The Dragon Hunter and the Mage by V.R. Cardoso

To add some variety to my readings, I came across this book. It caught my attention at 'Dragon,' so I decided to give it a shot. Being more of a young adult novel, it's different from the other books I've read. Still, I don't look at complexity in books, but rather the story and this one seemed promising. The Dragon Hunter and the Mage is the first book of the Wounds in the Sky series by V. R. Cardoso, who, I believe, is a relatively new author.

The book starts off strong. With a new emperor on the throne, his first move was to outlaw magic. Our story begins with an Academy evacuating its students to prevent them from being executed. This is where we get introduced to the future 'desert witch' Eliran, but we don't hear from her for quite some time afterward. The story is told through different characters, mainly Tarsus, Cassia, Aric, and Fadan. This can get confusing and a bit annoying since you keep changing perspectives every few paragraphs or so. However, it eventually alternates from chapter to chapter. I preferred Aric's story more, though.

The author does a good job making us hate the enemies and liking the protagonists without resorting to extremes. For example, seeing how Tarsus forces Cassia to stay with him despite mistreating her (actual) husband and son (Aric) really got on my nerves. Like, I understand why she's doing what she's doing, but I just REALLY wanted her to slap him into another dimension and leave. The brothers also exceeded my expectations of them. I expected more whining and being the stereotypical unwilling protagonist that just cannot accept their new roles. Thankfully, both Aric and Fadan, although meeting a few bumps in the road here and there, stepped up to the plate and took control.

When I think of magic, I think of Harry Potter. However, just like J.K Rowling, every author has their own approach to magic. In this case, characters who have the Talent can perform magic by drinking Runium, made by dragon's blood. Magic comes with its own jargon, and the book includes a few, such as transmogaphon. We also learn more about magic through Fadan's lessons. Seeing as the emperor outlawed magic, I was interested in seeing how this would play out.

I'm pretty confident in my ability to tell where a story will go considering previous books. Hence, nothing was unexpected, but there were twists here and there I definitely did not expect. I also like how the ending gives us a glance at what's to come in the next book with everybody, not just the main two. It doesn't spoil anything, but it teases us.

Overall, this book turned out better than I was expecting. I highly recommend giving this book a chance if you enjoy light reading and young adult books. The only thing is since it's a new series, there will be some waiting involved for the story to progress.

The Dragon Hunter and the Mage by V.R. Cardoso
My rating: 5 of 5 stars