The Rage Of Dragons by Evan Winter: a review

Rating: 4/5 Review by: Sharvani

The Rage of Dragons is an African-inspired adult, epic military fantasy revenge story. I am generally wary of picking up self-published debut fantasy books, but finally got around to it after reading posts on r/fantasy that praised it to no end.

What we have is a story that is extremely engaging, full of action and swordplay, an interesting magic system, written in simple language that makes the protagonist’s rage cut through to the reader powerfully. We are taken to a world where one man wronged by the system chooses to determinedly forge his own path and take revenge on those who wronged him and his family.

I can’t imagine a world where a man holding a sword does not have the last say over the man without one. If you’re not prepared to fight, you place yourself and everything you love beneath the blades of others, praying they choose not to cut. I have felt the mercy of armed men, and they will never find me helpless again.

As opposed to having a protagonist who has a great talent that they are taught to hone, we have Tau, who has great work ethic and makes sacrifices to get better at his craft.

Tau’s limits were not decided by his birth or nature but by the bounds of his determination and the extent of his efforts. That was what Tau believed, and he was going to prove it. He was going to show them all.

I have two major problems with this book - one, that the author uses a lot of new terms that are hard to keep in mind, and the lack of a pronunciation guide definitely slowed down the reading process for me. Second, that we have the same trope of one character who becomes larger than life and defeats everyone against the odds.

Set against the backdrop of war and political intrigue, containing complex characters, it shows the journey of a man who becomes a demon-haunted warrior like no other, along with a promise for more world-building in the sequel. Evan Winter has certainly raised the bar for first time authors.