The Dragon and the Gnarly King
core novel 1997 The Dragon Knight
Record
| First published | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.85 (663 ratings, collected 2026-09-05) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312861575 |
| Internal chronology | 7 |
Synopsis
Jim Eckert, still balancing his roles as Sir James of Malencontri, apprentice magician, and occasional dragon in an alternate fourteenth-century England, finds himself facing a cluster of strange and seemingly unrelated troubles: mysterious holes appearing without explanation in castles and forests, the kidnapping of his and Angie's adopted infant son Robert, and a royal expedition into Cumbria that demands his involvement whether he is ready or not. Complicating matters further, Jim's magical resources are frustratingly hard to draw on and his mentor Carolinus is unavailable to help, forcing Jim to lean instead on an eclectic band of allies, including a sea devil named Rrrnlf, a wolf called Aarg, and the loyal hobgoblin Hob, as he works to stop whoever is behind the disappearances and the plot to usurp power in the kingdom.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dragon Knight
- Series: The Dragon Knight core; position 7 of 9 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Gordon R. Dickson
Notes
- From the series record (The Dragon Knight): Nine-novel portal-fantasy series (1976-2000) about Jim Eckert, a modern graduate student pulled into a parallel fantasy world and transformed into a dragon, who must navigate a mixed cast of dragons, knights and magical creatures to rescue his fiancee. Opened with a British Fantasy Award-winning novel expanded from a 1957 short story; completed with the ninth volume in 2000, before Dickson's death in 2001, no further installments planned or announced.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Dragon Knight: position 7 of 9: previous The Dragon and the Djinn (1996) · next The Dragon in Lyonesse (1998)
Sources
- Dragon Knight (novel series) - Wikipedia
- Gordon R. Dickson - Order of Books
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gordon-r-dickson/the-dragon-and-the-gnarly-king/
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