The Last Namsara

(Iskari #1)

3.5 stars, actually

This tale of Asha, a King’s daughter who got burned by a legendary dragon (and somehow caught her city on fire too? That part remained unclear to me)and became a dragon hunter to make up for it, was fine.

No issues really with the writing. There’s a believable beta hero I quite liked who made decisions in his own best interest, Asha is pleasingly comfortable with armor and weapons and doesn’t wait around for others to save her.

They wear kaftans and words like “Namsara” and “Iskari” which made it sound vaguely middle eastern. And there’s dragons. And dragon riding, so you know, my inner adolescent was pleased.

But…..I’m not going to go on with the series. I got a bit bored by Asha’s insistence throughout the first two thirds of the book she had to go find Kozu the legendary dragon and take his head to redeem herself…and then pretty much not do it. There’s her initial trauma of being burned by a dragon and turning the city against her that is not well explained, so lingering hate directed at her felt forced. And then there’s a bunch of “rules” like “whoever kills a king has to die” that is never tied into any supernatural force or whatnot, so that the obvious solution of having a rebel kill a king and then just …not execute himself seemed oddly overlooked.

Anyway, it was fine, but not really my cup of tea despite the dragons.