Wednesday, April 10, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter




The Rage of Dragons is the first in an epic fantasy series written by Evan Winter.  From Amazon, it looks like the book was originally published in 2017, but it has been rereleased this year by bigger publisher Orbit.  More interestingly, and why the book came to my attention, is the fact that Winter is of Xhosa descent and that the book is inspired by his Xhosa heritage.  The book having a "Gladiator meets Game of Thrones" tag-line (the second book published in the last year I've seen with that tagline after Jennifer Estep's "Kill the Queen") is only gravy.

That tagline turns out to be really bad, as The Rage of Dragons basically doesn't resemble either of those works (if I had to pick a comparison, I'd go with Berserk), but what the book is is pretty good.  It's a solid combination of a revenge tale and epic fantasy tale, with themes of apartheid, race, and colonization clearly underwriting the story.  More impressively, it has as its protagonist a hero who is perhaps the biggest determinator I've ever seen outside of a superhero story and pulls that off in a way that is generally compelling (and never silly) throughout.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
Years ago, the Omehi fled the "Cull" across the ocean to a new land, only to be met with fierce resistance from the native inhabitants, the Hedeni.  In a desperate ploy to survive, Queen Taifa of the Omehi called upon the guardians - Dragons - in order to provide the power and destruction needed to clear the land for the Omehi to settle.

200 Years later, the Omehi and Hedeni remain in constant war, though the Omehi have established a foothold on the land.  The Omehi maintain a strict caste system, with the common castes - high and lesser common - being seemingly weaker in strength, and given less authority than those of the noble - Petty or Greater Nobles - castes.  For a Common to strike a Noble carries lethal repercussions, and the physical capabilities of the Noble caste is so far above as to render resistance futile.  Meanwhile women from the higher ranks are tested for magical power and if found, they are trained as "Gifted," able to either weaken foes, enstrengthen noble allies, or possibly to call the dragons themselves.

In this world there is Tau, a young Common man.  Tau figures himself destined for the Common ranks of the military, as his father was before him, and knows he will eventually lose the girl he dreams of to the demands of her higher rank.   But when Tau's father is killed by Nobles as a sacrifice for Tau's self-defense against a clumsy Noble, Tau's life is turned upside down.  Driven by revenge against men not only more powerful than he, but seemingly biologically stronger, Tau vows to not rest one minute as he makes his way through the military ranks for the chance at revenge.

No Common has ever been able to match a Noble in strength.  But Tau knows there has been no Common like him before, and if the war with the Hedeni doesn't get in his way, he will find a way to get his revenge....and make the world burn.
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The Rage of Dragons is essentially two stories in one, as is not uncommon in this genre.  We have the overarching story - the conflict between the Omehi and the native Hedeni, and the mysterious Cull that drove the Omehi to this land years ago and has been forgotten (gee I wonder...) - and then the story of Tau and his quest for revenge.  Unlike some other Epic Fantasy I've read recently (Jenn Lyons' The Ruin of Kings comes to mind), this book focuses near entirely on Tau's story, with the overarching myth-arc left to being mere hints throughout.  This is not to say that the book remains small in scope - Tau's revenge takes him on a path through massive conflicts and discoveries about how magic works that pose some serious epic fantasy questions - but after the distant prologue, we are firmly focused upon Tau's determination for revenge.

And boy is it a strong story.  We spend most of our time in this book behind Tau's eyes (occasionally we have chapters from other points of view, but they are rare and practically always include the POV characters being in the vicinity of Tau) and he is a hell of a protagonist.  You know the character type who has an insane work-ethic to improve and uses it to overcome all goals (tvtropes often calls this a "determinator")?  Tau is that on steroids - when he runs up against seeming impossible walls that training cannot possibly overcome (for example, that an already much superior foe is also training just as hard as you are physically able to and thus has a head start that can never be overcome), Tau finds a way anyway, even if the way requires Tau to undergo some horrifying and agonizing fates.  At the same time, Tau's determination makes him often blind to the realities of the world around him, and drives him quite clearly madder and madder as things go onward.  And the book portrays this incredibly well, and makes Tau very easy to care for despite the fact that so often he will be taking an action that is incredibly stupid.

The rest of the cast isn't quite as strong as Tau, but they each have their moments and a few stand out.  Tau's mentor in his army unit (his "Scale"), Jayyed, is a veteran known for his fighting skill and influence despite being of the common caste and has as a result a far different perspective on the value of fighting.  One of Tau's targets for vengeance Kellen Okar, has a backstory that explains him quite well and made me want to see more of him than we get here.  And Tau's love interest Zuri is really well done - while we sadly don't get to see much of her without Tau, her own desires and internal strength in her role as a Gifted make her really interesting.

And then there's the setting, which is generally excellently done.  I occasionally would confuse some of the terminology used here (I kind of wish the book had a glossary) but otherwise it's a well developed world, with interesting mythology and a really well done magic system with some serious consequences.  It's through this setting, and the characters, that the book does a great job with its ideas - namely the injustices caused by the caste hierarchies and by the colonization of the land by the Omehi.  Such injustices have roots quite clearly in the very mythology believed by the people themselves, and yet Tau and his comrades struggle to overcome such.  It's not an original background for a conflict in such a story (and this type of theme will only become more common these days as the genre gets further way from being seen as dominated by white men), but it's done really well here.

Still, there are more than a few flaws here, which prevent this from reaching truly must read status.  As great as Tau is, his Leeroy Jenkins-esque nature gets a little ridiculous at times in battle and just made me want to facepalm.  And some of the characters who should be a little more than minor, such as Tau's most intimate comrades, feel very interchangeable, to the point where I'd forget which was which.  Another character from early in the book is not one of these at first, but when he returns later in the book from a long absence, basically nothing is done with his return.  And while I prefer this approach to the dual arc to that of The Ruin of Kings, I was hoping to see perhaps a little bit more of the myth arc in this book than actually is.

Still, these are minor complaints, and I definitely enjoyed The Rage of Dragons quite a bit.  I will be looking forward to the sequel whenever its released, to see how this journey continues.

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