I've never actually read it before, only ever seen it in plays and movies, so when I saw it available to listen to I thought why the hell not. It was a cute little companion that required no critical thinking while I played cozy games 😌

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Rob Inglis, and he did a stellar job of capturing that magical, whimsical wizard feeling. Sure some characters had silly voices, but this was a rare occasion that the story greatly benefitted from. It truly felt comforting, like I was a kid again, watching a play at primary school.

However, I am an adult. A woman, and a feminist too. Therefore it has to be remarked upon how little women are in this book however. I noticed about 5 hours in that there was no girls at all, just a quick mention of mothers and wives. I know, different time and all that, but that doesn't mean we should ignore a glaringly obvious red flag. It started to really annoy me, and severely impacted my enjoyment unfortunately. So if child me did in fact watch this play, it would have taught her that women are secondary and only boys can have adventures. it really is that deep, as much as I wish it wasn't.

So I really liked the premise of this book! The dragon genre is overrun with white / Eurocentric culture, so something set in the islands with a bit more melanin sounded perfect.

However, I fear it fell into the same tone of cheesiness that fourth wing did. In fact, it reads very very similar to that series. We end up at dragon military school with a class of friends, colours of the dragons determine their top trump score ect. It all feels very... unnatural and tiered. Perhaps those are just really not my style of dragon story. The dragons feel secondary in what ends up being a story mostly focused on the relationships of the human characters, and if you're anything like me, I would rather that be reversed. The pacing also felt like two or three books mashed into one, with chapters condensed down into section that maybe should have had more time.

I think overall, if you like light-hearted fantasy, this wil be good for you. If you want something with a bit more grit, it's not what you're looking for.