Review: The Sunset Sovereign: A Dragon's Memoir by Laura Huie

The dragon sighed, smoke dissipating out of its mouth. It lowered its head, chuckling. Large rings wafted out and then a stream of smoke filled the low area. It was going to smoke her out.—Chap 1

Blurb:

When a dragon finds an assassin sneaking into his lair, he tells her of his life's work and his soon to be final chapter.

For the past thousand years, the dragon Vakandi has watched the people of Vakfored grow from a wandering band of refugees to a glorious city of art and magic. Under his protection, the city has survived monsters, floods, and wars all without building an army, dam, or even a wall. But time changes everything and now the citizens of his beloved city want him dead.

Vakandi spends his last day telling his assassin why he loves them, and why it's his time to die.

Review:

Style

The story-within-a-story narrative of this book is what first drew me to it. It reminded me a bit of a trad favourite: Interview with the Vampire. But let’s replace the vampire with a dragon! How cool does that sound!

I think the author did an amazing job at sharing this beautiful story. The pacing was perfect, giving me nice and comforting moments, ‘aww’ times where I wanted to hug the dragon, and a few occasions where I would have been standing there staring in awe. We go from cozy and cute and then get hit with adventure over the head and the dangers around a growing culture.

Laura did an absolutely amazing job with balancing those out, giving the reader time to breathe between the action and enjoy and stories told. I will also forgive her for making me tear up on a few occasions, but hey - the story got told in a beautiful way and the message was clear!

Now, there was an iffy moment at an early point due to some stylistic and grammar choices. I’ve seen a few reviews and my own thoughts during the beta reading phase of this book included a mention that stylistic changes within the story could have made it stronger. We could have had the stories the dragon told to be in first person or they were in past tense and the rest in present, but I appreciate that the author didn’t do that! I am not a fan of reading first-person stories and present tense only confuses me sometimes, though I do understand these are some things other readers may have mentioned or suggested. For me, this is what made the immersion into the story easier. It could have been done differently, but the way it was done was just right with my own tastes and reading preferences.

Story

The story itself was something that I’ve thought about and discussed with friends and family many times: how much has the history we know today changed from the reality? It is a question that bothers me and keeps me up at night sometimes.

In this book, Laura was able to show the readers exactly how things change. We are looking at the history of an entire culture within the city of Vakfored from its inception to what is considered present day. I still get goosebumps when I think of some of the stories that Vakandi, our amazing dragon, told.

Since we start off the story in the present day, we start it off with thinking of this dragon as the horrible monarch ruling over the city of Vakfored. And you have to wonder both how he came to be there and how he came to be this overlord. And as we join in from Sisal’s point of view, it makes sense for us to question: why is this dragon offering her soup!?

But as each story progresses, we get to learn that this isn’t just some dragon hoarding his gold and stealing from the citizens. The hints throughout (including the familiarity between the names of Vakandi and Vakfored) tie up into a beautiful story. We learn the truth about the dragon and then we learn how he became the evil monster in the mountains we know in the present day.

Lovely story with a really good lesson!

Characters

For me, personally, this is the first time I’m reading a book with a dragon (not shifter) as a main character and from their point of view. It was interesting to see how Vakandi views the passage of time and how time itself views and moves around him. He was a pleasure to get to know and Laura’s writing made me question on a few occasions whether I would want to get close enough to those huge teeth and claws for a hug or not.

Sisal herself, to me, was the reader. We enter this story from her point of view and are prepared to slay the monster. As a pure of heart character that has some not so pure thoughts sometimes, she feels more realistic to me than many heroes that go off to slay a dragon. We get to see her fight and listen and fight some more and listen some more. The way the story progresses for Sisal is very similar to how it progresses as a reader - as we start learning more and more of history from another point of view (one that has been there) we start to understand.

While Vakandi was amazing, I do have to admit that Sisal’s struggles with her beliefs had a very familiar and realistic feel. We get to see her fight not only the dragon but herself and what she has known all her life and that inner struggle is so well placed and shown through both internal and external actions on her part.

And while there were other amazing characters, I’m going to focus on just one more. This may be a strange one to mention but for me, the city of Vakfored was a character. To me, it felt like we lived through Vakfored’s lifespan, from its inception as a baby that needs to be nurtured and loved, to the curious child, the rebellious teenager, the young adult who knows better, and beyond. We get to see this city grow and learn what it’s like to live both with and without a parent, and what it means to do both.

“What magic is in this? It’s the richest broth I have ever had.”
“No magic. Only time. All good things are made with time.”
“You are a dragon with endless time.”
Vakandi chuckled. “With that logic, then I must be very good.”—Chap 3

PS. Although I’m not a parent myself, I understand why so many parents would love this story too. The way the dragon treats the citizens of his city is very familiar in the sense of telling your kids to pick up their toys, clean up after themselves, think for themselves… It reminds me of some of the conversations I still, to this day, have with my parents.