Title:

The Last Dragon on Mars

Author:

Scott Reintgen

Category:

Fantasy / Science Fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

March 24, 2025

he Last Dragon on Mars is a kid's book that sounded interesting, so I checked it out of the library. The premise is that every body in the universe - each moon, planet and star, has a guardian dragon. Moon dragons are subordinate to their planet, and the planet dragons bow down to their sun dragon (though the Sol dragon does not make an appearance in this book, which is the first of a series.) There is no mention of tiny asteroid dragons, which would have been interesting, since there are millions of asteroids. Some asteroids are bigger than moons. Life exists on Earth because Gaia, the Earth dragon, sacrificed herself to create life on her planet (that's about as much explanation as you get from the story - a dead planet dragon somehow results in life on the planet.) Another oddity - Earth's moon somehow ended up with 4 dragons instead of just one (insert more handwaving explanations here). Once humans learned that dead dragon = life on the planet, they connived with the 4 Luna dragons to attack Ares, the Mars dragon. They managed to kill Ares, expecting that the result would be another planet where life would flourish, but with his dying breath, Ares cursed the planet and now Mars is a dying planet where the human colonies cannot survive. Got all that background?

Lunar Jones is a fourteen year old boy living in an orphanage in the Martian colony town of Harvest. Lunar survives by scavenging - he goes out into the violent wastelands looking for old tech to retrieve and sell. The final battle between Ares and the humans took place nearby, so there is plenty of old military stuff lying buried under the sands. The best time to make a treasure hunt is after a big storm, when the violent weather might uncover a valuable artifact. But just when Lunar finally discovers a valuable object that will bring in plenty of credits, he is betrayed and ambushed. Fleeing for his life, Lunar scrambles into a forbidden military zone in a desperate attempt to hide. One thing leads to another, and Lunar stumbles into a secret facility that is completely off the grid. And inside that facility is a young Martian dragon...

The Last Dragon on Mars is told in first person by Lunar Jones. The story is designed to appeal to young readers - the characters are all young teens, and there are dragons! Naturally, it is up to these youngsters to solve problems and save the day. Ultimately, the problem is that Ares' dying curse has ruined the viability of the Martian ecosystem. Since this is the first book of a series, it spends a lot of time on the "origin" story - the training of Lunar Jones and his compatriots, the fantasy world building (which I tried to summarize in the opening paragraph of this review), and then the unexpected crisis that occurs long before Jones' training is complete and the prior to the young dragon (named Dread) reaching full maturity.

The Last Dragon on Mars is really a fantasy story that pretends to have a science fiction setting. The dragons can transform into spaceships that can travel faster than the speed of light (so why haven't humans ventured all over the universe looking for other habitable planets? Why haven't any extra-solar dragons visited our system?). I imagine this book will appeal more to younger readers than adults.