The Barnes & Noble Review
Any good-hearted, whimsy-favoring reader, from acned to aged, who delights in chaotically fantastical or fantastically chaotic narratives involving the quest for one's authentic identity and place in the world will surely enjoy Gabe Hudson's debut novel, Gork, the Teenage Dragon. Its nonstop madhouse escapades, compressed into the span of one extremely eventful day, summon up comparisons to the work of Walter Moers (Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures) and Tom Holt, who has done a couple of dragon-based books himself (Paint Your Dragon and Nothing But Blue Skies). Additionally, Gork satirically plumbs some of the same supervillain territory that forms the basis of recent films like Despicable Me, while also juggling many of the standard tropes of science fiction in a thoroughly disrespectful fashion guaranteed to entertain.
Gork is Hudson's novel-length debut, but not his first book. That was a short-story collection from 2002 titled Dear Mr. President. As Hudson has publicly recounted, the success of that volume was a mixed blessing, leaving him somewhat deracinated from writing and at sea about a follow- up project. The freestyle, loosey-goosey, unpretentious nature of Gork — narrated in true scatterbrained, irreverent, and heedless teen fashion by its adolescent protagonist — seems to have provided the liberating tactic for unchaining Hudson's muse.
The book begins with a feisty direct address to readers from Gork, a sixteen-year-old orphan dragon, thus establishing its literary pedigree and commonality with other such self- justifying teen narratives as Huckleberry Finn — a book later explicitly referenced by Gork — and The Catcher in the Rye, also name-checked.
We learn that Gork was initially raised from egg-hood by the artificial intelligence named ATHENOS, resident in the crashed and undiscovered spaceship lying in some untouched wilderness area on Earth. Then, when he was three, this lost scion was rediscovered by his grandfather, Dr. Terrible, a notorious and powerful dragon from the planet Blegwethia. Brought back to dragonish civilization by his stern and strict and perhaps mentally unstable guardian, Gork was soon enrolled in the WarWings Academy, an institution of dragon- centric learning whose graduation rate is decremented by the tendency of its students to maim, slaughter, and eat each other upon the slimmest pretext. Imagine playground disputes among humans that generally end in lethal knife fights.
Somehow Gork (nicknamed "Weak Sauce"), despite being extremely underwhelming in all his terror-inspiring features, especially that of horn dimensions, a dragon's central point of pride, has managed to survive to Crown Day. This rite of graduation requires all male dragons to select a mate, a Queen, with whom to propagate. Gork has unrealistically set his sights on Runcita, the daughter of Dean Floop (cue the Animal House allusions), an administrator who is a rival to Dr. Terrible and hence bound to look unfavorably on Gork. (Gork's love, by the way, is introduced in an homage to Nabokov: "Run- ci-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three taps down the palate to tap, at three, on the fangs. Run. Ci. Ta.").
The bulk of the shaggy-dragon plot, such as it is, consists of Gork running the gantlet of rivals, authorities, the environmental dangers of Blegwethia, and his own self- sabotaging bad decisions and weak nerves, in order to make his proposal to Runcita. In this Quest he is more or less alone, save for ATHENOS II, his replacement tutelary AI (not entirely trustworthy), and Fribby, a cyborg girl dragon who is unfailingly loyal and supportive. A couple of other helpful figures include Professor Nog, the hell-dwelling deceased faculty member who specializes in demonology, and Metheldra, the sexy adult "swordupuncturist," whose semi- sadistic treatment succeeds in shrinking Gork's overlarge heart, thus instilling in him, at least temporarily, the requisite lack of empathy for others that allows dragons to conquer. His chief antagonists are Dean Floop; an aide-de-camp named Rexro; and Gork's own relative, Dr. Terrible, who proves to be the ultimate nemesis to all Gork's plans and dreams.
Here is a delightful sample of Dr. Terrible's personality and attitude, from a letter to his ward. In line with the cartoony flavors of the book, one is put in mind of Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls, Sheldon J. Plankton of SpongeBob SquarePants, and other resonant over-the-top animated megalomaniacs:
Now let me address the elephant in the room. Idrixia. First off, I want you to know that I am not sorry for stealing Idrixia away from you last Friday and marrying her. Because my name is Dr. Terrible and this is what we Terribles do. We act terrible. Now if it's any consolation, when I was your age my grandpa stole the love of my life away from me and married her. And so I only want you to know that I feel your pain. But I also laugh at it, because I am terrible. And I am sure that right now you're feeling a lot of raw and jagged emotions but I would ask that you not let your heart turn icy with hate for me, your loyal and dutiful legal guardian. Though the truth is I guess I really don't care if you do . . .
