Dragon Rider

 By: Taran Matharu

Location: FIC MAT

Genre: DRAGONS!! EPIC FANTASY

Series: Soulbound Saga #1

Cover art !!! So good!

From the ashes of an empire, a hero will rise…

Jai has spent his life forced to serve the cruel empire that killed his family and now rules his people.

To grow ever more powerful, the emperor’s young son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom. An unconquerable realm, where ancient beasts roam. The princess brings with her a priceless gift: dragons. Only Dansk Royalty can bond with these magical beasts to draw on their power and strength. Until now.

When the betrothal goes wrong, a bloody coup leads to chaos at court. Finally, Jai has a chance to escape. He flees with a fierce Dansk warrior, Frida, but not before stealing a dragon egg.

To vanquish the empire, he must do the impossible: bond with a dragon. Only then he can seize his destiny, and seek his revenge …

An epic new fantasy, where dragons fly and empires fall.

Rachel reviews it this way

What an absolutely amazing ride this was!

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that a lot of new releases in the fantasy genre have been lacking in terms of the writing quality - Dragon Rider was a much needed reminder for me of why I adore this genre.

Dragon Rider was an EPIC adventure of survival, friendships, learning to love unconditionally, betrayal and self discovery. This world has some of the most complex and believable politics I’ve seen in the fantasy genre in a long time with a beautifully complex history that we are getting to see glimmers of (I love it when a world has been this well developed and it’s clear there are just a myriad of untold stories in this world already).

We enter this world when the Sabine Empire has dominated the majority of the continent and is set to bring the last defiant country into the empire through marriage rather than the savage and brutal war and subjugation of people it has previously used to conquer the continent.

In steps Jai, our MC, and a really enjoyable MC at that. He’s not perfect, he’s not all knowing or all powerful, but neither is he completely stupid or useless - he’s believable and I absolutely bought into him as our MC. Jai is the third son of the late leader of the Steppefolk who died trying to fight the empire. Which basically means Jai was important enough to be living in the palace but not so important that he has any power or standing at all really. Jai’s primary role is that of carer for the previous emperor - the man who killed his own father. Matharu showed us the many layers of their complex dynamic beautifully and this was something I felt was really well done throughout - relationships were allowed to be complex and flawed.

I’ve seen a couple of people mention that the opening chunk is a little slow - and it is. BUT, I didn’t mind that in the slightest, and I actually think the pacing was a really important element here. This is a detailed and well built world and there needed to be a slower opening to allow us to find our feet in this world. I also feel like the pacing perfectly reflected how Jai’s world turned upside down so suddenly and his quiet, albeit deeply unhappy, life overnight became action filled as he toed the line of survival and ruin.

I also loved that Matharu didn’t skip over the magic system or the complexities of this world - he did a great job teaching us about the magic system as Jai learnt it and I thought the references to the past were just expertly interwoven here.

I can’t believe I have to wait for the next installment now as I just need to know more! If you’re up for an epic high fantasy read with a fascinating world and a solid plot PLEASE give this a read as I am desperate for someone I can talk to about this one!!