I was just standing and applauding during the last 10 minutes of this review. Thank you for voicing all of my same frustrations. 😂🎉

The intro is fantastic Allen!! I love your reviews, you definitely voiced all my issues with this book. I’ll be a knight of Allenxandria and protect you from the Internet trolls.

OMG THE BEGINNING!!!!! 🤣🤣 this is already my favorite review ever!

Omg 10 seconds in I already love this 😂 i agree with the training montage, Mulan forever! Agree to disagree my friend and that’s fine ❤️

Oh.My.Gosh. This is freakin amazing! Love that you brought in the book club Civil War.

this is seriously the BEST review/rant video EVER! I was dying from the very start of this! Don't worry Allen, We, the Knights of Allenxandria, will protect you from the dudebros. When the king of the dudebros sends his knights to attack we shall take them down one by one like the demons of Ishigo... and when the king of the dudebros himself is quaking with anger and fear, we shall sneak into the castle and threaten him menacingly, describing our master plan in painful detail and when he laughs in our face we shall slay him where he stands

Great intro! - I am sad I didn't read this book now just to see where I land with everyone

Have to say though, a really good and honest review, enjoyed listening to it.

That beginning was truly a masterpiece! 👨🏻‍🍳💋

Although we were on opposing sides of this civil war, I am beyond flattered you mentioned my name and pronounced it correctly! ☺️ I'm amazed I enjoyed the book as much as I did despite completely agreeing with nearly every single criticism. Can't disagree, and I still loved it! 😆 Brilliant intro and editing! 🍞🍞🍞

Hahahahahahaha The beginning... im dead, hahaha Always love the honesty in your reviews. 👌

SUCH a good review!! Thank you so much.

I see where you are coming from. I enjoyed the book a lot but I am very glad to hear you will be reading book two at some point. Great video

I had to bail right when you started with spoilers, but I love the honesty of this and your reviews in general. I’m still going to give this one a shot, especially given the setting. The intro was hysterical, by the way - thanks for making me laugh!

"The way the dragons -- when we see them..." bahahaha 😬 "Doing something over and over again doesn't necessarily make you better" THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU "He wants it more, is not a good reason"

Finally watched your review! That intro though🤣 Now you have to do one for Napoleon Dynamite!!

That intro.....I’m dead, somebody come get me off the floor!

Here for the booshes and sound effects 😂 Team Iron Man, but I do agree about the prose. Not good flow at all. 😂😂 the spoiler part of this video!!! OoOoOO swan form! I die 💀

Xenosaga, what a throwback 😄 Agreed so much with everything stated! I’m surprised you even gave it the rating you did, given your enjoyment, but I’m glad it wasn’t TOTALLY terrible for you 😆

the beginning was everything 😂😂 Tau is 100% too intense, I still enjoy the book but I agree with many of your points. My favorite thing was the magic system and the ending, so good. The romance was just so dumb😂

Love love love that opening!!!

Just discovered your channel through Lezlie (The Nerdy Narrative). I just finished reading this book over the weekend, and I was honestly shocked that I didn't like it as much as others seem to! I think I'm ultimately going to rate it 3 stars. Totally agree that Tau is the make/break point. I'm also a HUGE fan of training montages and military academies, so these sections were mildly better. The prologue was insanely heavy and difficult to get through. I was just so frustrated that Tau's motivations are all due to his own stupid, rash actions. Listening to all of your thoughts makes me feel so much better that I also didn't particularly care for this lol. Spoilery things: Yeah, I had a BIG issue with this whole power up situation. It really just didn't make sense to me! I'm glad I'm not the only one.

You need to give me some advice on these types of reviews. Even when you dont like it is such an amazing review. I wanna be like you when I get better at reviewing 😁

That beginning 🤣 I agree with pretty much all of this... but i still actually enjoyed myself. I hated that Zuri died because I felt like it was just plot convenience so Tau could be with the queen without having to pick her over Zuri. That bugged me so much!

Omg yes!! I tried for 3 days to make it through Ch 1!! Then I started putting it off. And I was reading Sanderson at the same time ..... yeah. The prose was killing me.

An I'll Make a Man Out of You reference... always a winner! 😁

Omg I love your opening 😍😍😍😍 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I absolutely loved this book and still totally agree with the negative points that you made, haha.

Oh. My. Gosh. That intro... 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

It’s funny, I agree with 90% of what you’ve said is bad about the book but I came away thinking this was one of the best books I’ve read all year.

The beginning has me rolling 😂

I was uncertain about reading The Rage of Dragons to begin with after reading the first page or so. I think I would have similar frustrations with it as you did, so I may have to pass on it.

