My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
The Dragon Never Sleeps
by
Glen Cook
Glen Cook (The Black Company, The Dread Empire) delivers a masterpiece of galaxy spanning space opera For four thousand years, the Guardships ruled Canon Space with an iron fist. Immortal ships with an immortal crew roaming the galaxy, dealing swiftly and harshly with any mercantile houses or alien races that threatened the status quo. But now the House Tregesser believes...more
Mass Market Paperbound, 440 pages
Published
by Night Shade Books
(first published 1988)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
377)
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 i...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 Hous...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 t...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...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-drive...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 ...more
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is one of the best space opera books I have ever read.
This undeservedly obscure book is one of the best examples of space opera from its time.
One of my favorite books. Complex story, interesting characters, a great read.
Giant starships named after Roman Legions! One of the best space operas I've read.
Trevor
added it
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
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.
More about Glen Cook...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
