4.5/5 The Rage of Dragons is absolutely brutal and totally enthralling. I listened to it on audiobook and each time I paused I thought I would get bored with all the war and fighting, but instead, each time I pushed play, I was absolutely rapt.

It’s a truly masterful writer who gets you to hang on every word of a topic you’d otherwise not be interested in. This is such a physical book full of training, fighting, battle, and gore. But it’s even more a mental and emotional book. I have never before been transported so completely into the minds of people engaging in fights to the death.

I see some negative reviews critiquing how this book is centered around a people who are colonizers waging war against indigenous people, among other terrible acts carried out in the book. The Omehi people refer to the indigenous people as savages, they commit genocide, and they compel dragons in order to steal the land from the indigenous people.

Each of these points are absolutely true.

However, these are part of why this book was so well written and so compelling. I have not read the authors take so I cannot put words in his mouth, however I do not believe the book is meant to glorify colonization or glorify any of the characters in this book—in fact quite the opposite.

From the very first scene, we are introduced to a world full of acts of terror, violence, and cruelty. At one point a man attempts to rape a girl and when her father attacks him, the attempted rapist is able to have their entire family killed simply because he is part of the ruling class. And the main character Tau, while I did love him as a character, was a cruel and horrendously violent man.

Chapter after chapter, we learn more about the Omehi people and how, throughout the generations, they’ve been indoctrinated to believe in a strict caste system, to worship the royals, and to believe in their cause to wage war. And as we learn more, we also learn about all of the lies and hidden flaws and false histories the royals and nobles have spread to keep their people sacrificing their lives to keep the land they once stole from others.

I don’t think for a second this book was glorifying any of these things, but rather depicting them so realistically that we’re given the opportunity as readers to draw our own conclusions and build our own critiques. I love when an author writes humanity as it is in reality—utterly flawed and often terrible.

I love when an author does not tell us how to think or how to feel. Of course, I am a white woman and so that no doubt has an impact on my ability to read these incredibly triggering topics. It’s completely understandable if this sort of book is just absolutely a no for you—it is gruesome.

This book is not for the squeamish. This book is full of terrible and gruesome things. This book is incredible.

The Rage of Dragons - Likewise Book Reviews

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