Author’s Revised Edition
Donovan DeChance is a collector of ancient manuscripts and books, a practicing mage, and a private investigator. Over the span of a long life, he has gathered and archived the largest occult library in the world.
When a local houngan begins meddling with powers she may not be able to control, a turf war breaks out between the Dragons motorcycle club and the Los … and the Los Escorpiones street gang—a war that threatens to open portals between worlds and destroy the city in the process.
With his lover, Amethyst, his familiar, Cleo – an Egyptian Mau the size of a small bobcat –the dubious aid of a Mexican sorcerer named Martinez and the budding gifts of a young artist named Salvatore, DeChance begins a race against time, magic, and almost certain death.
The fate of the city rests on his success, and on the rare talent of a boy who walks in two worlds, and dreams of dragons
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Enjoyed this book very much !
Worlds within worlds within the multiverse is one way of looking at the world of Donovan DeChance. He is amasses information, arcane and otherwise, and disseminates it discreetly for the benefit of others. He is old, but how old, is a mystery.
HEART OF A DRAGON is an eclectic mix of art, motorcycle gangs, and magic, with just enough voodoo thrown in to keep things interesting. This is not the first book by David Niall Wilson that I’ve read. A hallmark of his writing is the way he uses words to play music you can hear in your head. Whether it’s rumbling drums or something more melodious, it is inevitable that music will be stuck in your head as you read. In this book, along with music, there is drawing and painting written to force you to see the finished art, to feel high emotion of the viewer.
After reading HEART OF A DRAGON, I would very much like to visit San Valencez, California to see the Barrio, to see Santini Park, and become a part of the magic world of Donovan DeChance.
I was a big fan of the White Wolf novels released in the 90s to accompany their Vampire: The Masquerade gameline. I enjoyed the Clan Novels starring Lucita, Hesha, Beckett, and the other great characters who starred in them. Helping write these and several other stories was David Niall Wilson who is now the head of Crossroad Press. The opening of this book and others talks about how restricted those parameters were and how much they impeded storytelling.
Heart of a Dragon is the prequel novel to the actual start of the Donovan DeChance series. It follows a gang war between the Dragons Motorcycle Club and Los Escorpiones. The Dragons are thoroughly trounced due to Los Escorpiones’ using a witch’s corrupted hoodoo to become superhuman. I was actually a little off-put by this opening because I didn’t see any reason why I would want to side with the Dragons over the Los Escorpiones. This is where David Niall Wilson lures you in as the actual villain isn’t either side of the conflict but the escalating violence and the magic.
Aware they don’t have a chance against the superpowered gang members, the Dragons end up seeking a middleman who puts them in touch with seasoned sorcerer-detective Donovan DeChance. Donovan DeChance is a character strongly reminiscent of Doctor Strange and Titus Crow but more on the latter’s John Constantine-esque power level. If you played Mage: The Ascension he struck me as an archetypal Order of Hermes operative.
What follows is an entertaining urban fantasy adventure as not only does Dovonan DeChance have to deal with the escalating gang feud but a young boy who has a intimate connection with dragons. The story eventually has its stakes raised to the point Dovonan must work to prevent the world from being invaded by a large number of very angry, very dangerous gods. It’s a slow-build interwoven story I have to give them credit for.
The main character of Donovan DeChance is the biggest appeal of the books for me. He is a mysterious gentleman magician who doesn’t have much of a backstory but lots of implications to a long and storied past. I hope we’ll get more details on who DeChance is in future novels. Heart of a Dragon was written as a prequel so I’m interested in what the first “official” book is going to be like and what it reveals about our protagonist. Alas, my biggest complaint about this novel is that I don’t quite grock what motivates Dovonan. What inspired him to become the occult detective par excellence of this world?
I particularly liked the depiction of magic in the setting. Rather than something which obeys partcular laws, it is described as something which is a form of art. It’s very much imagination-based and evocative based. Mage: The Ascension never really got into the nitty-gritty of how magick was supposed to work and how different people viewed it but I think the version here is quite interesting to read about.
The supporting cast is a mixture of very good and okay. I’m eager to learn about the pasts of the majority but, as stated, the book really just alludes to their relationships more than describes them. Still, the fictional city of the book is a place which feels authentic and that it has a history even if we don’t know it. San Valencez feels like a combination of Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and several other West Coast cities with a strong undercurrent of magic hidden just under the surface.
In conclusion, this is a really good book and one that I enjoyed. It has its downsides in that I think it was sometimes a little too good at obfuscating the pasts of its characters and their feelings but I was entertained throughout. I’m already biting into the next book in the series and am eager to see how it tackles vampires.
9/10