[S]omehow try to find yourself another dragonette for EggHarvest. If that is even possible, I don't know. Because it seems like any chick you get is really just using you as a way to get to me. Though you really can't blame them, the chicks I mean. I am after all the infamous Dr. Terrible. Impossible to resist, really . . .
P.S. Idrixia says hi! She's lying right next to me here in my nest. We are still technically on our honeymoon. Ha-ha! I am so terrible. (:
This letter is indicative of one of Hudson's main achievements in the book: vividly fleshing out the unrepentant, Darwinian, nihilistic, amoral dragon civilization. Like the Bizarros of Superman's universe, the dragons antithetically embrace all the worst aspects of human culture, endorsing pillage, cruelty, rage, hatred, and selfish individualism. Inevitably, of course, our supposed opposites begin to look disturbingly familiar, and the comic fantasia gives way to a fairly dead-on portrait of humanity at its worst.
The second accomplishment of the tale is the gleeful farrago of SF tropes that are mashed together, making this book a true instance of satirical science fiction rather than any kind of fantasy. The dragons possess spaceships, time machines, mind- transfer gadgets, interdimensional travel, and a galactic empire. But of course, being dragons, their setup resembles Star Wars as if populated by id-driven three-year-olds. Commentary on certain SF classics comes into play as well — is the WarWings Academy meant to resemble the training facility in Ender's Game? — but no one parallel rises to prominence: instead, Hudson creates an omnivorous parodic vibe worthy of Futurama.
The main armature of the tale is of course Gork's forced, hazardous maturation and the fulfillment of his destiny, a fate of whose lineaments he is mostly unaware until nearly the end. There are elements of The Story of Ferdinand here, given that Gork's overlarge heart makes him resemble that peaceful, flower-smelling bull. We also naturally think of the Grinch, but in reverse, insofar as Gork's remedy for his problems is to shrink his heart rather than enlarge it. Rather unconventionally for a tale of adolescent angst, Gork is not a rebel. He does not wish to shatter conventions or undermine the establishment. In fact, he just desires to be more like his peers and to fit in. However, by the final chapters — which are crafted in bite-sized chunks to match the accelerating pace of the action — Gork has come around to a somewhat revolutionary stance that will undermine the status quo — at least in the limited sphere to which he becomes heir. He attains — to use the title of an earlier novel of schoolboy exploits — "a separate peace," an accommodation and truce that does not reform Blegwethia and the dragon civilization at large. I think it not much of a spoiler, since it follows the Hollywood pattern of such romances, to reveal that Gork finds someone other than Runcita to be his soul mate.
Although its surface affect is that of adolescent autobiography, the overall atmosphere of this book calls to mind two minor and perhaps overlooked classics of the field: Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad, in which two hyperbolic robots engender one farcical disaster after another, due to their overweening hubris; and David Bunch's Moderan, the surreal chronicle of a future Earth all plasticized and devoted to incessant combat, a war of all against all. The deranged, neologistic language of Moderan is echoed in somewhat attenuated but still potent form by Hudson.
First, a bit of text from Bunch: I filled the breath bags full as they would stick of the scarlet vapor-shield air, worked hinges and braces of legs to stand me to tallest tall, brought the wide-range Moderan vision down to alternate pinpoint scowl and arrogant look of dare-you-now, flexed my new-metal flailers in purest nonchalance, like the champion boss cat on the block lazily blinking and shooting his claws in and out of sheath in the Old Days, toyed a bit at my breastplate door, meaning to hint that dire things of havoc might be there stored, and moved on down toward the "warning of the line," knowing full well that it was high noon in my career now and the sun now could set very fast and send my future to the dark.
Next, from Hudson: Now up on the screen there appeared the deranged Evo-Mach 3000. The Evolution Machine was a giant upright stasis tank that comprised two fused pods, and each pod was filled with thick clear goo, and inside one pod was a lion and in the other pod was a tiny worm. Each pod had a series of tubes running out of it, which met in a small silver pyramid hovering above the pods. The pyramid was pulsing with light, as if the fiendish machine were breathing.
