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lrn22's review against another edition
5.0
I’m usually a character driven person and this does not really have that. I’m usually not into books all about fighting and that’s exactly what this is. I’m not usually into revenge stories and that’s also what this is. Somehow this book took a bunch of my least favorite things and still made me fall in love with the story. I started this once and couldn’t get interested and then I started it again via audible and the narrator is so, so good. Definitely recommend listening to it.
mistydawnwaters's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Excellent writing/worldbuilding, but I had battle fatigue by the end. Romance subplot lacked emotion. Hero wasn't someone I wanted to root for. His blind rage for the antagonists risked lives.
bluejaybooks's review
If you're in the mood for it, this is an epic, sweeping tale of an ordinary young man living in the midst of a seemingly endless war. At first, he didn't want to fight but is striving to be the best in order to avenge his lost love one.
desolation73's review
3.0
I read this last year before I discovered good reads it had rave reviews. I finished it but Im hoping that its like Mistborn and the more you read it the more you understand the magic or some of the terminology so I might give the sequel a go, but Im not sure its gonna win me over. It might be because im new to the fantasy genre but much of it didnt move me.
crybabybea's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Hmmm. I'm on the fence. It wasn't a terrible book by any means, but for me the pacing felt a bit choppy and off.
First of all, the prologue was amazing and gripped me more than any other prologue I've read, holy.
If you like action scenes, you will really love this book. It's pretty much entirely training/fighting scenes. I will say the fighting scenes are well-written and choreographed, being easy to follow while still being tense and exciting. The middle of the book dragged a bit as we went through training after training and they kind of all muddled together after a while. I love action scenes but I think this had a bit too many for my tastes. They do well to progress the plot, but I would have liked to see more time dedicated to characterization, especially fleshing out the side characters. I did love the action but wanted a bit more time with the characters to really connect to the story.
That being said, The Rage of Dragons is an incredibly immersive read and I was thoroughly impressed by the author's world-building. The writing itself isn't anything flashy, but Evan Winter does a great job at setting each scene and revealing lore bit by bit. There were a couple info-dumpy moments but I can forgive them because the overall experience was quite cinematic and exciting. The magic system is incredibly unique and has extreme drawbacks which makes the magic feel meaningful and awe-inspiring. Even the dragons are unique in the way they are connected to the world and magic system. Speaking of, dragons are an important part of this world but they are not a main character by any means, so don't go into this expecting to read about dragon riders or anything.
I loved the themes of vengeance and breaking the chains of oppression. Our main character, Tau, is a member of the Lesser caste of the Omehi tribe. Because of this, he is biologically destined to be less important, less powerful, and to die as fodder in the war against the native Xiddeen population. But after the death of his father, he uses his unhinged rage to break all the rules and force the old ways to acknowledge the power of a man scorned. I found it really interesting for the main character to be of a lower social caste of an imperial invading army. It was a nice change compared to other books with similar themes and added a complexity to the story that I enjoyed.
Here's the thing though, I'm a character loving girlie. I don't mind plot-based books but to really fall in love with a book I have to fall in love with its characters, whether they are likeable or not. I liked our main character Tau and his descent into pure madness fueled by rage and vengeance. He is a fine sometimes unlikeable character and I admire the author's dedication to his motives. He literally has one goal in mind and will do anything and sacrifice anyone to get there. He reminded me a lot of Rin from The Poppy War. He also had some Leeroy Jenkins moments which were frustrating and entertaining. Though I will say his progression is honestly pretty unbelievable and he seems almost impossibly invincible at times. I'm just also not a huge fan of the meritocratic messaging that you can overcome any obstacle by just training really hard and working harder than everyone else.
The other characters were lacking a lot as well. I found it hard to follow his quest for vengeance because I had no connection to the person he is seeking to avenge. As well, he gains many comrades in his quest along the way, and they kind of all blend into one person because we don't spend much time with them outside of battle. Even the main love interest I found lacking in characterization, and she often came across as just another goal on Tau's list and a plot device to push him forward. Because of this lack of depth, some of the emotionally heavy-hitting moments in the later half of the book don't hit like they should.
If you can push through the lull in the middle of the book, the ending is explosive and thrilling. It just takes a little bit to get there, and I found the emotional reveals a bit lackluster, but still fun.
