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A review by llmacrae
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
3.0
Rage of Dragons is a tricky one for me. I enjoyed the style of writing and the audiobook narrator, who was absolutely fantastic, but I would have liked a teeny bit less fighting and a bit more exploration of the world, magic, and overarching plot.
This is a revenge-focussed epic fantasy that follows the familiar, “coming of age, boy from backwater village, and fighting/military school,” type tropes, but turned somewhat on their heads. It’s set in an African-inspired world with a clear (and unjust) hierarchical caste system, which makes it easy to root for Tau and the other underdogs suffering under it.
If you like revenge stories, frequent training and fighting sequences, and anger driving someone to achieve their goals, you’ll have a brilliant time with this. I am not typically a fan of these things, so didn’t enjoy this one as much as I would have liked - but there are still many things to enjoy here.
People are essentially categorised when they’re born - there are nobles and lessers, gifted and non-gifted, and the chasm between the haves and the have-nots is enormous. They live in a world of violence, where war is life, and raids can happen at any time. However, we spend most of our time in the view point of the Omehi people who invaded (and therefore instigated this endless war), but you can’t help but feel sorry for their descendants who are caught in this do-or-die existence. It was quite unique, and threw up some moral dilemmas on which side and individual people to root for!
There is also a Goddess who bestows protection and gifts on a select few, and some of those have the power to call on dragons. This is just epic, and I enjoyed learning more about what this entails (and the toll it takes) towards the end of the book. It’s also a lot darker than I expected - not just the explanation about dragons - but the punishments, the unfairness, the slaughters, all of it.
Oh, and there’s a demon world, too. My goodness those parts kept me on the edge of my seat. Definitely one of the most intriguing parts of the book, as terrifying as it was!
Tau as a talentless, gift-less main character was compelling - especially when you factor in his determination to succeed - but he rarely showed more emotion than the anger/rage that is fuelling him on his revenge quest, and subsequently often made rash decisions that I struggled to follow.
In a way, he reminded me of Eska from Rob J. Hayes’ War Eternal series. Both books are brilliant, but I do struggle a little with characters who are mostly angry. He was compelling, and I did root for him, but I didn’t like him very much. He did have his moments, though (mostly with Suri) where he let his guard down and more of his personality to shine through.
That being said, it is easy to root for a character so determined to achieve his goal and who works so hard that you do want to see them succeed. I enjoyed the magic and how Tau constantly pressed the boundaries of it, and would have loved to discover more about this. I also liked the growth of Tau’s friendship with his sword brothers.
Having more female characters would also have been great - especially as they are the ones who can be gifted and often have the power, both literal and figuratively, over Tau and the others.
But overall, I’m not sure the story worked for me. It was very well-written and well-narrated, and clearly excelled in the military style training, duels, skirmishes, strategies, and other battle scenes. They are varied, but they are also constant, and I did find myself zoning out a little after the twentieth description of Tau’s ferocity in battle.
Having seen the original cover and going by the name, I was expecting more dragons in this book, too, which seems to be setting up for the rest of the series.
Overall a fun read and one I’m glad I experienced!
This is a revenge-focussed epic fantasy that follows the familiar, “coming of age, boy from backwater village, and fighting/military school,” type tropes, but turned somewhat on their heads. It’s set in an African-inspired world with a clear (and unjust) hierarchical caste system, which makes it easy to root for Tau and the other underdogs suffering under it.
If you like revenge stories, frequent training and fighting sequences, and anger driving someone to achieve their goals, you’ll have a brilliant time with this. I am not typically a fan of these things, so didn’t enjoy this one as much as I would have liked - but there are still many things to enjoy here.
People are essentially categorised when they’re born - there are nobles and lessers, gifted and non-gifted, and the chasm between the haves and the have-nots is enormous. They live in a world of violence, where war is life, and raids can happen at any time. However, we spend most of our time in the view point of the Omehi people who invaded (and therefore instigated this endless war), but you can’t help but feel sorry for their descendants who are caught in this do-or-die existence. It was quite unique, and threw up some moral dilemmas on which side and individual people to root for!
There is also a Goddess who bestows protection and gifts on a select few, and some of those have the power to call on dragons. This is just epic, and I enjoyed learning more about what this entails (and the toll it takes) towards the end of the book. It’s also a lot darker than I expected - not just the explanation about dragons - but the punishments, the unfairness, the slaughters, all of it.
Oh, and there’s a demon world, too. My goodness those parts kept me on the edge of my seat. Definitely one of the most intriguing parts of the book, as terrifying as it was!
Tau as a talentless, gift-less main character was compelling - especially when you factor in his determination to succeed - but he rarely showed more emotion than the anger/rage that is fuelling him on his revenge quest, and subsequently often made rash decisions that I struggled to follow.
In a way, he reminded me of Eska from Rob J. Hayes’ War Eternal series. Both books are brilliant, but I do struggle a little with characters who are mostly angry. He was compelling, and I did root for him, but I didn’t like him very much. He did have his moments, though (mostly with Suri) where he let his guard down and more of his personality to shine through.
That being said, it is easy to root for a character so determined to achieve his goal and who works so hard that you do want to see them succeed. I enjoyed the magic and how Tau constantly pressed the boundaries of it, and would have loved to discover more about this. I also liked the growth of Tau’s friendship with his sword brothers.
Having more female characters would also have been great - especially as they are the ones who can be gifted and often have the power, both literal and figuratively, over Tau and the others.
But overall, I’m not sure the story worked for me. It was very well-written and well-narrated, and clearly excelled in the military style training, duels, skirmishes, strategies, and other battle scenes. They are varied, but they are also constant, and I did find myself zoning out a little after the twentieth description of Tau’s ferocity in battle.
Having seen the original cover and going by the name, I was expecting more dragons in this book, too, which seems to be setting up for the rest of the series.
Overall a fun read and one I’m glad I experienced!