The Rage of Dragons Review
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.
It's not often that a book grips me so completely, but this one did. The prospect of a Zulu-inspired fantasy, complete with dragons, immediately piqued my interest. I've always been drawn to stories that delve into other cultures, and this one promised to be a fascinating journey.
The book begins by following Tau Solarin, the lead character, as he starts his journey training for his warrior trials. However, tragedy unexpectedly strikes, forcing Tau to evolve from a commoner boy who wants to marry his sweetheart into a fierce fighter driven by revenge. I enjoyed that Tau was not the perfect main character. He made choices that I didn't always agree with, but his palpable sense of determination and revenge made his character so much more compelling and realistic.
The Rage of Dragons is told in a third-person narrative, and while the story felt predictable at times, particularly in the characters' decisions and some plot twists, I found the pacing to be executed flawlessly. Something was always happening in the story. It was fast-paced and filled to the brim with tension and gritty fight scenes that left me captivated by Evan Winter's cinematic writing style. The heart-pounding action scenes had me flying through the book, desperate to know what happened next and if Tau would get the revenge he had been so desperately searching for.
One of the only issues I had with The Rage of Dragons was the lack of noteworthy female characters. I can really only remember two important female characters, which greatly disappointed me. In this fantasy setting, some women have been gifted the ability to call upon dragons, but I don't think that plot point was used as much as it could have been. These women have the potential to be extremely powerful and perhaps the most deadly people in the land, but they weren't. I was disappointed because I felt that the story could have been enriched by more diverse and powerful female characters. However, I believe that with how the book ended, this issue will be fixed in the sequel.
I can't wait to see where the rest of this series continues! I highly recommend the Rage of Dragons to anyone who loves fast-paced revenge stories and insanely in-depth world-building that will linger in your mind for days.
Written by Carlie Renee
