The Rage of Dragons (The Burning, #1)

[onlyfiction]

The Rage of Dragons (The Burning, #1)
By: Evan Winter
Release Date: July 16, 2019
Publisher: Orbit
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Series: The Burning (#1)
Summary: The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.



Review: After 100 pages, I’m not enjoying it at all. An opening battle is extremely odd for a book, since I know nothing about the characters yet. I realize this is in the past, so I think OK, let’s build some characters and the world now. Another battle, and I once again have no reason to be concerned about anyone.

It's hard to keep up with the characters' names. The class system remains complicated and unexplained. There's no attempt to explain the world or characters, yet it's popular. The smallest complaint that surprises me is that dragons appear very little in the story, despite the title.

Pacing is also an issue in The Rage of Dragons. A major event occurs too late in the story. They discuss other events I consider important in a couple of sentences, while repetitive training sessions consume most of the time. Having a dialogue about why training is critical on a battlefield about halfway into the story is ridiculous. It suggests the author was just writing for the sake of writing, without considering what might benefit his characters.

The world building isn’t the best, either. Winter’s portrayal of the world doesn’t work for me. Instead of info-dumping, he sprinkles information along the way without linking it to the thoughts of his narrator. As there are no emotions or events in the story that stick in my mind, I cannot remember it.

The Rage of Dragons is definitely not one of my favorites.