Crossing a mythical landscape

Not All Dragons
by David Ly

Hamilton: Poplar Press/Wolsak & Wynn, 2026
$24.00 / 9781998408429

Reviewed by Zoe McKenna

*

In David Ly’s Not All Dragons, magic and memory go hand in hand. 

Vancouver-based Ly is the author of poetry collections Mythical Man and Dream of Me as Water. He also co-edited Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry with Daniel Zomparelli. Not All Dragons is his first novel. 

The first time we meet the Not All Dragons’ protagonist, Rhys, he is chewing on a “Tidelight bloom,” a blossom promised to make “his life and memories burn out and peel away from him like skin on spoilt mouringberries.” The next time we meet Rhys, he is defending his life from a “quillmutt”—a beast with “enormous avian-like talons,” “shaggy fur,” and long, black quills.

Delia, a canny mermaid on the hunt for food in the estuary she protects, finds Rhys in the midst of this attack. Armed with a spear from her hunt, Delia hurls her weapon between Rhys and the beast to distract it long enough for him to escape. As the two introduce themselves, Delia realizes that the panic on Rhys’s face is not only caused by the violent beast. The lost, fearful look in his eyes is due to his no longer knowing who or where he is. 

Delia cleans Rhys’s wounds, including large sores on his back that don’t seem to have been caused by the quillmutt, all while she peppers him with questions (none of which he can answer). Partially out of pity, and partially out of a desire to ensure no harm comes to her estuary, Delia agrees to accompany Rhys on a journey to figure out where he came from.

Not All Dragons is a quintessential fantasy story. It follows the hero’s journey to a T, as an unlikely protagonist crosses a mythical landscape filled with magic and adventure, on a quest to rediscover himself. Despite this familiar structure, Rhys’s journey is unique and unpredictable, with twists and revelations I didn’t anticipate. This mysterious through line was fun to follow, even when Rhys’s memories, bubbling their way back up to the surface, were not. 

Rhys is a fairly unconventional hero. Whereas other young men who front fantasy novels are unusually gifted or especially tough, Rhys is awkward and at times quite juvenile. Not long after he and Delia leave the estuary, they run into another quillmutt, and Delia is injured while fighting it off. Delia gets washed away in the river’s current, and Rhys follows her trail until he comes across the Unravellers, a group of people who are tearing the kingdom and its magic apart. When Rhys is inevitably discovered by the Unravellers, he goes along with almost all their requests to keep the peace and allow him to search their camp. Even as he watches one of his captors drink a vial of mermaid blood, he stays quiet, not wanting to appear disrespectful.

While this slow but steady method of infiltrating the camp works in the end, it’s a far cry from those ‘blades and glory’ heroes who act first and ask questions later. As a reader, this can sometimes be frustrating—I found myself willing Rhys to do something. Anything! That said, Rhys’s flaws and indecision made him feel more human. Not many fantasy leads have the softness and introspection that Rhys does.

Like most fantasy novels, Not All Dragons has an abundance of characters. This is, in many ways, a key pillar of the genre and one of the ways that fantasy worlds come to life. With that said, Not All Dragons is shorter than many fantasy novels. Many famous high fantasy novels have hundreds and hundreds of pages (The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson are roughly 500-600 pages, while Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin clocks in at nearly 700 pages). Not All Dragons wraps up in roughly 300 pages, which leaves the novel feeling a tad truncated.

Certainly, a book’s length is not the be-all and end-all, and many ‘short and sweet’ novels are much loved. When it comes to fantasy novels, however, especially ones like Not All Dragons with such a luscious world to explore and so many characters to meet, 300 pages just doesn’t feel like enough. As a reader, it felt like we just scratched the surface of what this novel could offer, and even major characters like Delia still felt like strangers by the end, which makes it difficult to feel invested in their storylines. All things considered, I think “I wanted more!” is a very good problem for a novel to have, but it does leave a feeling of dissatisfaction all the same.

Where Not All Dragons really shines is in its world-building. Ly’s affinity for poetry is clear. Lanilia is described beautifully, and even the more grotesque elements—the quillmuts, for one—are vivid and lyrical. Though the geography may sometimes be a little difficult to grasp, this actually works in the novel’s favour, as Rhys is also (re)discovering Lanilia for the first time. It’s immersive and intriguing and makes me wish I could explore Lanilia myself (quillmutts and Unravellers notwithstanding). To me, that’s everything a fantasy world should be.

This beautiful, enchanting world, paired with intriguing mythology and an atypical hero, gives Not All Dragons a certain charm. It’s contemplative, where other fantasy novels are boisterous. Though I personally wanted more, Not All Dragons would make a good fantasy novel for a young adult reader, or someone looking for an approachable introduction to the genre without the complicated political or social systems of heavier and more complex fantasy novels. Though “your mileage may vary,” Not All Dragons is nevertheless a promising debut, and that makes me very interested to see what David Ly does next.

[Editor’s note: in support of Not All Dragons, David Ly will hold a Vancouver launch hosted by Jen Sookfong Lee (and featuring Adèle Barclay) at Iron Dog Books on May 27, 7pm.]

Zoe McKenna received a MA from UVic and a BA from VIU. Her research focuses on horror writing, with a focus on stories by women. She was the Assistant Editor of That Witch Whispers and her writing has appeared in Black Cat, Malahat Review, and Quill & Quire. When not at her desk, Zoe can be found haunting local bookstores and hiking trails. Zoe gratefully acknowledges that she is a guest on the traditional territory of the Puneluxutth (Penelakut) and the hul’qumi’num-speaking peoples. Find her on Twitter. [Editor’s note: Zoe has reviewed recent books by Portia Elan, Archer Campbell, Whitney French, Adam Parker, Emily Paxman, Guojing, Deni Ellis Béchard, W.K. Shephard, Ron Prasad, Peter Darbyshire, Richard Van Camp, Nalo Hopkinson, Marcus Kliewer, Ivana Filipovich, Giselle Vriesen, and Scott Alexander for BCR.]

*

The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors: Trevor Marc Hughes (nonfiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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