Contents: Blurbs & Reviews | Where to Find It | Events & Media | About the Science
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Build-A-Bear workshop meets Jurassic Park when a newly graduated genetic engineer goes to work for a company that aims to produce custom-made dragons.
Noah Parker, a newly minted Ph.D., is thrilled to land a dream job at Reptilian Corp., the hottest tech company in the American Southwest. He’s eager to put his genetic engineering expertise to use designing new lines of Reptilian’s feature product: living, breathing dragons. Although highly specialized dragons have been used for industrial purposes for years, Reptilian is desperate to crack the general retail market. By creating a dragon that can be the perfect family pet, Reptilian hopes to put a dragon into every home. While Noah’s research may help Reptilian create truly domesticated dragons, Noah has a secret goal. With his access to the company’s equipment and resources, Noah plans to slip changes into the dragons’ genetic code, bending the company’s products to another purpose entirely.
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Blurbs & Reviews
A Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2021
–Library Journal (full list)
With characteristic verve, Koboldt contrasts the playful adventure plot with the eerily dystopian setting and a searing examination of corporate greed and ambition. Fans of inventive speculative fiction are sure to be pleased.
–Publishers Weekly (full review)
Koboldt weaves a highly entertaining, fast-paced, and technically adroit tale in Domesticating Dragons, one which should whet the appetite of anyone who dreams of having their own dragon someday.
–Keith Willis, author of the Kilbourne Knight series (full review)
Domesticating Dragons was an enjoyable read. Koboldt put his training as a geneticist to good work… but it’s not SO hard-sciencey that you can’t follow along.
–Anna Tan, Deeply Shallow (full review)
A fun ride through the science of bringing dragons to life, not as monsters but as pets.
–Eric Primm, Primm Life (full review)
A fun read, with an engaging cast of characters, not the least of which, unsurprisingly, are the dragons.
–Ernest Lilley, Amazing Stories (full review)
Koboldt does a fantastic job… a fantastic, and definitely different, follow-up to his debut trilogy. I’ll take more of this, please!
–Mark Chitty, SFF World (full review)
I recommend the book to anyone interested in genetic engineering to get a picture of a possible future. For dragon lovers, this is a must-read!
–Bill, Azure Dwarf (full review)
I have no idea if any of this is even remotely plausible but it’s a lot of fun!
–Mervi, Mervi’s Book Reviews (full review)
Have you read Domesticating Dragons? Please leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or your website of choice! It doesn’t have to be a long one, but it will help other readers find my book.
Where to Find Domesticating Dragons
You can also preorder the book ahead of its release date at most retailers, including these:
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Media & Events
- October 1st, 2020: eARC available from Baen.com
- November 14th, 2020: Interview on PubTalk Live.
- November 17th, 2020: Book review at Publishers Weekly.
- December 15th, 2020: Named a Top 10 Winter TBR book by Mervi’s Book Reviews
- December 28th, 2020: One-way Dragon (free story) published on Baen.com.
- January 3rd, 2021: Named a most-anticipated book of 2021 by Marlene Harris at Reading Reality.
- January 4th, 2021: In conversation with Paul Semel, and Big Idea essay on John Scalzi’s blog.
- January 5th, 2021: Book release date (ebook & print) and start of the Great Dragon Egg Hunt
- January 7th, 2021: Live author event with Michael Mammay. Watch on YouTube or Facebook.
- January 9th, 2021: Author interview with Free Talk Radio; should run later in January.
- January 17-24, 2021: Baen author book giveaway (win 5 books!); details to come.
- January 20th, 2021: Deadline for Baen’s Adopt-A-Dragon contest.
- February 27th, 2021: Book review by Mark Chitty at SFFworld.
- March 23rd, 2021: Release of the audiobook narrated by Austin Rising.
- December 1, 2021: Named a Best Book of 2021 by Library Journal
- December 28th, 2021: Mass market paperback release.
- September 6th, 2022: Release of the sequel, Deploying Dragons.
The Science of Domesticating Dragons
The next breakthroughs in biological sciences will almost certainly ride the wave of genetic engineering. Technological advances in three domains — DNA sequencing, synthetic biology, and genome modification — let us push the boundaries of science into new territories. Genome sequencing has been applied to thousands of organisms. As we continue to catalogue the so-called book of life, we may soon be able to write our own chapters. To design new species entirely.
What mythical creature would you bring to life, if you could create anything? Because I’m a geneticist, I field the occasional request. Unicorns are popular. Yet for me, there is no question. Only one creature of legend both fascinates and terrifies me. A descendant of the terrible lizards that once ruled our planet.
A dragon.
Jurassic Park is one of my favorite books. Extracting DNA from dinosaur blood found in amber-encased mosquitoes seemed like such an excellent plan. Regrettably, the much older scientist version of me realized that DNA molecules are far too fragile to persist for millions of years, even protected in amber. No, if we are going to write the genetic code of dragons, we will have to do it from scratch.
On the bright side, that means we’ll be able to control the design. In theory, we can create dragons to look however we want. Maybe even to think and behave however we want, though that’s going to be more challenging. As Ian Malcolm famously says in Jurassic Park, nature finds a way.
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