"Now," said Dr. Terrible, as he looked out at all the dragon journalists in the audience, "I created the Evo-Mach 3000 so that our species can utilize the mind-swap, for the purposes of stealth warfare. Because now with my new Evo-Mach 3000, dragons will be able to hide in plain sight, blend into the native population on any planet we have come to conquer."
While not as utterly and blithely demented as Moderan, Gork, the Teenage Dragon still offers us the insights and pleasures of seeing an absurdist, more savage version of our own bestial arena, a vision that makes us rethink our own default derangements.
Author of several acclaimed novels and story collections, including Fractal Paisleys, Little Doors, and Neutrino Drag, Paul Di Filippo was nominated for a Sturgeon Award, a Hugo Award, and a World Fantasy Award — all in a single year. William Gibson has called his work "spooky, haunting, and hilarious." His reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Science Fiction Weekly, Asimov's Magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Reviewer: Paul Di Filippo
Publishers Weekly
04/17/2017
The sorrows of adolescent dragon Gork the Terrible start when he’s hatched on Earth, the honeymoon destination of his parents, who were killed when their spaceship crashed there. He’s raised by his sentient spaceship until he’s three and then rescued by his fiendish grandfather, Dr. Terrible, and taken to the dragons’ home planet, Blegwethia. Gork, cursed with laughably tiny horns, a tendency to faint in moments of crisis, and a compassionate heart—the last of which is considered the greatest failing for a dragon—is a teenage enrollee at the WarWings Academy when he faces the ultimate challenge: win the luscious chick Runcita Floop as his queen, or become a slave for life. Gork’s amusing growing-up story unfolds in vignettes of encounters with various kooky fellow dragons and episodes of Dr. Terrible’s battles with Runcita’s father, Dean Floop. Throughout, Hudson makes generally witty and occasionally brilliant reflections on humans’ often reptilian behavior. Each time Gork’s soft heart gets him in trouble with his peers and superiors, it marks a stage in his scaly maturation, until finally he finds his true love and accepts his destiny not as a fire-belching killer but as a sensitive poet. Though the fun starts to wear thin over time, Hudson’s cleverly plotted and executed tale allows for a number of insights into the beastly adolescent behavior that can bedevil humans of all ages. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House. (July)
From the Publisher
A TODAY Show Summer Pick
An Amazon Summer Beach Reads Pick
A Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction of the Month Pick
BuzzFeed ‘22 Exciting Books You Need to Read This Summer’
A Google Play Summer Reading Pick
A Tor.com Genre-Bending Books of the Month Pick
A B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Book Launch Pick
An Unbound Worlds ‘Summer’s Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy’
A Vol. 1 Brooklyn Books of the Month Pick
The Verge ‘Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Books to Read This Month’
“Hilarious. . . . Gork is less Game of Thrones and more The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with fire-breathing characters and a John Hughes-esque plot.”
—Rolling Stone
“Guaranteed to entertain. . . . Hudson creates an omnivorous parodic vibe worthy of Futurama.”
—Paul Di Filippo, The Barnes & Noble Review
“The fun is in the gonzo, sci-fi fantasy details. Sweet-natured Gork faces deadly threats and learns lessons about love. . . . Hudson seems to be taking cues from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with perhaps a smattering of Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Campbell and Mark Twain.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A wondrously insane mashup of teen rom-com, coming-of-age fable, and dragons. . . . Not to be missed!”
—Barnes & Noble, Best New Fiction of the Month
“Gork possesses the madcap invention and strange genius of Alice in Wonderland.“
—The Paris Review Daily
“Charming and wildly imaginative. . . . Gork, who immediately establishes himself as one of the most lovable characters of the year, is an orphaned 16-year-old dragon with a tremendous heart, a sensitive soul, and a deep appreciation for poetry. The most fun read of the summer.”
—Isaac Fitzgerald, BuzzFeed
“A dragon version of Ferris Buehler’s Day Off. . . . It’s a grown-up fable, a charming, though bloody, fairytale for adults, with enough explosions to satisfy the adolescent in us while making readers cheer for Gork.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Big-hearted and gawky, Gork gives us a lovable loser sure to win the hearts of sci-fi readers and fans of offbeat comedies.”
