"Getting to Know the Dragon"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Novelette
Year: 1999
ID: 371
Publication history:
- 1999: Far Horizons, Avon Hard cover book, ISBN 9-780380-976300, 482 pp.
- 2000: Horizons Lointains, J'ai lu Hard cover book, ISBN 2290304859, 644 pp., in French
- 2000: Verre Horizons, Luitingh-Sijthoff , ISBN 90-245-3496-8, 511 pp., in Dutch as Het Legboek van de Draak
- 2000: Far Horizons, Orbit Mass market paperback, ISBN 1-85723-968-7, 691 pp.
- 2003: Roma Eterna, Eos Hard cover book, ISBN 0380978598, 396 pp.
- 2003: Roma Eterna, Gollancz Hard cover book, ISBN 0575073535, 384 pp.
- 2003: Roma Eterna, Gollancz Trade paperback, ISBN 0575073543, 384 pp.
- 2004: Roma Eterna, Eos Mass market paperback, ISBN 0380814889, 464 pp.
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
A story in the Roma Eterna series set in the year 2503 AUC (1750 to you and me). It concerns Tiberius Ulpius Draco, a character reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci, genius in many fields, from science to architecture to history. His particular passion is investigating the life of his ancestor, the famous caesar Trajan VII, known as Draco (), but he is constantly interrupted by his own the rash and flighty Demetrius, heir to the Roman throne, who has very big plans for his pet genius.
The main focus of this story is actually on Trajan, whose deeds, revealed in an ancient journal, present him to not be the man Tiberius thought him to be. A touching story of hero worship encountering warts, rather thoughtful and scholarly and containing no action scenes whatsoever.