THE DRAGON IN THE WHITES

Modern New Englanders go up against an ancient, fire-breathing dragon in Baird’s debut fantasy series starter.

Tryggvi Brynjarson is a young Viking who loves to explore. While on the island of Vestmannaeyjar with his father and others, he goes off on his own and discovers a unique stone. He keeps the rock with him throughout his life, including during a grueling journey in search of new land; he eventually marries, and his wife has a child. Centuries later, Tryggvi is reborn as a dragon, which emerges from the stone that he’d discovered. The dragon is perfectly content to live alone in caves, but the humans that it periodically encounters are frightened of it and attack it with weapons. About 1,000 years later, in the modern day, 17-year-old New Hampshire native Liam Tryggvison visits his grandfather in Maine. While hiking in the forest, he’s excited to find a cave full of gold coins. But Liam also awakens the aforementioned dragon, from which he narrowly escapes. Once the dragon is outside and takes flight, it confronts aircraft and gunfire. Surprisingly, the winged creature then vanishes almost as quickly as it appeared. Liam, feeling guilt over how the dragon endangered people’s lives, is determined to track it down—although the beast may be ready to hunt. Much of Baird’s tale doesn’t feature the titular creature. The lengthy initial section, however, is utterly engrossing, as Tryggvi faces harsh cold at sea as well as land-based perils such as bears and wolves. The early part of the book also offers the perspective of the sympathetic dragon, who has hazy memories of its previous life and wants humans to leave it alone. The author’s straightforward prose clearly establishes the regularly changing settings and delineates the passage of time. Baird also delivers brisk action scenes, as when the dragon battles the aforementioned “metal birds” that are capable of hurting it. The ending offers resolution but also incentive for readers to check out the next published installment.

An offbeat and engaging story of a mythical creature.