Book Review: Unbound (Songs of Chaos, #2) by Michael R. Miller
Review copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review.
Cover art illustrated by Randy Vargas
Unbound by Michael R. Miller
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
eries: Songs of Chaos (Book #2 of 5)
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Progression Fantasy
Pages: 672 pages (Hardcover edition)
Published: 1st October 2021 by Monolith Books (Self-published)
Unbound is where Songs of Chaos truly transformed to a progression dragon rider epic fantasy series.
Dragon rider fantasy has returned to popularity in the year 2023. Most readers will link this resurgence to Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, Murtagh by Christopher Paolini, and hopefully The Bound and the Broken by Ryan Cahill. But I think readers will be missing out if they skip on Songs of Chaos series by Michael R. Miller. Especially if you’re a reader who loves reading progression fantasy. I cannot emphasize this highly enough. Many reviewers recommend readers to read Ascendant if they want to read something that reminds them of Eragon by Paolini. I am guilty of this myself, and I stand by my words. But it would be a mistake to blindly recommend that once you reached Unbound. The series has fully tapped into the progression fantasy aspect, and I honestly enjoyed Ascendant slightly more than Unbound because of that. However, that’s only a matter of my preference in dragon rider fantasy. The increased positive average ratings should speak enough for its quality among the fans.
“It is life, young one. Our true strength lies not in staving off suffering but in how we deal with it when the time comes.”
Unbound takes place immediately after the end of Ascendant. I will focus on our main duo first: Holt and Ash. Holt and Ash have a new and impossible mission to accomplish. To unite the Elder dragons. But they are trapped between the riders, Sovereign, and the scourge. They realize it is mandatory that they proceed to advance their bonds and power further and soon to achieve their goals. And Rake will make sure they succeed at this, no matter what danger they face. As I said, Unbound is a progression dragon rider fantasy. It is a different kind of book compared to its predecessor. Ascendant was more classic dragon rider fantasy with a progression fantasy aspect. Unbound is the reverse of it. Most of the first half of Unbound seeks to explore Holt and Ash’s training montage and advancement into a new level of power and bond. I imagine this training process will be an absolute delight to diehard fans of progression fantasy. Even in Cradle by Will Wight, a progression fantasy series I highly enjoyed, the training and advancement montage occasionally turned sluggish for me to read. And unfortunately, I encountered a similar experience in Unbound.
“That, my young friend, is the only thing more dangerous. To give in. An easy thing to do. In fact, it’s the easiest thing of all. So, sure, give up all hope in the face of adversity. Yet know that if you surrender yourself to that dark void, you will lose empathy and disconnect from anyone and anything you once cared about. If the world and those in it are so terrible, then why not allow the scourge to win? Why fight if nothing is worth fighting for?”
This isn’t to say the cooking and food elements weren’t well-written, though. The importance of food and recipes is one of the most distinct identities of Songs of Chaos as a dragon rider fantasy series. I had a great time reading how Miller integrated them into the story. That said, what I loved most about Ascendant is Holt and Ash. How they developed their bond. Their heart-to-heart conversation. This was missing in the first half of Unbound, and thankfully, I did finally get that once the narrative reached the second half of the novel. It goes without saying I ended up enjoying the remaining half of Unbound much more than the first half. If you are here, I assume you have seen the beautiful cover art illustrated by Randy Vargas, with Holt blindfolded riding Ash. Reading the scene in Unbound where Holt used a bandana to cover his sight was so good, and the gradual understanding they built for one another is done with heart.
However, the strength of Unbound doesn’t lie solely in Holt and Ash. Another main reason for my enjoyment is a new integral POV character Miller added: Osric Tagravain. In Ascendant, most of the narrative is told from the perspective of Holt. Miller decided to use three POV characters in Unbound, and I believe the addition of Osric’s POV chapters is necessary for the series. Here is the thing. It is pretty easy to tell who is the good and the bad guys in Songs of Chaos series. There is nothing wrong with that. Admittedly, I prefer more complexity and more morally grey characters and decisions. Osric Agravain provided that dynamic. His background and predicament shaped him into such an intriguing character, and in my honest opinion, he is the most complex POV character in the series so far. More than Holt and Ash, even if I loved reading about them more. But how could I resist reading a morally grey character who has to determine whether his harsh actions are fully controlled? The blacksmithing and forging of Vengeance and Spite in Osric’s chapters were well-written and well-researched. And the development he has with Sovereign and a specific shadow dragon was incredibly implemented for different reasons.
“The Elders seem above everyone and everything, but they’re just living, breathing beings like you and me. And I’ve found that all beings – whether dragon or human – find it impossible to get out of their own way. They have a set of beliefs about the world, about the people or dragons in it, about how things are and how they should be, and anything that counters those beliefs, whether it’s true or whether for good, doesn’t matter – they will resist it with every fiber of their being. Even to their own detriment. To change would be worse. To surrender one’s beliefs is to surrender much more.”
With all these praises said you might wonder what it is about Unbound that decreased my reading enjoyment. Well, I am sad to say this… Talia’s chapters in Unbound did not work with me. At all. For the majority of Unbound, the human politicking storyline in her chapters felt too long and almost unrelated to Holt and Osric’s conflict. The politics of the world strained the pacing, especially in the first half of Unbound. Additionally, the supporting and side characters introduced in Talia’s chapters never felt engaging enough for me to read. Definitely not when compared to Rake and the other characters in Holt and Osric’s POV chapters. As I write this review, I remember no one from Talia’s POV chapters except Talia herself and her dragon, Pyra. They were not memorable enough. I found Talia and Pyra’s scenes worked better when they were together with Holt and Ash in the same scene. That’s why the found family trope worked so well in Ascendant, but in Unbound, they were barely together in the same scene. I certainly liked the end result of Talia and Pyra’s story in Unbound; it’s just a shame the execution to get there sadly did not click with me. Not as much as I wanted to.
“You have to surrender your entire self in that case. You must start from scratch and rebuild yourself and how you view the world. That’s so hard to do. To voluntarily reduce oneself to ashes and then rise again. It’s because of that most choose to stand in the flames and burn.”
The journey of Holt and Ash is far from over. We are not even halfway through the five-book series yet. The intense focus on the progression fantasy training montage in the first half and Talia’s storyline did make me enjoy Unbound slightly less than Ascendant. But there is no doubt Unbound is still a great book. It felt like a crucial installment and foothold the series needed for the rest of Songs of Chaos to sing louder. If it had followed the same structure and progression Ascendant had, I do not think the series could last five books in total. Based on where the story ended for Holt and Ash, Osric and the Shadow Dragon, and Talia and Pyra, Defiant has all the potential to become the strongest installment in the series so far. And to find out the continuation of these character’s journey, I look forward to reading Defiant soon.
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