Rogue Dragon - Avram Davidson

Rogue Dragon take place on Prime World, formerly known as Earth before the arrival of the Kar-chee, the origin world of humankind before it spread out into the galaxies. Whether there were dragons on Prime before the Kar-chee is unknown for sure. Some say that the Kar-chee used them as hunting dogs against the local population, others that the dragons are actually the Kar-chee or descendants of that mysterious vanished race. In the near feudal world of Prime however the exotic creatures are now trophies to be hunted down by visitors from the Confederation of Out-worlds. 

Jon-Joras is an outworlder. He has arrived on Prime World as private man to King Por-Paulo of M.M. beta, preparing for the king's hunting visit. While there he begins to gain some awareness of the social stratification on Prime, witnessing the execution of a local man of the pleb-people. He has been summarily executed for killing a Gentleman in a dispute over his party trampling down his potato crop, and the event causes unrest in the city-state of Peramis. 

Although hunting is carefully regulated and monitored, with the dragons even marked for the vulnerable point where they can be killed, Jon-Joras, against his better judgement joins a group of other hunters on an impromptu hunt for a rogue dragon. It all ends very badly and Jon-Joras finds himself drifting, lost, abducted and even hunted himself between the various tribes and states of Prime. It's only then that he discovers the true nature of society on Prime World and new truths about its myths.

Rogue Dragon becomes a travelogue of sorts of an alternate or future Earth, an offworlder guide through the customs of the tribes inhabiting Prime, their nature and the laws of which Jon-Joras inadvertently falls foul. With encounters with a mysterious young woman in different places, strange behaviours that make sense to some strange complex order and some barbaric customs, Rogue Dragon begins to acquire a little bit of a feverish Kafkaesque quality, not unlike Kafka’s alternate world Amerika. Jon-Joras floats from one place to the next with little sense of order until he reaches a point where he escapes and is somewhat 'reborn' as he takes back agency and refuses to be controlled. 

Obviously the main purpose of Rogue Dragon is to present a science fiction fantasy entertainment, but there is almost always an underlying reality that is explored. Although it is somewhat meandering, Davidson does take in (alien or human) sociological, cultural issues as Jon-Joras - unlike Kafka's confused, abused and put-upon figures - manages to find his own place in the world through an understanding of the world around him.


Reading notes: I picked up a second-hand 1965 Ace first publication paperback of Rogue Dragon by Avram Davidson from Scrivener's bookshop in Buxton. It didn't cost 5p, as written on the page beneath the clipped cover, I think it was more the princely sum of £1. I don't think Avram Davidson was well-known or widely published in the UK. I have only read Davidson previously from his wonderful eccentric and entertaining collection 'The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy', which I used to have in its 1991 first hardcover edition from Owlswick Press. From what I've read, and evident here, Davidson was definitely an original voice in science fiction.

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