Book Review: The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

Title: The Rage of Dragons

Author: Evan Winter
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: 16th July 2019 (HB)

Synopsis: 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: The books description of Game of Thrones meets Gladiator, is very atp and this is a hard hitting book that packs more than a few punches. It is a very grim world we're placed into. An endless cycle of war for the Omehi people against the indigenous Hedeni,where everyone must train and everyone must fight, or be forced to serve as a Drudge with no rights. The Omehi have kept their hold on the land with the use of Dragons, called to action by those women who have been chosen, but at great cost for all involved and only used in times of great need. 

It is  a tense time, a time of war and so it's not going to be a pretty book. When we meet Tau, he just wants a simpler life, but as is the way with fiction that is not the hand fate has dealt him and his dreams are brutally ripped away from him at the beginning of the book. This then sets up the small town boy to warrior story, but layered within this. There is not just one goal and as Tau's live changes so does the way he see's both the world and his place within it. This is what I think is really going to drive the series. not just the anger and need for revenge, but the role that Tau wants to play and how he's going to do so.

“That’s the price. Life is nothing more than moments in time. To achieve greatness, you have to give up those moments. You have to give your life to your goal.”

Tau is full of anger, understandable anger but it makes it hard to like him at times when all he can see is red. He becomes the fighter he wants to be, showing up everyone that stood against him and the writing constantly reinforces that point and the knock on effect that it has around him creating these jarring moments. But that's an honest portrayal of someone, it makes you want to understand him, makes you consider a different point of view. He was never going to suddenly become a happier person it would be fluffy to think otherwise. His journey is spiritual as well as physical, plagued by demons and the Isihogo which here represented hell, and that added another layer to the book and the troubles of his character. Though its been ages since I read this book I remember vividly a scene where he gave in and walked among the demons and it was chilling. 

As you're so involved his fights become your fights and you feel with him with each step and fall. When he was pushing himself to train you wanted him to succeed, and I sat there all kinds of jealous of his staunch mentality to keep going when I can barely manage a push up these days. You feel him grow both as a warrior and as a character. Every battle scene is tense as you've build up connections with the characters so you're constantly on edge because they are written with such precision and a clarity you feel as if you're in the moment with them. 

This book started as a slow burn for me, because it needs investment and there's a lot to take in but by the end of it I was fully adsorbed and wanting book No2!