The Rage of Dragons by: Evan Winter

 

The Rage of Dragons is revenge fantasy, pure and simple.  Evan Winter’s debut novel is one that takes several standard tropes and puts them under the microscope of war and how war can warp a person.  It follows Tau, a young man who offends a nobleman who retaliates by killing his father in his stead, on a world which is perpetually at war with a greater colonial power.  Many other reviews set up The Rage of Dragons as a standout debut novel, and those sentiments are something which I must echo.  Winter’s prose is excellent and really gives this impression that Tau is clearly not meant to be in the right, the reader following his rise to power giving himself over to an army.  The story and series seems to be projecting itself to be a war centered story, but that doesn’t actually appear much until the climax, setting itself up for a sequel.  A lot of the book is dedicated to Tau’s personal journey towards committing an act of revenge and the many pitfalls he faces.  Tau is not a character who the reader is supposed to completely agree with, he’s incredibly impulsive and young enough that he is going to have to prove himself, the entire novel dealing with him proving himself and securing a place in the army.

 

Tau is a character who can be defined by his insistence on being impulsive, his entire life being basically destroyed with the death of his father.  His childhood sweetheart is taken away to join an order of magic users, the Gifted, as Winter sets up a gender based magic system taking its roots from both European and African pieces of myth.  The mixing of myths helps set Winter apart from other fantasy novelists, writing a book that he wished he had in a childhood, as stated in the rather touching dedication to his son.  The magic system is perhaps where much of The Rage of Dragons has its issues, mainly in that the explanations don’t ever come satisfactorily and the title feels a bit more metaphorical than literally involving dragons (which don’t appear right until the end of the book).  It’s a metaphor that doesn’t quite work as the rage of dragons isn’t really an idea that’s explored, the sequel’s title The Fires of Vengeance almost feeling more fitting for this first book, though that doesn’t sound as much of a fantasy book as the actual title.  Winter’s format of the book is odd.  There are chapter breaks, but each chapter has essentially subsections which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does make each chapter feel a lot longer than it is and causes some of the pace to drag.  That is especially bad with the prologue feeling a lot like a completely different story, though it does eventually come back around at the end in the setup for the sequel.  It’s these little ticks that makes The Rage of Dragons feel a lot more complicated then it actually is.

 

Overall, The Rage of Dragons is a great debut fantasy novel which deserves much of the praise that it’s gotten.  Winter’s tale should be a trailblazer in opening the fantasy genre up to settings that aren’t simple analogues for medieval/Renaissance Europe, blending cultures into a completely new setting from his own experiences.  The book is a great revenge tale building up towards what is going to clearly be a war story for the rest of the series.  An engaging read all around with some minor problems that keep it away from being the perfect story some of the hype would imply.  8/10.