—Shelf Awareness
“A winning coming-of-age story. . . Harry Potter meets Sixteen Candles meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a hilarious and heartfelt fantasy novel with one unforgettable hero: Gork.”
—Google Play Summer Reading
“It's hard not to love a story about a dragon with a spaceship that cribs its plot from a John Hughes movie. The hyperkinetic teen-dragon comedy-romance you never knew you wanted.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Cleverly plotted and executed. . . . Gork’s amusing growing-up story unfolds in vignettes of encounters with various kooky fellow dragons. Throughout, Hudson makes generally witty and occasionally brilliant reflections on humans’ often reptilian behavior.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Smart, subversive, funny and fun, Gabe Hudson has created something special—something soaring. It’s Catcher in the Rye spiced with Anne McCaffrey, Eragon by way of John Irving, with a whiff of Douglas Adams for good measure.”
—The Maine Edge
“A humorous fantasy. . . reads like a Generation Z teen was set loose on the works of Terry Pratchett. You’ll be surprised how well the human teenage experience maps to the struggle of an adolescent dragon clawing his way up the social ladder.”
—Barnes & Noble, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“Take a bit of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, a little Harry Potter, and sprinkle in some John Hughes…Gork is a fantastical, outrageous, coming-of-age love story featuring a dragon named Gork on a quest to find his lady love, maybe conquer a planet, and encounter plenty of hijinx along the way.”
—Unbound Worlds, Summer’s Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Pick
“This story is amazingly clever and just downright funny. You will laugh out loud (rare in a book for me) and you’ll be surprised by all the turns this novel takes. A nice break from all the seriousness of the world, and a palate cleanser from all the heavy fiction out there. It’s a trip you’ll be happy you took, and wouldn’t object to taking again in the future.”
— Melissa Lojo, Master Bookseller, Book People Book Store
“Hilarious, satisfyingly fun. . . [as] if John Hughes wrote a Game of Thrones dragon comedy. The story's whimsy and humor keep the plot moving.”
—The Chicago Review of Books
“Gork, the Teenage Dragon combines so many things I count on in fiction I love—great expansive humor, a big-hearted optimism about all that’s possible in the world and in fiction, a very clear moral purpose and a sense of social responsibility—plus a willingness to experiment with the form of writing, to push the art of writing further, and with passion.”
—Dave Eggers, author of Heroes of the Frontier and The Circle
“Gork, the Teenage Dragon is a hilarious ride through the mind-bending and capacious universe, a one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story for the big-hearted and beleaguered. Mostly, it’s a reminder that, now especially, we on planet Earth need a whole lot more dreamer-poets, a whole lot more gentle peace-loving fools.”
—Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Life on Mars and Ordinary Light
“Gork, the Teenage Dragon is jam-packed with outrageous storytelling and soulful humor in the glorious American tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain. Who knew a dragon’s coming-of-age story could be filled with so much humanity?”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
“My one & only crush.”
—Melissa L.-O., Harvard Book Store
“Gork’s got it going on. His secret weapon? Poetry! This wonderful, big-hearted, crazy novel is a testament to Gabe Hudson’s ingenious imagination.”
—Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen
“Like nothing you’ve ever read before—a quirky, wildly fun ride.”
—Jarry Lee, BuzzFeed
“Genre-bending, age-defying appeal. . . . Gork has one thing going for him: a big, generous heart. Seriously, literary sentimentalists, can you resist?”
—Library Journal
"Like a mad scramble to find the right date for prom—but with dragons. Gork might have a ‘scaly green ass,’ but teens will laugh and relate to his desperate search for a date. Recommend this one to fans of offbeat science fiction and fantasy, such as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.”
—Booklist
"Gork is the funny, wonderfully-written coming of age story about a dragon from another planet that is equal parts smart, silly, and sincere!"
—Nikki, Newtonville Books Bookstore
“Gork, the Teenage Dragon induced in me such madcap, heartfelt delight and joy, like getting drunk but WITHOUT impaired faculties and PLUS dragons.”
—Alice Sola Kim, 2016 Whiting Award Winner
“Gabe Hudson’s fire-breathing, page-scorching creation, Gork the dragon, is more human and big-hearted and generous than most people I know. This book is as sly and smart as it is hilarious.”
—Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
“Gork, the Teenage Dragon is on fire! It's magnificent and exuberant and ferociously funny, and it's also one of the most moving coming-of-age stories to appear in a long time.”
—Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean
“An epic love story that is wondrous, enchanting, hilarious, and heartrending. This dragon Gork is a direct descendant of Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield, and his voice is a marvel of comic timing and pathos. Gork, the Teenage Dragon is sure to become an instant classic, destined to be loved by all sorts of readers through the ages.”
—Akhil Sharma, author of Family Life
“An instant dragon tale classic…The lovable central character in Gabe Hudson’s Gork, the Teenage Dragon is the hormonal underdog dragon you never knew you wanted to read about and then can’t seem to think about without smiling. Resembling the very best John Hughes films, Gork has a memorable group of unique characters …kids and adults will find much to adore in this book.”
—Brief Take
Library Journal
06/15/2017
Gork is an alien dragon attending an elite military academy in preparation for a life conquering other planets. Bullying is encouraged at WarWings Academy and deaths are frequent, but Gork doesn't have the requisite fiendish disposition for success. His horns are too small and his heart too big. He is boastful and self-aggrandizing. As the novel opens, Gork must pick a mate or forever become a slave; he sets his sights on the most unattainable female at WarWings. As Gork's day progresses, it seems every clique wants to burn him to ash, and the distractions add up, for both Gork and the reader. Before he can pick his queen, he must discover the whereabouts of his missing grandfather Dr. Terrible, uncover treachery among his closest companions, and grow his courage and his horns. Hudson burst onto the writing scene with his breakthrough collection of short stories, Dear Mr. President. Unlike his previous book, the humor and satire here fall flat, and Gork's narration is repetitive and sophomoric. VERDICT Fans of Hudson's earlier work may be confused by this first novel, which might find an audience in older teens but is otherwise an optional purchase. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/17.]—Jennifer Beach, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA
School Library Journal
01/01/2018
Gork the Terrible isn't having a good day on planet Blegwethia—his grandfather half-blinded his schoolmaster last night and is in hiding, his spaceship is turning against him, and he can't find the love of his life to ask her to be his queen for EggHarvest. Despite reciting epic poetry and trying to grow his horns quickly to make himself more attractive, Gork, nicknamed Weak Sauce, is a struggling dragon who doesn't live up to his Terrible family name. His heart is too big, and he has feelings, which result in taunts from classmates. His Ferris Bueller—like one-day adventure will decide his future—finding his queen and conquering a planet or becoming enslaved to other dragons. Fantasy readers will enjoy this playful romp that pays homage to popular literature and movies. Gork is a dragon version of Andrew Smith's Austin Szerba in Grasshopper Jungle—consumed by hormones, an obsession that may become repetitive to some readers. VERDICT Give to fantasy fans who appreciate dark comedies, dorky dragons, or feel-good first romances.—Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL
Kirkus Reviews
2017-04-18
A teenage boy dragon battles bullies, a mad scientist, and his own self-doubt in his quest to win over a girl dragon.It's hard not to love a story about a dragon with a spaceship that cribs its plot from a John Hughes movie. Hudson (Dear Mr. President, 2002) follows up his devastating short story debut with a wacky teen comedy with shades of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt. Our narrator is Gork, a clumsy but very determined student at WarWings Military Academy on the planet Blegwethia. Our boy isn't doing so hot with his diminished horns, a power rating of "Snacklicious," and the nickname "Weak Sauce." As happens in teen comedies, it's "Crown Day," in which dragons must ask a girl to be their queen or be forever banished as a slave. Gork's intended paramour is the fierce Runcita Floop. "Me and my Queen Runcita will be laying plans for invading a planet together," Gork says. "Soon I'll be out in space on my Fertility Mission, and me and Runcita will be ‘bumping scales,' so she can lay my eggs." Unfortunately, Dean Floop has no intention of letting Gork anywhere near his daughter. Technically, Gork has some help from his grandfather Dr. Terrible, which includes a brain implant that makes him more ferocious when he recites poems, but grandpa is also malicious and kind of insane. Gork has other allies, though, in his tomboy friend Fribby (a cyborg dragon who takes no guff from Gork) and his spaceship Athenos II, a sentient being that carries secrets from Gork's childhood. If it all sounds a bit crazy, it is, in a weird and kind of wonderful way that combines immature humor with a heartfelt coming-of-age story. The hyperkinetic teen-dragon comedy-romance you never knew you wanted.
