Author: John Grant
Cover Artist: Bob Eggleton
Publisher: Screaming Dreams
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: May 2008

John Grant wanted to highlight the human tendency to affix blame everywhere but upon themselves for misdeeds, errors and misjudgment. He chose dragons to be humanity’s scapegoat and when the editor of www.blueear.com asked him to serialize his next novel on their website, he said yes.

The Dragons of Manhattan began life as a serial story posted on the Blue Ears website, weekly postings of story bits around 5,000 words each. This review is of the product in book form published by Screaming Dreams and beautified by a lovely dragon on the cover done by Bob Eggleton. Enticed by the title and drawn in by the cover I began this one with anticipation. I was anxious to read the story of these secret dragons.

Buster Maltravis is an ancient and self-satisfying dragon who has created for himself a life full of money and power – so much so that the President of the United States defers to his slightest wish. Of course nobody knows that he’s a dragon. The only ones who suspect the truth don’t seem to be in any position to correct the situation. They being Norris Gonfalcon a feckless young man in his 20’s who begins this adventure with a very strange day. Not only has he lost his most recent job but also his girlfriend – but while drowning his sorrows at the local pub, gets picked up by the most beautiful woman there, and offered a job. Can you blame him for being a little confused?

This book is a satire. Grant uses thinly disguised political figures and gross stereotyping to satirize human society and its foibles. Satire is a great tool that an author can use to point to things that he or she feels needs to be corrected. It is also a tool that can be subtle or heavy-handed, depending upon its wielder. I feel that the episodic nature of this story forced the author to complete certain story arcs within a certain word count which tended to make the characters more cartoonish and unrealistic. Unfortunately this damaged the satire and caused it to be much more heavy-handed and much less effective. While an entertaining and somewhat engaging story with a fascinating inspiration point, this fails as a cohesive satire of human nature.

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Topics: Bob Eggleton, John Grant, Screaming Dreams, The Dragons of Manhattan