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brookhorse 's review for:
Blazewrath Games
by Amparo Ortiz
Man, what a disappointment.
I had such high hopes for this book. Partially this is my fault. I didn't read the description closely enough, so I didn't realize Lana wouldn't get a dragon and the queer rep wasn't in the main characters (at least as far as I saw, but maybe I missed something). Queer protagonists and dragon bonding were two of the draws for me, so I was obviously disappointed by what the book actually is. That part's not Ortiz's fault, though, and I would say it's a fine book for what it's trying to do, except...
It's got flaws. A lot of flaws. My biggest issue is the fact that this is Quidditch with dragons instead of broomsticks, by which I mean quite literally that you could replace the dragons with broomsticks or flying sportscars and almost nothing about how the characters act towards them would change. We are told they are sentient and have psychic bonds with their dragons, and yet no one seems remotely close to their dragon. No one goes to visit them outside of game time--they're essentially parked in the "garage" until they're needed. No one talks about their dragon's personality, their likes, dislikes, opinions. No one thinks to consult them about anything, or to even talk about how their dragons are feeling. And yet we're supposed to believe they have a bond so strong that if one dies, the other will go mad or die from the grief? Takeshi was the only one that acted like he had that sort of relationship with his dragon. Part of this could be because the dragons are quite young and can't speak yet, but, like, people have relationships with preverbal kids. Have you ever seen a parent with a toddler? Every other sentence is about the kid, and they spend all their time with them. That didn't even remotely happen here.
But okay, maybe all that is happening in the background and we don't see it because that's not the focus and Lana doesn't have a dragon. But... Lana is supposedly obsessed with this game and loves dragons--so much that there was a time when she would "rather be with dragons than people." Um, what? She barely gives the dragons a second glance the entire time she's there. She goes to meet with them once and that's it. Listen... any horse girl knows, if you get the chance to be around a beloved animal species, you're going to take it! And she didn't even think about it? She never sought out the dragons or even acknowledged them much when she was around them.
Also, I need to touch back on the fact that these dragons are literal infants. And no one had a problem with throwing them into bloodsport? Even if the humans are oblivious, you'd think the adult dragons on the other teams wouldn't be okay with assaulting infants? Of course, it's also unclear how much assault goes on in a Blazewrath game. Unlike a real sport, there were basically no regulations or safety protocols whatsoever, at least not that was talked about. Lana mentioned "a bloodbath without the blood" so I sort of intuited that there's a rule against using claws or fangs? But slamming into people is fine, as is shooting fireballs at them? A 70 foot dragon cannon-balling at a human is fine? What?
Unanswered questions were basically the running theme of the book. Here's a list:
1. Dragons can only bond with someone from their country, what defines "from their country"? Do they need to be born there? Do immigrants count? At what point do they become "eligible" for dragon bonding? Why do dragons care about the arbitrary lines humans have drawn?
2. If the team is all under magical contracts and can't leave on pain of death, why was Manny able to kick Brian off the team? The Sire was clearly pissed off about it, so he didn't do it with his permission. Why was he able to break the contract? Why wasn't Brian killed?
3. Why was Lana able to discover the Heir in a 20 minute Google search when the Sire had been searching for years without success and had to turn to a very rare magical artifact to find him?
4. Why was the Sire immortal as a human but not as a dragon? Was it part of the blood curse? Why would Barnes curse him to human immortality instead of trying to kill him?
5. Why was there a throne in the Dark Island? I thought it would come back when they trapped the Sire, but they trapped him in a pit and the throne wasn't mentioned.
6. Why do the dragons agree to be part of the games at all? The ending acts like dragons have been forced to be a part of the games... how? What hold do humans have on them?
7. Why are the non-bonded dragons completely feral and attack humans on sight? Does bonding with humans give them sentience? Are they fundamentally different from the bonded dragons in some way?
8. If dragons have been around for 400 years and we have many people capable of speaking with them, why is so little known about them and the nature of the bond, their behavior, etc.? If we had a single person who could talk to crows, the strides we'd make in corvid research are immeasurable.
