Mundania Press (Trade Paperback), ISBN 1594260265

Legacy of the Black Dragon, the first book in the Tarlisian Saga, by Julie D'Arcy is a book born too soon. Let me explain.

Eight hundred years before, Garrik le Fey, first King of Tarlis, fought the evil Narokah and prevented him from raising a dark god who would destroy all of Tarlis. Narokah escaped the fight in dragon form, and Garrik chose also to become a dragon in order to prevent Narokah from committing further harm.

But the spell breaks, and both men resume human form. Now Garrik must prevent Narokah from finishing the ritual that would release his god. With Garrik go the sorcerer Arkron, the human-shy elf Vellandril, and two young women -- Meggahn du Val and Johden. Along the way they must find a magic sword, rescue Meggahn's mother and locate a hidden pool that possesses healing magic, for as the days ago by Garrik finds himself turning once more into a dragon.

D'Arcy draws from many threads of fantasy and science fiction to tell her story. Vellandril represents everything classical about elves: their beauty, arcane knowledge, long lives and antipathy to iron. But Garrick's family comes from the stars, literally. After fleeing a home world on the brink of annihilation, their spaceship crashed on Tarlis.

To a world of elves and magic swords, Garrik brings talk of spaceships, eclipses, electric generators, and flashlights. These two genres rarely meet in fiction, and even in this book they seem to rest a bit warily side by side. I get the impression that D'Arcy failed to iron out all the particulars of her new world before writing the book. Why else would Vellandril the elf, who by his very nature avoids iron, announce his intent to go to the iron-laden armory? Or Garrik, who at one point measures space distances in the unexplained units of milloriums, later switch to the more familiar light-years? The numerous punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors reinforce my conclusion that the author -- or her editor -- sent the manuscript to print a little too soon.

Which is a shame. A scene in which the desperate Garrik attempts to cut out the dragon scales that now dot his chest reads brilliantly, as does Johden's seduction of Vellandril outside an elven village. Other well-crafted scenes shine in the novel, but the book as a whole reads like a lovingly produced early draft. I can only hope that the rest of the saga displays a little more polish.

Kathryn Yelinek

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