We’ve all seen what one small decision or change in structure can create for parallel worlds. Micky Smith is Ricky without his grandmother’s death. The Summer of Love never ended with Oliver North as President. If you add a beard to anybody, you know you’ve met the evil version of them. But what if differences even simpler than that created a completely different universe? The Drakoto City Stories: The Cougar and the Dragon tells the story of two characters from two such worlds.
John Rashe is an average human college student with an affinity for cats. Despite his good grades and friendship with his tutor, he has been having a difficult time surviving. Chuck, the son of the man who controls the town, as well as Los Draco’s, the local gang, both have it out for John and repeatedly threaten his life- verbally and physically.
Rhyferin Jehnerson is a struggling student Dragon studying to be a doctor. He is constantly in fights with Kenneth, his own personal bully and crew. What makes these encounters worse is that he should have been able to breathe fire ages ago and yet is shown up by Laura, his smaller Fire Drake friend who tries to fight his battles instead.
One evening, after a life-threatening beating from Los Draco’s, John finds himself in the hospital unable to move. Rhyferin winds up at his own hospital after a brutal beating by Kenneth. In a dreamscape the two meet each other for the first time, crossing the worlds of human and dragon.
Can two men of different species share a mind without driving each other crazy?
Ok, well they don’t share the same mind, but it becomes the line of communication between the two characters over time.
Drakoto gracefully tells separate stories of John and Rhyferin, while merging the two tales at certain points without taking away from the narrative. Combining martial arts and philosophy with the science fiction of parallel universes and scientific chimeras, Johnson weaves a tale worthy of a sequel (of which I have been informed exists and is on its way). If you enjoy reading about dragons, epic battles, mobsters, parallel universes, young love, bad puns and pop culture references, or the innermost thoughts of cats, this is the book for you.
I found that I enjoyed the story of John more than that of his dragon counterpart at first, but by the end of the book both characters were too intriguing for me to skim either part. I found a piece of myself in each character and easily recognized characters based on my own experiences. The hand-illustrated cover art by Jacqueline Torres also brings to light the novel’s story and atmosphere.
I have known the author, Ryan Johnson, since high school, and while this is his first self-published novel, I can say that have enjoyed every story of his I have been asked to read.
The Drakoto City Stories is available on Amazon for both the kindle and print-on-demand. While I enjoy reading print over electronic, I recommend purchasing the e-book. Formatted on letter-size paper, the print copy can be a bit bulky when catching up on a few chapters before bed. This is not to discourage reading the book if you do not own a kindle though. I suggest purchasing the book in whatever format you can and pursue the adventure.
