Dragon Rule

Kinda Disappointing & Desperately Needs An Editor

First things first: this novel either desperately needed an editor or had an editor who desperately needs to find a job far away from literature. It reads like a first draft at best, containing everything from minor typos to major errors and even one instance of a random “00” in the middle of a sentence. Rare is a moment where you can go more than five or so pages without encountering several errors. Misuse of homonyms, repeated or missing words, character names being mixed up, events happening out of order... You name an editing mistake, and this book has at least one instance of it (usually far more). Much like trying to wade through a poorly written fanfiction which had no beta reader, the experience is therefore exhausting and confusing at times. But unlike a poorly written, non-beta-read fanfiction, this novel costs actual money and made it through a well-known publishing company in the current state. Kinda makes me mad, considering how many amazing authors are out there, unable to get lucky enough to be published despite taking all the time and effort to make sure there aren't random numerals and mismatched character names littering their manuscripts.

But I digress. Desperate need of an editor aside, this novel was still rather disappointing... just nowhere near as much so as its predecessor, Dragon Strike. I found that I actually quite enjoyed the story, rather than actively disliking it as I did the previous novel, but it certainly was not without flaws I'd feel wrong for not discussing.

One issue I've had throughout the entire Age of Fire series has been the author's handling of female characters. Small things like the female dragons only having one possible scale colour while males have a large variety can be overlooked as inspired by animals in nature, I suppose, as can the general edge of sexism in how dragon and hominid societies treat their females. It's bothersome every time it's mentioned, but I find myself able to look past it. Things like the female sibling having worse luck than the males, the female dragons all being based upon toxic stereotypes and treating each other like catty, conniving Mean Girls, etc... Well, that's harder to keep ignoring, especially when it's as prevalent as it is within Dragon Rule.

In this particular instalment, the poor characterization of female characters is amped to eleven and becomes impossible to overlook. For no reason other than shock value, we get told that the daughter of a once-important human woman (from previous instalments) was forcibly sold into sexual slavery at age eleven (yes, really!!) but that her parents, who are supposed to be good guys in this equation, don't see fit to track her down because “at least she was made a bride and not a concubine” and blah, blah, how it would look on them as rulers of a kingdom to go off chasing after a(n extremely young) girl who was sold as a bride. (Bonus points: she was sold to a man from an eastern land who wore a turban. Mm, casual racism. This also pops up in the band of thieves and fortune tellers who wear fancy clothes and lots of jewelry. Gee, I wonder which groups of marginalized people are being stereotyped and used as villains/aesthetics, here...) The whole “male dragons are aroused by the scent of female women” thing also features several times in this novel, once again breaking my brain because it makes literally no sense that a male from an egg-laying species would be attracted to the scent of a female mammal. We don't see them being turned on by goats, cows, etc. which are other mammals dragons consume, only humans.

Then, of course, there are the personalities - and I use that term loosely - of the female dragon characters, and the ways they're treated. I'm going to use an example here that I don't feel is particularly “spoilery” enough to be a bother to someone who doesn't want spoilers. Namely, I was frustrated with how AuRon, a character I quite liked from the previous books, was turned into what amounts to the dragon world equivalent of a chauvinistic pig. He spends way too much time internally - and occasionally externally - remarking on female dragons and whether they suit his personal preferences, despite being mated already. At least if he were an eligible bachelor, it could be seen as assessing who he wants to ask to be his mate. But no, mister Already Mated AuRon spends far too much time being disgusted at one female dragon in particular for how much she paints her scales and the fact she “reduces mating to an experience” - aka, the way she has casual sex instead of only sticking with one partner. She's not without her flaws, though. You see, this shaming and appearance judging gets “justified” later when it's revealed that she's actually trying to seduce him repeatedly, ignoring that he's dedicated to his mate and that she has a mate of her own as well. Then she does a bunch of horrible stuff that basically forces the reader to hate her, so yeah. Lovely.

