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Brother to Dragons
The power of one...
Job. Against all evidence he never lost faith in his fellow man.
Job. Born on he bottom rung in an age that made ours seem Golden, his life went rapidly downhill from there.
Job. Cast adrift into a world he never made, but would change forever.
Job. Sometimes, one true man can make the difference.
Job. Against all evidence he never lost faith in his fellow man.
Job. Born on he bottom rung in an age that made ours seem Golden, his life went rapidly downhill from there.
Job. Cast adrift into a world he never made, but would change forever.
Job. Sometimes, one true man can make the difference.
261 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
About the author
Charles Sheffield
218 books171 followersCharles A. Sheffield (June 25, 1935 – November 2, 2002), was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He had been a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronomical Society.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 30, 2021
Job, the protagonist in Brother to Dragons, is one of Sheffield's most poignant and interesting characters, and we get his story against a backdrop of a ruined world that it's his mission to improve. Sheffield was a master of hard-sf, and while the reader may not always agree with his conclusions, he's always thought-provoking, erudite, educating, and entertaining. This is a good one.
T - A - N - D
Nuclear waste taste good to me.
Nuclear core she drive me wild,
Pull the rods and spoil the child.
T - A - N - D
Nuclear waste taste good to me.
Nuclear core she drive me wild,
Pull the rods and spoil the child.
January 25, 2024
A little story about an underdog..
May 13, 2015
So this follows the life of a man from birth to his end. If you like Job, which I did, then this makes for a compelling read. The world building is perhaps the best dystopian can offer. The world feels chillingly real and possible to me. The situations are not generic but layered and nuanced and help you to see the man Job will become. There is much to like about this book. The situations he gets into are never of his own making but he deals with them and comes out the winner or at least the best loser.
The end totally tanks the book for me Literally the last few pages are not the "saving the world" that you expect and the shock is not a pleasant on but rather anti-climatic. People are constantly talking about population explosion but modern people are too selfish for that to ever really be a problem. There are only really a couple countries today that even have a population that maintains itself let alone is actually increasing. Even China is worried about not having enough workers. Even in 1992 I feel like this is a tired idea even from Charles Sheffield who writes truly superior sci-fi.
That being said he knows the inside of a human male and how to put him on the page. Job is stellar. You want him to suceed and find a situation where he can not only survive but be happy. All the side character from Mr. Bones to Skip to even the villains of the piece snapping off the page. You don't forget one of them and they aree come together to tell Job's story. I felt like the plot was superior as well and I was truly sucked into the story. The twists really are unexpected even as you think you know where the story is going, it snaps you like a rubber band.
BOTTOM LINE: A goodread ruined by an ending.
The end totally tanks the book for me Literally the last few pages are not the "saving the world" that you expect and the shock is not a pleasant on but rather anti-climatic. People are constantly talking about population explosion but modern people are too selfish for that to ever really be a problem. There are only really a couple countries today that even have a population that maintains itself let alone is actually increasing. Even China is worried about not having enough workers. Even in 1992 I feel like this is a tired idea even from Charles Sheffield who writes truly superior sci-fi.
That being said he knows the inside of a human male and how to put him on the page. Job is stellar. You want him to suceed and find a situation where he can not only survive but be happy. All the side character from Mr. Bones to Skip to even the villains of the piece snapping off the page. You don't forget one of them and they aree come together to tell Job's story. I felt like the plot was superior as well and I was truly sucked into the story. The twists really are unexpected even as you think you know where the story is going, it snaps you like a rubber band.
BOTTOM LINE: A goodread ruined by an ending.
January 3, 2011
I'm writing this without benefit of a copy of the book in hand. It's a post-apocalyptic tale of society hanging together by a thread after (imagine my surprise) a world-wide economic collapse. The central character, Job, is a seemingly hapless individual with many handicaps. He undergoes a series of horrific misadventures, but ultimately plays a key role in the reshaping of the world.
