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The Dragon Nimbus Histories #1
The Dragon's Touchstone
THE MAGIC WARS—
Three hundred years before the time of The Glass Dragon, Coronnan is a kingdom at war with itself. Magic is wild and magicians uncontrolled, each working separately for his own goal. At the height of this age of chaos, the dragons know they must intervene. Their chosen humans are:
Nimbulan, a soul-weary Battlemage who has nearly exhausted his own great abilities in the endless battles of succession between rival lords. Determined to find a better way, he founds the University of Magicians to train and unite the next generation to stand against the rogue spellworkers who prefer endless war and the wealth and power it brings.
And Myrilandel, a witchwoman and healer who will become the liaison between humans and dragonkind, offering the gift of dragon magic to Nimbulan and his fellow spellcasters.
But even dragon magic may not be enough to defeat the greed of Nimbulan’s most trusted assistant, the fanaticism of a priest who thrives on blood magic, and the ambitions of the lord to whom Nimbulan had once given his allegiance…
Three hundred years before the time of The Glass Dragon, Coronnan is a kingdom at war with itself. Magic is wild and magicians uncontrolled, each working separately for his own goal. At the height of this age of chaos, the dragons know they must intervene. Their chosen humans are:
Nimbulan, a soul-weary Battlemage who has nearly exhausted his own great abilities in the endless battles of succession between rival lords. Determined to find a better way, he founds the University of Magicians to train and unite the next generation to stand against the rogue spellworkers who prefer endless war and the wealth and power it brings.
And Myrilandel, a witchwoman and healer who will become the liaison between humans and dragonkind, offering the gift of dragon magic to Nimbulan and his fellow spellcasters.
But even dragon magic may not be enough to defeat the greed of Nimbulan’s most trusted assistant, the fanaticism of a priest who thrives on blood magic, and the ambitions of the lord to whom Nimbulan had once given his allegiance…
380 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
6 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Irene Radford
127 books135 followersAlso uses C.F. Bentley, Phyllis Irene Radford, Julia Verne St. John, Rachel Atwood, Phyllis Ames, P. Irene Radford and P.R. Frost.
Irene has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. Combining a love for Medieval history and a fascination with paranormal, Irene concentrated on fantasy writing.
In her spare time, Irene enjoys lacemaking and is a long time member of an international guild. Check out THE LONELIEST MAGICIAN, The Dragon Nimbus #3 for an exploration of her favorite obsession. A piece of magic lace is the obvious patch for a dragon wing. She has published numerous magazine articles about the history and technique of lacemaking as well as self publishing two lacemaker's fairy tales with lace patterns that can be made up to illustrate the stories. When she isn't writing or making lace she enjoys exploring the back roads and many museums of the Pacific Northwest.
For many years Irene was active in Ballet du Lac, a semi-pro ballet company. She taught ballet to youngsters in her local community school program. At the same time she led a Cub Scout pack and frequently found her home the preferred playground in the neighborhood for many more children than she thought possible.
Irene has held many full and part time jobs from Insurance underwriter to assistant curator of a museum to clerk in a fabric store. Writing is now her “day job.”
Two years ago, Irene took up fencing as research for GUARDIAN OF THE FREEDOM, Merlin’s Descendants #5. She figured one quarter would give her some vocabulary and a feel for a weapon in her hand. But that wasn’t enough to write realistic battles on the Ottoman frontier or convincing duels. So she signed up for another quarter. And another. Now she’s addicted and needs to add fencing to more of her books and let her subjects range further afield.
A native Oregonian living in Oregon, Irene is a member of an endangered species. As a service brat, she lived in a number of cities throughout the country until returning to Oregon in time to graduate from Tigard High School. She earned a B.A. in history from Lewis and Clark College, where she met her husband, Tim. Historical research has remained a lifelong passion and finally became a part of her job with the historical fantasy series Merlin’s Descendants.
Irene and her husband currently make their home in Welches, Oregon where they share their back yard with deer, coyotes, bear (check the pictures), raccoons and too many bird species to mention.
Irene has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. Combining a love for Medieval history and a fascination with paranormal, Irene concentrated on fantasy writing.
In her spare time, Irene enjoys lacemaking and is a long time member of an international guild. Check out THE LONELIEST MAGICIAN, The Dragon Nimbus #3 for an exploration of her favorite obsession. A piece of magic lace is the obvious patch for a dragon wing. She has published numerous magazine articles about the history and technique of lacemaking as well as self publishing two lacemaker's fairy tales with lace patterns that can be made up to illustrate the stories. When she isn't writing or making lace she enjoys exploring the back roads and many museums of the Pacific Northwest.
