Last Dragon Standing

Overall, this is probably the most fun I've had reading this year. There were so many laugh out moments over the series. Additionally, I enjoyed the author's exploration of forgiveness and personal autonomy. In particular, I was impressed by the portrayal of Julius and Marci's relationship. At no point did the narrative place Julius' desire to have Marci safe over her own wishes to develop into a powerful mage (I know this is a spectacularly low bar, but in my experience, very few novels manage to pass it). Their relationship was supportive and respectful and I loved its development.

However, I have a few niggles that stop this from being five stars:
Firstly, I think a lot of emphases is placed on the power of forgiveness and the importance of talking things out. While I appreciated that, I think that not enough attention is giving to holding people accountable for their actions. Over and over again Julius' preaches forgiveness in place of violence but he makes no mention of any other type of accountability. In my opinion, forgiveness and accountability go hand in hand. You should ideally not have one without the other.

The last point is one of personal preference. The Quetzalcoatl and the Qilin were based on Aztec and Chinese mythology respectively and I would have liked the book to delve deeper into their origins and the mythology surrounding them. It would have been amazing to read.

But despite those small issues I had such a blast reading this series.