Tickling the Dragon's Tail

The title is a phrase used by geologists for predetonation from radioactive uranium, one of the dangers facing Nevin Reasoner and friends as they try to pacify two warring kingdoms. Nevin Reasoner teams up with three others to use magery and scientific acumen to deal with obstacles posed by a rogue scientist, angry trolls, an even angrier Elf-Lord, desperate dwarves, and a megalomaniacal king.Book 2 in The Chronicles of Nevin Reasoner is not about mythical dragons, although it does offer a scientific explanation of the fiery effects of dragon breath. Tickling the Dragon’s Tail is a once-used phrase by geologists to describe the danger from clapping together rocks of radioactive uranium ore. That is one of the dangers faced by Nevin Reasoner and his friends as they try valiantly to end years of warfare between the kingdoms of Antrim and Gilsum. In Book 1, Nevin is fired as a science lecturer at Hempstead College in Ohio. He gets delivered to Antrim by arcane means—or is there a scientific explanation—where he teams up with a mage, soldier, and king’s confidante to end the devastation, anarchy and persecution caused by war. Along the way, Nevin finds himself in uncomfortable situations because of his size compared with indigenous folks, sometimes calling for unaccustomed physical altercations. Nevin sees nothing absurd like talking animals or shape-shifting, and no items are created out of nothing, so science must offer explanations if he can only figure it out. The troupe resorts to magery and scientific acumen to supplement their courage as they deal with obstacles posed by a rogue scientist name John Stryker, angry trolls, an even angrier Elf-Lord, a desperate community of dwarves, and a megalomaniacal king. Stryker concocts a crude explosive device that complicates the negotiations for peace. Advice, more or less, comes from a secretive council of high mages, but not without surprising revelations and mysteries. An introverted would-be scientist, Nevin must finally reconcile his feelings for Corissa as king’s consort as well as confidante.