P. R. Moredun, The Dragon Conspiracy

The Dragon Conspiracy

P. R. Moredun

Eos, Aug 2006, $7.99

ISBN: 0060766654

In 1910 England, despondent fourteen years old James Kinghorn escapes from Drinkett College that he attends as a student to walk the sand dunes when he notices the commemorative looking "Sea Arch". He walks through it and finds he has entered a portal that leaves him in a world where magic is real, Eldaterra. He quickly flees a deadly dragon spider and the undead with the help of the twin dwarves Brothers Bandamire, and a talking dog and chatty bear as dragons disguised as humans and Kaiser Wilhelm's forces set in motion plans to defeat humans in both planes. He soon finds ties to his grandfather and serial murders fifteen years earlier.

In 1895 British Chief Inspector Corrick and Foreign Office civil servant Harrington investigate a series of grisly murders. The victims are pregnant women, but their fetuses are reptilian. They struggle with the serial murder case that makes no sense for the answer lies in Eldaterra and a patient enemy establishing an axis in two worlds.

The first book of The World of Eldaterra saga is an interesting historical fantasy that stars a young hero struggling to understand what is going on in spite of the overly verbose explanations provided by the Brothers Bandamire. The storyline is action-packed as James and his new allies fight the evil alliance in between loquacious discussions on what is going on. Still the ties to history bring a semblance of reality to WWI fought on another front in an alternate realm.

Harriet Klausner