I would still recommend this to fantasy lovers as I think it is overall fun and engaging. I'm interested in continuing the series though I'm disappointed I didn't get the mind-blowing experience I was expecting out of book one.
First of all, the prologue was amazing and gripped me more than any other prologue I've read, holy.
If you like action scenes, you will really love this book. It's pretty much entirely training/fighting scenes. I will say the fighting scenes are well-written and choreographed, being easy to follow while still being tense and exciting. The middle of the book dragged a bit as we went through training after training and they kind of all muddled together after a while. I love action scenes but I think this had a bit too many for my tastes. They do well to progress the plot, but I would have liked to see more time dedicated to characterization, especially fleshing out the side characters. I did love the action but wanted a bit more time with the characters to really connect to the story.
That being said, The Rage of Dragons is an incredibly immersive read and I was thoroughly impressed by the author's world-building. The writing itself isn't anything flashy, but Evan Winter does a great job at setting each scene and revealing lore bit by bit. There were a couple info-dumpy moments but I can forgive them because the overall experience was quite cinematic and exciting. The magic system is incredibly unique and has extreme drawbacks which makes the magic feel meaningful and awe-inspiring. Even the dragons are unique in the way they are connected to the world and magic system. Speaking of, dragons are an important part of this world but they are not a main character by any means, so don't go into this expecting to read about dragon riders or anything.
I loved the themes of vengeance and breaking the chains of oppression. Our main character, Tau, is a member of the Lesser caste of the Omehi tribe. Because of this, he is biologically destined to be less important, less powerful, and to die as fodder in the war against the native Xiddeen population. But after the death of his father, he uses his unhinged rage to break all the rules and force the old ways to acknowledge the power of a man scorned. I found it really interesting for the main character to be of a lower social caste of an imperial invading army. It was a nice change compared to other books with similar themes and added a complexity to the story that I enjoyed.
Here's the thing though, I'm a character loving girlie. I don't mind plot-based books but to really fall in love with a book I have to fall in love with its characters, whether they are likeable or not. I liked our main character Tau and his descent into pure madness fueled by rage and vengeance. He is a fine sometimes unlikeable character and I admire the author's dedication to his motives. He literally has one goal in mind and will do anything and sacrifice anyone to get there. He reminded me a lot of Rin from The Poppy War. He also had some Leeroy Jenkins moments which were frustrating and entertaining. Though I will say his progression is honestly pretty unbelievable and he seems almost impossibly invincible at times. I'm just also not a huge fan of the meritocratic messaging that you can overcome any obstacle by just training really hard and working harder than everyone else.
The other characters were lacking a lot as well. I found it hard to follow his quest for vengeance because I had no connection to the person he is seeking to avenge. As well, he gains many comrades in his quest along the way, and they kind of all blend into one person because we don't spend much time with them outside of battle. Even the main love interest I found lacking in characterization, and she often came across as just another goal on Tau's list and a plot device to push him forward. Because of this lack of depth, some of the emotionally heavy-hitting moments in the later half of the book don't hit like they should.
If you can push through the lull in the middle of the book, the ending is explosive and thrilling. It just takes a little bit to get there, and I found the emotional reveals a bit lackluster, but still fun.
I would still recommend this to fantasy lovers as I think it is overall fun and engaging. I'm interested in continuing the series though I'm disappointed I didn't get the mind-blowing experience I was expecting out of book one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Blood, Gore, Murder, War, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Body horror, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, and Alcohol
jbjxsh's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Could not put this book down. A fantastic and unique fantasy book about revenge with some of the best action sequences I've ever read. It's super fast-paced, almost too much so at times, but the writing and the plot definitely deliver.
Excited to jump into The Fires of Vengeance and see how Tau's journey and the story of the Omehi people continues from here.
Excited to jump into The Fires of Vengeance and see how Tau's journey and the story of the Omehi people continues from here.
vermilionred's review
1.0
Is this an unfair rating? Perhaps this is an unfair rating. I sincerely believe that you can only really hate books that you have to read for school, because anything else you will put down before you read the true fathomless depths of your hatred for something, because you hate it that much. This book is super hyped. Everyone seems to love it. at 311/523 pages (almost exactly 60%), I have finally hit the point where I can say 'Enough. I am through'.
