Review by KristyKhem -- Becoming the Dragon by Alex Sapegin

[Kristy Khem]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Becoming the Dragon" by Alex Sapegin.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Becoming the Dragon by Alex Sapegin is a novel that combines both the science fiction and fantasy genres. The main character is Andy, a Russian boy who mistakenly gets caught in one of his father’s time-traveling experiments and is whisked away to a strange world. While navigating through this magical world, he encounters elves, gnomes, orcs and other peculiar beasts. Unfortunately, Andy is captured by a group of creatures who live in this realm and he is sold to the Kingdom of Rimm as a slave. With a little luck and a few new magical powers, Andy manages to escape the wretched palace with another prisoner – a scaly, dark dragon named Karega. The dragon takes Andy back to his lair after realizing that Andy was gravely injured in the escape. To save his life, Karega and his mistress perform an ancient, but dangerous ritual which has the power to transform Andy into a dragon. Will Andy survive? If he does, what sort of dragon will he turn into? More importantly, will Andy ever be able to return home?

Although this book has a simple storyline, there are two complex elements which make the story difficult to understand. Firstly, the magical realm has humans as well as other creatures such as elves, gnomes, and orcs. The author attempts to weave all of their individual stories into the main storyline and this was very confusing. Secondly, the author uses several settings in the book and he goes back and forth among them in the chapters and sub-chapters. In my opinion, a map should have been included at the beginning of the book to make this aspect of the book easier to understand.

Based on the title of the book, the main part of the story should be Andy’s transformation into a dragon, but this happened closer to the end of the book. Most of the story was dedicated to Andy’s life before he came to the magical world, as well as his journeys and adventures as a slave. In addition to this, the other characters’ sub-stories made up a significant part of the book. This was disappointing because I found these to be unnecessary and I would have enjoyed reading about Andy and Karega’s relationship much earlier in the story.

Despite these qualms, I think that the author did a wonderful job with the physical descriptions. Since the book contains several places within the magical realm, it is important that each setting is thoroughly described, and Sapegin was able to do this quite well. One such example was the Ceremonial Hall in the Kingdom of Rimm. The author devoted several paragraphs to its description and I was impressed by his ability to paint pictures in my mind with his words.

Overall, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars because the story wavered between its many characters and their unnecessary side plots. The complexity of the story also made it confusing. I noticed a few errors including the wrongful use of tenses. It is difficult to deduce the intended audience for this book because although the storyline will definitely appeal to teenagers, it has a few allusions to sex and crude intimacy, which may not be appropriate for this age group. Generally speaking, this book may appeal to The Lord of the Rings fans since the settings and creatures are similar in Becoming the Dragon.

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Becoming the Dragon
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