To become a hero, sometimes you have to go through hell. An oath made, a promise broken.Rhoane always knew he was destined to protect the savior of his people, a woman prophesied to restore balance to his world. The promise he made as a child proves difficult to honor as a young, impetuous man.Cast out as an exile from his family and home, he wields his rage like a well-honed dagger. Beyond … rage like a well-honed dagger. Beyond the borders of his kingdom he discovers a world filled with violence and beauty. With carnal temptations before him, Rhoane struggles to reconcile his fate. If he doesn’t uphold his oath, his future love will fail before she’s even born.
The Prince of Dragons begins the hero’s journey in the Song of Swords epic fantasy adventure about honor, family, and unconditional love in the face of mortal danger.
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“Take Risks, make mistakes, and get messy. Be brave, and do what frightens you most, but always, always have hope”
Firstly any book that starts with 4 different maps is a winner, it shows commitment to the reader in helping to visualise every aspect of the vast reaches of the story. It also has a prologue, which I’m always a sucker for and that set the tone that this was going to be an epic fantasy.
The Prince of Dragons totally throws you in at the deep end, and I felt quite sink or swim whilst I navigated understanding the magic system, hierachy’s, and dynamics, I don’t necessarily find this a bad thing but I do like a little hand holding at the start. It’s a minor gripe and doesn’t detract from how much I ultimately adored this book! I enjoyed though that each time a new place was introduced the story spent a fair bit of time there, establishing the characters and surroundings before moving on. The world building is wonderful and creates environments which are pretty special, gorgeous attention to detail makes even the most barren of areas come alive. There is a lot of brutality in the world with some really quite violent moments both vivid and cunning, but this is balanced well and is never mindless.
I honestly loved the characterisation across the book, Rhone is a great protagonist, his evolution a joy to read. His steadfast commitment to his oath is wonderfully endearing. It was truly refreshing to have a male protagonist who’s purpose wasn’t to go around bedding maidens until he found the one to tame him. That’s not to say that there aren’t a couple of blushworthy pages. Rhone being schooled in the art of flirting (purely for acting purposes of course) is particularly heartwarming and I think one of my favourite interactions in the book. Faelara as well was similar in her devotion to her cause, never letting her heartbreak define her. She is the perfect balance to Rhone and I loved their banter. None of the characters felt redundant or overplayed and some of them hold delicious secrets that will have your jaw dropping at the end. Plus, that epilogue!!!
I especially liked how the author had no qualms with covering large passages of time within chapters, this was a brilliant move and allowed the story to drive forward without unnecessary waffle, seasons pass within a sentence and much like Rhoane’s time bending abilities, allowed us to reach a goal more satisfactorily because of it. The Prince of Dragons may only be 221 pages but my word does the author pack every page. There was no drag to the story, the pace was steady which gave time to savour the prose, to really get to know the magics and the dynamics and ultimately I was more absorbed in the world for it.
The Prince of Dragons is an amazing fantasy read, I couldn’t put it down – much to the detriment of other books scheduled for review, but I have been struggling of late to rise above 3 stars, so to find a book which overtook me so completely deserved to have all my attention – I have no reservations about giving this 5*
Wow. I confess. Fantasy and SciFi are not my strong genres. For both, I need to be in the right mood to read them. I usually enjoy them but only on my terms. The Prince Of Dragons, though, enchanted me. I started it in the proper mood. Then had a crisis in real life that stopped my reading for a couple days. When I got back to reading, my mood had changed. But I was already under the author’s spell. This is one of the rare fantasy books that I enjoyed even though I wasn’t in fantasy mode! Truly, if you know me, you know how significant that is.
I love Rhoane. I loved watching his growth. The author ripped my heart out early on with Rhoane. I’m not telling you how. My other favorite character was Faelara. I am hoping to see more of her in future books. I want to know all of her story. There are other characters that I liked and a few, not so much, (pretty sure that was planned).
The author did a decent job with world building. I felt like I could close my eyes and see the story unfold in my mind. I do wish I had noticed the maps, at the end of the story, earlier. Be sure to check those out.
The author, thoughtfully, also has a cast of characters, (with pronunciation of names), and a glossary of unfamiliar words and places. Both can be found at the end of the book. I did well with the pronunciation using my experience with Celtic names and words. I knew the rules to those, (thank you deceased family members who passed that to me). If you aren’t familiar with them, you might want to keep in mind that you can easily look them up or you can choose to read through them before reading the story.
I recommend this series to young adults and up, (for some mature themes). My recommendation is to read the book. If you aren’t certain about buying it, I encourage you to ask your library for it and/or check your favorite library app.
The Prince of Dragons by Tameri Etherton (previously published as The Darathi Vorsi Prince) is the first book in the Song of the Swords series. When Rhoane defies his mother of an oath he made as a child he is exiled from his home.
Plot 5/5: An intriguing plot.
Characters 5/5: The characters are well fleshed out and interesting.
World building 4/5: An interesting world.
Pacing 3/5: The pacing is slow, but steady.
Writing 5/5: The writing is great with vivid descriptions.
Overall 4.4