Pardon the play on words, but I would call this tale one which is possessed of biblical proportions. Each chapter is preceded by a biblical reference. And there are obvious parallels with the book of Job. Despite the grim nature of the happenings in the story, however, the ultimate perspective is a positive one.
The reason I don't have a copy of the book: I gave it to my former pastor who tells me she really enjoyed it.
Pardon the play on words, but I would call this tale one which is possessed of biblical proportions. Each chapter is preceded by a biblical reference. And there are obvious parallels with the book of Job. Despite the grim nature of the happenings in the story, however, the ultimate perspective is a positive one.
The reason I don't have a copy of the book: I gave it to my former pastor who tells me she really enjoyed it.
July 25, 2011
A worthy award winner (1993 John Campbell Memorial). The story follows the life of Job Napoleon Salk - from his near stillbirth, through his early years in an orphange, his childhood on the streets of a post-crash Washington DC, to his time on a TANDI (Toxic and Nuclear Disposal Installation) in Nebraska. Saddled with significant physical deformities and living a life that is often dictated by outside forces, Job makes use of his two assets - a talent for learning languages and a strong survival instinct - to try and stay alive in this dystopian setting.
Sheffield excels here with his description of the setting, his development of Job, and with the cameos of all the minor characters that intersect Job's tale. The pacing of the story is also good - I found it hard to put the book down, finishing the 260 page book in 3 sittings over 3 days.
Sheffield excels here with his description of the setting, his development of Job, and with the cameos of all the minor characters that intersect Job's tale. The pacing of the story is also good - I found it hard to put the book down, finishing the 260 page book in 3 sittings over 3 days.
July 9, 2013
This is a short novel set in a post-apocalyptic world. It's not a very optimistic sci-fi story, the world is a pretty grim place unless you're one of the privileged few. The main character Job is someone who is as unlikely hero as they come and the beginning of the book tells of the difficulties he has making his way in the economically devastated world. The final end of the story was both depressing and and encouraging at the same time; as badly as the cards he was dealt were, he was willing to make the ultimate final sacrifice to try and give future generations hope. Frankly I don't find the scenario in which the story is told to be realistic, but is it a good exploration of the main character's responses to the situations he is put in, his response to the evil around him from both the downtrodden and the elite minority.
November 30, 2019
I found this on my dad's bookshelf as a child. Little 11-year-old me was enchanted by the cover and the promise of dragons. (there were no dragons)
I read the entire book and... did not really understand much of it. I got the basic idea. I liked the idea of a kid from a shitty situation clawing his way up until he does something that actually makes some small difference in the world. I was an unattractive child in an abusive situation, longing to do something Good that made my life worthwhile.
As an adult, I should not have been able to read it when I was 11. There was so much I didn't understand about it the first time around. The abuse, the sex, the political climate and subtext, way too advanced for even a pretty precocious preteen. Reading it now, with the world the way it is today, it's painful and on point for a book written over 25 years ago.
I don't normally like books this bleak, but it's good, and in the end, the sort of vindictive glee you feel from the outcome despite how depressing it is still feels like an unreachable fantasy.
I read the entire book and... did not really understand much of it. I got the basic idea. I liked the idea of a kid from a shitty situation clawing his way up until he does something that actually makes some small difference in the world. I was an unattractive child in an abusive situation, longing to do something Good that made my life worthwhile.
As an adult, I should not have been able to read it when I was 11. There was so much I didn't understand about it the first time around. The abuse, the sex, the political climate and subtext, way too advanced for even a pretty precocious preteen. Reading it now, with the world the way it is today, it's painful and on point for a book written over 25 years ago.
I don't normally like books this bleak, but it's good, and in the end, the sort of vindictive glee you feel from the outcome despite how depressing it is still feels like an unreachable fantasy.
January 6, 2019
My first review, and perhaps a rather obscure book to start on. This will be brief, as my pregnant wife struggles to sleep beside me, I fear an entirely different dragon may awaken.
