Dragonslayer

September 10, 2018
Romance author Lang (The Way You Are) steps grandly into erotic portal fantasy, but his invented world is mired in exposition and stereotype. Gay Melburnian undergraduate and medieval battle reenactor Adam is summoned into Aergon—a pulp-style land of lizard mounts, four-armed foes, and cavern kingdoms—by stranded Princess Esmeralda. Her quest for him: to slay mind-controlling dragon Khalivibra with a legendary sword and reclaim the sun-stopped surface world Khalivibra once conquered. Adam must rise from hobbyist to hero—or never return home. Fortunately, he has a guide, the werewolf-like Duin, whom he soon falls in love with. Attention to ecological detail and evocative description pervade this adventure, entertaining the reader but destroying the plot’s pacing. Secondary characters remain stock, to harmful effect: the antagonist kanak race combines cannibalism, shamans, dreadlocks, and “dark brown skin” into a racist caricature. Adam constantly ogles other men in situations where he would reasonably be expected to be thinking more about threats to his life. Modern pulp readers will be disappointed by the belligerent, objectifying protagonist and retrograde fantasy racism.