Dragon and Thief
Dragonback #1
by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

On the run for a crime he didn’t commit, Jack Morgan comes across a dragon-like creature that can only survive 6 hours without being able to attach himself to a host—and Jack is the only suitable host nearby. Draycos is the sole survivor of a battle that destroyed 3 ships on their way to scout a planet to relocate an entire civilization. While destruction looms for Draycos’s people, he can’t go anywhere without Jack, and Jack can’t go anywhere without the threat of capture hanging over him. So together, they will work to clear Jack’s name, so that Draycos can try to stop the menace that wants to wipe out the rest of his people.

I was not entirely certain that this was the kind of book I’d like, as sci-fi this heavy and the space opera genre have not held a lot of interest for me in general. But this book caught my interest early on, once I got past the really confusing drop right into the middle of the world building, and I enjoyed it all the way through. Draycos and Jack make a compelling hero/anti-hero combo, and then you throw in the morally questionable Uncle Virge (though he isn’t around as much), and it’s quite a cast. I think that the book being meant for teens, which some people say made it too simple for them, might be the reason that I was able to get into it. The complexities of epic sci-fi and fantasy usually end up leaving me lost and bored. Though some of the descriptions of Draycos’s extra-dimensionalness did go over my head, I’m definitely the right kind of audience for this book, even as an adult. Being a book for teens and fairly short, only one plot line was wrapped up in this book, but I don’t mind that, as I’m happy to continue the series. 

Find out more about Dragon and Thief

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!