This is a story that hits the classic beats of a Dragon Rider fantasy. Holt Cook is an everyman, until he steals a dragon egg and joins the war against the zombie army.

Here is my video review: https://youtu.be/bqJ33eMl384?t=464

When I started the book, I was intrigued by the premise of a blind dragon. I was expecting this to play an important and interesting role in the story, and in some way change the way that the story played out.
However, I was disappointed. If what makes a story interesting is emotional conflict, this story was boring. Oftentimes, giving a character a handicap can create more interesting conflict, but you could take the dragon’s blindness out of the story and it would remain relatively unchanged.

The more I read this book, the more I felt like I was starving for emotional moments. This book again and again prioritized explaining the lore of the world. Instead of getting to grieve for losses, we move on quickly to defining a new magical ability or a political flashback. If you love worldbuilding, you might love this book. But if you love a character arc more, you may be very disappointed.

AUDIOBOOK: This was a very well narrated audiobook. Every character was voiced differently. When there was the occasional song, the narrator actually sung it (something I’ve never heard in an audiobook before)! I have no complaints about the performance of this audiobook, it was fantastic.

Thanks to Books Fluent and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.