{"id":815,"date":"2024-01-15T06:55:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T22:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/?p=815"},"modified":"2026-02-08T02:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T10:33:04","slug":"review-ascendant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/15\/review-ascendant\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Ascendant \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Title<\/strong>: Ascendant
<\/a>Series:<\/strong> Book 1 of Songs of Chaos
Author: <\/strong>Michael R. Miller<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A dragon rider story about a cook\u2019s apprentice and his blind dragon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/strong><\/td>Cons<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Easy prose<\/td>The Order sucks<\/td><\/tr>
Dragons!<\/td>On the larger end than I prefer (500+ pages)<\/td><\/tr>
Wraps up nicely, while still leaving room for new stories<\/td>I can\u2019t think of anything else<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Story:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holt Cook, a young cook\u2019s apprentice, is enamored with dragons and dragon riders until he finds out the weaker ones are destroyed as eggs. He\u2019s ordered to destroy a defective egg, but can\u2019t bring himself to do it. Instead, he steals the egg and hides it away until it hatches into Ash\u2014a blind dragon. Holt and Ash form a bond and overcome obstacles others think impossible for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2014Ascendant, Chapter 13<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I read Ascendant, I reread Eragon. There are many similarities between the two books, even though Ascendant is a more recent telling of the dragon rider story. Ascendant hits all the necessary beats of a dragon rider story, from the young dragon rider obtaining his dragon to the rider and dragon defeating an evil foe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fell in love with the characters from the start. For a young man\u2014barely sixteen\u2014Holt isn\u2019t whiny, angry, or emotional like I\u2019ve come to expect of characters of his age. He\u2019s kind, if impulsive, and loves his dragon unconditionally. Holt continues being Holt over the course of the story, but he does learn some lessons along the way that make him a better person.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story kept me wanting more as I turned every page. I\u2019d often find myself reading way into the night, wanting just one more chapter before I went to bed. The ending was satisfying\u2014though I won\u2019t be spoiling it here. It wrapped up the story while leaving plenty open for the following books to cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prose is contemporary and modern without any flowery words. I don\u2019t honestly have a preference for either side, but I loved the way this book was written simply and easy to read while still conveying the story well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt ready for an adventure at the end of the book. I want more, and I can\u2019t wait to read the rest of the series!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rating: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes dragon rider stories, or needs more of a dragon fix in their life. It\u2019s a great follow-up to books like Eragon<\/a> and The Relic Bond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: AscendantSeries: Book 1 of Songs of ChaosAuthor: Michael R. Miller A dragon rider story about a cook\u2019s apprentice and his blind dragon Pros Cons Easy prose The Order sucks Dragons! On the larger end than I prefer (500+ pages) Wraps up nicely, while still leaving room for new stories I can\u2019t think of anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,45],"tags":[86,84,83,87],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reviews","tag-5-5","tag-ascendant","tag-books","tag-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",625,430,false],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",625,430,false],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",625,430,false],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",581,400,false],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",600,413,false],"post_slider_layout_square":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",600,413,false],"full":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg",625,430,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ascendant-e1729914486532.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}