Alright I get it, it's starting to heat up. The next arc is supposed to be the real start to the series so I'm pumped 🤘🏻

Phoenix Rises Dragon Soars certainly doesn’t feel like it is a debut, it’s an intriguing story told from multiple POVs to give it that epic fantasy feel and avoids some common pitfalls in the process. It explores some heavy themes with the delicate but vividly descriptive prose required to really nail that grimdark feel of high stakes and emotionally charged moments. It also has one hell of an interesting pair of protagonist and a yearning romantic subplot to really bring it all together earning this a 4.0/5.

The real star of Phoenix Rises Dragon Soars is not that the magic system is incredibly cool, high stakes, and shrouded in a bit of mystery. It’s not the rich cultural world Saulter has built, with an epic but still intimate feel, nor is it the interesting overall arc and intrigue that she’s built with her ending. The standout of this novel is the characters, and while they’re all interesting and well fleshed out, Longwei was the most memorable for me. His story is so tragic and his internal struggle with trying to become a better person while still maintaining his identity was incredible. The empathy I had for him was on another level, every time he would slip up or make a decision for the wrong reasons and then have to face the consequences made his character feel so viscerally real and human.

Full in-depth review can be found at BroMantasy.com.

Such a wild opening, I had no idea that Manga got Grimdark. This might end up being a new obsession 😅