Let's begin with the things that I liked:
The power system was kind of cool, with buffing the fighters & sending people into hell.
I kinda liked the African flavor to it. It still felt kinda western to me, which I'm pretty sure says more about me and what I know about African military culture than anything else.
Things that I didn't like:
The entire premise of the main character's specialness was kind of stupid. The idea that he was just that much more determined than anyone else in the history of forever, and because the bestest swordfighter every by practicing for an extra (2? 6?) hours a day, instead of pulling a muscle and getting laid up for months with injury was just deeply unbelievable to me. Any premise that depends on the main character being the first person in this history of forever to act rationally is not a good one.
The idea that a normal person can defeat superheros in a fair fight by being super determined and training slightly more is also left me pretty unmoved. I'm all about stories which deconstruct caste systems, but maybe make those points in a story which, again, isn't about people who can summon dragons and send people to Hell and buff people up to become superstrong and also invincible and are therefore literally demonstrably better. Oh wait I forgot that this guy can overcome that through sheer force of...being really into swordfighting training? Leaving it there.
The main character was also just truly unutterably stupid. Even in a fair system if you can't control your temper and stop killing people you're going to have a bad time. His vengence plots were poorly fought out and bad. Should have become a master poisoner instead, it would have saved him a lot of time, and more importantly me about 200 pages on the training grounds.
Training sequences are boring. There's a reason that the whole 'training montage' trope is a thing. That's because reading about the same swordfight over and over again for 300 pages is really fucking boring. I think he made a friend or two partway through so that was exciting.
Female characters also sucked in this novel. There was Zuri, who liked Tau, and that was pretty much it in terms of women with significant on-page time. She also doesn't count, because she gets murdered at the end, and tbh doesn't have enough screen-time for me to have any particularly clear idea of who she is and what she wants, apart from Tau. Not into it.
Then again, maybe I'm being unfair, because pretty much all of his characters were pretty flat. Dialog was bad, characters were bad, and plot was weak.
Anyway, tl;dr overhyped progression fantasy. I really wanted to like it. I read 300 pages, trying to give it a fair shot. Some people seem to really like it. It really wasn't for me.
Let's begin with the things that I liked:
The power system was kind of cool, with buffing the fighters & sending people into hell.
I kinda liked the African flavor to it. It still felt kinda western to me, which I'm pretty sure says more about me and what I know about African military culture than anything else.
Things that I didn't like:
The entire premise of the main character's specialness was kind of stupid. The idea that he was just that much more determined than anyone else in the history of forever, and because the bestest swordfighter every by practicing for an extra (2? 6?) hours a day, instead of pulling a muscle and getting laid up for months with injury was just deeply unbelievable to me. Any premise that depends on the main character being the first person in this history of forever to act rationally is not a good one.
The idea that a normal person can defeat superheros in a fair fight by being super determined and training slightly more is also left me pretty unmoved. I'm all about stories which deconstruct caste systems, but maybe make those points in a story which, again, isn't about people who can summon dragons and send people to Hell and buff people up to become superstrong and also invincible and are therefore literally demonstrably better. Oh wait I forgot that this guy can overcome that through sheer force of...being really into swordfighting training? Leaving it there.
The main character was also just truly unutterably stupid. Even in a fair system if you can't control your temper and stop killing people you're going to have a bad time. His vengence plots were poorly fought out and bad. Should have become a master poisoner instead, it would have saved him a lot of time, and more importantly me about 200 pages on the training grounds.
Training sequences are boring. There's a reason that the whole 'training montage' trope is a thing. That's because reading about the same swordfight over and over again for 300 pages is really fucking boring. I think he made a friend or two partway through so that was exciting.
Female characters also sucked in this novel. There was Zuri, who liked Tau, and that was pretty much it in terms of women with significant on-page time. She also doesn't count, because she gets murdered at the end, and tbh doesn't have enough screen-time for me to have any particularly clear idea of who she is and what she wants, apart from Tau. Not into it.
Then again, maybe I'm being unfair, because pretty much all of his characters were pretty flat. Dialog was bad, characters were bad, and plot was weak.
Anyway, tl;dr overhyped progression fantasy. I really wanted to like it. I read 300 pages, trying to give it a fair shot. Some people seem to really like it. It really wasn't for me.
ontheclouds's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
5.0