For many years Irene was active in Ballet du Lac, a semi-pro ballet company. She taught ballet to youngsters in her local community school program. At the same time she led a Cub Scout pack and frequently found her home the preferred playground in the neighborhood for many more children than she thought possible.
Irene has held many full and part time jobs from Insurance underwriter to assistant curator of a museum to clerk in a fabric store. Writing is now her “day job.”
Two years ago, Irene took up fencing as research for GUARDIAN OF THE FREEDOM, Merlin’s Descendants #5. She figured one quarter would give her some vocabulary and a feel for a weapon in her hand. But that wasn’t enough to write realistic battles on the Ottoman frontier or convincing duels. So she signed up for another quarter. And another. Now she’s addicted and needs to add fencing to more of her books and let her subjects range further afield.
A native Oregonian living in Oregon, Irene is a member of an endangered species. As a service brat, she lived in a number of cities throughout the country until returning to Oregon in time to graduate from Tigard High School. She earned a B.A. in history from Lewis and Clark College, where she met her husband, Tim. Historical research has remained a lifelong passion and finally became a part of her job with the historical fantasy series Merlin’s Descendants.
Irene and her husband currently make their home in Welches, Oregon where they share their back yard with deer, coyotes, bear (check the pictures), raccoons and too many bird species to mention.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 1, 2021
From reading the blurb, I was sure I'd love this book, but I didn't at all because of wooden heroes, mustache-twirling villains, typos, and an ending I hated.
May 11, 2019
War dominates Coronnan, trampling the common folk under the feet of its lords, and fueled by the service of Battlemages. Racked by grief and guilt after he is forced to slay a former student in combat, Battlemage Nimbulan sets out to find a better way (with middling success until it drops into his lap - more on that later). The secondary protagonist, Myrilandel, is a witchwoman with amnesia, tossed into events by her need to heal and a mysterious compulsion.
This book is dated in many of the ways you would expect, and it hasn't aged well. There's a lot of reliance on fate, prophecy and - as just mentioned - inexplicable forces nudging the characters along. Myrilandel in particular doesn't seem to have much agency or motivation of her own; she just obeys the plot machine, thinly disguised as voices in her head. When she finally discovers the reason she was being compelled, it solves much of the story's problems, but it feels too convenient.
There follows, in the last pages of the book, a fast succession of revelations that feel as if they came out of nowhere. These come across as mysteries I should have been able to solve, but wasn't given enough evidence for. Maybe it wouldn't if I had read the "first" series (this is the beginning of a prequel series), but coming at it as a new reader, I was nonplussed by a lot of it.
There are some enjoyable aspects to this book. The state of the kingdom is nicely drawn, and many of the background events and the motivation of secondary characters feels grounded and realistic. The attitude towards sex, in particular, is refreshing in its pragmatism. In a lot of ways, I liked the movement of secondary characters such as Quinnalt and Kalen better than the main narrative. Apart from the grand forces that give this book its main arc, so much of what shapes the individual scenes is human pettiness and the smallness of fear, greed and jealousy. Those are the most compelling parts of The Dragon's Touchstone.
This book is dated in many of the ways you would expect, and it hasn't aged well. There's a lot of reliance on fate, prophecy and - as just mentioned - inexplicable forces nudging the characters along. Myrilandel in particular doesn't seem to have much agency or motivation of her own; she just obeys the plot machine, thinly disguised as voices in her head. When she finally discovers the reason she was being compelled, it solves much of the story's problems, but it feels too convenient.
There follows, in the last pages of the book, a fast succession of revelations that feel as if they came out of nowhere. These come across as mysteries I should have been able to solve, but wasn't given enough evidence for. Maybe it wouldn't if I had read the "first" series (this is the beginning of a prequel series), but coming at it as a new reader, I was nonplussed by a lot of it.
There are some enjoyable aspects to this book. The state of the kingdom is nicely drawn, and many of the background events and the motivation of secondary characters feels grounded and realistic. The attitude towards sex, in particular, is refreshing in its pragmatism. In a lot of ways, I liked the movement of secondary characters such as Quinnalt and Kalen better than the main narrative. Apart from the grand forces that give this book its main arc, so much of what shapes the individual scenes is human pettiness and the smallness of fear, greed and jealousy. Those are the most compelling parts of The Dragon's Touchstone.
September 28, 2017
2.5 stars. This book has some really awesome world building and I love the magic in it. Myrilandel is a fantastic character, and the story is strongest when it's following her.
