When is the last time you sat down and enjoyed a straightforward tale about a man forced to fight a dragon? No tricks, no clever gimmicks, no 'quirky twist on the old cliches', just a good old fashioned red-in-sword-and-claw fight. It's probably been a while, and how good would it feel to lose yourself in an epic battle like that? Pretty darn good.
Of course, there's a little more going on in this novella than just a man meeting a dragon in single combat. What would it take to persuade a man to fight against such long odds? How would a king overcome an old soldier's natural reluctance to take up the sword once more? And what would a father do to save his daughter from King, Dragon, and worse? These aren't subplots - they are critical elements of the story of Jason Tavener, one-time champion and potential future dragon chow.