There's also a character who swears herself to abstinence then falls in love anyway, because... of course there is. And the myriad of dragonelles whose entire personalities can be summed up as “the plastics from Mean Girls.” Conniving, disloyal, lying, evil, etc. Don't get me wrong: I don't mind some conniving females (or women; but in this context they're not humans so the term doesn't fit) in stories. It's just gross and exhausting and lowkey offensive when there's a mix of loyal and disloyal males but every single dragonelle has a hidden agenda of her own. Even Wistala makes some highly questionable decisions and has confusing motives, and she's one of the protagonists!

Also, a dragonelle is coerced into mating to produce eggs with a male she doesn't like or want to mate with, just to buy safety for herself and her allies. The narrative covers her thoughts, and paints an absolutely stunningly immersive picture of the shame, disgust, and sadness she feels over the situation. I wish it had been covered more in-depth - her emotions and the turmoil over making the choice, I mean, not the actual scenario - and hadn't been thwarted by a silly last-minute twist, because it was honestly among my favourite emotionally impacting moments in the Age of Fire series. These books need more situations where the emotion is palpable and the stakes are very high and the events keep a reader invested in knowing what happens next, so I always appreciate the rare few gems where things align well. But with it being turned into just another “almost but not really” situation in a piece of fiction where a female character's potential defilement is explored then abandoned, it felt kind of like a cop out and like the situation as a whole only even existed for the sake of dramatic tension. That's annoying!

I also have to question the high level of sexual assault, abuse, slavery, women dancing lewdly for the amusement of dragons (including one scene where scantily clad ladies rub oil on each other), and other such things in a book series which allegedly is aimed at younger readers. The Age of Fire novels are intended to be better suited for younger readers (YA, I believe?) than the Vampire Earth series, according to some promo materials I stumbled upon, but if that's the case then I hesitate to ask what kind of content awaits in those. What's so bad in those books that it makes this stuff seem tame in comparison...? I'm torn, because I wouldn't want to hand this series to a young teen, but I know I'd have enjoyed reading it and not thought much about the questionable aspects if I'd read the books while in that age range. Perhaps I'm just getting too old and seeing things through the wrong lens...?

That said, I'm still mildly disappointed. I usually thrive on character-driven fiction and a lot more time was spent exploring characters than dealing with densely-written battles, but it didn't work as well for me as I'd have hoped. I don't quite understand why, because it did feel like the author's writing wasn't quite so dry in this book as the others. Things happened far more often, interactions were more meaningful... But it just didn't fall together into the experience I'd wanted. I still enjoyed it far more than the previous instalment and I still think I liked it in general, despite its flaws, but I wanted and expected so much more once I realized that more time would be spent with character development.

Unfortunately, I kind of hate “political intrigue” and the conniving plots which come along with it. Most of the time, those things just infuriate or annoy me, and Dragon Rule is certainly heavy on the exhausting political plotting - some of which didn't even make sense - with very little interesting substance to make me care about the political ramifications of characters' choices. Rare was the character development that wasn't framed with or altered by whatever nonsense was going on in the Lavadome at the time. The parts I actually enjoyed were often over too quickly or used as catalysts for frustrating twists and turns.

For example: a huge deal is made of accusations that Nilrasha actually killed Hallaflora back in a previous instalment. There's set to be a first-of-its-kind trial in the Lavadome to determine whether she's guilty or innocent... And in maybe four pages max, it's rushed through, over, and done. I won't say the outcome, but honestly the outcome barely even matters except to determine whether and in what context Nilrasha is mentioned a handful of times afterward. I'd have loved to see more depth and time put into those kinds of plots than things like who's going to rule what land and how they're going to pay tribute to their dragon overlords and whether there's going to be an uprising. But, hey, the setup for the next book seems like maybe there will be more focus on interpersonal relationships between the siblings and their allies and enemies. I certainly hope so, because I'm curious to see the repercussions of the cliffhanger.

Overall? This one is a solidly neutral three stars, to me. I wanted so much more from it and that bums me out a bit, but it's far better than the previous book (Dragon Strike) and I actually did enjoy quite a few bits of it. I'd say it made the trudge through book four worthwhile enough that I'm once again eager to see what happens in the next - and final, as it were - novel in the series.