I read this book almost 20 years ago now, brought from the library by my mother, it was perhaps a little dark. I devoured it, and had a genuine pang of loss for our misused protagonist. The most compelling thing about Brother to Dragons (for me, at any rate) were the Tandymen. They haunted my dreams for months after, and I still occasionally think about them today, when I fancy a chilled spine.
"I ate thousands of rads today. Thousands and thousands."
That line will be with me until I die, I think. Well done Mr. Sheffield. A formative childhood memory for me.
I read this book almost 20 years ago now, brought from the library by my mother, it was perhaps a little dark. I devoured it, and had a genuine pang of loss for our misused protagonist. The most compelling thing about Brother to Dragons (for me, at any rate) were the Tandymen. They haunted my dreams for months after, and I still occasionally think about them today, when I fancy a chilled spine.
"I ate thousands of rads today. Thousands and thousands."
That line will be with me until I die, I think. Well done Mr. Sheffield. A formative childhood memory for me.
April 10, 2019
This novel takes place in a dystopian near-future, where those in power use the scant resources and the rest of the population scrounge for scraps. The protagonist is enlisted by one of the powerful to carry out an information gathering mission in a settlement around a nuclear and toxic waste dump, where criminals and political dissidents are sentenced to live.
Sheffield employs his usual absorbing writing style, but the plot seems rather like a short story expanded into novel length. Someone of --ahem-- a certain age can easily see the current events of the last couple decades of the 20th century used as the jumping off point for the plot, and it hasn't aged well. But still a decent read.
Sheffield employs his usual absorbing writing style, but the plot seems rather like a short story expanded into novel length. Someone of --ahem-- a certain age can easily see the current events of the last couple decades of the 20th century used as the jumping off point for the plot, and it hasn't aged well. But still a decent read.
October 7, 2008
Ce roman est une terrifiante anticipation d’un monde où le libéralisme le plus échevelé, et aussi (surtout ?) le désir pour certains de conserver un mode de vie acquis , ont transformé le monde en enfer pour les couches déshéritées de la population (soit environ 99 % de celle-ci). On est loin ici de la science-fiction qui fait rêver à grands coups de voyages dans l’espace, de découvertes scientifiques délirantes, et tout à fait dans une grande tradition d’anticipation sociale qu’on peut faire remonter à 1984, par exemple. Toutefois, là où Orwell s’intéressait à l’instrumentation des foules (sujet toujours d’actualité(1)), Sheffield choisit, lui, de s’attaquer à quelque chose de peut-être plus important actuellement : le libéralisme et ses conséquences sociales. Et c’est une réussite absolument sinistre.
Toute la vie du héros est ainsi marquée par le fait qu’il soit né du mauvais côté de la barrière. Bien sûr, celle du roman se place entre la banlieue et le Mall, centre commercial devenu le siège du pouvoir politique(2). Mais elle n’est que l’évidente métaphore du fossé existant entre les pays développés et ceux en prenant la voie(3). Pour en revenir au héros, voilà un personnage fascinant. De sa naissance à sa mort, il ne peut que cultiver les handicaps, et pourtant se bat déséspérément, avec une rage de vivre qui ne peut que susciter l’admiration. Pourtant, je suis légèrement sceptique quant à ses capacités : entre ses problèmes de santé et son jeune âge, comment peut-il espérer survivre dans cet environnement, marqué par une loi de la jungle effrénée ? Peut-être – et il ne s’agit là que de la réflexion d’un lecteur, à ne prendre qu’au même degré que celles du café du commerce – de la même manière que survivent les orphelins dans les favelas de tous les coins du tiers-monde, loin d’une caméra occidentale qui ne pourrait que choquer les bonnes familles devant leur vingt heures, alors que le petit dernier redemande pour la troisième fois de la purée. C’est donc un roman à lire si, pour une fois, vous souhaitez essayer de vous mettre dans la peau d’un gamin des rues de Kuala-Lumpur, de Rio ou d’ailleurs.