But I cannot believe this book was written by a woman. Everything that is strong about Myri as a character is offset by the way that the book makes everything - literally everything - about sex. It's like looking into a teenage boy's brain in here. I was reading this book at the beach and started reading every passage that turned randomly into talking about sex to my boyfriend, and never got more than a page between passages. A character is in front of her ADOPTED KIDS and starts thinking about sex. Not to mention the weird way that mind control is used to cause an internal romanticization of rape, even if that character becomes a clear villain later... it just sat horribly with me. Even the main villain is motivated by weird sexual/slut-shamey things. There was some bizarre internalized misogyny going on here. I'm not pleased with the whole 'women can't channel magic' aspect either.
If the book could get its head out of the gutter for awhile, it might be fantastic. As it is, however, it left me wondering exactly who the target audience was here, and feeling like sometimes I was reading a dime story romance novel.
But I cannot believe this book was written by a woman. Everything that is strong about Myri as a character is offset by the way that the book makes everything - literally everything - about sex. It's like looking into a teenage boy's brain in here. I was reading this book at the beach and started reading every passage that turned randomly into talking about sex to my boyfriend, and never got more than a page between passages. A character is in front of her ADOPTED KIDS and starts thinking about sex. Not to mention the weird way that mind control is used to cause an internal romanticization of rape, even if that character becomes a clear villain later... it just sat horribly with me. Even the main villain is motivated by weird sexual/slut-shamey things. There was some bizarre internalized misogyny going on here. I'm not pleased with the whole 'women can't channel magic' aspect either.
If the book could get its head out of the gutter for awhile, it might be fantastic. As it is, however, it left me wondering exactly who the target audience was here, and feeling like sometimes I was reading a dime story romance novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2012
Years and years ago, I read this for the first time, but I have to say, in re-reading it, not much felt familiar. I really wanted to like it, because I do recall this volume in particular as being one that I really enjoyed when I was younger. Unfortunately, it shares many of the same flaws present in Radford’s Dragon Nimbus series. There are even errors in spelling and punctuation in this volume! The characters, like in the series before this, fail to come to life, and are nothing more than stiff, and wooden interchangeable sketches of people. And though it is a fantasy series, a lot of the background “detail” just seems completely nonsensical. It’s hard to muster more than apathy for the characters or the uninteresting plot described within the book’s pages.
August 18, 2013
A Quickie Review
This is the only book I have read to date that I can say gave me rather weird, disturbing dreams; regardless of that, the book never reaches above mere mediocrity. Fans of dragon stories would be better off reading something by Anne McCaffrey, Bryan Davis, or Donita Paul. Even the grammar--at least, in the edition I had--was pretty bad.
Content Concerns: Descriptions of lust and orgy-like festivals are quite prevalent. There are quite a few profanities. Some may quibble with the usage of magic, and that the heroine is a "witchwoman".
Score: 2/5
This is the only book I have read to date that I can say gave me rather weird, disturbing dreams; regardless of that, the book never reaches above mere mediocrity. Fans of dragon stories would be better off reading something by Anne McCaffrey, Bryan Davis, or Donita Paul. Even the grammar--at least, in the edition I had--was pretty bad.
Content Concerns: Descriptions of lust and orgy-like festivals are quite prevalent. There are quite a few profanities. Some may quibble with the usage of magic, and that the heroine is a "witchwoman".
Score: 2/5
August 4, 2021
I picked this book out because dragons. I should have read the back cover better. Did not like the way dragons were depicted. Did not like the way women were depicted. Did not like the way magic was depicted. Had a stereotype I am personally sick of. I almost stopped at the prologue but I read on to Chapter 2. DNF
May 22, 2019
More storyline with the actual dragons would have been appreciated.
August 2, 2021
Page 147:
"Witchwomen are women first. We laugh. We cry. And we love like any other woman... Mostly we love life and the men who give it meaning."
And that's a DNF from me, chief
"Witchwomen are women first. We laugh. We cry. And we love like any other woman... Mostly we love life and the men who give it meaning."
And that's a DNF from me, chief
July 11, 2022
Even when I first picked up Irene Radford's Dragon Nimbus series at the age of what, maybe fourteen, fifteen, something like that? I was not the most discerning reader, but even then I knew the books were badly written. I still gobbled them up like candy nonetheless. Part of the fun was to revel in the cheesiness and corny dialogue and the odd naming conventions.
The writing was so dumb I should really only rate this 1 or 2 stars at the most but I enjoyed it so much, like watching one of those stupid movies on MST3K, with myself providing the sarcastic mental commentary, of course.
It's been a while since I read this one, but I remember the heroine was very speshul of course, and had a winged cat (called a "flywacket", of all things).
I almost always cringe when fantasy novels contain "gypsy" or supposedly Roma-based cultures that end up being just riddled with stereotypes, and this one has one of the worst depictions I remember reading, which is saying a lot because a lot of fantasy unfortunately relies on lazy racial stereotyping (looking at you David Eddings). If I remember the major "Rover" (that's what they're called in the book) characters became villains (because of course darker-skinned characters get typecast like this in mediocre fantasy novels) of the mustache-twirling variety.
