Dragonmaster 1: Storm Of Wings: Bk. 1 - Softcover

In Dragonmaster: Storm of Wings, Chris Bunch moves up a notch from being a competent fantasy storyteller to adding something new to the stock assumptions of his genre. What he adds to a fairly conventional story of a young man making his way in the wars of fantasy kingdoms is some real thoughtfulness about the cliché of dragons as weapons of war. Hal Kailas always wanted to fly and works for a travelling dragon show as dogsbody and ticket seller to get some limited training in the art; warfare breaks down a stratified social system enough to give him the chance to make something of himself if he survives long enough. What Bunch has done--and it would be an obvious enough idea had anyone developed it this thoroughly before--is map, quite precisely, his knowledge of WW1 fighter aces over a fantasyland context; Hal is instrumental in the shift from using flight as a way of scouting for infantry to flight being a field of combat in its own right, with both sides doing their best to achieve command of the sky and pilots acquiring their own quite special rivalries and esprit de corps. This is not a deeply subtle novel of character, but it is nonetheless thoughtful about war and the experience of war.-- Roz Kaveney

A banquet of blood and thunder (SFX)

Rich and convincing...will leave you eagerly awaiting the next installment'. - SFX ('I highly recommend Storm of Wings. It is in many ways, the fantasy equivalent of another Vietnam vet's masterpiece - Haldeman's The Forever War. Yes, it really is that good')

The Alien Online ('Slam-bang excitement, lusty action and military magic . fast-paced and ferocious')

JULIAN MAY ('In Dragonmaster: Storm of Wings, Chris Bunch moves up a notch from being a competent fantasy storyteller to adding something new to the stock assumptions of his genre. What he adds to a fairly conventional story of a young man making his way in the wars)