9. Can the dragons interbreed? If not, how do they maintain a large enough breeding population to be genetically stable? If so, why are all of the species so vastly different in abilities and appearance?
10. If Andrew was opposed to the games, why didn't he just quit right before the match? His team would be down a player and unable to compete, which would send much more of a message. Why would he hold up a sign that says "NO MORE BLOOD" and then immediately go to participate in the bloodbath? (I know there were magical contracts, but he didn't know about them, and there was no indication of anything else keeping him there.)
And more that I've probably forgotten. It's fine for some of these to be left unanswered, as they'll hopefully be explored in later books, but leaving so much unanswered just leaves the reader unmoored and feeling like very little thought was put into the world-building or plot. The book also constantly broke its own rules. Like, we're told all of these things are unprecedented and have never happened before:
1. A dragon breaking its bond with its rider.
2. A rider cursing his dragon into human form.
3. Dragons being born from the ocean instead of eggs.
4. Dragons being able to teleport.
5. A witch jumping from copper to gold.
6. A witch's wand changing to a new color instead of breaking (this one was particularly egregious because we aren't told this is breaking the rule of a world until immediately after it happens).
There's just way too many unprecedented events. At some point you wonder why the author wrote those rules if they were just going to be broken. It doesn't add tension or make it seem cool once you've done it six times. Honestly, I think the major flaw of this book is there's just too much going on, and too little time or weight is given to any of it. There's so much great potential here--I really liked the plot with the Sire and Randall, both were interesting and would have been great to explore more. The President's curse was also very interesting to me, and I would've liked to see more about that--I wouldn't have minded if the book were from him and his husband's perspectives. Lana's struggles with her cultural identity felt real and poignant, but seemed to pop in and out rather than feeling like a thread throughout the narrative. These elements were all great, and could have been so much better if there wasn't so much else distracting and taking away time from them. As it is, everything felt rushed over and flattened because there were so many competing plot and character threads.
Honestly? The Blazewrath Cup itself felt like a distraction from the main plot. It was really incidental to the Sire's plot, and felt disconnected from the larger story. The matches were very well written, quite vivid and exciting, but felt... meaningless? And the characters acknowledge them as meaningless, and yet we keep spending time on them that could be spent fleshing out other aspects. Which seems sacrilegious to say, because this book is ABOUT the Blazewrath Games! And yet it... didn't feel like it was at all, to the point that I wondered why we were focusing on them so much.
I don't know. I appreciated the diversity of the cast--lots of PoC of varying backgrounds, queer characters with many different identities, a disabled character*. The glimpses of personality I got were fun and interesting, though I feel like there wasn't enough time to develop or appreciate them. There's lots of great concepts here, and the basic plot is solid. There's enough to like here that I'm giving it three stars, but I really had to debate because it falls down so often. It had such great potential, and I occasionally saw that shining through, but man. Just so many fumbles. But if you go in not expecting much dragon content, and commit to not thinking about the world-building at all, it might be a fun time? I just wanted more dragons and I thought too much about the world.
*I do have some questions here, too. Waxbyrne's has a button for the "regular" entrance and another for the "disabled" entrance... why would you not just have one accessible entrance? Like, this isn't "we built a ramp in the back because we can't out front," they're in the exact same place, it's just one door opens onto stairs and the other (I presume, since we weren't shown) a ramp or elevator? Why not just make the entrance a ramp or elevator? Also, how was Joaquin getting around in the desert? Were there smooth paths for him to get between buildings and to the cars? Because using a wheelchair in the sand is not gonna be a fun time.
P.S. Just remembered the bit where Lana sees a dragon incinerate a bunch of henchman and she's just like "not that I feel bad for these guys." Hello? That's murder? Listen, I roll my eyes but accept it when a gritty action hero type acts like this, but it isn't like Lana is used to seeing people get killed. She's just an athlete. She's not even a little bothered by this? And then later is like, "We can't kill the Sire, there's been too much bloodshed." I guess they should've killed one less henchman and then they'd have room in their murder quota for the Sire? I know this is a common trope, but it felt extra weird here because she was so explicitly dismissive of people getting killed earlier.
