Of Sand and Snow

Of Sand and Snow by Bryce O'Connor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The fifth installment of author Bryce O’Connor’s The Wings of War series, with fictitious quotes preceding each chapter similar to the Dune books, opens with Serys unloading his traveling companions from a wagon, talking about “the Monster” Raz I’Syul Arro and his military might. An area known as the Under Caves receives mention as well, and serves as an important origin point for a plot twist later on through the book. The anthropomorphic dragon-like atherian Raz surveys his troops, and wages regular battle against his enemies alongside the magician Syrah Brandt.

Gains and losses regularly occur on both sides of the war, with occasional trade among nations discussed by their leaders, political and military. Raz ultimately discovers the truth of his birth, and mountains known as the Crags prove pivotal in the movement of forces throughout the conflict. The Dragon further fears civil incursion among his own forces, and his enemies have a magician among them as well known as Lazura, whose past the author explores in the final chapters. She and her antagonist sorceress Syrah engage in a pivotal conflict towards the end of the novel, after which Lazura seeks the support of the Seven Cities.

All in all, despite the presence of anthropomorphic dragon characters, which I tend to appreciate alongside anthropomorphs of other species, races, and such, I didn’t enjoy the latest book in The Wings of War as much as a remembered having appreciated the series during my original readthrough, and I’ll admit I somewhat had trouble following the action and jargon native to the literary franchise such as šef, which I assume is an exotic form of “chief” and tried to make sense of searching the internet. Those who enjoyed the book’s predecessors will likely have a good experience with the fifth entry, although I probably won’t go through the books again once further installments release.

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