The Dragon's Child consists of two seemingly unrelated short stories set in a fantastical northern China: "The Dragon's Child", about a woman who has to make an important decision about her niece, the daughter of the dragon wizard, and "Early Winter Near Jen-li Village" about a young man whose new bride seems to be harboring several dark secrets. Both are nice, and characteristic of Cheney's writing, but neither is spectacular. Of the two "The Dragon's Child" is probably the stronger story. Probably only of interest to those who have enjoyed the author's other works and want to read everything she's written. ( )

These two short stories share the element of culture as their strength. While reading you are drawn not only to what is happening, but to the cultural aspects of the people and places within the pages.

The first story, The Dragon's Child, seemed more like the quick draft of a much longer story. This isn't to say it was of bad quality, only that it left me thinking that there was far too much to the plot and character history to have begun and ended as it did. The entire thing would make a wonderful book if expanded upon.

Early Winter, Near Jenli Village was the second story and the only connection to the first is the cultural one. This is not a tale of dragons, but of ghosts and is much better suited to being a short story. It was as delightful to read as the first story, but felt more complete as something that needed no further expanding.

Unfortunately I feel like I can't say too much about this book or I would simply be retelling the already well-told stories, but I would certainly read more from this author. ( )

Culture vs. Story

What I took from these stories, most of all, was how strongly the culture of the pieces came over in such a short space of time. That's not to say that I did not enjoy the stories, because I did, just that the culture was the strongest drawn of the features of each story.

Of the two stories, I felt that the second - Early Winter, Near Jenli Village - lent itself more easily to being a short story, while the story that gave the collection its name, (The Dragon's Child), would have been far better if written as a full length novel, or even a novella. There were just so many elements that could, and perhaps should have been expanded upon and as a reader one is left with so many questions, even though the story itself is told, that a degree of disappointment seems inevitable. I felt I wanted the story told again in far more detail.

As companion stories, however, as unlikely as it might seem that a fantasy about dragons and a hauntingly beautiful Chinese ghost story might go together, the two worked well in a single volume. I would be interested in reading other short stories by Cheney, but would also like to read a full length novel by this author. ( )