Plot: 4/5
The plot follows the main character, Calen Bryor, and various companions that he runs into. In addition, there are a few other POVs, which sometimes give snapshots elsewhere in the story away from Calen, but the main part of the story focuses on Calen. We see him preparing for a trial for all young men in his small village at the edge of the continent of Epheria, and then his life is thrown into upheaval with the arrival of some strangers to his small neck of the woods.

The plot features plenty of story beats that are both familiar and new, which leads to it being a rather comfortable read without feeling too predictable or overdone. There were definitely some moments I could predict, when the storylines became a bit too familiar, but this was not always bad as one of my predictions I was very excited to see happen. There were some storylines that felt like setup for following books more than they serviced the plot for this one, which led to those storylines feeling unnecessary and unsatisfying at the end of the book. That being said, they don’t take up much of the book, and they don’t interfere with the story all that much, so I ended up cruising on through because I was so invested in the story surrounding Calen.

The book wraps up leaving me very excited to see what will be happening next, with the main story having a solid arc to follow.

Characters: 3/5
The characters developed well through the story, and each moment you spent with a character helped to deepen them and give them more personality. Even a few that were only seen for a few moments, we were able to learn and understand them quickly, and they felt three dimensional. I thought this was really well done, and the relationships between characters was a strong part of the book, especially for the characters that had existing bonds prior to when the story started.

Unfortunately, one of my biggest complaints for this book is the lack of women in it. At one point the main party consists of seven men and no women, and the only women in the book tend to be more passive or have very little “screen” time (page time?) compared to the men, even when only focusing on side characters since the main character is male. Even the glimpses we have at another character, her storyline is rather passive through the entire book. I am hoping future books will be able to modify this moving forward. With a few strong women characters, I think this would have been one of the stronger parts of the book.

Worldbuilding: 4/5
Similar as with the plot, the worldbuilding tends to feel like a solid mix of familiar and new. The history of the world is very intriguing to me, and I’m excited to learn more about the various races and cultures. The races stretch more into the familiar, as we see and hear about the basic fantasy creatures: Uraks (which feel like a kind of orc), Giants, Dwarves, Elves, Dragons, etc. I don’t mark this against the book at all, the cultures and histories for the races are interested, even if the form is familiar. One of my favorite elements of the worldbuilding is Epheria being almost literally split in two, making the travel between them difficult. I thought it created an interesting dynamic on the politics, travel, and cultures that formed within the book.

One downfall is the magic system feels to have slipped a little too far into familiar. It feels very similar to the magic system in The Wheel of Time, and I would have liked to see it separated a little more so from its inspiration. With everything else engaging enough, and with the few nuances that help differentiate it from Wheel of Time’s channeling, I did not feel that this ended up being too distracting after my first few glimpses at it.

Writing: 3/5
There are moments within the writing that can remind me that it’s a debut novel, such as a few cliché phrases, or overuse of certain phrases, but even with those I thought the writing was really well done. Everything was clear, the pacing was good, and overall, nothing really stuck out as distracting or jarring. Emotional moments were written well, which helped improve the scenes where they were necessary. If this is the minimum of writing quality, then that’s fantastic and I’m excited to see the stories to come.

The pacing for the book begins slow, but this is by no means a negative. It lets you settle into the characters, get to know them and their relationships, while not bogging down with too much. There’s plenty of action throughout the story that kept it entertaining, and never really felt like a drag.

Enjoyability: 5/5
This book was such an exciting and fun adventure, I enjoyed every bit of it while I devoured it. It felt familiar without feeling derivative of other works, it had some fun and interesting takes, and I lost myself in the world and its characters. The few flaws that can be found were outshined by all the pros. The best compliment I can give this book is that the minute I finished reading Of Blood and Fire, I ordered book two and pre-ordered a physical copy of The Exile, a related novella. So I’m invested in this world and ready to delve back into it soon!

OVERALL: 4/5 Dragon Eggs