Journey for the Best Dragon Books: Dragon Rider

Note: This article contains spoilers for Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu. It is also posted in part on other websites under the name Jester Reviews. This article will also mentioning rape/sexual assault of characters under the age of 18. Please be aware.

Genre: High Fantasy

Final Rating: 2.75/5 stars.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, with a lot of caveats

Okay, so I was going to open this article on how Fourth Wing took over the literary space and dominated, blah blah blah all that stuff, but how did I not remember that it came out not even 2 years ago? And they’re already on book three!!! I swore it came out in 2021, but I guess I’m wrong? Or misremembering something. I don’t know.

The point is that dragons are back in style within the literary space, thanks to romantasy. With that being said, Fourth Wing’s flaws are far from unknown, especially the lack of focus on the dragons and the confusing worldbuilding. So, as a notorious dragon lover myself, I’ve decided to try and dig through the mess, and find the best dragon book out there. Dragon shifters, dragon riders, or just dragons in geneal.

So let’s start from the beginning.

I read Matharu's Summoner series as a 12-year-old with a Pokemon/Bakugan/Beyblade addiction. I fell in love with it, but unfortunately, I grew out of middle-grade books as the series came out. I still fondly remember reading it and can’t recall any serious flaws. So when I saw that one of my favorite middle-grade authors was making his adult debut, I was over the moon. I bought the book, and happily started reading it. And after a long time, when I finally closed the book, I ended up disappointed.

To start, this is another book that is more simplistic adult writing style. Basically, for teenagers reading well beyond their levels, adults 18-25, and/or people trying to get into fantasy who need something simple to start with. What doesn't help is that the main character is 17 throughout the novel, which isn't anything I've seen before. Why couldn't he have been aged up to 18? I'm not sure. But that was the author's decision. The politics were also more simplistic, with the three leading players being the Sabines, a tyrannical empire reminiscent of the Romans, the Dansk, who are more reminiscent of the Norse, and the Steppemen, who I couldn't tell who they were based on. Still, it felt like a mishmash of Native American/African cultures. Someone more informed and analytical than I could figure it out.

The worldbuilding made me raise my eyebrows with how little it made sense. The Sabines kidnapping Steppemen royals and forcing them into indentured servitude is entirely ridiculous. Typically, empires will kill enemy royals in a show of power or take the royals as political prisoners. Enemy royals generally are confined to the castle/grounds, watched continuously, and offered little privacy or ways to escape. Forcing them to work is how you breed resentment and hatred, especially when you let one of them sleep in the same room as one of the most powerful political figures in the empire. That is how you end up with an assassination. I understand why this had to happen for plot reasons, but that doesn't mean it makes sense.

The pacing in this book was atrocious. Though the chapters are short, don't let that fool you into thinking this book is fast-paced and action-filled. It took 25 chapters or over 100+ pages even to reach the promise of the premise mentioned in the blurb. Half of that could have been removed, which would have made little difference. Then, once Jai got the dragon egg, I thought things would start to pick up again, but I was wrong! There were maybe three exciting events, but most of the "good bits" involved traveling, training, and character bits that could have been included in other ways. It was only when Jai and Frida got captured and sent to the prison that it actually started to feel like a proper book rather than just a Series of Events.

I won’t mince words here. This book has a misogyny problem. The number of women that were killed/harmed off-screen to give characters (usually men) sad backstories was uh. Not good! Don't get me wrong, plenty of men do get murdered on screen, but they at least have some presence before their untimely demise. Not to mention the only woman who is actually "good" has to not only teach our male lead how to use his powers (later on that role is taken from her by another, more experienced man), but ultimately still has to be rescued by the male lead like a damsel in distress. Her beauty is also constantly described, and I don't think we understand why Jai likes her other than "she's pretty and has blonde hair and blue eyes". There's even one or two points where something horrific happens, and the narration points out how beautiful she still is. COME ON.

The way sexual assault and rape are treated gives me extremely bad vibes. There are way too many mentions of rape happening off-screen when the evil empire needs to do something cruel. Even worse, a 15-year-old gets raped by the emperor as a motivator for another man's backstory. Now, I understand that this did happen in history and colonialization included rape. However, the way this book handles that subject is extremely worrying. It feels more like shock value, and this is especially evident when Jai, who is 17, gets essentially sexually assaulted by the head prison warden, who is an older woman. This is brushed off and never really brought up after that. Perhaps the ramifications of this and Jai’s trauma will be brought up in the next book, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.

Jai, our male lead, was fine. I liked his character progression from a servant who has never known anything else to a free man starting to master his powers. His flaws were well written and hindered him when necessary. The problem is that it felt like everyone else around him was just there to further HIS story. 99% of the characters were there to play their parts (whether for or against him, and there was very little gray morality), and that was that. Nothing more, nothing less. It got boring after a while.

Frida is a curious case because I did like her at first. A handmaiden who was secretly the real powerful one and not the true heir to the throne, bonding with Jai over their places in life? That sounded like a solid love story! And then it's all fucking ruined when it turns out that nope! It was just Erica, the princess all along, and she was badass and everything. What the hell. She's also immediately depowered when her dragon is killed, so she has to be protected by the main character.

I think the villains have the potential to be interesting, but Matharu seems extremely disinterested in portraying them as anything other than bumbling idiots or cruel. Titus is an extreme caricature of an evil, ambitious emperor, but the idea of him being bad at being bad is quite different and creative. He's not scary because of who he is, but rather who he surrounds himself with. That's cool! I like that! Unfortunately, he's not around so much, but he will hopefully appear in the next book.

I will give book two a chance (from the library, of course. I'm not buying it), but if I still sense the same problems as this book, I won't hesitate to call it quits. This is clearly the author’s first go-round as an adult author, and maybe he’ll improve! Or perhaps I’m just missing my middle school days and yearn for the summoner again. Shame I donated my old copy. Oh, well.