(1) Et peut-être encore plus, maintenant que les moyens d’information permettent une manipulation tellement facile de l’opinion, comme le montrera sans doute bientôt le vote sur la constitution européenne.
(2) Et d’aucuns ont encore besoin d’avoir des preuves de la nocivité des lobbies
(3) même s’il est plus difficile d’avancer quand ceux du devant vous balancent leurs ordures à la figure.
Toute la vie du héros est ainsi marquée par le fait qu’il soit né du mauvais côté de la barrière. Bien sûr, celle du roman se place entre la banlieue et le Mall, centre commercial devenu le siège du pouvoir politique(2). Mais elle n’est que l’évidente métaphore du fossé existant entre les pays développés et ceux en prenant la voie(3). Pour en revenir au héros, voilà un personnage fascinant. De sa naissance à sa mort, il ne peut que cultiver les handicaps, et pourtant se bat déséspérément, avec une rage de vivre qui ne peut que susciter l’admiration. Pourtant, je suis légèrement sceptique quant à ses capacités : entre ses problèmes de santé et son jeune âge, comment peut-il espérer survivre dans cet environnement, marqué par une loi de la jungle effrénée ? Peut-être – et il ne s’agit là que de la réflexion d’un lecteur, à ne prendre qu’au même degré que celles du café du commerce – de la même manière que survivent les orphelins dans les favelas de tous les coins du tiers-monde, loin d’une caméra occidentale qui ne pourrait que choquer les bonnes familles devant leur vingt heures, alors que le petit dernier redemande pour la troisième fois de la purée. C’est donc un roman à lire si, pour une fois, vous souhaitez essayer de vous mettre dans la peau d’un gamin des rues de Kuala-Lumpur, de Rio ou d’ailleurs.
(1) Et peut-être encore plus, maintenant que les moyens d’information permettent une manipulation tellement facile de l’opinion, comme le montrera sans doute bientôt le vote sur la constitution européenne.
(2) Et d’aucuns ont encore besoin d’avoir des preuves de la nocivité des lobbies
(3) même s’il est plus difficile d’avancer quand ceux du devant vous balancent leurs ordures à la figure.
November 11, 2020
Job Napoleon Salk, né, quasi mort né, d'une mère droguée, est multi handicapé. Malgré tout, il a hérité miraculeusement d'un esprit vif, d'une oreille absolue et d'un don pour les langues. Son univers : un monde proche où l'économie s'est effondré et où le monde vit dans la misère. Mais pas tous ! Les riches sont encore privilégiés et, en plus, pour échapper au blâme, ils ont réussi à mettre le blâme, de l'effondrement, sur le dos des scientifiques, qui sont maintenant maintenus dans des camps, souvent prêts de décharges polluantes. Job, débrouillard hors pair, survit, mais finit par faire une erreur qui le démarque. On ne lui donne pas le choix; il lui faut infiltrer un camp de scientifiques où, paraît-il, un d'entre eux a fait une découverte qui bousculerait la main-mise des riches et leur puissance.
Une dystopie bien racontée et assez apeurante, car il s'agit d'un futur proche et possible, si on ne fait rien pour le contrer.
Par contre, en science-fiction, j'aime une histoire qui stimule mon imagination et ça n'a pas été tout à fait le cas.
J'ai aimé, mais je m'attendais à plus de Charles Sheffield, un écrivain que j'aime beaucoup.
Une dystopie bien racontée et assez apeurante, car il s'agit d'un futur proche et possible, si on ne fait rien pour le contrer.
Par contre, en science-fiction, j'aime une histoire qui stimule mon imagination et ça n'a pas été tout à fait le cas.
J'ai aimé, mais je m'attendais à plus de Charles Sheffield, un écrivain que j'aime beaucoup.
December 31, 2010
Like the stars says it was OK. I was expecting more about the saving of the world. I got a life story of a down trodden person after the collapse of the world economy. The characters were not well developed and the story felt flat.
January 6, 2015
A quick read, with a surprisingly good ending.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews