4 out of 4 stars
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Becoming the Dragon is the first in the The Dragon Inside series of novels. The main character of the series is Andy, a 16-year-old boy who lives a fairly standard teenage life with his parents and two sisters...aside from that one time he got struck by lightning and subsequently lost the ability to be around computers without causing them to inexplicably freeze up.
One day Andy suddenly finds himself zapped into a completely new environment; a world of fantasy and magic, dragons, orcs, elves, and mages, as well as all sorts of creatures beyond his imagination. His life quickly becomes more complicated as the dangers of this new world catch up to him, and he soon finds himself in a very bad state—the only way he can be saved is by undergoing the extreme, and possibly fatal, magical process of being reborn as a dragon.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is how well the author handles some of the biggest challenges of writing good fantasy: the quality and immersive nature of the world-building. As in, how well the author answers questions like, “who lives in this world, how are they unique, and what are their lives like?” and how easily the reader is able to put themselves into a environment they’ve never seen. The author of Becoming the Dragon, Alex Sapegin, is a master of this skill, and quickly makes you feel at home in the vibrant new world he introduces in this novel—without getting overly bogged down in descriptions.
Along with the well-built environment, the story is engaging, and I enjoyed the balance that it struck between focusing on the perspective of the main character, Andy, and giving glimpses of the larger story that’s being built in the world around him. What this ends up creating is a dynamic where the book is fun to read on its own merit, but you also want to get your hands on the other books in the series because there’s clearly a grander narrative in the works.
The biggest problem I had with the story was that there were multiple transient female romantic interests that, unlike most of the characters, felt shallow and more objectified than was really helpful to the story. There’s one odd scene early in the book where a character is introduced for no other reason than to inject breasts and a clumsily-written sexual response to them into the story. It felt very out of place.
However, there is a good balance of male and female characters throughout the story and no lack of strong female protagonists and antagonists, so the stilted romantic aspect is more an outlier than it is the pattern of how women are generally represented in the book, and as such it’s quite forgivable.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because it’s a compelling story in a believable (while still fantastic) setting, with relatable characters who keep the action personal. In addition, it’s translated and edited well; I only spotted a couple of errors. I would recommend Becoming the Dragon to any lover of fantasy, provided you can handle a couple of paragraphs of awkward innuendo.
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Becoming the Dragon
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when I get a little money I buy books; and if I have any left l buy food and clothes
