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meant2breading's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“To defend against failure, every day must be hard. Every day must strengthen you. For it’s in the crucible of hard days that potential becomes power.”
“In the path of revenge, one risks losing themselves”.
If followed my traditional rating system which considers setting, ending, development of all characters, etc. this likely would have been a 4-4.5 star rating from me. However, this book made me throw all of that out of the window. Could the book have benefited from more side character development, physical dragon appearances, and execution of the matriarchy? Sure. Do I care? Surprisingly not in the slightest! Winter truly delivered an adrenaline rush and a story of REVENGE 😈 start to finish. The many fighting scenes, violence and gore and all, were outstanding. I’ve never read anything like them and was anxiously flipping each page. Reading this felt like I dry scooped pre workout (I don’t) and PRd my compound lifts all week long. Even when Tau was running his mouth and acting reckless, I was STILL rooting for him! Now when I strength train and my legs are burning something fierce, I’ll be thinking about Tau fighting in real time and the demons in Ishiogo. ⚔️ I’m so down for the next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs
Minor: Sexual assault
alanathehangry's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Liked it.
This was...an interesting book. I think the first and last third were solid. I think there were way too many training sequences. But I enjoyed watching Tau's character development (if not slow and frustrating at times) and his relationships with his sword brothers grow. I loved how he was eventually able to alter the power dynamic. That was fascinating to see. Often in these epics, the main character will just be good because they were born for it. This is where Winter excels. Tau was never a great fighter, he had no passion for it, and no talent. But by pushing himself as far as he possibly could, going to new heights (and depths), he crafted and molded himself into it. That was probably the best part of this book.
I still think at least 100 pages could be cut for the training scenes.
This was...an interesting book. I think the first and last third were solid. I think there were way too many training sequences. But I enjoyed watching Tau's character development (if not slow and frustrating at times) and his relationships with his sword brothers grow. I loved how he was eventually able to alter the power dynamic. That was fascinating to see. Often in these epics, the main character will just be good because they were born for it. This is where Winter excels. Tau was never a great fighter, he had no passion for it, and no talent. But by pushing himself as far as he possibly could, going to new heights (and depths), he crafted and molded himself into it. That was probably the best part of this book.
I still think at least 100 pages could be cut for the training scenes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Sexual content, Death, Genocide, Murder, Gore, and Racism
_forestofpages's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
If you enjoy a frustratingly stupid main character who has no character growth and a book with a lot of training montages, you might like this book.
I however, did not enjoy my time reading this.
The pacing started out slow, revved up and got interesting then slowed down until the last 100 pages or so. The characters, including Tau are fairly one dimensional and none of them are given the time or tlc to make me care about any of them, which really is a shame because a few of them had such interesting introductions, but the author did nothing with them.
The plot is a typical revenge fantasy, but because that's not enough apparently the author added in a colonizer vs colonized war plot that came in at the last second to delay the actual revenge plot. The fact that the people that you are supposed to be rooting for are the colonizing force that started the war is hardly touched on until the last 100 pages.
The world building is interesting, but a lot of it is just set dressing for the training montages and skirmishes. About 85% of the book is just that; battles and training then more battles and more training etc. For a book called Rage of DRAGONS there sure is a lack of dragons.
Now onto the personal issues: the book has a society that is Matriarchal, but the only really important recurring female character is Tau's lover who really just served to move the plot forward and to be an expositional device. The only other important female character is the Queen who is just talked about but doesn't appear until near the conclusion of the book. There are a lot of lines that are said by soldiers or thought by Tau that are casually sexist or just generally disrespectful towards women, this bothered me since the book already is very male centric despite it having a society where women supposedly hold all the power. Historically women are marginalized, but this is a FANTASY book and I really don't understand why fiction authors especially in fantasy, keep mirroring their societies on the real world, when they coul literally do anything they want. Like, for example, not demeen women.
Another issue was the malicious and colonizing nature of the Omehi. They are the aggressors and also built a classist society and are constantly seen as Gifted by their Goddess and are right to be doing the horrible things they do. The classism is such an interesting conversation but everytime the author got close to really diving into that, he'd change the subject by having Tau do something stupid.
Honestly, the absolute stupidity and lack of awareness of Tau was the main reason this rating is so low. Having an unlikable MC is fine, but stupidity I can't tolerate. He never learns from his mistakes, has no regard for people's lives even, and especially the people he supposedly cares for. And he does so many things that, by the laws of the society he lives in, should get him killed on the spot, yet he somehow just gets away with it?
(Side rant: for a book filled with detailed gore and violence and literal child murder, the fake/made up curse words are a strange choice. Like cursing is where the author draws the line but graphic body horror is totally fine?)
This entire story was frusrating and uninteresting. Nothing was explored, all of the characters were forgettable to me, and Tau was so painful the read. I will read book two because I paid money for it, and I hope, given my low expectations, that I will like it.
I however, did not enjoy my time reading this.
The pacing started out slow, revved up and got interesting then slowed down until the last 100 pages or so. The characters, including Tau are fairly one dimensional and none of them are given the time or tlc to make me care about any of them, which really is a shame because a few of them had such interesting introductions, but the author did nothing with them.
The plot is a typical revenge fantasy, but because that's not enough apparently the author added in a colonizer vs colonized war plot that came in at the last second to delay the actual revenge plot. The fact that the people that you are supposed to be rooting for are the colonizing force that started the war is hardly touched on until the last 100 pages.
The world building is interesting, but a lot of it is just set dressing for the training montages and skirmishes. About 85% of the book is just that; battles and training then more battles and more training etc. For a book called Rage of DRAGONS there sure is a lack of dragons.
Now onto the personal issues: the book has a society that is Matriarchal, but the only really important recurring female character is Tau's lover who really just served to move the plot forward and to be an expositional device. The only other important female character is the Queen who is just talked about but doesn't appear until near the conclusion of the book. There are a lot of lines that are said by soldiers or thought by Tau that are casually sexist or just generally disrespectful towards women, this bothered me since the book already is very male centric despite it having a society where women supposedly hold all the power. Historically women are marginalized, but this is a FANTASY book and I really don't understand why fiction authors especially in fantasy, keep mirroring their societies on the real world, when they coul literally do anything they want. Like, for example, not demeen women.
Another issue was the malicious and colonizing nature of the Omehi. They are the aggressors and also built a classist society and are constantly seen as Gifted by their Goddess and are right to be doing the horrible things they do. The classism is such an interesting conversation but everytime the author got close to really diving into that, he'd change the subject by having Tau do something stupid.
Honestly, the absolute stupidity and lack of awareness of Tau was the main reason this rating is so low. Having an unlikable MC is fine, but stupidity I can't tolerate. He never learns from his mistakes, has no regard for people's lives even, and especially the people he supposedly cares for. And he does so many things that, by the laws of the society he lives in, should get him killed on the spot, yet he somehow just gets away with it?
(Side rant: for a book filled with detailed gore and violence and literal child murder, the fake/made up curse words are a strange choice. Like cursing is where the author draws the line but graphic body horror is totally fine?)
This entire story was frusrating and uninteresting. Nothing was explored, all of the characters were forgettable to me, and Tau was so painful the read. I will read book two because I paid money for it, and I hope, given my low expectations, that I will like it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Classism, Racism, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, and Sexism
nerdkitten's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Murder, Violence, War, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Genocide, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Deportation, Torture, Excrement, and Misogyny
nathans_fantasy_reviews's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Review Summary
What I Liked:
- Exciting and well written action sequences
- Fast pace
- Unique world-building based on Bronze Age Africa
- Complex and interesting main character
- Great character development
- Interesting magic system
What I Didn't Like:
- Perhaps too many action sequences
- Slightly underdeveloped world building
- Lack of female characters
- Much of the book felt like a prologue
Review
This is not the typical book that I would find myself loving, but I absolutely raced through this book. I am a huge fan of epic fantasy, but I am usually more interested in either stories that are intimately character based (like Robin Hobb's work) or deal with the intricacies and messiness of political machinations (think ASOIF as a classic example). This book is really neither of those things (and the cover blurb of "Game of Thrones meets Gladiator) is SO wrong. This is not to say that this book does not have great characters or that there are no politics, but neither is really the emphasis of the story.
The main thrust for this book are the battles. I'm one to usually skip over battle scenes. When I read I like to direct the "movie in my mind" and battles can be a bit overwhelming and hard to visualize. But Evan Winters writes battles and physical combat so well that I was consistently drawn in. Now, having said that, if you absolutely hate battle scenes when you read, this book is probably not for you. As most of the book is set at what is essentially a military academy, most of the book is made up of one-on-one fights or larger battles. And these battles are GORY. If you like blood and death in your military fantasy, this one has it in spades!
Because the book is set at a military academy, there are a ton of training sequences/montages. A lot of the really great character development (which I talk about more in a minute) occurs through these montages. This leads to some great character work, but it also makes most of the novel feel like a prologue to the rest of the series. Knowing that there are suppossed to ulitimately be four books in the "Burning Quartet", it kind of feels like the the trilogy won't begin in earnest until Book 2. There are some really interesting hints as world-building, particularly at the very beginning and end of Rage of Dragons, but I would have liked for the world to have been a bit more "fleshed out". While I don't want info-dumps, I was sometimes confused about the geography, population levels, and overall flow of time. Maybe my expectations are a bit too high because I am currently working myself through the Wheel of Time books for the first time right now, but the world felt a bit shallow and didn't quite take advantage of this really cool Bronze Age African setting. However, Evan Winters does an absolutely amazing job of dealing with class/status issues, as well as issues relating to colonialism. I'm excited to see how these develop in future books.
Outside of class/colonialism, I really enjoyed the "magic system". I often think that fantasy readers put too much stock in the magic systems, but Evan Winters has developed a really cool one here. Winters straddles the line between too hard of a magic system that feels like a video game (like in Mistborn) and one that feels too soft (in an anything goes kind of way). I have never really read a book with a magic system quite like this one! AND THE DRAGONS. Dragons are intimately tangled up in the magic system. Just be forewarned - while there are definitely dragons in the books they are not the major focus (despite the name of the book). Fans of dragon-fantasy will find a lot to like here, but might be dissapointed if you were looking for a book just filled to the brim with dragons (we will see if this changes in future books!). Overall - would cool magic that plays a significant role but doesn't overwhelm the plot.
Having said that, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the characters. In general, there is a large cast of characters and they all have their own unique personalities (even if it takes a while for some of them to develop). This makes the trials, tribulations, and, yes, even deaths of many of these characters that much more emotinally traumatizing as the books goes on. The main character is Tau, who I really developed an attachment for as the book goes on. Tau is a character intent on revenge (I won't state why, although those events happen very early in the book) and so he isn't always the most happy-go-lucky of main characters. He also makes some...questionable moral decisions. However, the book does avoid many of the nihilistic trappings of "grimdark" because Tau grapples with these decisions. He is a chracter to come to symphathize with and root for - and also react with dissapointment and shock when he makes a decision you disagree with! Most of the book is told through Tau's perspective, and so Winters really develops his character - even if this at times means that many of the other characers can feel a bit cardboard until well into the book.
I also have to mention that this book lacks women, which is suprising since the fictional world is a matriarchal society. Honestly, it didn't bother me too much because I understood why. The setting of the book is a "men's only" institution and so there weren't many oppurtunities to bring in women without rapidly expanding the scope of the narrative. Winters also does a great job of investigating and tearing apart masculinity as a gender category. While most of the characters are men (there is really only one significant female character), these are not all stereotypical "manly men". They are given the chance to be emotional/complex, and to grow. The end of the book also hints at the larger presence of a couple more women in Book 2.
Overall, this is a unique story with a Bronze Age African inspired setting that we don't get to see too much of. The fight scenes are well "choreographed", the violence is visceral without going too over the top, and the emotional connections to Tau and several of the side characters are strong. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy and military fantasy. And hey, if you aren't the big fans of fights (like me!) and anything about the book intrigues you, give it a shot! If nothing else you get a high octane super paced read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Racism
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