Do you bleed? aka The Rage of Dragons thoughts
Tau
my baby angel boi
my sad angry boi (mostly angry)
my dedicated boi
and the friends we made along the way
and the bloodshed
The audiobook narrator is GOATED; he can simultaneously make a character sound coldblooded and make other characters sound so warm it's so GOOD 11/10 recommend
I finished this book in 2.5 days, that's WILD
SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT BITCH
Ok so I think when it comes to characters, I connect with characters who have lost parents (not to beat the horse with a stick but I lost my mom to cancer in 2022 so I get REALLY emotional when characters lose their parents because I can summon that grief in a moment and recall that feeling of her being gone)
So when Tau's dad is brutally killed and Tau holds him in his arms and vows revenge on everyone involved I'm like
go off king, i support you 10,000,000,000,000,001%
But him also being claustrophobic? relatable
I also really loved how devoted he was. I'm someone who's all in or not at all and his obsessive devotion to becoming a weapon was so overwhelming and relatable.
DUAL WEILD BITCH shink shink shink shink shink
(Im always dual wielding daggers in video games if I can so when he starts fighting with two blades i SCREAMMMMEDDD)
UDUAK
I loved him. For a character who doesn't talk a whole lot, I really found him to be a moving character. Why? I think I like protector/defender characters. AND the narrator made his voice so sweet and deep and warm. When he said "Well met, Tau Solarin" and it SOUNDED like he was smiling warmly and they embraced?
PFFFFFfff bitch my lower lip trembled
And at the end when Zuri was nuked off the world (jfc I didn't think she was going to die what a TWIST!!!! ESP AFTER SHE JACKED HIM OFF LIKE A DOMINATRIX IN THE TUB AND THEY FUCKED BRO!!!! I thought she would be like, his reason to live and fight when it got bad in later books but nope Mr. Winter said YEEET) Tau was wailing his grief and Uduak was holding him and shushing him and I was like OOF this right here is a great character. I love Uduak. He's my favorite side character along with Themba, a man with situational awareness on 100% and also -100%.
Jiyaad was cool but...*smiles but cries*
Kellen is fine because he doesn't REALLY want to kill and be a dick and I think I see MAYBE what the author is trying to do. Either he and Tau will be a characters that have grudging respect for each other and even eventually protect one another one day or they'll be like best friends.
I also have a weird tingly feeling about Kana, the hedeni warlord's (what was that guy's name...? Achak I think) son. He seemed intrigued by Tau the moment he met him so either that will be a great dynamic or Tau will be miserable more miserable.
It's on fucking sight with Abasi Odili like WTF bro. Peace was actually going to happen but because ThE OdEHi doN'T SuRRenDeR now we're gunna be at a war and our entire people wiped out, ok ok ok cool cool just so I understand properly
ALSOOOOOO the African inspired cultural aspect was so so GOOD. I've rarely seen it in the fantasy genre and it was AMAZING. The characters and the terminology and how they spoke was just
The concept of Isihogo is INSANE. It's like...a spiritual world...? But if you don't pull power from it, even if the demons rip you apart you're fine irl but you may become demon-haunted. Which Tau...kind of is but just like, ignores it despite being terrified. Because my man does not QUIT. He literally is like "I'm gunna go ahead and train in this realm because I need to be better than I am with my swords and time passes slower and it'll help me with feeling pain as I get torn to shreds and with fear as I face immortal demons" and I'm like
Why do I also have a feeling that one huge spiky one is like....a demon king or something...? Tau was like "lol I'm here now so you gunna kill me bro?" after he took in power so Zuri wouldn't be killed and the demon was like !!!!!!! before Tsiora came and expunged him out of the realm. And Spiky!Demon was like SCReeeeeeeeecCH
Ou ou ou ou the twin guardian blades he got at the end PERIODTTTTT Tau is Champion, beetch
I want the Nobles to be so irate about it like "WUT WE CANT LET A LOW COMMON BE A CHAMPION GROSS" and the Tau be like
"Yeah cool no worries whoever has a problem can challenge me in single combat and if i lose (lol) then I'll step down as Champion" and then everyone be like
Such a good book, I really really loved it.
I'm kinda glad (I know how bad this sounds) that Zuri died because she was a good character with a decent arc that went out knowing she was probably going to die and I want Tau to be like, borderline EVIL with his revenge
His character is so interesting because he's so single minded and now that his one beacon of light is gone, he's gunna be INSANNEEEEEEEE
*content sigh*
ok thats all I feel I think