The Dragons of the Cuyahoga

Cleveland Portal #1

by S. Andrew Swann

A FALL OF DRAGON--

It all started about a decade ago, when the Portal suddenly opened up over the stadium right in the middle of a game. Cleveland just hadn't been the same since, what with electronic devices pretty much useless--unless you were willing to spend a fortune in digital protection and redundancy equipment--and all the dragons, elves, gnomes, dwarves, gargoyles, etc. who'd come through the Portal to take up residence within the areas covered by the Portal's magical field.

For Kline Maxwell, City Hall reporter for the Cleveland Press, magic-based Cleveland had long since become the status quo. At least until a fellow reporter named Morgan came down with a case of eyeballs growing all over his body. The diagnosis: stay out of Portal territory and he'd be just fine. But that meant Maxwell and all the other reporters were going to have to take up the slack. And Maxwell hated the thought of doing "fuzzy gnome" stories. Still, he took his job seriously, and when he was assigned to cover a dragon's death by crash-landing into the Cuyahoga, he headed over to the accident site with only a modest number of curses. But what should have been a simple accident report soon led Maxwell in search of a much bigger story--one that would see him kidnapped by elves, framed for murder, holding secret meetings with dragons, and fleeing not only from the cops but from pretty much everyone....

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Dragons, Magic, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction

308 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

S. Andrew Swann is the primary pseudonym of Steven Swiniarski, who also writes as S.A. Swiniarski, Steven Krane, and S.A. Swann.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun novel set in Cleveland where a magical portal has opened over Browns Stadium and released a lot of magic and a host of magical creatures, such as the titular dragons. You would assume that much hilarity ensues, and it does somewhat, but the humor is tempered by the viewpoint character, Kline Maxwell, who's a political journalist that ends up investigating the whole mess. Somehow it all becomes tangled in a political mess of influence and manipulation, but it's still fun, as is the other book in the series, The Dwarves of Whiskey Island. Some bits are now dated, of course, but the depiction of Cleveland is convincingly spot-on.

[Hidekisohma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welp, this sure was a book I read. That's probably the best way i can describe this. It was a book i read.

When i read the premise, it actually sounded really cool. A fantasy portal opens up in Cleveland and magical creatures pour out of it and this news reporter has to investigate the death of a dragon. That sounds RIGHT up my alley. The problem is, the author doesn't really DO anything with it.

I WILL tell you what this author loves talking about though, and that's politics, holy crap did the author like talking about the politics of what happened here. Nearly every chapter there's some mention of how the government reacted to this portal opening up. Either with a law passed with congress, the way the police force changed, etc, he just keeps adding more and more stuff.

And world building isn't a bad thing, but he kind of picked one of the most uninteresting things you could think of. This is a portal where elves, unicorns and dragons are all coming through, and you're talking about legal loopholes that give elves citizen-hood. It's like having a box of fireworks and when they're firing off the fireworks, checking out the box they came in. It might be kind of interesting, but it shouldn't be a major focal point.

The main character, Kline, is, in a word, boring. He's your standard news reporter whose personality equates to "i'm a normal 40- something guy" that's about it. he reacts as well as you'd expect a character like that to at the world around him, and, after the first 150ish pages, he just starts getting kidnapped by everyone and is dragged along as the plot is explained to him.

A myriad of characters are added as the story goes on, and i forgot about 3/4 of them. Without giving away spoilers, i'll just say when they reveal the big baddie, i kind of just blinked and went "wait. did they ever mention this character before?" like, the character was so irrelevant to the plot i honestly couldn't even remember if they had mentioned them before.

Kline does some investigative journalism in the first half, but once he gets kidnapped the first time, it's just a giant schlog of him being dragged along to wherever the plot needs him to be. The climax wasn't even really satisfying, as he doesn't do much to resolve the story either.

I feel like this entire story was a wasted opportunity. Despite being a world of where fantastical creatures come through a portal, we meet a few mages, one live dragon, a gargoyle, and some elves. that's about it. There's no world building in that sense. like i don't believe this city is overrun with magical creatures. it kinda feels like a small spattering of them exist here rather than a new large section of the population.

An aspect of the story that could have been cut ENTIRELY was Kline's ex-wife and daughter. They're not even in the same city with him. They both live in California and all these characters amount to is Kline talking to them over the phone 2-3 times so we know they exist. They don't affect the plot, they don't do anything, they just kind of....exist. If you cut them out of the story and just said "he was never married" it would have affected crap all.

The first half of the story when he was investigating gave some promise, if not a bit dull. The second half became a rougher read though and the final 100 pages had me checking the page count a LOT more than normal.

This story really had a good idea behind it. I don't know why Swann chose to tell this PARTICULAR story when a setting of a magical portal in the middle of Cleveland had so much more potential. Also Kline needs a personality BAD.

The actual writing style was fine. it was easy to understand and nothing really left me confused. It was what he decided to focus on that made it more annoying. Still, I didn't actively dislike it, and am moderately interested to pick up the second book (if i can either get it used or at a library. not buying it new) to see if he spends more time on the characters in the world rather than the politics.

2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.

[Joshua Palmatier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dragons of the Cuyahoga is the first book by S. Andrew Swann featuring newspaper reporter Kline Maxwell, who usually covers the political beat in Cleveland, OH, never the "fuzzy gnome" stories. What are the "fuzzy gnome" stories? Well, the main premise behind this book and the sequel is that a Portal has opened up in Cleveland and elves, dragons, mages, gnomes, and every other assorted fantasyland creature have tumbled through an inhabited the area around Cleveland. They're limited in how far they can roam by the magical field that surrounds the Portal, but it's still a significant amount of area.

I picked the book up because of the premise, but I went into the book with some doubts. It's very difficult to integrate magic into the real world believable, but I think S. Andrew Swann has done it. There are limits on the magic and the way it is described and how it is used is interesting. There has been a lot of thought put into how something like the Portal would fit into our world, not just the mechanics of it and how it works, but also how it would affect politics and government and such.

The book has two great strengths, and that's one of them. The second is that the elves and dragons and such aren't just humans with funny ears or wings. S. Andrew Swann had gone the extra mile and made them all THINK differently.

The story begins when Kline is assigned to the "fuzzy gnome" story of a dragon that crash lands in the Cuyahoga. Except after a while it becomes obvious that it wasn't an accident, but murder. Most of the outcome of the story revolves around the fact that the fantasyland creatures think differently and that Kline has to adjust his own thinking in order to fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together so that they make sense. He keeps assigning human motivations and motivators to the elves and dragons and such, and he has to kick that habit in order to get the mystery of the dragon's death solved. This idea--that the fantasy creatures don't think the same as we do--is something that should be integrated into fantasy novels more, but it's hard to pull off, mostly because it's hard for us (the human author and human reader) to wrap our head around how someone so completely different will think so completely different. In the end, though, you can follow how S. Andrew Swann's creatures think and who killed the dragon and why--and why those who help Kline, help him, and those who don't, don't.

There are some drawbacks to the novel. I'm not sure what happened, but this book appears to have skipped the last page proof phase. There are alot of typos and sentences gone wrong and such. I don't usually mind some throughout my books, because as a writer I know that it's nearly impossible to find them all, even when three or four people go through the book specifically looking for them. But the number that appear in this book is insane and it got annoying. There was also a few sections of the book where I thought the worldbuilding detail of how the Portal was integrated into Cleveland was a little too much. This happened most often when the author spent a page or two explaining the "history" of a particular section of Cleveland--how such-and-such area went from new-wealth to a slum housing the lesser classes of fantasyland creatures, for example. I don't mind a paragraph on this, but when it went on for a few pages . . .

In the end, though, I thought it was a cool idea and I really liked the way the mystery resolved itself, since it was based on how everyone thought and that not everything had the same goals as, say, humans would have. I'll certainly go on to read the sequel, The Dwarves of Whiskey Island. In fact, I've already started it. *grin*

PS--These two books can now be found in an omnibus volume called Dragons and Dwarves: Novels of the Cleveland Portal.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a thrift store on the premise alone - there's a portal to a Tolkien-esque dimension opens up in Cleveland, Ohio. I always love finding fantasy novels set in Ohio and this sounded like it would be full of potential. Anyway, it starts off well. I particularly enjoyed reading about just how the magic leaching through the portal affects the real world - and those coming from that dimension. I also liked reading about just how inhuman and different all of those creatures and figures are from us. Unfortunately, this story never quite lived up to my hopes. It was a little too dry, the main character Kline Maxwell (his name should be flipped in my opinion) wasn't all that interesting, and the story became too politically convoluted as it went on. I was hoping for something more similar to The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford which was absolutely awesome. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of The Dragons of the Cuyahoga (Cleveland Portal #1), I would like to see more of this world and read the sequel, The Dwarves of Whiskey Island.

[Jason Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good mystery, set in a modern, political adventure, with a bit of fantasy. :)

This is one of my favorite books. I have always liked to read stories of fantasy adventure, but this one added politics into the mix, something I usually don't get into. The character that takes you through the story is no hero. Good guys, bad guys, and everything in between. Many popular movies and books try to blend fantasy with modern realism. This one does so better than most. A good summary of the story, would be to ask yourself, "What would a major modern city do, after welcoming a large population of magical creatures, if one or more important and powerful people(magical or not) died in unusual circumstances? Not a long read, but with ten years of history, leading up to the story, I wouldn't mind reading more about the world of this one

[Waller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, this probably gets a higher rating from me because it's set in my hometown, and I loved seeing all the local references - Swann clearly knows Cleveland, and in particular the East Side. It is nontheless an interesting concept, a rupture in the fabric of the universe creates a connection between the "real world" and a world of magic, centered just offshore in Cleveland.

[Patti Mallin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the political aspects too convoluted, but enjoyed the nostalgia factor and the central character.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book because it was set in Cleveland and I'm in Cleveland. I didn't like this book because it came across as being very flat. I never got swept up into the book, the characters, etc. Also, all the conspiracies and grand plots and villains became boring and indistinguishable. Mainly because each time a conflict occurred, it was resolved only with appearance of another interested party. With another conspiracy angle.

And I kind of felt that with such a rich premise that it wasn't realized. All these fairy creatures in our world... I felt we didn't learn enough about them, or maybe I just didn't care what I learned about them, it didn't feel like enough, not sure. I would have thought a more interesting story would have been day 1 when the portal first opens and the magical creatures start coming through, them trying to get used to and fit in in our world.

Maybe some of my dislikes would have been addressed if I hadn't skipped around but as I said, the writing was so flat.

I read there is a sequel, I'll skip it. Well, I'll read what it's about then decide. And I've read about it and decided to skip it.

[Isabel :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. The first like 40% was faster paced and more interesting because the story introduced you to a lot of information as the mystery was set up, but then it lagged in the middle and later part, and the end was more action-packed and interesting, but I was also kind of confused. I think that investigative-political-conspiracy stories just aren't for me. I liked the concept, though, and the way magic was explained using fictional science- it reminded me a little bit of Discworld. And it was kind of funny in a weird way! Like the scene with the interview with the stocktrading dragon.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable urban fantasy-mystery combo that weaves in some nifty world-building while grounding it all in the environs of Cleveland and the surrounding area. I am digging how other writers integrate specific Cleveland places into their stories (and learning about those places, too).

[Sunil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. My main gripe is that a cracking concept blending high fantasy and urban fantasy gets a “political” thriller treatment. The main Character is lackluster throughout, until the closing pages.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty engaging noir-fantasy story of political intrigue in Cleveland, Ohio, where a magical portal has opened up in Browns Stadium. Well plotted with good characters, and uses a lot of North-East Ohio locations and landmarks to great effect!

[David Mullis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly and fun as a play on a classic noir. I enjoyed the clash for fantasy characters with noir tropes.

Enjoyed it so much, I got the sequel. I really didn’t think I’d end up liking it as much as I did by the end.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cleveland based story.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fantasy noir (albeit reporter hero rather than detective).

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of twists and turns.

[theStorykeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

CW: gruesome violence, sexual references, minor character death

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I picked this book up because of a blog's 2015 Reading Challenge. One of the check boxes said "a book set in your hometown." Since I'm from Cleveland, the first thing that came to me is the Les Roberts series of mysteries. I've read a few, probably over a decade ago, but it's been a while, and I'm not usually a mystery fan anyway.

However, I started looking on Goodreads for other books set in Cleveland, and this one intrigued me. Cleveland, but with magic and Dragons? Awesome!

While the idea is still awesome, the execution was not as much. First, I read the book on my Kindle, and the text did not seem to be very well-proofed. I found roughly one spelling, spacing, grammar, or usage mistake per chapter, I think. Second, the book is not fabulously edited. If someone actually read the book (hopefully aloud) before it went to press, some of the repetition - not parallel structure, mind you - and wordy sentences could have been edited to be more powerful.

That aside, I think the fact that I had Les Roberts to compare to made it tough for me to like this book with a setting in Cleveland. When Les Roberts writes about an integral part of Cleveland, he uses his research to move the plot along. The information he shares, for example, explains the turf war whose dividing line is the West Side Market, or we learn about the history of the salt mining industry in Cleveland before ending up at a salt mine for a very important moment. I didn't feel like the information about Cleveland shared in The Dragon of Cuyahoga was integral to the story - it was just a convenient setting to wishfully explain why Cleveland finally got some respect and economic stability. I imagine that this book could have been moved to any major city with a failing economy and a nearby body of water and been good to go.

I don't know if this would bug me if I read it ten years ago, but the anachronisms bothered me while reading this book. Kline kept calling his laptop his "notebook," a phrase we stopped using because it was confusing. His cell phone doesn't send or receive texts, which is odd even for 2004. He owns an all-digital big-screen TV (which would be more like a mid-size TV now), but he talked about how expensive it was. Stuff like that, usually around technology.

