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I am having issues writing the review for this book. There’s so much going on that it’s honestly difficult to know where to start, or how to make this review make sense while keeping it brief enough so people actually read it.
A long time ago, there were these things called Gates, and they allowed magic to flow freely into the world, but the Gates also regulated the flow to prevent too much magic coming through which would cause absolute chaos. However, those Gates are now shut. They have been for thousands of years. There once were weilders who could access the magic of these gates, and these guys were over-powered, wildly dangerous individuals capable of fighting dragons. The dragons are still around, but they’re not as powerful as they once were — but they’re looking to open the gates again. The dragons in this world are dicks, and I haven’t seen an exception to that rule.
We have an outcast character at the forefront again — that seems to be a popular character type in my batch this year. This time we have a half-Tsura, half-human character who is almost universally hated for his Tsura half. The Tsura are considered monster-like, and they’re barely tolerated in society, and even as a mixed-race individual who is part human, he’s still not treated well. Perhaps even worse, he is considered an abomination by some. His name is Allakoi, and he’s living with his parents at the start of the book. He actually has a very loving family, which is something I love to see. So many characters have these awful, terrible, abusive families, and I see it so often that it’s refreshing when I hit something different. His mom was with his biological father for a while… but they were forced apart when the Tsura learned she had a half-blood baby. They forced his father back to the Tsura society to face the consequences for creating an ‘abomination’. His mother remarried the man he calls dad, and he’s a super stand-up guy. He’s taking in someone else’s kid, a half-Tsura kid at that, and he treats him with love, respect, kindness, and protection as best he can. I’m on board.
His family’s protection is not enough, though. Things are happening around him that are out of his control, and it’s beginning to be unsafe for him to stay in the place where he grew up. He was planning on leaving when he stumbled upon a Griffon who lost his rider/partner. Griffons and their partners form intense, telepathic, and emotional bonds. The loss of one or the other can cause madness. However, they are able to form a new bond and I absolutely love the relationship between Allokai and his Griffon. I think they need to be used more often in fantasy. You even get to see certain chapters from the Griffon’s point of view, and I really loved that.
I liked Allakoi as a character, and although the other POVs didn’t get as much page time, I thought that felt well fleshed out with their own “voices” and motivations, and their POVs contributed to the story. Speaking of voices, Allakoi has to deal with two different telepathic bonds, one to his aura, which speaks to him like a person, and the other to his Griffon. It doesn’t help that when his aura first “woke up” he was insane and speaking jibberish because he’d been asleep for so long. I think I’d go insane, but it was definitely an interesting POV to read about.
I think this book would appeal to Stormlight Archive fans. There are a lot of similarities between the different “auras” and the types of magic those auras can control. Everyone is supposed to have an aura of some kind. Auras have different levels of brightness and different colors depending on what kind of magic you’re connected to. There are auras that control things like light magic, which can weave visual deceptions, there are plant auras that can control nature/plants, storm auras that control the weather, etc. For just how much world-building there is, I’d say that most of it was delivered naturally, which is remarkable. As Allokai gains control of his aura, we do get a little bit of info dumping, but it makes sense in context since it’s all new to him.
This book follows Allakoi and his journey finding out what his aura means, what it means to be a Gatekeeper, and he has to try to survive as every dragon is trying to bond with him to take his body over to open the Gates, which have been shut. If the dragons manage to control Allakoi and open the Gates, the world as it is now would end, so the stakes are high throughout the book.
I enjoyed this book, finished it, and I’m halfway debating picking up the next book 🙂 I’d recommend it to epic fantasy fans, people who like a LOT of magic and world building, multi pov books, telepathic animal bonds, and overpowered magical characters.
This book is safe for now!