The writing was so dumb I should really only rate this 1 or 2 stars at the most but I enjoyed it so much, like watching one of those stupid movies on MST3K, with myself providing the sarcastic mental commentary, of course.
It's been a while since I read this one, but I remember the heroine was very speshul of course, and had a winged cat (called a "flywacket", of all things).
I almost always cringe when fantasy novels contain "gypsy" or supposedly Roma-based cultures that end up being just riddled with stereotypes, and this one has one of the worst depictions I remember reading, which is saying a lot because a lot of fantasy unfortunately relies on lazy racial stereotyping (looking at you David Eddings). If I remember the major "Rover" (that's what they're called in the book) characters became villains (because of course darker-skinned characters get typecast like this in mediocre fantasy novels) of the mustache-twirling variety.
June 9, 2023
DNF by page 55. This book has WAY too much obsession with pregnancy, getting pregnant, etc, and it has wildly misogynistic undertones throughout. It was rough in the first few dozen pages but when glancing ahead to see if it got better and every chunk of pages I opened a new page there was another questionably sexist comment or focus on pregnancy/sex to the point it was gross and weird. That’s the main reason I dropped it. A previous reviewer or two pointed out specific parts that are really messed up as well. The other reason is that within multiple chapters I had no reason to care about any of these personality-lacking characters, there was no clear indication of anything going on or why I care about it going on. I could probably have pushed through that and found footing, though, if it wasn’t for the aforementioned ick. It is something I would have expected from a male author in the early 80s not a women in the late 90s.
August 17, 2019
This fantasy novel from the late 90's was full of cheesy lines, such as this little nugget:
"Her mouth curved up in invitation as she offered him a peeled nut from her gloved hand. Maybe when he finished the summons, he could persuade the young woman to roast his nuts in bed."
Pretty hard to take the story seriously, which is why it took me so long to finish it.
"Her mouth curved up in invitation as she offered him a peeled nut from her gloved hand. Maybe when he finished the summons, he could persuade the young woman to roast his nuts in bed."
Pretty hard to take the story seriously, which is why it took me so long to finish it.
November 10, 2019
8/10
A traditional fantasy, with magicians, witches, and lords, both good and evil (or misguided by self-delusions, guilt, and inadequacies), a touch of romance, and dragons! The first in a trilogy, prequel to the original Dragon Nimbus series, this story has a fairly satisfying conclusion and some major unresolved plot lines leading into the next book.
A traditional fantasy, with magicians, witches, and lords, both good and evil (or misguided by self-delusions, guilt, and inadequacies), a touch of romance, and dragons! The first in a trilogy, prequel to the original Dragon Nimbus series, this story has a fairly satisfying conclusion and some major unresolved plot lines leading into the next book.
September 3, 2018
Book One of the series. Very good at setting up the story for the next books inline. Some parts are a hard read. The style of writing is a little off. Several chapters. Several characters. Several places. A few fictional beasts. Could be more. Good read overall.
September 6, 2025
I bought this at a used bookstore because I thought the cover was great. The Dragon's Touchstone is an intense fantasy mashup of witchcraft and dragons. Great for any reader who loves either or both!
April 30, 2014
This story is a prequel to the first trilogy, which I really enjoyed.
The plot is interesting, since it deals with a "defining moment" in the history of the world. People are changing the way they do magic.
The characters are likeable and imperfect.
I was very disappointed by the radical "solution" at the end, however--or at least how easy it was to implement. I would have liked to see some major characters object and look for alternative options.
The book also suffers from bad editing. I expect more from a professionally published book.
The plot is interesting, since it deals with a "defining moment" in the history of the world. People are changing the way they do magic.
The characters are likeable and imperfect.
I was very disappointed by the radical "solution" at the end, however--or at least how easy it was to implement. I would have liked to see some major characters object and look for alternative options.
The book also suffers from bad editing. I expect more from a professionally published book.
April 4, 2011
This was a good book. I was quite happy with it right up until they felt the need to put a hook in with the epilogue. I really just wanted to read it and have a nice wrapped up story, but no, they had to go put the epilogue in to make me NEED to read the next one. Inconsiderate jerks! ;)
March 6, 2011
I loved this series. It was different and interesting
October 14, 2014
Good ol' fun fantasy.
May 13, 2013
I really enjoyed the story. Radford reveals a unique and colorful universe which is in the same vein as Lord of the Rings but special and different in its own right.
May 21, 2021
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
August 4, 2015
Can't wait to get on to the next book!!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews