Friday, September 25, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa


Night of the Dragon is the final book in Julie Kagawa's Japanese Myth-inspired YA Fantasy trilogy, Shadow of the Fox.  The series began with Shadow of the Fox (Reviewed Here) and continued with the second novel, Soul of the Sword (Reviewed Here).  I enjoyed the first novel as an audiobook and got an advance copy of the second book through Netgalley, so I'd always hoped to see how the trilogy would conclude.  And while I missed the initial release of this one, I managed to get a copy recently via inter-library loan, so finally I could finish it all up

And well, Night of the Dragon is a really strong and enjoyable conclusion, which I liked a lot and really felt rewarded me for sticking with this series.  It concludes the trilogy with a very satisfying ending and features a plot that combines the great sometimes dark character work from the 2nd novel with the encounters with many beings out of Japanese myth from the first novel.  The result nails most of what I had really enjoyed in this series, and makes this a trilogy well worth recommending for Middle Grade to YA readers looking for something Japanese inspired.

Spoilers for the first two books are inevitable.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
All seems lost, as the Genno - Master of Demons - has obtained all three parts of the Dragon Scroll and is on his way to make his wish upon the dragon, a wish that will surely mean nothing good for all of Iwagoto.  Yumeko has failed in her quest to protect the scroll - failed because she wasn't willing to let those she loved die.

Now Yumeko and Kage Tatsumi, or what is left of Tatsumi after he merged with the demon Hakaimono, and their few friends, are the only ones left who know of the threat and can possibly move in time to stop the worst from coming to pass.  But Genno knows that they're coming, and the Master of Demons is willing to take even the darkest most horrible steps to stop them from interfering.

But Genno and the other demons aren't the only threats out there, as a third party has been lurking in the shadows this whole time, with its own plans for the summoning of the Great Kami Dragon.  And it will take all their wits, skills, and magical and physical abilities for Tatsumi, Yumeko and their friends to prevent a disaster from resulting from this final conflict....a conflict they are all unlikely to survive.....
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As with the prior books, Night of the Dragon is told from the perspectives of Yumeko and Tatsumi, with Suki - the spirit of a dead young woman from the first book's prologue - appearing at various points to provide an alternate perspective of events outside of the main duo.  The other three main members of the party, the miko Reika, ronin Okame, and noble samurai Taiyo Daisuke, have decent sized roles as well, but we never see directly from their perspectives, although we get close at times from events eavesdropped-upon by Suki.

The plot actually feels at times more like the first novel than the second, with us once more featuring the party encountering beings out of Japanese myth in small stories that they come across along the way as they embark on their last mission to try and stop the evil Genno from fulfilling his plan.  These small encounters are once again really well done and enjoyable, and somehow they always feel integrated with the main plot (with several of the encounters being set up by the various antagonists for their own purposes) so they never feel like us wasting time or being pointless.  It's an aspect of the series that I missed from the second book and I'm glad they're back here.  Add in the major plot developments here, which successfully pay off long term plot teases from way back in book 1, and well the plot really works.

It helps that these are characters who have been built up over the last two books and this book does a great job fulfilling their character arcs in satisfying ways.  So yeah, you know that Tatsumi and Yumeko are finally going to admit their love for each other, and that works out in an absolutely well written fashion (still PG13, because this is more towards the younger scale of YA).  Both Tatsumi and Yumeko face new issues in this book to complicate their story arcs, and these new additions work quite well and are handled great, and I really loved the two of them and how the novel ended their story.  Side characters Taiyo Daisuke and Okame had their romance begin and kind of get resolved last book so some of that here feels a bit redundant, and yet it still never feels very old.  The only one of the main cast who lacks an arc really is Reika, but honestly it never feels like much of an absence.

It all leads up to an ending that is both darker and lighter than I could've expected from this series, getting to the happy ending I was hoping for but not in any fashion that I could've expected, but still in a way to make me smile.  The twists in the final act come probably a little too fast and furious to really work perfectly, but honestly I didn't care too much through it all.  This review is kind of short compared to my other reviews, but well, if you're two books into this series, you don't need to know much more.  And if you're reading this review to decide whether to begin the series somehow, well, know that it's a series that works all the way through and is well worth your time.
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