Hahaha from this and your review of The Poppy War, I think I'm just at that point in my life where I relate to hot-headed, vengeful protagonists ;P Re: your criticism of the inciting incident for Tau's need for revenge... (SPOILERS) I think the point is just how fucked the Caste system is. Everything you say is true; it's not logical, it's ridiculous, and it leads to the unjust death of Tau's father. That's why he becomes so vengeful, so angry, because the world he grows up in is so profoundly unfair and broken. If it didn't work for you though, totally fair! For me I was pretty uninterested in the book until that happened; then I was all aboard Tau's Crazy Train of Vengeance. Like I said, I think I'm in the perfect headspace this year for angry protagonists... In regards to Isihogo, though, I think I just disagree on it haha. But I love a story where our protagonist overcomes impossible odds/trials through sheer will. I do think you're overstating how "easy" it is for Tau though, dude's clearly going insane, there's a reason no one else does it. But I DO agree that I preferred Tau becoming a symbol and they started talking about overthrowing the Caste system.

I hated how the book started mid-battle and your just left looking around like, "What?" I've made it to page 109 and haven't picked it up in over a month since because I just don't want to. 😭 I'm glad I'm not the only person that felt this way. Maybe the audiobook I have on hold at the library will help me trudge through... 😐

That opening! 🤣

When you said "Shelf Space" I heard a natural echo 😅

I felt bad for not liking this one. I didn't hate Tau, but I didn't really like it either. I liked the training/learnnig sequences, but I love that element anywhere so... But I just couldn't get behind the revenge plotline. It was a really interesting world, but I felt it took too long to start understanding and parts of the narrative/pacing of the worldbuilding felt a little rushed and inconsistant, especially at the end. I think I felt more generous when I reviewed it, but at this point I'm just not interested in more.

I got here so fast 🤣

Thank you! I think the overhyping of this book made my disappointment much stronger than if I had just picked it up based on the blurb. I found the prologue intriguing and if the book had continued from there, I think the sense of being lost would have been okay as more was revealed, similar to Gardens of the Moon. I think I'd most like to hear what led to them fleeing to the new land, or at least what happened once they successfully landed. But, no, we don't get more of that, we go to blandness. The same revenge plot set up that we've seen a thousand times, with some African inspired details. I can't stand Tau. I didn't like him from the beginning. And if we had not been stuck in his POV for THE WHOLE BOOK I might have been able to get past it. He starts out immature, stupid, and selfish, making immature, stupid, and selfish choices. Then, he continues in that same vein for the entire book! I liked his swordbrothers, but he never evolved past being willing to completely screw them over in service to the dumbest choice in his revenge quest. Where is his character growth? I also have issues with his power up, for some of the same reasons, but also because I don't buy that he could spend all those extra hours "on the other side" fighting, being tortured, and being killed for nights on end and just be a little tired in the morning. Lower castes are physically smaller and weaker because they get less food and less nutritious food from birth, so a few months of good food and training would not overcome his lower stamina and reserves. It should definitely make his real world performance suffer from being exhausted all the time. I agree that female characters are lacking, or under developed. The only female characters that come to mind are a rape victim, the Empress who is not developed, and his girlfriend who is a plot device to feed him information. I think it's a admirable debut novel, and if I were more into military fiction, I may have been able to get past detesting Tau. But I must ask, for a book named Rage of Dragons, why do we see so little of the dragons? And I want to lay waste to their entire society for how they treat the Dragons! Maybe the sequel will explain more of the lore and my opinion will change, but it will be hard for me to get over. I'll wait for your review of Fires of Vengeance before deciding if I continue.

I'm 20pgs in. Hope I end up on the iron man side or 20 bucks was wasted haha

Seemed like he needed an editor? Though since I only read 50pages from 19th to the 25 when I DNFed it

Thought it was a brilliant read, did take sometime to get into it. But finished strong and great to see African mythology take a front seat.

Who lost their lives?👀 #teamironman4lyfe Love your reviews even if we disagree. The Mulan reference has soften this blow.

That intro 🤣

Interesting because I liked The Rage of Dragons about as much as I disliked Captain America:Civil War.😁

I was laughing literally seconds in ahaha

"All aboard the murder train"

Not being able to follow the large scale conflict was a big reason I DNF’d this book

OMG!! The beginning 😂😂!! I'm team Cap! Such a disappointing read 😔

Give it 2 stars on goodreads is a little dramatic

I made me sad to to DNFed it.

This was a DNF book for me. I appreciated the creativity in the world building put forth in the novel. But the execution of it was off putting for two main reasons. For my tastes it's too violent. There are more restrained ways to tell a tale. The biggest offense was being introduced to a batch of characters at the top of a page only to have two-thirds of them dead before the last paragraph. No thank you!

I don't think most people like the book as much as they think. Cut out the hype and put the book under a stark light, and it's not very good. It might have been a sincere attempt at creating a book with "African culture" (which is empty babble in itself, since Africa is a continent with a diverse set of distinct and separate cultures, not a monolithic mega-country), but the "African" influence is completely surface level, as shallow as the characters. The fact that this mediocre book has piggybacked on that selling point is a reminder that we need to promote books not based on intent, but on content.

You lost subscribers because you didn't like a book and gave a honest review about it? Strange people!