(House of Dragons #1)
Publication
Date: May 12, 2020
Hardcover, 448 pages, Random House
Genres:
YA, Fantasy
Five royal houses will hear the
call to compete in the Trial for the dragon throne. A liar, a soldier, a
servant, a thief, and a murderer will answer it. Who will win?
When the Emperor dies, the five
royal houses of Etrusia attend the Call, where one of their own will be
selected to compete for the throne. It is always the oldest child, the one who
has been preparing for years to compete in the Trial. But this year is different.
This year, these five outcasts will answer the call....
THE LIAR: Emilia must hide her dark
magic or be put to death.
THE SOLDIER: Lucian is a warrior
who has sworn to never lift a sword again.
THE SERVANT: Vespir is a dragon
trainer whose skills alone will keep her in the game.
THE THIEF: Ajax knows that nothing
is free--he must take what he wants.
THE MURDERER: Hyperia was born to
rule and will stop at nothing to take her throne.
My Review
I have a lot of thoughts about this book. I was so excited
for it. House of Dragons seemed like the best book to help ease some of
my anger towards the final season of Game of Thrones. However, it didn’t
quite live up to my high expectations, though it’s still a good read.
We start the book introducing each character and their
dragons. All five contestants for the throne get their own POVs, and,
thankfully, each voice is pretty unique. I only forgot which POV I was reading
from once or twice during the entire 448 pages. A rare feat. The first
character introduced is Emilia, and she has magical powers. Lucian is basically
Prince Zuko except his family has blue house colors instead of red. Vespir is a
dragon trainer. Ajax is a goofball/trouble-maker with dark origins. And Hyperia
is basically a warrior version of Daenerys Targaryen.
Sadly, the dragons in this book are kind of lacking. There simply
aren’t enough scenes with the riders interacting with their personal dragons.
In fact, only two of the dragons really get a personality at all. One is Dog,
Ajax’s lovable dragon, and the other is Hyperia’s dragon who’s mean and cranky.
I can’t even remember his name. That’s how little the dragons are seen in the book.
Dog, though. Dog is amazing. He’s basically the dragon version of Dug from Disney’s
Up. I love him, and he deserves so much better.
As for the humans, I liked a majority of them. Emilia’s
powers felt out of place in the story. I think it would have been better
without her magic and how it all plays out towards the end. However, she was
still interesting a majority of the time. Lucian, aka Zuko, was fascinating
because of his pacifist beliefs, and Ajax was a little $hit who made me laugh.
And Hyperia, she was glorious. Major Daenerys vibes. But Vespir is the
character I didn’t like. She was never explained, and her story was rather
boring. Her romantic relationship was the only interesting thing about her.
Throughout the book, these characters are in a competition
with each other. It was great to see all five characters at odds with one
another. Unfortunately, when they weren’t in trials, it seemed like the five grew
a little too close together, relieving tension too quickly and giving away too
much backstory. The tension kind of fell apart when the five had a
heart-to-heart. The ending, thankfully, made up for it a bit, but I was still
disappointed by how lame Lucian’s war story was and how the magical secrets
played out. While I was disappointed, I'll still be reading book two for Hyperia, Lucian, and Dog. They're my favorites.
All in all, House of Dragons, while eerily similar to
Game of Thrones at times, is not a YA version of it. The author never
advertised it that way, but, come on, the title and the cover really give that
vibe. So, while I was hoping for more, I still got a fun adventure. I just wish there
had been more dragons, a la How to Train Your Dragons. Instead, it was
more like a PG Hunger Games with the occasional dragon appearance.
*Note: I purchased
a copy of this book myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.
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