Fantastical Diptychs and Where to Find Them
What was the last two book Fantasy series you read?
Go on, I'll wait.
Back? Fine. Have an answer? I wonder...
What do you even call a two book series in Fantasy? A duology? A dilogy? You could argue it was a diptych, if it was really one story split perfectly in two. But how often do you see that?
A two book Fantasy duology is a rare thing to find, so much so that I'm starting to think there is something unspoken about its very nature. Almost as if there is an inherent expectation that has been built up that a Fantasy story comes in one, three, or all of the parts.
Literally all of the parts. An entire forest of stories where nothing happens between books two and seven but dammit if you won't read them as well before the action starts in book fifteen.
Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there is a surfeit of two book series that I have yet to encounter. But I just ... I don't know. Even thinking about a two book dilogy makes me think the story isn't complete yet. Effective marketing, maybe.
Lord of the Rings was three, while the Hobbit was one (WE ARE NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR INFATUATION WITH THE MOVIES - that said, maybe it could have been two great movies...) Terry Goodkind had an entire forest cut down to write the Sword of Truth series (which I am not going to rant about either. There are already too many possible diversions from my point). He really could have stopped at four books (OK I'M DONE).
My point is this: Chris Bunch.
The Dragonmaster Series is two-thirds of an exceptionally well written series, telling the story of how planes evolved from scouts to fighter jets in the first World War, through the guise of dragons in a medieval fantasy world. It's clever, well paced, and comes to an exciting conclusion at the end of book two.
I highly recommend Storm of Wings and Knighthood of the Dragon.
But I did say two-thirds of one.
Which means we have to talk about The Last Battle. Because the Dragonmaster series is a trilogy.
The wikipedia page describes The Last Battle thusly:
The third book covers life after the war, the difficulties ex-soldiers face, and how Hal deals with it.
Maybe I misinterpreted the story. But when the third book turns from a fairly grounded tale of the introduction of dragons into combat, into an expedition to a distant island, where the protagonist and his friends must defeat demonic dragons from a dimensional portal...
Maybe I'm just throwing thoughts out into the air. Maybe there isn't some fantastical conspiracy to deprive us of two book series. Maybe ther- wait. Why are there men in black suits surrounding my house? OH CROWS IT'S ALL TRUE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.
smoke bomb
