The Flight of the Darkstar Dragon by Benedict Patrick (Darkstar #1)

When a person contracts the travel bug, it begins to seep into their pores at a young age and lasts the rest of their lives. I can speak from personal experience when I say that I have always been insatiably curious and that there is nothing quite like the excitement of travelling without a plan and seeing where the wind takes you. The Dalai Lama, or possibly Brandon Sanderson, is credited with the phrase “journey before goal.” Where you go is less important than how you get there.

Although I haven’t read many portal fantasies, I am familiar with the classics like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland. More recently, Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series and Alix Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January have also come to my attention. The majority of these tales share the theme of getting where you need to go, whether it is back home or to an unfamiliar place. However, the nature of the wardrobe, rabbit hole, or twister, Auntie Em, receives little consideration. In The Flight of the Darkstar Dragon, Patrick subverts this well-worn cliché by ripping the traditional portal fantasy to shreds while creating a world of almost endless potential.

We first encounter First Officer Min in the Darkstar Dimension, where she serves as the de facto captain (but not captain) of her ship, The Melodious Narhwal. Min, her ship, and her crew have just been unceremoniously dragged into this purple-hued, incredibly bizarre, and absurd place where the scenery and physics make no sense at all. This area is known as the Darkstar Dimension, which acts as a node for visitors to traverse into unexplored worlds through a conduit of constantly shifting trans-dimensional rifts. While there are different land masses, seas, creatures, and perhaps a few permanent occupants in the Darkstar Dimension, it also has its own distinct set of laws and characteristics. Oh yes, there’s also an enormous, purple star in the center of its universe, with a massive, country-sized dragon that uses the star as a sleeping bag.

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As the plot develops, Min and the rest of the supporting group provide some great confrontations. By developing intricate mythology, distinctive personalities, fully developed (and frequently heartbreaking) backstories, and incredible magical objects, Patrick demonstrates his skill as a dungeon master. But the Dimension itself, a remarkable example of world-building in every sense, is the true star of the tale. This universe is a vast, mystical sandbox that will pique the curiosity of every explorer who like the perilous, strange, and fantastic.

The Darkstar Dimension is the world I would move to first and for all, despite the fact that it is home to a dragon the size of New Zealand with teeth the size of skyscrapers. It’s an experience too alluring to pass up to have the chance to explore new delights, new worlds, and new perils at any time. And because to Patrick’s creative imagination and natural narrative talent, I hope we’ll get to explore this world again for a very long time.