Finally, as another reviewer mentioned, there were layers upon layers of conspiracies here, and I seriously had trouble keeping them straight. At some point, about 40% in, I didn't think it was worth it to continue, but I trudged on. At 80% in, I felt like the end was close enough that I shouldn't give up then. At 90%, I questioned the pacing of the book - shouldn't we be in the thick of the climax by now?

I see on Goodreads that this is #1 in a series. I don't plan to go looking for the others.

[Liana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soooo awesome! I didn't think I'd get into this story because I'm not really into sci-fi, crime, and mystery fiction. But when saw the D word in the title, I couldn't ignore the chance to read it because I LOVE dragons. :) This was certainly one heck of a story! The creatures that we get in a typical high-fantasy world (dragons, elves, dwarves, unicorns, etc,) fit in naturally inside this modern world - our world. I loved the mystery surrounding the dead dragon, and the mess the main character gets into. He's pretty cool by the way, and instantly likable.

There's a fair amount of humor in this story too, which I didn't expect. It was great! (THE SHOWER SCENE - WAHAHAHA.)

I'm definitely going to read the next book! Oh yeah, I just got to say that I'm completely in love with Caledvwlch. *Butchers name* That elf is too awesome in his own odd way, I hope I'll see him more soon.

Content wise, I didn't see a lot of 'adultness' about it (har, not a word) other than its strong language. (Lots of F bombs here and there, some 5-8 on every page during certain chapters.) I can recommend it to older young adults too.

[Aleina Louriano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy creatures in a city? The overall concept of this is different, which separates it from other people and magic stories. When the magic comes into the city, I like the way the people and their way of life is affected, its so realistic. The detailed writing is flawless. It shows you how difficult and interesting the life of a reporter really is. As good as this book is, I do have some problems with it. Why isn't Kline Maxwell a detective? With how he thinks and the overall feel of the story, you forget he's a news reporter. This is a complex story with many characters and events. In my opinion, the book seems to shift away from the original plot into a bigger event. In the end, the original plot was just mentioned and seemed to have been forgotten. I recommend this book to the readers who enjoy mystery and fantasy mixed in with modern society. I will definitely continue reading the series because the ending for this book was amazing.

[Rex Libris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magical portal opens up over the Browns Stadium and dragons and magical creatures come through and settle in the Cleveland area. A newspaper reporter investigates the death of a dragon and of courses discovers so much more.

The plot is very complicated and convoluted. There are conspiracies within conspiracies within conspiracies. Natives of NE Ohio will like the story filled with familiar landmarks, places, and institutions.

[Grimread · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads like a boring report instead of a fantasy novel. I understand that the main character is a journalist and he is uncovering a very convoluted political plot, but I wish there was more of him then just stating the current events. It's like he has no personality in this just because he is a journalist and has to keep his objective point of view in the story he is covering. Even the relationship with his ex and his daughter is so briefly squeezed in there that I don't really see what the point was.

I also don't understand why this book is classified as fantasy novel. It should be a thriller or a far-fetched detective novel.

[Tressa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't know why I finished this book. All this conspiracies and grand plots and great villains became boring and indistinguishable. Mainly because each time a conflict occurred, it was resolved only with appearance of another interested party. With another conspiracy angle.
And I didn't like main hero - mostly because he looked like a marionette being put in game, guided and saved/harmed by higher players.
I like an explanation of elves' distant behavior and hero's relationship with his daughter, but not a plot

[Mark Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read through this book over two different days, separated by a week. The first half was exciting and thrilling and intriguing. When I came back to it, all those elements were still there but it just was not very exciting and thrilling anymore. It concluded and wrapped up the whole story, but the explanation ran much longer than my interest in the intrigue..

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swann's fantasy breakthrough is an engaging tale of a reporter's coverage of the death of a dragon in Cleveland which turns into a criminal investigation. Elfs with guns, magic and murder mixed together.

My word for it - fun read

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less emphasis on the fantasy & characters and more emphasis on the thriller/mystery/political machinations which made for a very different book than I normally read. The idea of how modern America would react to a portal to a fantasy realm opening up in downtown Cleveland is an interesting one...

[Rick Mullenax · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because it fused fantasy and my county together. Otherwise, I don't think I would have given it a second look. Not a bad read though, it's always fun to read about your city and how fantasy creatures run wild in it.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neat premise, very dully executed. And the protagonist/narrator was such a cipher, I never got a clear mental image of him. He was an extremely average White Male Protagonist who managed to make investigating the death of a dragon boring.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fine fantasy with a touch of mystery. The first book in a new series. Hope their are several more to come.

[Roger Eschbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detective thriller meets high fantasy as a political beat reporter investigates the death of a dragon in modern-day Ohio. Overall, a fun and satisfying read.