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Jun 25

Laser tag... still popular in the time for dragons...Click for full image

Tom Noir Comments: As the Good Book sayeth, there is a time for dragons and a time for laser-wielding cybernetic space dragons.
Published 1989

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.77 out of 10)
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32 Responses to “A Time for Dragons”

  1. Phil Says:

    Wait a minute, what about the fire-breathing? And the wings, you forgot the WINGS! Back to Dragons 101 for you, cover artist.

  2. THX 1138 Says:

    Dragons: tired of breathing fire? Then let our little gizmo do it for you! Just call this number and our operator will take your credit card details…

  3. Rachel J Says:

    Dragons nothing. Those are dinosaurs. With guns.

  4. Ernest The Yak Says:

    If a dinosaur with a laser says its a dragon, you just agree politely dammit.

  5. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Four young blurb writers – against two Struthiomimuses and their laser SuperSoakers! Phwoarrrr!

    And, they got the BlackBerry headset in its proper place. Alessandra would be delighted.

  6. Tat Wood Says:

    What’s that on the left of the picture, almost out of shot? Is it a giant spider? Have they decided not to show it completely because giant spiders on the cover make the book seem a bit silly?

  7. Bibliomancer Says:

    Is this a snot-breathing dragon? Or is that some kind of sticker residue on the cover?

    @Rachel J. I think this the plesiosaurus. These “dragons” are posed like they are all underwater.

  8. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @BM, they ARE underwater. The author is a technical diver, not a palaeontologist.

  9. Jaouad Says:

    What really worries me is the giant ghostly trilobite hovering over all of that. Is it some kind of dragonsaurus god? Apparently it didn’t create vertebrates in its own image. But then, neither did the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so perhaps that’s okay.

  10. Rachel J Says:

    (Posted this before, but it got eaten, possibly by a dragon.)

    I looked this up– it wasn’t easy, as the book is very obscure– the author does have a Wikipedia entry, but as a famous diver who “also published some fantasy fiction”. There is, however, a helpful (though completely deranged-sounding) write-up on http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/gary-gentile/time-dragons-trilogy.htm

    “A Time for Dragons”, it turns out, is merely the first part of an unfinished six-book series, titled “The Time for Dragons Series”. The dragons are in fact “meat-eating reptiles from Earth’s distant past”, who conquer the present world by means of “dragon death bombs”, then proceed to transform it into something resembling the Cretaceous Period. To complicate matters, though, the anti-dragon resistance is described as a “war against alien tyranny”. Dinos? Dragons? Aliens? Never mind, the really important thing is that it features not only “gun fights with dragons” but “hand-to-hand combat with a Tyrannosaurus rex”. What more could you ask?

  11. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @Rachel: ‘How could a T. rex fight hand-to-hand???’ comes to mind…

  12. Rachel J Says:

    @Dead Stuff. Well, I imagine they’d have to lay down some ground rules first, such as “no biting”. And I think the human would need to stand on something.

  13. Rags Says:

    Come on, its rabid Dragonsaurs with freakin laser guns attached to atomic backpacks!!! This is flat out spectacular.

    Right under the head of 1 of the dinogons, i believe there is a tiny human holding some teeny weeny gun…..talk about bringing a pillow to a gun fight…

  14. Tom Noir Says:

    Apparently the author is not Jewish. Thank goodness, since I don’t think dinosaurs are kosher.

  15. Bibliomancer Says:

    @Rachel @DSWBT: I could definitely win an arm-wrestling contest with a T.Rex.

    Unfortunately my head would be too close to his jaws and I suspect he would be a sore loser.

  16. HappyBookwyrm Says:

    This cover is AWESOME! Laser dinos! Trilobyte motherships! I would read this in a heartbeat. Let’s give the author the benefit of the doubt and say that he wanted to call it “A Time for Dinosaurs,” but the publishers thought it sounded too much like one of those short movies on paleontology meant for third graders. Also, Anne McCaffery’s books were selling well at the time and ACE wanted to giver her some competition.

  17. B. Chiclitz Says:

    The creature seems to be wearing some sort of jacket, mantle or vest. I can just see the ad:

    Dragon Wearhouse: You’re gonna love the way you look while snorting snot and laser-blasting young warriors—I guarantee it.

    (Don’t know if you get these ads in the UK. Trust me, it’s funny.)

  18. fred Says:

    “Make Way For Dragonlings (or you’ll be really sorry you didn’t)”

  19. David Cowie Says:

    DINOSAURS WITH RAY GUNS.
    Your argument is invalid.

  20. SI Says:

    I like how the little rip in the cover makes the, “dragon” look like he’s spitting rabid foam!

  21. Tom Noir Says:

    Another exhibit for my campaign for an ‘animals with weapons’ tag.

  22. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    After the runaway success of putting a dragon on a rocket ship the third experiment was conducted under water!

  23. JuanPaul Says:

    Feck, I would not want to be one of the ” four young warriors” going up against those badass dinodragons. (For your information, iOS autocorrect tried to change that to “dingo dragons”, which has really got me thinking)

  24. JuanPaul Says:

    Boy, I really wish I hadn’t done a google image search for dingo dragon.

  25. Sophaloaf Says:

    It’s that time again! I think I missed that one in the book of Ecclesiastes (and also that Byrds song). “A time to be born a time for….Dragons…”

  26. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Small wonder the series was never finished — the cover is missing the standard copy:

    1. “New York Times Best Selling Author”
    2. “Beginning His Best Series Ever”
    3. “First Time In Print!”
    4. “Part One Of the TIME FOR DRAGONS Saga”
    5. A quote from Orson Scott Card: “If this doesn’t have a sequel, I’m gonna #%&*ing eat my special Mormon underpants!”

  27. hestia Says:

    This is the BEST SF BOOK EVER. Oh, maybe not if you actually read it. But the story I’m telling in my head right now is.

  28. ecthroi Says:

    holy hell this looks awesome

  29. Anti-Sceptic Says:

    This is like the anti-Anne McCaffrey dragons.

  30. FeãrøfMusic Says:

    Now that is an effective cover. Whether it is accurate to a scene in the book or wildly misplaced conjecture on the part of the artist, this would have stopped the teenage me in my tracks. I would have been irresistably compelled to pick it up, and if it sounded even vaguely cool I would have bought it. And if, I say IF, the story was any good at all I would not have been upset to find the cover less than wholly accurate. At most I might think the artist wasn’t working from the same story. But I would still think ‘Dinosuars with freakin’ lasers! Damnit!’

  31. Tom Noir Says:

    Whenever life is getting me down I just look at this cover. Never fails to perk me up!

  32. Anna T. Says:

    To your DINOSAURS WITH RAYGUNS, I raise a T REX WITH GATLING GUNS FOR ARMS WHO CAN TURN INTO A DRAGON WITH ROCKET WINGS.

    Who thinks they should have a duel?

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