What comes after the end? Well, I have been impatiently waiting for five years to find out!
The same time period has passed for the characters since they were last seen in The End of Magic. We enter The End of Dragons to find many are making the most of the new world without magic while others are desperately clinging onto whatever shards of the old world they can get their hands on.
The End of Dragons is great fun, just begging to be adapted for the screen! So much so that I was inspired to make a bowl of popcorn for the occasion. With strong imagery and a fantastic cast of characters subjected to all manner of trauma, you really just need to hold on and watch the show playing out in your head.
Fair warning to those with a fear of heights! Many dramatic scenes play out at great elevations – from the balcony of the highest room of the tallest tower, to a rickety cabin strapped to the underside of a giant gasbag, to the clutches of a soaring dragon. We have characters plummeting to the ground at a truly alarming rate.
But then, once we’ve endured “a good, throaty scream fuelled by white-hot fear”, we are treated to the many wry moments where the quirks and absurdities of our own world are reflected right back at us. It’s a whole new world after the end of magic – one so strange, yet so familiar. We may be talking about assassins, dragons, dirigibles, royalty, kidnappings, mages, terrible deals, scheming, blackmail, kidnapping, and robbery, but it all felt so real and believable. I couldn’t help but be swept along on the wild ride.
Before I go, one fun little highlight. The description of my namesake:
Gav, a man with a face like three slapped arses squashed together, poured something warm, brown and foaming from a barrel’s tap.
– The End of Dragons, Mark Stay
And shortly before that, when we meet the character for the first time:
At the end of the alley was one of the oldest pubs in Taranis, a fleapit called the Lock and Key, though some wag had used paint to alter the L so that it looked like a C. Malachy chuckled and ducked inside the saloon bar door. The sticky odour of ale and tobacco clung to him like an over-friendly drunk. Despite the early hour, the place was heaving like a sulphuric swamp. Glancing around, Malachy wasn’t surprised to see so many grim faces. All men, they were ruddy-cheeked, balding before their time, wrinkled and grizzled. Almost everyone had a bent or broken nose, and every single one of them was built like a brick shit house. For the Lock and Key catered to a specific kind of clientele. These men were the king’s prison guards and were, without doubt, the most bitter and sadistic bastards that Malachy had ever had the displeasure to encounter. And this morning, he needed to be their friend. ‘Morning, Gav.’ Malachy greeted the landlord who was idly scratching his balls.
– The End of Dragons, Mark Stay
Mark Stay’s writing is just brilliant.
You can read The End of Dragons on Kindle (it’s in KU too) or nab yourself a signed paperback. The info and relevant links are on Mark’s website:
P.S. I just had a rummage around the archives and found these old posts if you want to hear more about some of Mark Stay’s books: The Crow Folk, Babes in the Wood, and The Ghost of Ivy Barn.
G. B. Ralph 