Supernatural Heart of the Dragon book non-review
Supernatural Novel Heart of the Dragon
By Keith R.A. DeCandido
Chapter 1 - Rundown of how a noble and honorable samurai is turned into the Heart of the Dragon by a demon a few centuries ago.
Chapter 2 - Castiel asks Sam & Dean to help with a spirit/weapon that only comes to this plane every 20 years. Bobby, who uses a wheelchair in this book, has some newspaper clippings about the previous fiery murders 40 years ago, and lo and behold, grandpa Samuel is in one of the pictures.
Chapters 3-9-Set in 1969 with Mary as a teenager, hunting with her parents. These aren’t terribly exciting chapters, but are interesting to have a glimpse of Mary. She is a cool balance between both of her sons’ personality characteristics. I like the way she is written, as well as her thoughts on hunting, her parents, and boys … especially one shy mechanic. The main nemesis who called forth the Heart of the Dragon is a bumbling teenager who doesn’t quite know what to do with the power he has summoned. The Campbells manage to banish the spirit, but not eliminate it so it will resurface in another 20 years.
Chapter 10-Bobby gives Sam & Dean an inscribed sword that their father used 20 years ago to banish the samurai.
Chapters 11- 19--It’s 1989, following John’s hunt for the spirit/weapon. Again, it’s fun to see John in full action as a younger man. There are also glimpses of very young Dean & Sam and how John feels about leaving them with Bobby as he flies to San Francisco. The nemesis is 20 years older & more cunning and nasty as he has been waiting for the re-arrival of his weapon. I like that character growth, even in a baddie. It’s amusing that John knows other hunters went after the weapon 20 years ago, but he has no idea it was Mary. I’m roughly 200 pages into a 300ish page book and I’m getting a little anxious to get on with the part with the boys as Sam & Dean are who I really want to read about.
Chapter 20-The Heart of the Dragon resurfaces. Nemesis is now much older & wiser & formidable. He had been studying demonology as well & is a little more equipped. Nice character progression.
Chapter 21-There the boys are. On their way to San Fran & still having a few issues between them for the whole sneaking off with Ruby & starting the Apocalypse. And speaking of the Apocalypse, the original demon who first created the Heart of the Dragon has come to collect her weapon she made just for this time. She’s not at all pleased that the nemesis has control of it. Two Baddies at odds. I like that. Could get a whole lot more dangerous.
Chapter 22-Sam’s hurt. Yikes, poor face. Sword’s gone.
Chapter 23-Nemesis knows it’s John Winchester’s kids & is excited to see if they are as tough as their dad was. That doesn’t sound good.
Chapter 24-Angels are involved now? Not so much, they are just getting killed by the demon who wants the samurai, showing how BA she is.
Chapter 25-Sam & Dean are on their way to talk with a hunter/professor who understands the sword’s inscriptions. Of course the demon kills him before they arrive.
Chapter 26-Face off with the demon chick. She lobs a few insults about Sam’s bruised face & him being Lucifer’s vessel, but takes off when Dean pulls out Ruby’s knife. Cas shows up. It still bothers me that in all the Supernatural books they spell it as Cass. That’s just wrong. His name is not Casstiel. Nemesis sends The Heart of the Dragon to kill the brothers, but since Cas is there, he restrains him, though barely. However that gives the samurai a chance to tell them that he doesn’t like doing the Nemesis’s bidding & he actually tells them how to free him, not just banish him for another 20 years. Seriously? That kind of bugs me. Way too easy. Whatever.
Chapter 27-Showdown between the demon and Nemesis. Fairly ingenious. More humorous than exciting. The Heart of the Dragon is summoned to them. Sam, Dean & Cas show up. It’s the big climatic scene where all three threats are taken care of, but unfortunately, even though everything is tied up nice and tidy-it’s not all that climatic. After wading through two-thirds of Campbell & John past, I was hoping for more. This was just meh.
Epilogue-Zachariah ruminates about his part in secretly leaking the information about the samurai’s return to Cas to get the Winchesters to play their part. This last chapter is actually the most chilling.
I do recommend Heart of the Dragon. Don’t hate it, just not jumping up and down enthusiastic over it.
Not review of Nevermore
Not review of Witch’s Canyon
Not review of Bone Key
Not review of The Unholy Cause