Light comic fantasy novel by Tom Holt, detailing the adventures of Malcolm Fisher, an unsuspecting mortal who accidentally kills a dragon (who was disguised as a badger) and inherits the Ring of the Nibelungen and the Tarnhelm. All of which could be viewed as a very funny sequel to Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Before I knew about multiples I leaned against the wall in the pasty sea-green bathroom at Garfield Elementary and I thought about my seventh birthday (impending) and the importance of a number like seven. I thought about myself at fourteen, at twenty-one, at twenty-eight and thirty-five; numerology was not lost on me, even then, and that was before I saw all those seven up movies.

Every birthday now I think about what I would have expected from myself when I was younger. I've failed most specatularly, especially in the area of height; I'm only 5'4" - I haven't grown and inch since I was fourteen, and when I got that old, I looked myself over in the mirror, thinking how my reflection only vaguely matched all the images I spun for myself at the age of seven.

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