I had such high hopes for this book. Partially this is my fault. I didn't read the description closely enough, so I didn't realize Lana wouldn't get a dragon and the queer rep wasn't in the main characters (at least as far as I saw, but maybe I missed something). Queer protagonists and dragon bonding were two of the draws for me, so I was obviously disappointed by what the book actually is. That part's not Ortiz's fault, though, and I would say it's a fine book for what it's trying to do, except...
It's got flaws. A lot of flaws. My biggest issue is the fact that this is Quidditch with dragons instead of broomsticks, by which I mean quite literally that you could replace the dragons with broomsticks or flying sportscars and almost nothing about how the characters act towards them would change. We are told they are sentient and have psychic bonds with their dragons, and yet no one seems remotely close to their dragon. No one goes to visit them outside of game time--they're essentially parked in the "garage" until they're needed. No one talks about their dragon's personality, their likes, dislikes, opinions. No one thinks to consult them about anything, or to even talk about how their dragons are feeling. And yet we're supposed to believe they have a bond so strong that if one dies, the other will go mad or die from the grief? Takeshi was the only one that acted like he had that sort of relationship with his dragon. Part of this could be because the dragons are quite young and can't speak yet, but, like, people have relationships with preverbal kids. Have you ever seen a parent with a toddler? Every other sentence is about the kid, and they spend all their time with them. That didn't even remotely happen here.
But okay, maybe all that is happening in the background and we don't see it because that's not the focus and Lana doesn't have a dragon. But... Lana is supposedly obsessed with this game and loves dragons--so much that there was a time when she would "rather be with dragons than people." Um, what? She barely gives the dragons a second glance the entire time she's there. She goes to meet with them once and that's it. Listen... any horse girl knows, if you get the chance to be around a beloved animal species, you're going to take it! And she didn't even think about it? She never sought out the dragons or even acknowledged them much when she was around them.
Also, I need to touch back on the fact that these dragons are literal infants. And no one had a problem with throwing them into bloodsport? Even if the humans are oblivious, you'd think the adult dragons on the other teams wouldn't be okay with assaulting infants? Of course, it's also unclear how much assault goes on in a Blazewrath game. Unlike a real sport, there were basically no regulations or safety protocols whatsoever, at least not that was talked about. Lana mentioned "a bloodbath without the blood" so I sort of intuited that there's a rule against using claws or fangs? But slamming into people is fine, as is shooting fireballs at them? A 70 foot dragon cannon-balling at a human is fine? What?
Unanswered questions were basically the running theme of the book. Here's a list:
1. Dragons can only bond with someone from their country, what defines "from their country"? Do they need to be born there? Do immigrants count? At what point do they become "eligible" for dragon bonding? Why do dragons care about the arbitrary lines humans have drawn?
2. If the team is all under magical contracts and can't leave on pain of death, why was Manny able to kick Brian off the team? The Sire was clearly pissed off about it, so he didn't do it with his permission. Why was he able to break the contract? Why wasn't Brian killed?
3. Why was Lana able to discover the Heir in a 20 minute Google search when the Sire had been searching for years without success and had to turn to a very rare magical artifact to find him?
4. Why was the Sire immortal as a human but not as a dragon? Was it part of the blood curse? Why would Barnes curse him to human immortality instead of trying to kill him?
5. Why was there a throne in the Dark Island? I thought it would come back when they trapped the Sire, but they trapped him in a pit and the throne wasn't mentioned.
6. Why do the dragons agree to be part of the games at all? The ending acts like dragons have been forced to be a part of the games... how? What hold do humans have on them?
7. Why are the non-bonded dragons completely feral and attack humans on sight? Does bonding with humans give them sentience? Are they fundamentally different from the bonded dragons in some way?
8. If dragons have been around for 400 years and we have many people capable of speaking with them, why is so little known about them and the nature of the bond, their behavior, etc.? If we had a single person who could talk to crows, the strides we'd make in corvid research are immeasurable.
