The Rage of Dragons

This was a powerful book. The Rage of Dragons is effectively a study in the power of class as a driver of prejudice, but taking a more african cultural bent to it in a fantasy setting. This puts it in an intriguingly unique position.

I have spent the last year trying to diversify my fantasy reading away from the standard European medieval fantasy setting that has historically dominated the genre, and Evan Winter provides a really intriguing twist on the African fantasy. He has created a civilization that is extremely stratified, with the nobles holding an extreme degree of privilege over those below them, which manifests in generally superior physical stature along with very biased rules. Our main protagonist (Tau) is someone from one of the lower classes whose family is destroyed by the casual prejudice of those from higher up the social spectrum, and this drives him to seek revenge.

This drive for revenge gives him the strength of will to push himself in training so that he can not only match but defeat his supposed betters. Most of this first novel focusses on this gladiatorial style training as he searches to find the nobles he feels that have wronged him. Tau ultimately finds himself being drawn into some of the political intrigue at the top of his society.

This is high fantasy with an intriguing voice. It is hard to believe this is a debut - it is a superbly crafted and well written story. Highly recommended