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The Dragon Never Sleeps
by
Glen Cook
For four thousand years, the Guardships have ruled Canon Space - immortal ships with an immortal crew, dealing swiftly and harshly with any mercantile houses or alien races that threaten the status quo. But now the House Tregesser has an edge: a force from outside Canon Space offers them the resources to throw off Guardship rule. This precipitates an avalanche of unexpecte...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
February 1st 2008
by Night Shade Books
(first published 1988)
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Bit puzzled about this one. Got it from a recommendation on the RPGnet forum from somebody, dont remember who, that liked it very much.
Me? I'm unsure. Lets forget for a moment that the book is dated; written in the 80s, you have several instances on the plot of "and then he gave her a tape" :-P
But... I dont know. Stylistically I find it very flawed. It is a complex space-opera setting with complots inside intrigue inside doublecrosses... an enormous cast, a complex situation in-setting. All that...more
Me? I'm unsure. Lets forget for a moment that the book is dated; written in the 80s, you have several instances on the plot of "and then he gave her a tape" :-P
But... I dont know. Stylistically I find it very flawed. It is a complex space-opera setting with complots inside intrigue inside doublecrosses... an enormous cast, a complex situation in-setting. All that...more
I came across Glen Cook's works by pure chance. After reading some Black Company novels I went after his SF titles :)[return]Story is about conflict taking place in a (very) distant future where Canon space (known space) is controlled by infamous Guardships. Guardships are sort of a "living" ships - they are powered by ever-evolving AI that keeps record of all past battles [which makes them very very difficult to destroy] and are commanded by (human) immortal crew. They rule with the iron fist a...more
A region of peace has come over the galaxy dictated and enforce by immortal Guardships run by humans. The Guardships travel on an artificial construct called the Web. However the population of humans is decreasing and Others are moving in. The Others at the periphery are looking to destroy the Guardships under the coercion of a an alien race with psychic powers and sadistic habits. The Others capture an ancient foe of the Guardships from a defeated warrior race. Meanwhile, a commercial House con...more
Ancient warships, sentient and still manned by the fanatics that first crewed them, guard the vast interstellar empire of Canon Space without the consent of it's population. Any threat (ANY threat) to the empire is dealt with by obliteration via beam cannons or freeze-dried infantry battalions. All things considered, it's pretty obvious why some of Canon's inhabitants might want to make a deal with the devil and try to upset the system by dragging in barbaric "Outsiders" from beyond the empire t...more
I knew Cook solely as a writer of the dark and gritty "Black Company" series of fantasy novels, so it was with surprise that I discovered that he also wrote science fiction. I think he should stick to fantasy though. It isn't so much that "The Dragon Never Sleeps" is bad, but rather that his "Black Company" novels are so good... and it is somewhat perplexing that one of the main strengths of the latter -- his totally realistic portrayals of soldiers -- is almost totally lacking in the former, de...more
Read my profile info in order to understand what sort of reader I am and decide for yourself if this review has value for you.
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I really enjoyed this book. I find the characters interesting and the interaction between them really engaging. There are a lot of moving parts but I never got lost, and there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide....everyone has something they want and they plot and scheme to achieve their goals. Its a lot of fun!
Think of this book as space opera, almost Dune-like...more
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I really enjoyed this book. I find the characters interesting and the interaction between them really engaging. There are a lot of moving parts but I never got lost, and there isn't a clear "good/bad" character divide....everyone has something they want and they plot and scheme to achieve their goals. Its a lot of fun!
Think of this book as space opera, almost Dune-like...more
While it's not Cook's strongest work, that's hardly a harsh criticism. The premise is interesting, and it's got a classic Sci-fi feel to it which is kind of soothing in an age of nano-whozits and networked thingamajigs. It has conspiring great houses, ancient alien races and space ships blowing each other up. The story itself is a bit overly fragmented, with a large number of perspective characters which are kept in check only by Cook's willingness to kill them off. The middle of the book is a b...more
May 2013 bookgroup selection.
This was a difficult plot to get into. An overly complex ship naming convention, a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems with long names that began with letters and ended with numbers, cities that I couldn't figure out if they were cities or planets, a cast of characters scattered across a substantial universe, and that same cast of characters who had cloned themselves so more than one copy is running about. Toss in 'artifacts', lost...more
This was a difficult plot to get into. An overly complex ship naming convention, a political hierarchy that was not immediately clear, planetary systems with long names that began with letters and ended with numbers, cities that I couldn't figure out if they were cities or planets, a cast of characters scattered across a substantial universe, and that same cast of characters who had cloned themselves so more than one copy is running about. Toss in 'artifacts', lost...more
A fine piece of sprawling space opera by Mr. Cook. Sharp character development, deviously plotted politics, classic gunfights between unspeakably large space armadas, and sturdy, overarching thoughts regarding the history of seemingly invincible empires and the complex revolutions that seek to overthrow them as seen through the lens of an unfathomably immense space-time context. The struggle between the righteous species warrior Turtle, the underhanded, self-assured Lupo Provik, and duty-driven...more
The Dragon Never Sleeps interweaves stories from about half a dozen different perspectives to tell the tale of an attempted coupe of a monolithic, near invincible super power that has kept the universe in check for several centuries. Aliens, strange powers, inexplicable technologies, lust, betrayal, honor and random occurrences dot this colorful tale as we look into the lives of the various roles within the empire. Exposed are the thoughts of the cast offs, the power hungry and those soldiers wh...more
The Dragon Never Sleeps is the first science fiction - not fantasy - work I've real by Glen Cook. It is intersting in its approach and has a far denser plot and style of writing. His characterization is not as solid as his Black Company saga, and he never fully explains who and what some of the main characters really are. Still, it's a worthy space opera for those who like their stories epic and sweeping.
