The Rage of Dragons

It's been a some time since I have been thinking about a book long after putting it down. This is one of those books. The story follows a somewhat familiar trope of a young man dedicating everything for revenge, and like all revenges loosing and maybe finding himself in the process.

-Creative world-building
- An interesting and complex plot
- Heavily focused on revenge
- Graphic violence presented
- An adult fantasy not appropriate for young YA readers.

The one hour i listened to was divided as such:
- 70% action scenes
- 30% stating proper names, of characters, places, groups of people, etc.

The naming scheme was VERY offsetting, it was some African/Spanish combination.

The author failed to create an empathic protagonist by naming dozens of characters, I couldn't tell who I was suppose to care about. It has become common for reviewers to say “oh, the first few dozen of pages is crap, but keep reading it and you'll be rewarded”. I'm not one with patience for that. The books I like have me hooked form the first sentence up to a maximum of the first page.

The prologue was interesting, but it followed a way too common pattern that I hate: make a good prologue, proceed to a over the top boring nothing related to it first chapter.

A group of people arrived at a foreign land looking for a place to live. Instead of a typical colonization, they have been forced to leave their homeland or be annihilated by some not yet revealed reason.

They faced a never before crossed sea, and on arrival, they met a fierce resistance by the natives, who wielded some form of magic different and more powerful than theirs.

They managed to defeat them by calling upon the aid of their dragons, something that was very risky for them to do. Still, most of their people have been killed in the battle.

Then chapter one starts, 184 years latter.


Read 1:19 / 10:53 8%

3.5/5

Whoever keeps approving the “Game of Thrones Meets [X]” tags needs to stop. If anything, this book was more Gladiator meets Spartacus, without much that could lead someone to think that it's in the same vein as Game of Thrones. The book is actually good without the comparison.

Tau is an okay protagonist with an arc that is simple and easy to follow. Most of the supporting characters lack true depth, in my opinion, with some being more of a name than an actual realized part of the story. But it's not a huge detractor from the story if characters aren't the biggest necessity for you with a book. I actually think the book would have benefitted from multiple points of view. There were a few chapters that would follow different characters with stories that would've been fun to follow throughout the entire book. It also would've given a nice break from Tau's perspective, which felt flat at certain points in the book to be honest.

What makes the book rise above its shortcomings is the world that Evan creates. While the world would've been more engaging had we seen more perspectives in the story, it's enough to go off of for you to want to see more. The third act of the book, while convoluted in some places, is an exciting end to the first book and a preview of what's coming next. Not only is the African/Xhosa influence prominent and intriguing, but the political landscape set up in the end sets the second book high on my list of anticipated reads.

Overall, The Rage of Dragons is a good introduction to Evan's world and future installments. On its own, it's a good read with an easy-to-follow plot, a few slow moments, and an action-packed third act. I'm eager to get a glimpse of the next book!

This started with a great premise, and the action scenes throughout were really well-done and exciting. It felt like the focus on the action really took away from character development, though - hopefully as the series continues it will get a bit more depth in that area.

Evan Winter does a great job at story telling and builds a strong world with a nice magic system. Tau is a nicely crafted if character and his development is fairly interesting to follow. His friends while given some pages never really form a strong support cast. The strongest component of the book is the magic system which is fairly unique in that magic is invested through others and dragons are a part of that system. However, I am unlikely to move further into the series as I never developed a bond with Tau. It feels like a very emotionless journey as you follow him and in the end you are left unsatisfied. ‘Would still recommend it as a worthy read as it may be more up your alley than mine.

[a:Evan Winter 17087338 Evan Winter https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1506183476p2/17087338.jpg] does a fantastic job in his debut, [b:The Rage of Dragons 44330000 The Rage of Dragons (The Burning, #1) Evan Winter https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563407420l/44330000.SX50.jpg 57522473]. He keeps the action going, picking up the pace as the book goes along. The way he sprinkles the world lore into the settings is brilliant, giving the reader just enough to understand, but allowing the mystery of the bigger picture to linger. There were a few scenes that told me instead of showing me what was happening, but those were few and far between. I am very excited to read what lies in store for these characters in the next book of The Burning series

It's an easy book to like, hitting many typical tropes of modern fantasy but doing it in a good way.
It feels like a (better) rewrite of Peter V Brett's “Demon Cycle” (the african setting is a nice addition) with a heavy sprinkling of Brandon Sanderson “The Way of Kings” (lesser rather than slaves), all done without making the main character into a Gary Stu.

Dragons have a marginal role in the book and the story would stand perfectly on its own if they did not appear at all (demons on their own would have sufficed), but they do help in world-building and are used as a specific plot device I won't spoil but that works well.

Evan Winter's comment in this site summarises the reading experience very well: it's a very fun book to read and it feels like the author had fun writing it. If that means that'll make him more eager to write the sequels, so much the better, these are books I'll be looking forward to!

Pros: brilliant worldbuilding, interesting magic and mythology, interesting characters

Cons:

Two hundred cycles ago, Omehi refugees landed on the shores of Xidda and fought off the natives to claim a peninsula. They hold it through the force of their army and their Gifted. Tau Solarin is a High Common, nearing manhood and the test that will either let him train for his mandatory military service or force him to become a drudge. Neither future appeals to him, but a series of tragedies leaves him burning for revenge. Suddenly military training is the only future that matters.

The worldbuilding in this book is brilliant. There's a lot of vocabulary to learn in the prologue and first chapter, but by chapter two I knew what everything meant. There is a glossary at the back of the book if you need it though. I'd heard online the book had African influences. After reading it I looked up some of the words and they are from the Xhosa language, though the meanings don't all seem to translate to how they're used in the book.

I loved the intricacies of how everything fit together: the military, the Chosen, the Gifted, the castes. There's history on the peninsula as well as a mostly forgotten history of why they fled their homeland. A lot is left unsaid and I'm hoping some of that history will come up in the sequels. The world felt so real at times that I burned for the injustices felt by the Lessers and the often arbitrary justice the Noble castes could inflict on them.

Magic is sparingly used but I loved learning about it. I also liked that there are different beliefs in magic by the natives and invaders. There are limits to its use, which meant the stakes stayed high during battle. I also enjoyed learning about their underworld, the demons, etc.

The characters were all unique. Tau wasn't the most likeable character. At times I felt sorry for him, at others I wanted to shake some sense into him. I loved some of the supporting cast members - especially the members in his core training group. I was impressed that the author introduced characters slowly, so you could really get to know them before adding more people to the group. It made it easy to remember who everyone was.

There's a light romance. So light at the beginning of the novel that I expected the woman to disappear from the narrative entirely and was very happy that she not only came back in but had her own interests and goals (ie, wasn't just the ‘love interest') and played an important role at the end of the book.

Speaking of women, among the Omehi they are the rulers and Gifted (though have little import outside of those roles) while among the natives women are fully integrated into the military. It was cool to see some different social norms.

The book gets pretty brutal at times and very intense. Towards the end I needed a few breaks even though I wanted to know what would happen next. I'm not a huge fan of grimdark as I find the books can go too far in their attempts to be edgy and shocking, and so was happy there were no rape scenes in this (though there is mention that it does happen in the world).

If you're looking for something different and like grimdark fantasy, give this a go.