
Written somewhat in the vernacular of old mobster-style novels from the 40’s, Dragon Noir (Dragon Cycles) by Daniel J Moylan was a new and interesting take on the existence of magic and witches in our society. Victor Quinn is the seventh son of the seventh son of the Magician’s King of the Americas. As such and as a warlock, he is in line for the throne, eventually. What he doesn’t realise is that his opportunity to shine, as ruler, will come much sooner than he anticipates. He has, to some extent, shunned the wealth and power of the family royal name and until such time as he inherits his title, he is happy to work as a private detective using his abilities to perform the role. Despite expectations from the family to provide a future lineage, Victor has to date stayed very much unattached. That is until his mother sends a woman to him that seeks his help but also opens his heart to love and need. Victor is about to discover that there is much more to being a warlock that he, or even his father or his beloved Paps, knew and understood. He is about to embark on his own journey of self-discovery.
Dragon Noir (Dragon Cycles) is certainly not your usual run-of-the-mill fantasy adventure about magic. I liked that it was set in a real-world environment where keeping the magic secret from the rest of the dullards on earth was a prime objective. Author Daniel J Moylan has created a group of characters who are caricatures of mobsters from 40’s crime novels and has done it successfully. The plot was novel, the writing imaginative, inventive and refreshingly new, for this reader, anyway. I also liked the fact that the author kept the possibility of future stories of this vein alive, with a clear path to a possible sequel. The writer’s ability to entrap the readers senses with his prose was evident in the descriptive nature of the some of the gorier fight scenes, inherent in the story. It was possible to almost smell the rot, the decay and the sense of fear described so eloquently by Moylan. If you like real-to-life fantasy adventure then this book should absolutely satisfy your needs. I was particularly taken by the idea that the warlock was not the final state of being and without giving away the plot look forward to more exploration of that theme in future stories.