Glen Cook is a great sci-fi/fantasy author. His story lines are always very involved and twisting. This is a story about the very, very ,very far future where human space is dominated by a seemingly eternal "police" force known as the Guardships. I really enojed this book although it took about 50 pages for me to get an understanding of what was going on.
I thought this was excellent in general. My quibbles relate to the timing / pacing. There are many characters introduced. Towards the last third of the book, there are large gaps in time where brief descriptions of what occurred in the gap are mentioned. One loses the personal connection to the characters at this point. Part of this is because the overall story develops a much wider scope at this point. I simply wish it wasn't at the expense of the characters.
Cook's sci-fi masterpiece. A single stand-alone book creates a vivid setting, at least three sets of characters whose paths cross (as uneasy allies and as adversaries), and war across the stars. Cook manages to write plenty of unsavory characters, but you'll root for most of them before this story ends. Dizzying.
This was a pretty good book. I'm not saying it was spectacular but it was good. There was some of it that was boring but there were elements and parts I thought were phenomenal. And mostly I rated it a 4 instead of a three because there were ideas in it i'd never thought of before. But it was cool.
Aug 22, 2011
rémi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
anticipation
Un très bon livre de SF qui arrivent a nous surprendre. Un bon univers qui évitent le manichéisme, et ou si tout n'est pas rose, l'espoir existe peut-être encore, et pas forcément là où on le pense.
I loved when this book was reprinted, so I could stop stealing my brothers 20 year old copy. A gripping tale of interacting and opposing factions with some great space opera battle scenes. Lots of fun.
This is, I think, my favorite sci-fi novel. It reminds me of both Dune and Star Trek, a galaxy of largely independent noble houses, patrolled by invincible starships with immortal crews.
Cook may not be a great author, but his terse writing style is great for military space opera. Ultimately a disposable page turner, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Hard" SF & action. Gripping, but there were so many subplots and twists, I couldn't get my head around them.
May 01, 2013
Christopher Prince
added it
Couldn't make it by the first 40 pages-- too complicated and didn't keep my interest
Found this hard to get into
I really tried to enjoy this book more than I did. The presentation of a pseudo-utopian future with civilization kept in line by the axiomatic Guardships was truly fascinating. However I can't get over the barely developed characters, Cook's severe lack of descriptive writing(I guess this keeps the plot moving?), and the irksome way he donates the passage of major events in summary, usually with a single sentence after the fact! But still, the Guardships were awesome!
Glenn Cook writes excellent fantasy, and his sci-fi is pretty good too. However his stories can be confusing, with little explanation/backstory and descriptions that are hard to follow. The Dragon Never Sleeps suffers from these problems.
If you're in to Sci-Fi, I'd highly recommend Cook's Passage At Arms first. Read this one if you liked that one and can't get enough.
If you're in to Sci-Fi, I'd highly recommend Cook's Passage At Arms first. Read this one if you liked that one and can't get enough.
Based on the Amazon and GoodReads reviews, I expected more from this book. Space Opera intrigue that never quite clicks, and is a bit of a mess. Characters come and go, names change, nothing really gels. The immortal Guardships themselves are a nice conceit but nobody has any motivation or any development. And SO MANY CLONES. I guess you can make mine Culture.
A stand alone space opera where humans dominate the galaxy with their strict laws and no one is quite sure how the FTL enabling structure "The Web" was built. If this were a series I would definitely pick up the next book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.
I've read most of Cook's work, and enjoyed them all, but i really had to force myself to finish this. This one is confusing and vague on so many levels. It's like he expects you to know and recognize this world without any kind of explanations about it's people and workings.
It was an interesting book, but I thought it used too many new words which made it hard to follow. That and it seemed like it was supposed to have a sequel, but it obviously never did.
a classic.
hypercondensed space opera that could only have been written by Cook.
gets a bit choppy towards the end, but no less brilliant for it.
nothing is like this.
hypercondensed space opera that could only have been written by Cook.
gets a bit choppy towards the end, but no less brilliant for it.
nothing is like this.
While I did enjoy the book I found the beginning to be slow and was fairly bored with it for awhile. About 50 pages in it picked up and it kept me enthralled the rest of the trip.
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Glen Cook aka Greg Stevens is a contemporary American science fiction and fantasy author, best known for his fantasy series, The Black Company. Cook currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
More about Glen Cook...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
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