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A review by miarsb
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
2.0
I bounced back and forth on this one between two and three stars. The book has some heavy issues with world building, plotting, and characters. Ultimately, it's a classic power fantasy that reaches for high fantasy but fails to hit the mark. I enjoyed my time with it so I'm going to lean into the three stars. A more objective review would definitely be two though so if a male power fantasy of train harder to be the best warrior doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you can safely skip this.
The book has a promising start with a flashback that sets up the portion of the world the book takes place in, the underlying conflict, and the magic in use. It's a well written prologue but sets expectations the rest of the book doesn't deliver on.
We're then shown the current time period with our main character and the society he inhabits. He's a classic everyman that isn't particularly good at anything and wants a simple life with his teenage crush. There is still some nice groundwork being laid with an oppressive class system, a somewhat dangerous natural environment, and the risk of invasion from the natives. All of this pushes back the inciting incident but felt worthwhile for all of the world building that was being accomplished.
It's at this point that things start to take take a turn. The story becomes a personal revenge plot that leans on the class system that has been setup. There are still interesting possibilities in this but they dwindle over time as you go through extraneous training montages and mock fights. The class issues are referenced but never given importance as more and more focus is given to how motivated our protagonist is and how badass he becomes. The bulk of your time will be spent in combat with any intervening period being skipped past a quickly as possible. All of the secondary characters suffer due to this. They're never give enough time to be fleshed out and only receive some basic characterization. It is especially notable for female characters because there are only two of importance. One is the love interest, who is relegated to exposition and romantic scenes, while the other is only given time in the last portion of the book. The real issue here is that most character interaction and world building only serves the purpose of highlighting how great of a renegade the main character is.
The fights themselves are satisfying though. There is a solid build up in the battles from the middling swordsman to how he progresses. Even if the later ends up feeling a bit forced, it is still good fun to see how completely ridiculous he becomes in the last fourth of the book.
There are some attempts at world building mixed in with reveals that shake up the status quo. These either don't make a lot of sense though or don't have the foundation needed to make a real impact and the focus is still entirely on how great a swordsman our main character becomes. The last few pages drive this home as any sadness or retrospection is quickly thrown away for the chance at more revenge.
I will say that this book stuck in my mind for some time. It doesn't live up to it's potential which leaves a lot of room for discussion on it's missteps and what could have been. Part of me wants to believe that some of its shortcomings were purposeful to leave reveals for sequels but so many pages are spent on the combat that I believe this is what the author was actually interested in. It's still a decent to good read with that outlook if you're interested in this type of story.
The book has a promising start with a flashback that sets up the portion of the world the book takes place in, the underlying conflict, and the magic in use. It's a well written prologue but sets expectations the rest of the book doesn't deliver on.
We're then shown the current time period with our main character and the society he inhabits. He's a classic everyman that isn't particularly good at anything and wants a simple life with his teenage crush. There is still some nice groundwork being laid with an oppressive class system, a somewhat dangerous natural environment, and the risk of invasion from the natives. All of this pushes back the inciting incident but felt worthwhile for all of the world building that was being accomplished.
It's at this point that things start to take take a turn. The story becomes a personal revenge plot that leans on the class system that has been setup. There are still interesting possibilities in this but they dwindle over time as you go through extraneous training montages and mock fights. The class issues are referenced but never given importance as more and more focus is given to how motivated our protagonist is and how badass he becomes. The bulk of your time will be spent in combat with any intervening period being skipped past a quickly as possible. All of the secondary characters suffer due to this. They're never give enough time to be fleshed out and only receive some basic characterization. It is especially notable for female characters because there are only two of importance. One is the love interest, who is relegated to exposition and romantic scenes, while the other is only given time in the last portion of the book. The real issue here is that most character interaction and world building only serves the purpose of highlighting how great of a renegade the main character is.
The fights themselves are satisfying though. There is a solid build up in the battles from the middling swordsman to how he progresses. Even if the later ends up feeling a bit forced, it is still good fun to see how completely ridiculous he becomes in the last fourth of the book.
There are some attempts at world building mixed in with reveals that shake up the status quo. These either don't make a lot of sense though or don't have the foundation needed to make a real impact and the focus is still entirely on how great a swordsman our main character becomes. The last few pages drive this home as any sadness or retrospection is quickly thrown away for the chance at more revenge.
I will say that this book stuck in my mind for some time. It doesn't live up to it's potential which leaves a lot of room for discussion on it's missteps and what could have been. Part of me wants to believe that some of its shortcomings were purposeful to leave reveals for sequels but so many pages are spent on the combat that I believe this is what the author was actually interested in. It's still a decent to good read with that outlook if you're interested in this type of story.