Unbound

Series: Songs of Chaos, #2

Author: Michael R. Miller

Genre: Fantasy

Book Description:

Sometimes the world needs a little chaos.

Holt and Ash saved the kingdom of Feorlen against all odds. Now they are outcasts, alone on an impossible quest to unite the Elder Dragons. But they are children playing in a game of Dragon Lords. Trapped between the riders, servants of Sovereign, and the scourge, even their luck cannot last forever. Their only hope is to advance their bond by any means necessary.

In Feorlen, Talia faces a world unaccepting of a rider queen. Her councilors will not heed her warnings of Sovereign. Foreign powers threaten war and bloodshed. Pleas sent to rider headquarters fall on deaf ears.

All the while, Sovereign regathers his strength in an ancient fortress. Enthralled cultists swell his ranks. Disillusioned riders flock to his cause.

And his unwilling servant Osric Agravain scours the land for dragon eggs. There are new types of magic to be discovered and Sovereign intends to control them all.

Only the mysterious half-dragon Rake has a plan to stop Sovereign. To pull it off, he’s going to need a team.

Review:

At first, my initial impression of Unbound was disappointment, but then I realized my expectations might have just been too high. I may have remembered Ascendant as more to my taste than it really was, and there is a lot that’s good about Unbound.

One of the things that really stood out is how Thrall – or Sovereign’s – mind control and relationship with Osric is treated. There’s a great deal of emphasis on Osric’s responsibility in the situation, as he realizes he can’t blame who he is and what he’s become on the dragon who’s enslaved him. I really enjoyed how that was done. In my opinion, Osric is a good example of a villain who’s villainy is not excused – but who may find redemption.

Never mind the fact that I’m well and truly sick of the “defeat mind control by interpreting the controller’s commands in a way that lets you defeat his purpose” trope, and this is a book that deals with that – mind control, to be specific – without leaning into that trope at all. None of that happens, anywhere, and when Holt comes face-to-face with Sovereign again, he finds the strength to resist him by holding to a discovery of who he is and what’s most important to him, no matter what. What can’t be taken from him.

I really, really liked that.

The development of the dragon bond continues to be a mixed thing. There’s continued emphasis on fighting and combat, but one gets to see that what seems to matter is something that’s not intrinsically related to combat. Something that’s often grown in fighting together, but is really about something else. Trust. I like that foundation for the bond.

But all the time, something really rings wrong to me about the way riders and dragons can block their bonds with feelings that are opposite to the bond. I don’t mind the fact they can do it, but it seems to me like it’s the kind of thing they should never do. The kind of thing that would regress the bond. And while it’s uncomfortable, that isn’t hinted. I’m also uncomfortable with some of the ways bonds can be broken, though it depends on how they’re built. Because it seems bonds can be built on different emotions.

Separately, some parts of the story really don’t make sense. For example, Holt is now an Ascendant, a rider with an enhanced body, so that means he has more endurance and speed and strength than any normal human. Yet he can’t run down a deer for Ash to eat, even though normal humans have often hunted by running down deer or similar animals. I liked the fact the story deals with the common tasks of life, but I didn’t enjoy the … ignorance.

I also found Rake … interesting. Some of the ways he treats Holt and Ash and what he asks of them – in the quest to become more powerful and advance their bond – seem wrong. Yet it’s quite interesting getting to know him more and see him struggle as a human being … or maybe a dragon being?

I continue to really like Holt and Ash. Their relationship is really sweet, and I really love their idealism. However, I felt like some of Holt’s character struggles in Unbound were a bit tacked on or arbitrary. Holt dives into, “I need to get more powerful, I need to get more powerful” in order to be able to save people better, and it seems like it might take him down some dark roads. I really enjoyed his interactions with Ash about this, and Rake definitely influences things in that direction, but it just didn’t quite feel genuine. It felt like that side of Holt’s struggles were magnified and blown up into something unnatural in order to get more “character development” out of it.

I won’t say all parts of Pyra and Talia’s journeys were fun, but they were definitely interesting. I really, really like Pyra, and I don’t know how her personality is so vivid. But one feels how her and Talia’s relationship has a bit less trust and openness to it, that the love between them is a little less pure. Talia’s concerns about appearing strong for her, about not disappointing her with weakness, are a world away from Ash and Holt’s openness. That makes Holt’s incredibly rapid advancement not feel forced or off.

There’s also a bard in Talia’s story. I won’t say everything about him because I don’t think it’s necessary and it would be a spoiler for those who don’t like them, but there’s a bard who’s very interesting. It seems there may be a good love story somewhere in there.

I think that’s all. Obviously, the same genre elements from Ascendant apply here, and have not changed much, but I don’t feel a need to repeat myself. If you want to jump into a series on the second book without even reading reviews of the first, I don’t feel like explaining everything.

Michael’s Website

Review for Book One (Ascendant)