend this book. Because it's translated from German, some parts may read a little stiff, but this was only really noticable to me at the beginning of the book. Maybe I got used to it, or maybe it improved over time, I'm not sure. But it wasn't enough to take me out of the story, and I loved the story.
I don't know that I'll post every book I read on this blog as a review, but if you're interested in my book reviews, you can also check out my bookwyrm.world page, which you can follow this with a fedi accout. I may do more sort of deep-diving into what I like about books on this blog instead - a lot of my own reviews are so I can remember later on whether or not I enjoyed a book.
Potential spoiler for Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly: The black dragon Morkaleb describes certain ideas that John brings to him as "not a thing of dragons." In the sequel, John realizes what this means is: it's so far beneath the interests and concerns of dragons that it may as well not exist. Additionally, the dragons in that series do not have their own language, but communicate by projecting images telepathically. (Morkaleb is the exception in that he's taught himself language.)↩