This fantasy is a change for Carmen, whose previous two novels were science fiction. An Army Reserve soldier, Joseph Andrews, has mysteriously been whisked into another universe where magic works, but they still can't conjure up a cup of coffee. It seems that coffee is the item most missed in works featuring travelers in time and other world. (Running water and flush toilets would be my most wanted feature.) Obviously, the reason that fantasy worlds are medieval is that their creators make them so, but perhaps that makes sense. The people with the power, wizards and so forth, have no need of technology, and the ordinary people, who could use it, don't have the support to develop it. There is an argument that the reason for the development in technology in Europe is that in monasteries, the people who did the work also made the decisions, and so they had an interest in technology that slave-owners or people with lots of servants didn't. I can see a couple of potential holes in that hypothesis, but it's an interesting thought.

The story is sword-and-sorcery; the society is broken up into fiefdoms run by wizards and Joe ends up working for an embattled wizard on the sword side of operations where his military training in unarmed combat is invaluable. Touched by the youth of an opposing soldier, he disobeys orders and goes out into the battle field and rescues him only to find he/she appears to be a woman who insists that she is a man named Phillip. It is at this point that the Wizard reminds him that the difference between himself and the Dark Lords is that he is a benevolent despot, but he's still a despot.

He orders Joe and Phillip out on a quest to find dragon scales for a potion, and perhaps for other purposes. Whatever you have been expecting of a dragon, except for being large, winged, and reptilian, it probably isn't like this dragon. He's one of the most charming characters in the story. I won't reveal any more of the plot, except to say that I enjoyed the book and its twists. While its not a humorous tale, there is quite a bit of humor in it, which was one of the main charms of the story. ( )