Heroes of Legend: The Dragon King and The Vampire Lord

In Hammer’s fantasy novel, a boy deals with great magical power and a princess meets a legendary hero.

A stern military commander named Rodin finds himself mystically transported to Stonehenge, where he encounters a supernatural being named Quartz who’s slippery about his own identity (“I was here to witness the making of this world,” he says. “I even played my part in its making”). Quartz imparts visions of the spirit of Abel, Rodin’s brother. The narrative shifts to a young boy named Matthew, who’s being trained by a sorcerer named Sifu to master his newly increased “Fire-Magic” powers. Readers of the previous installments in Hammer’s series will remember that Matthew earlier took a large gulp of a mystical “Heavenly Peach Elixir”; now the elixir courses through his body “like a raging red dragon of flames!” So much raw power in one so young is a source of worry for Matthew’s teachers, “because young minds can be impressionable, and easily led in the wrong direction.” Also concerned for Matthew’s safety is an ancient character named Eldarus, who’s voyaging to protect the boy from a menacing figure known as the Jinn-Magician (“There in the right passageway stood the Jinn-Magician, waving that red jewelled staff that hissed and fizzed with electric light. He was standing over two guards that he had surely murdered”). The story also re-introduces the headstrong Princess Cybele as she encounters the legendary Greek hero Perseus on his quest to fight Medusa and the gorgons. (She doesn’t believe him: “That man died over three thousand years ago,” she says. “You are handsome enough, boy, but don’t push your luck.”)

The author’s narrative technique of rapidly shifting viewpoints from chapter to chapter echoes a similar tactic by some of the bestselling writers in the fantasy genre, and for good reason: It keeps the story hurrying along in a compulsively readable way. Hammer is likewise skillful at changing tones; one chapter can be filled with high-stakes sorcerous tension, and the next can be, equally convincingly, lighthearted (Princess Cybele’s verbal sparring with Perseus is a perfect example of the latter). Unfortunately, these strengths don’t always offset the narrative’s weaknesses. Elements of the story are disappointingly derivative—the vampire lord is called Drahkul, Eldarus makes frequent references to the Three Rings of Power, and so on. The larger plot will be utterly beyond the comprehension of any newcomer—the author makes no concerted effort to fill in new readers about anything that’s happened in the series’ earlier entries. Readers encounter a very inventive world—one that features everything from Jinns to Greek mythology to Shaolin monks to the Monkey King, and in which the legions of Caesar can easily end up fighting hordes of vampires. Readers already up to speed on the many ongoing plot threads will find this volume a tense and fast-paced addition to Hammer’s engaging fantasy world. The plot thread involving Cybele’s growing—and ill-fated—feelings for Perseus is particularly effective, and Hammer does a good job of orchestrating the book’s suspenseful ending, which leads readers right on to the next installment.

A colorful and hyperactive section of a larger multicultural fantasy epic.