Dragon and Herdsman
Dragonback #4
by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

As Jack continues to try to help Draycos, the dragon-like symbiont that uses him for a host, track down who killed his people, the pair’s next attempt to track down information lands them in a cell. But when they’re broken out by an unlikely rescuer, Draycos is shocked and dismayed to find a primitive herd of his own race on the planet they escape to.

Though this installment of the series didn’t really further the overall plot much, the discovery of the Phookas (the primitive K’da) was an intriguing enough departure for me, considering that Draycos was supposedly the first of his kind to come to the area. Though in the end, I’m not entirely sure what Zahn was going for with these creatures or if they will come into play at all in the future, the progression from completely primitive to something more drives the story well enough. I’m definitely no fan of Alison Kayna’s now (she’s the one who rescues them early in the book), and really hope to learn more about her and soon. However, the next book looks like it will also be quite the departure, which is baffling, considering that there’s only one book left in the series after that. Fortunately, the books are fairly quick and simple reads, especially for sci-fi, because at this point, all I can do is keep going and hope that the next book has at least some answers after all. I don’t mean to imply that this book was bad, though, since I did give it 4 stars. Maybe just not as satisfying as I would hope for at this point in the series.

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