Fireborne: 1 (Aurelian Cycle)

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But total annihilation is more difficult than it looks when it's hand to hand slaughter, and a few got away, or were spared--including one of our protagonists, Lee, who was born Leo, his father an important dragon lord.

there was realistic conflict between the affluent elite, the leaders of the New Regime, and the common folk.It asks the question "What happens when the new regime begins making the same mistakes as the one it fought to overthrow? The "battles" we were told about do happen but they are rather anticlimatic as they are only really about Lee and Annie's relationship. This reads like an amalgamation of several dragon books ( A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter among others), but without those books’ distinct voices and characters. As for Annie being a Commander, I did not get nor liked how Lee handed her that position in the end.

Told from multiple points of view this fantasy is one of young dragonriders dealing with a world with plenty of political intrigue with a small bit of romance added into the mix. But of course, the military is not always pointed at those outside, and this is why I love how Munda uses dragons in this novel, because they are simultaneously symbols of the old regime that oppressed people in terrible ways, and the new, trying-to-be equitable regime, that is supposed to bring fairness and opportunity to everyone. It’s just, you do need to have some plan for a governing structure beyond “not throwing dissidents into a hellpit,” which is frankly more of a rallying cry than a policy structure. despite it’s flaws, i was glued to it thanks to the fast moving plot, complex characters, and political intrigue.

I loved everything about this book: it’s exciting, it’s philosophical; it’s hopeful; it’s dark; it’s full of dragons and politics; it’s romantic in that grand, heroic tradition, without downplaying the ugly reality of governance and revolution and war. By the time 35% of Fireborne rolled around I was firmly rooting for Annie and Lee to overcome the uncomfortableness between them to be together. Going up against the dragonborn court and a foreign princess, he faces a test of loyalty that sets his head against his heart.