Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

In this story which brings elements of Mulan and Asian mythology/astrology, I thoroughly enjoyed following Eon on the journey to self discovery.

The plot was super good. The world building not that complex and complicated. Familiarity with the Chinese zodiac signs might help but not necessary. A lot of elements of Asian inspired mythology and the setting was also well done and fit the story well. Throughout the story, you follow Eon as she tries to hide her true identity, at the same time trying to please her household and achieving success in becoming the Dragoneye.

The characters are well written and you quickly start to identify your favorites. I took a liking to Lady Dela and Ryko. Their loyalty and their willingness to help Eon to help adjust to higher society and to palace living played a large role throughout the book. Eon is likable albeit frustrating at times, but she's got a good character and a good heart for her friends.

Ending does leave off on a semi cliffhanger. I hope the sequel will live up to this one as it sets the bar high. Those wanting a good fantasy YA with Asian elements and magic should dive into this one. ( )

A solid 'meh' of a book.

The book opens incredibly, incredibly slowly, with barriers and challenges thrown at a character before we know or care about her. Eona is a 16yo girl posing as a 12yo boy, and has a debilitating hip injury. She has been trained for years as a possible partner for a Rat Dragon, due to the fact that she inherited the special ability to see all dragons. Many candidates are presented, but only one are chosen. If you are getting Pern vibes from this, you are not alone. The candidates must go through a ceremony in which they present themselves through combat/katas. There's multiple agonizing chapters about how she can't do the Mirror Dragon Reverse Kick 2 because of her hip and needs permission to do the Horse Dragon Second Sequence whatever. Here's the thing: it doesn't matter. The ceremony is drastically changed without warning and the Bad Guy™ cheats, so its a long, involved series of hang-wringing that felt like it had no point.

Wait, I take it back. The book opens with a completely unnecessary infodump on the world that explains things the characters are going to explain (multiple times) in the novel itself ("The Dragon Dragon has been gone for hundreds of years. Also, women are terrible.") and identifies the McGuffin ("It is rumoured, however, that a black book still exists that tells of the violent beginning, and predicts a catastrophic end of the ancient alliance.") before we even get the story started.

Some good points about the book:
-It surprised me twice.
-It has a two-souled/trans/intergender character that is strong and developed beyond a token or stereotype.

Some negative points:
-Eona is the stupidest motherfucker alive and I kinda agree with Ido that she's too dumb to live. Everything is telegraphed SO HARD and SO EARLY that I spent the majority of the book impatient and aggravated for Eona to realize the obvious. She dances around it so much in her head that it doesn't even make sense for her not to realize it. She's unfathomably obtuse not because of the story or context or characterization, because if she was as strong/smart/observant/desperate as she is portrayed in everything else, the plot would be broken not even halfway through the book.

-The world is bland and flavorless. Putting Asian trappings on a fantasy novel instead of medieval European ones isn't enough. The world building wasn't really there. It didn't feel like a place. It didn't feel like it had moving parts that made sense and fit together. It didn't feel like it had a complex culture. It felt like someone did a Replace function of King with Emperor and Castle with Palace and Knights of the Round Table with Dragoneye and called it a day. Its cheap and lazy.

-Characters explaining things to each other that all the characters involved already knew and understood.

-There is no way that a man would not recognize women script as women's script, especially one researching the script as avidly and for as long as Ido has. Again, being stupid for the sake of plot. He may not be able to read it, but he'd still recognize it for what it is.

-Barring two surprises mentioned above (which were really small twists in the big picture of the story), I predicted everything that occurred in the novel, hundreds of pages in advance. Its an incredibly formulaic book.

-The hip injury didn't seem to be well-supported by the book. Eona's master breaks her hip with a hammer, in a beating so savage she nearly dies. The idea is that, as a cripple, she is an untouchable and no one will be able or interested in seeing her body, thus facilitating the ruse. However, later, they use the claim that she is a eunuch to achieve the same end (they actually invent that story because the hip injury is apparently inadequate to keep people from peeping). So...why not start with that as plan A? Or just have the hip injury be a genetic defect or accident? Having her master maim her made less sense.

-The completely unnecessary attempted rape. Ido is a one-dimensional, entirely evil supervillain that has been assassinating people, beating people, drugging children, etc. He is threatening Eona with bodily harm, exposure, and slavery, and, when he discovers she's female, immediately moved to attempted rape. Now, I'm not one to say you can't write about disturbing shit. But, if you are going to include heavy stuff like rape, it should serve the plot. It should be treated seriously. This felt like a throwaway idea to make sure we knew how bad a person Ido was. We also have Eona's master, who has crippled her, berated her, manipulated her, enslaved her, etc. copping a feel as if the massive age and power difference or history between the two doesn't make it squicky and coerced as all hell.

-The climactic battle culminates in Eona giving Ido the Care Bear Stare. From what I've heard, this turns the violent rapist into a love interest in the sequel. ( )

http://teensniper.tumblr.com/post/48890412468/150-books-in-2013-39 ( )

Det var egentlig ikke fordi, Eon var en dårlig bog. Den var spændende, med interessante personer og en fed verden selvom den til tider er skrevet lidt tungt. Alligevel dræbte den fuldstændig min læselyst og jeg måtte hive mig igennem den første halvdel. Slutning var ret god og jeg fortsætter direkte til den næste bog med et håb om at den ikke har samme effekt på min lyst til at læse! ( )

Good read! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the arc so I can review this for YAFantasyGuide.com. As with all "epic fantasy" novels, it isn't whether we can read what the author telegraphs us in advance (no spoilers, but if you read this and don't see some things coming, bah!) - but its the anticipation and reveal that makes it worth it. Certainly a worthy read.