The Dragon Knight

Sequel to The Dragon and the George (1978 paperback), a Hugo-winning romp through swords-and-sorcery. Dickson's story moves forward in a steady, amusing way and brings great charm to medieval England and magic lore. In the first novel, Jim Eckert, a 20th-century American mathematician, used astral projection to follow his kidnapped girlfriend Angela into an alternate world. Jim and Angie decide to stay there, and Jim is now Sir James, Baron de Bois de Malencontri et Riveroak. His former ability to turn himself into a dragon (and back again) returns unexpectedly one morning. It seems his magic charge has been building up unused in the Accounting Office and that he must now spead some of his magical energies. He visits the reigning magician-mage, Carolinus, who teaches him new levels of magic. Meanwhile, Prince Edward, heir to the throne of England, is taken captive by the King of France, and Jim is told by his neighbor Sir Brian Smythe that he must levy troops from his fiefdom to rescue Edward. Before Jim and Sir Brian leave for France, Jim must get his dragon passport to be allowed free movement among the dragons of France; and Jim and Sir Brian must fight off Blackbeard's troops, which have besieged Castle Smythe. Once in France, Jim is seduced, temporarily, into the underwater pleasure palace of a superfairy elemental before rejoining his friends on their march to free Edward. Dickson is especially good on plunging the reader into armor during battle; on the medieval temperament, with its period's imagination; and on details such as wine drinking ("Enough wine. . .put you into a condition to ignore the biting and itching of the lice and fleas which you carried around in your clothes and hair. It also made it easier for you to forget the hardness of benches or stools you sat on, the cold or heat you happen to be enduring. . ."). For fans, it's been worth the wait. (Kirkus Reviews)