morganv10 's review for:

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
3.0

Pretty good! I get the hype behind this book, it's a fast-paced exciting read and the world was a welcome change of pace. It's very shounen - the main character spends much of the book training to be the best warrior and by the end is more or less the best warrior. His progress was mostly realistic, Tau becomes better than all the nobles because Tau WANTS it so much more. The very beginning nags at me, however. The early chapters make a point of Tau being gentler than the average Omethi, plotting to break his own leg so he can "dodge the draft" and escape the pressures of his overbearing military society. As soon as his father dies, he's immediately gung-ho vengeance and blood for the next 450 pages, with very little remorse for any of the death he metes out over the last few chapters. I found the level of skill he reached by the end a little unrealistic - I could believe him cutting through the ranks of the untrained hedeni, but after pages and pages telling us how skilled and strong the Indlovu are, he and his ragtag bunch end up fighting through an army of Indlovu, and he goes toe to toe with the Ingonyama! We seemed to push the limits of what one man with no magic powers can credibly accomplish on his own.

I'm glad that he didn't end up killing Kellan, I thought we were leading up to that and I found myself rooting against our boy because of how heartless he had become. Kellan could have ended our book 250 pages early, and chose to spare his punk ass! Tau could have shown him a little gratitude, neh?

Also wow, I was on board the Zuri/Tau ship 100% and I got whiplashed hard by that ending. Poor Tau. Is he gonna get with the queen now? Is he going to get to become an Ingonyama himself? Are the Omehi not really the Goddess' chosen people and just kinda fucking around with demons? Time will tell. Looking forward to picking up the next book when it comes out!