Dragon Outcast

Another instalment in the Age of Fire, another book on which I'm of two minds. As with the first two books of this series, I initially read Dragon Outcast in 2015 - and, as with those, my opinion has shifted quite a bit from the first reading. Back then, Dragon Outcast bored me with its political intrigue and slow-moving pace. Now, I find it may be my favourite of the three hatchlings' tales. Something about having everything I thought I knew about this dragon family and its surviving members turned on its head intrigued me, and I found myself enjoying the Copper's life journeys.

Unlike his sister, Wistala, in Dragon Avenger, he only makes friends of one kind of animal: bats. But they're fun characters who stick around for most of the book and each have somewhat unique personalities, not unlike Avalanche and Stog the horse and mule or Yari-Tab the cat from the previous book. I also liked seeing what kind of dragon the little hatchling who once betrayed his family became - and his reasons for doing so. I love me a good story about a sympathetic villain and, arguably, a redemption arc.

There were things I didn't much care for, such as how awkward it was that the Copper never learned the term for human pregnancy despite being around a human thrall who was pregnant for a long while (he would refer to her ‘swelling' to indicate it) and how there was an arranged mating thrown in to come between two dragons in love. It made me think of the nonsense in Mockingjay where absurd circumstances were invented to break up a ship with chemistry, rather than just having the characters grow apart, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised at how the aftermath was handled. It felt realistic to the situation of being pushed into an arranged marriage with someone pitied and learning to care for them despite the lack of love - defending them, respecting them. I hated the element at first, but it grew on me and I enjoyed the interactions it spawned.

Additionally, for a dragon who allegedly has terrible luck, the Cooper is amazingly lucky and that does get to be very absurd especially toward the end when everything is solved in a blur of convenient circumstances during the last two chapters. But that seems to be this author's style, so I've grown a bit used to it while venturing through this book series. I enjoyed the Copper's tale for what it is, and never found myself getting bored like I did back in 2015. The author's handling of female characters still leaves much to be desired, but since this book focuses primarily on a male dragon and his adventures, it's less strikingly obvious than it is when reading the previous installment which follows a female dragon. At least the tropes they fell into this time fit a bit more with the environment presented!

Overall, I like this book and I'm glad I decided to re-read it. I'm pleasantly surprised by my change of opinion and how highly I've decided to rate it after this go ‘round. Whether I intend to read the next three books in the series, however, I'm uncertain. I'm growing a bit exhausted by the author's dense writing style and I've heard very bad things about the writing quality and plot contrivances in the final three instalments. But we'll see!