Review: Ascendant by Michael R. Miller

Blurb:

Holt Cook was never meant to be a dragon rider. He has always served the Order Hall of the Crag dutifully, keeping their kitchen pots clean.

But then he discovers a dark secret: dragons do not tolerate weakness among their kin, killing the young they deem flawed. Moved by pity, Holt defies the Order, rescues a doomed egg and vows to protect the blind dragon within.

But the Scourge is rising. Undead hordes roam the land, spreading the blight and leaving destruction in their wake. The dragon riders are being slaughtered and betrayal lurks in the shadows.

Holt has one chance to survive. He must cultivate the mysterious power of his dragon's magical core. A unique energy which may tip the balance in the battles to come, and prove to the world that a servant is worthy after all.

Review:

As one typically does when they see dragons on a book cover anywhere, they’re interested in the idea that’s being sold. And over these four months that make up 2024, I’ve read three authors' unique take on varying ideas of dragon riders. That idea itself has been around since the Pern series that started in 1967, but each of these books took the idea to a different level. I’ve already reviewed Ratliffs Elmerïan Chronicles (read them here) and there are reviews building in my head for Cahills ``The Bound and the Broken'' series. Today though, I’d like to talk about Michael R. Miller’s book “Ascendant'' and how it played around with the idea of, instead of Orcs or Uraks, bugs being the main evil with rogue riders being a close second. Within this world of dragons and bugs, there are many things veiled within shadows, and this book, being the first of the series, brings you slowly into the groove of things with a person you wouldn’t think would be the main character of a high fantasy adventure, the son of a cook.

Without further ado, to what this book pulled off well.

First of all, the characters within “Ascendant”. After reading through the blurb, you kind of meet Holt Cook, but not really. All the blurb gives us is Holt’s determination. That’s not the whole of it. He has his flaws, his issues and most importantly, a strong urge to help others. He acts his age, is juvenile at times with his actions and is as much a danger to himself and his friends as he is to the Scourge due to his lack of experience. But throughout the book, he learns and grows with his knowledge, while leaving you wanting for more of his character development in the later books. Then, the other characters. As much as they are side characters to the main story of Holt’s journey, each one has their own subplot moving about, fleshing out their character development and helps give us, the readers, more lore to play around with as we read. Lastly, the Scourge. Although technically not an individual character, they are Bugs that can raise the dead. All I can say about those things is that they go from terrifying to mildly disturbing to barely a thought back to terrifying again each time the Scourge gets encountered.

After that, the lore within this world. The Devil’s in the details, as some might say. Without saying too much, I can say that the amount of attention to detail, the amount of work put into making everything seem alive, is great. Everything has its place but it didn’t feel overwhelming. 

Then, the magic system. This system, as it is, is quite something. Each dragon has their core of magic, which they can add magic too, but it also needs to be cleaned, which they’re able to do themselves, albeit very, very slowly. Here, the riders jump in. They’re able to wield the dragon’s magic as their own but in exchange, they clean and add magic to the cores far faster than a dragon could ever achieve should they be alone in the wilds. Also, each dragon and dragon rider can level up. ‘Tis not a video game, but still, with each new rank of power earned by adding enough magic and cleaning the core enough times, the dragon and rider both grow in power. Whereas the dragon just gets more magic, the humans bonded get even more from it. Without revealing too much, if one of the higher ranked riders got placed in a room with several Sherman tanks, I’m betting on the rider to walk out of the whole thing with nary a scratch. Just as well, considering the bugs have their own magic and necromancy that can rip apart any non-magically enhanced humans that are not prepared. 

Lastly, to what made this book even more interesting, the plot. While some things seemed obvious, other parts less so. As much as I want to go into a ton of detail as to why that is so, that would be taking the fun out of the book. To keep this short and within the bounds of not spoiling the book, it goes something along the lines like this:

Holt ends up with a dragon he has no right to have, shenanigans ensue, somewhere in there more shenanigans ensue, with a teaser for what is to come at the very end. 

Now, to what I didn’t like about “Ascendant”. It’s difficult to say, perhaps the only gripe I can raise about it is that it left out some lore about some of the side characters. Yet, in hindsight, having read the other two books in the series, and the amount of time those side characters got to flesh out their stories as well as Holt with those next two books, it’s a minor gripe that doesn’t mean much.

All in all, if you want dragons, order, chaos and absolute betrayal every once and a while, alongside feeling the victorious high of smashing bugs into paste, I’d toss you this book.

As always, if you’ve gotten to this part of the review, thank you for reading it and I hope I’ve helped you along finding your next read. If this book doesn’t seem much of interest to you, but you want to read more dragon books, I’d recommend you check out Konstances review of “The Sunset Sovereign” here or Phil Parkers review of “Order of the Shadow Dragon” over here. If you want to check out reviews for books in other Science Fiction or Fantasy Genres, you’ve come to the right place. We here have a plethora of reviews for you to look through, and we’d be delighted if we helped you with finding your next read!

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening or goodnight!