The Reptile Wars
The Reptile Wars have begun. A fantasy? Or have they always been with us? Vinny Balfour finds out the hard way. The first book in the series - The Dragonscale Blade - pinpoints Vinny's entry into the ongoing battle.
21st century teenager, Vinny Balfour, a guitar-playing, fast-food eating, good-for-not-very-much loner, with poor exam results, in need of a haircut and a good wash, crashes a motorbike through a stained-glass, octagonal window and lands in the 13th century.
His resemblance to Vincent of Baalfire convinces Astryd that he is her lost son. Her real son, however, has been murdered by his own father, Radulph, convinced that he was the inheritor of dragon’s blood.
In this superstitious, medieval world, Vinny is persuaded to accept the identity of Vincent by his new ‘sister’, Ellyn. But he has a lot on his plate. There’s the local bully, Harald the Merciless, for example. But the real evil comes in the shape of Phar Lazar, a Malsaurian. He is the protector and controller of Prince Ynyr, who is slowly developing distinct reptilian tendencies.
There are those who are on his side. Breandan the maker of Vinny’s dragonscale blade, Eneko Azenari, a wolf-hunting Basque, and Gonzalo de Zanj, a giant Bantu poet. And those who are not: Mr. Luc and Mr. Rangel, for instance, given pardons so that their homicidal skills might be put to good use in the Crusade against the Moors, specifically El Drac. This Moorish warlord has been demonised by Phar Lazar, who is intent on destroying any hope of a truce between Christians and Moors.
In the end, there is a dragon to slay. The real enemy, however, is Phar Lazar. Sorting him out isn’t so easy, but he may have the key to Vinny’s return to the 21st century.