9. Can the dragons interbreed? If not, how do they maintain a large enough breeding population to be genetically stable? If so, why are all of the species so vastly different in abilities and appearance?
10. If Andrew was opposed to the games, why didn't he just quit right before the match? His team would be down a player and unable to compete, which would send much more of a message. Why would he hold up a sign that says "NO MORE BLOOD" and then immediately go to participate in the bloodbath? (I know there were magical contracts, but he didn't know about them, and there was no indication of anything else keeping him there.)
And more that I've probably forgotten. It's fine for some of these to be left unanswered, as they'll hopefully be explored in later books, but leaving so much unanswered just leaves the reader unmoored and feeling like very little thought was put into the world-building or plot. The book also constantly broke its own rules. Like, we're told all of these things are unprecedented and have never happened before:
1. A dragon breaking its bond with its rider.
2. A rider cursing his dragon into human form.
3. Dragons being born from the ocean instead of eggs.
4. Dragons being able to teleport.
5. A witch jumping from copper to gold.
6. A witch's wand changing to a new color instead of breaking (this one was particularly egregious because we aren't told this is breaking the rule of a world until immediately after it happens).
There's just way too many unprecedented events. At some point you wonder why the author wrote those rules if they were just going to be broken. It doesn't add tension or make it seem cool once you've done it six times. Honestly, I think the major flaw of this book is there's just too much going on, and too little time or weight is given to any of it. There's so much great potential here--I really liked the plot with the Sire and Randall, both were interesting and would have been great to explore more. The President's curse was also very interesting to me, and I would've liked to see more about that--I wouldn't have minded if the book were from him and his husband's perspectives. Lana's struggles with her cultural identity felt real and poignant, but seemed to pop in and out rather than feeling like a thread throughout the narrative. These elements were all great, and could have been so much better if there wasn't so much else distracting and taking away time from them. As it is, everything felt rushed over and flattened because there were so many competing plot and character threads.
Honestly? The Blazewrath Cup itself felt like a distraction from the main plot. It was really incidental to the Sire's plot, and felt disconnected from the larger story. The matches were very well written, quite vivid and exciting, but felt... meaningless? And the characters acknowledge them as meaningless, and yet we keep spending time on them that could be spent fleshing out other aspects. Which seems sacrilegious to say, because this book is ABOUT the Blazewrath Games! And yet it... didn't feel like it was at all, to the point that I wondered why we were focusing on them so much.
I don't know. I appreciated the diversity of the cast--lots of PoC of varying backgrounds, queer characters with many different identities, a disabled character*. The glimpses of personality I got were fun and interesting, though I feel like there wasn't enough time to develop or appreciate them. There's lots of great concepts here, and the basic plot is solid. There's enough to like here that I'm giving it three stars, but I really had to debate because it falls down so often. It had such great potential, and I occasionally saw that shining through, but man. Just so many fumbles. But if you go in not expecting much dragon content, and commit to not thinking about the world-building at all, it might be a fun time? I just wanted more dragons and I thought too much about the world.
*I do have some questions here, too. Waxbyrne's has a button for the "regular" entrance and another for the "disabled" entrance... why would you not just have one accessible entrance? Like, this isn't "we built a ramp in the back because we can't out front," they're in the exact same place, it's just one door opens onto stairs and the other (I presume, since we weren't shown) a ramp or elevator? Why not just make the entrance a ramp or elevator? Also, how was Joaquin getting around in the desert? Were there smooth paths for him to get between buildings and to the cars? Because using a wheelchair in the sand is not gonna be a fun time.
P.S. Just remembered the bit where Lana sees a dragon incinerate a bunch of henchman and she's just like "not that I feel bad for these guys." Hello? That's murder? Listen, I roll my eyes but accept it when a gritty action hero type acts like this, but it isn't like Lana is used to seeing people get killed. She's just an athlete. She's not even a little bothered by this? And then later is like, "We can't kill the Sire, there's been too much bloodshed." I guess they should've killed one less henchman and then they'd have room in their murder quota for the Sire? I know this is a common trope, but it felt extra weird here because she was so explicitly dismissive of people getting killed earlier.