Brief Encounters

Title: Dragon Traders
Author: JB McDonald
Length: 56 pages
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m fantasy
Rating: A-

Blurb:
Getting abducted by slavers wasn’t part of the plan. Not that there was much of a plan to begin with, but it definitely involved more payment and fewer chains. Ashe can’t help but feel a bit of panic when the meeting to sell dragon eggs, which were hunted down weeks earlier, turns sour, and he ends up drugged, caged, and on his way to a land where elves are pets.

To make matters worse, the only person who has a chance of saving him is Katsu. Katsu, who after two weeks of sex is still an enigma. Katsu, who isn’t exactly the best combatant on the team. Ashe can only hope that this enigma might still have a few tricks up his sleeve, or Ashe’s fate is sealed.

Review:
Dragon Traders is the sequel to Dragon Hunted which I reviewed here. It follows on from the previous book and tells of human Katsu and elf Ashe as Ashe struggles to understand where their relationship is going. He has feelings for Katsu, but Katsu is so closed off and unwilling to talk about himself that Ashe fears that Katsu is just using him for sex. When a trade on the dragon eggs they collected in the previous books goes wrong, Ashe is destined for slavery, unless Katsu can save him.

This story has a slightly different tone to the previous book which, whilst having a few nicely tense scenes was on the whole quite lighthearted. This book is more sombre in tone. In my opinion this made it the better story as I found myself sympathising more with Ashe as he tries to understand Katsu and deals with what he thinks is rejection. It made Ashe a much more rounded character than the happy-go-lucky elf we meet in the previous book. Katsu too develops as a character as we see him fighting his natural wariness in order to save his relationship with Ashe. We find out some surprising things about Katsu in this story, and this insight shows how much he’s prepared to do to save Ashe. The story was strongest when the two heroes are together, with Ashe struggling to communicate and get through to Katsu. It was emotional stuff.

This doesn’t mean that the book is bleak. In fact there are some scenes, such as Ashe’s attempts at trade which made me smile, but the focus is more on the difficulties that Ashe faces when captured and make quite a lot of the book a ‘heart in the throat’ type of read.

There’s still some mileage in these characters and their relationship and I wonder whether more books are due. I hope so because I’m really enjoying seeing, Ashe especially, developing and changing his personality and I’d like to see more of that. Plus I’d like to know the significance of the green egg! Those of you who enjoyed Dragon Hunted are going to love this story too. You don’t have to read the first story to enjoy this one, but it gives you just a bit more background on the situation.