A classic of the genre which I never read. I'm sure my father had it on his shelves, but it came out in 1976 - and I was long gone from home by then. It is one of those catchy titles that I have loved and remembered somehow without actually reading the book.
I suppose it falls into the "Connecticut Yankee" sub-genre of fantasy - twentieth century guy through some accident or, in this case, bit of academic stupidity, falls into another time and place - generally a place where magic and what-have-you are fully functional. I don't know if Mark Twain made magic work in his book (another classic which I haven't read), but L. Sprague de Camp in The Incompleat Enchanter sent his guy to the world of Norse mythology, and Chris Stasheff made his fellow a wizard in his new world. This time, in case you hadn't guessed, we have dragons - and magic - and our hero is actually placed in the body of a dragon. Just for reference, in this world the dragons refer to a human as a "george." Nice touch.
Fun and games - a crucial battle between good and evil, fair maidens to be rescued, and a talking wolf - what's not to like? So, do we move Dickson up to the ranks of the Masters? More reading called for - and, just for the record - I just checked and this book is on my own shelves, along with the sequel.
I'm afraid there are many books on my shelves that I haven't read, and now, what with crappy vision and simple laziness, I probably will get kindle editions rather than actually go through the paper versions. Of course, there are more than a few books on my kindle that I haven't read. At least now if I went to Africa for a month, I could easily take along enough to read that I wouldn't be stuck having to read some of the rather odd things that my fellow teachers took along for their two books for the common pool of reading material. Have I mentioned lately that I love my Kindle?
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