Evan Winter’s The Rage of Dragons (2019) is the first novel in The Burning series, an epic fantasy set in a militaristic, Xhosa-inspired world. The book follows Tau Solarin, a young man from a lower caste who wants only a peaceful life. After his father is murdered by the nation’s ruling elite, Tau is consumed by a desire for revenge and dedicates himself to becoming the greatest warrior in the world, willing to sacrifice his humanity to achieve his goal. Through Tau’s journey, the novel explores themes such as The Dehumanizing Pursuit of Vengeance, Challenging the Illusions of a Fixed Social Order, and The Corrupting Nature of a Militaristic Society.

The Rage of Dragons began as a self-published bestseller in 2017 before it was acquired by Orbit Books for a wider release. It was named one of the 100 best fantasy books of all time by TIME magazine and was a finalist for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut. The novel is part of a planned four-book series with its first sequel, The Fires of Vengeance, published in 2020. A television adaptation of the series is currently in development

This guide is based on the 2020 Orbit paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of graphic violence, sexual violence, death by suicide, cursing, and death.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with a prologue set nearly two centuries before the main story. Queen Taifa of the Omehi, a people who call themselves the Chosen, has led her civilization across an ocean to escape an existential threat called the Cull. Their fleet makes landfall on a peninsula already inhabited by Indigenous peoples the Omehi call hedeni. The Chosen are losing the battle for the beach, and Taifa’s champion and lover, Tsiory, cannot hold the line. Over his objections, Taifa orders a coterie, a specialized group of Gifted women, to harness dragons nesting in the peninsula’s Central Mountains. The Gifted are women who can shroud their souls in Isihogo, a demon-filled underworld that serves as both a divine prison and the source of all supernatural power. When Tsiory is killed by a spear through the chest, Taifa merges her consciousness with a dragon and incinerates the indigenous fighters. In the aftermath, pregnant with Tsiory’s child, she resolves to do whatever it takes to survive.

One hundred and eighty-six cycles later, Tau Tafari is a young man of the High Common caste living in the mountain fief of Kerem. Omehi society is rigidly stratified: Royal and Greater Nobles sit atop the hierarchy, followed by Petty Nobles, the Gifted, and then the Lesser castes, from Governors and Harvesters down to Commons and the casteless Drudge. Every Lesser man must test for the Ihashe, the elite Lesser military, or join the Ihagu militia; those who refuse both become Drudge. Tau trains daily under his father, Aren Solarin, a former Ihashe warrior who leads the fief’s Ihagu. His closest friend is Jabari Onai, the second son of the fief’s governor and a Petty Noble naturally bigger and faster than Tau.

When hedeni raiders attack the hamlet of Daba, Jabari’s cowardly older brother Lekan Onai refuses to send the keep guard. Tau convinces Jabari to ride to Daba himself, forcing the guards to follow to protect their Noble charge. In the battle, Tau kills for the first time and is deeply shaken. A Guardian dragon arrives to scorch the raiders, and the Chosen military counterattacks. Afterward, Tau begins a romance with Zuri Uba, a handmaiden and childhood friend, and hatches a secret plan to pass his Ihashe testing, get intentionally injured, and return to Kerem to marry her.

Events soon destroy these plans. Aren’s second-in-command, Nkiru, catches Lekan assaulting Nkiru’s daughter. When Nkiru strikes Lekan in defense, Aren fabricates a cover story to spare the family from execution, the legal punishment for a Lesser striking a Noble, and they are banished instead. Lekan then secretly has Nkiru’s entire family murdered.

When Queen Tsiora the Second passes through Kerem, Tau sees her retinue: Champion Abshir Okar; KaEid Oro, leader of the Gifted; Guardian Council Chairman Abasi Odili; Odili’s Ingonyama bodyguard Dejen Olujimi (a Greater Noble warrior supernaturally empowered by a Gifted Enrager); and Odili’s protégé, Kellan Okar. At the Indlovu testing for Noble warriors, Tau is forced to spar with a reckless Petty Noble and knocks the Noble down in front of Odili. Enraged, Odili orders Kellan to fight Tau. Aren steps into the circle in his son’s place, knowing he cannot survive. Kellan severs Aren’s hand, trying to end the fight, but when Tau picks up his father’s sword and threatens Kellan, Odili commands Dejen, who drives a dragon-scale blade through Aren’s chest. Jayyed Ayim, a former Guardian Council adviser, intervenes to save Tau’s life.

Banished by Jabari for striking Lekan, Tau sneaks into the keep that night and confronts Lekan. In the struggle, Tau kills Lekan unintentionally. A keep guard who despises Lekan for the murders of Nkiru’s family helps stage the death as a fall. Zuri finds Tau and reveals she has tested Gifted, placing her in an elite caste beyond his reach. She begs him to flee with her, but Tau refuses, knowing they would be hunted. He leaves Kerem for Kigambe, carrying his father’s and grandfather’s swords, swearing to kill Kellan, Dejen, and Odili.

In Kigambe, Tau registers for the Ihashe testing under his father’s surname, Solarin. After two brutal days, he earns a place in Jayyed’s scale which is made of fighters from different castes. Tau trains with fanatical intensity, forms bonds with Hadith, a sharp-minded Governor caste fighter; Uduak, an enormous warrior; and others. He discovers he can fight effectively with two blades and adopts dual wielding as his signature style.

At the Crags, a mountain plateau used for training skirmishes, Scale Jayyed becomes the first Ihashe unit to defeat Indlovu with a Gifted Enervator present in a generation. In Citadel City, Tau reunites with Zuri, who teaches him to enter Isihogo voluntarily. He realizes that the underworld’s time dilation lets him gain years of combat experience overnight by fighting demons. They kill him each session, but since he draws no energy, the damage does not transfer to his body. His skills improve dramatically, yet the repeated trauma erodes his sanity: He sees demons in daylight, stops sleeping, and grows volatile.

Jayyed reveals he filled his scale with cross-caste children, offspring of Noble-Lesser unions who survive in far greater numbers than the Omehi acknowledge. His goal is to prove that a new warrior class could strengthen the failing military, because the Omehi are losing their war against the Xiddeen, the peninsula’s Indigenous people. Jayyed believes peace is the only path to survival. Tau witnesses a secret meeting where Queen Tsiora’s terms are announced: Xiddeen Warlord Achak’s son Kana will become regent, marry Tsiora, and the Omehi Guardians must leave Xidda. As part of the exchange, Jayyed’s daughter Jamilah, a powerful Gifted, is given to the Xiddeen.

Zuri reveals that a dragon youngling is held captive beneath the Guardian Keep to compel adult dragons to answer when called. Every summoning kills a Gifted woman. Zuri, one of the most powerful initiates, is slated to become an Entreater, a Gifted who binds her consciousness to a dragon.

Scale Jayyed qualifies for the Queen’s Melee, the first Ihashe entry in 23 cycles. Tau fights with terrifying efficiency, but in the semifinals against Kellan’s scale, his reckless pursuit of Kellan causes the scale’s tactical collapse. That night, the Xiddeen invade the peninsula. In the ensuing battle, Jayyed is mortally wounded and dies in Tau’s arms. Retreating to Citadel City, the survivors find the Guardian Keep under siege by Odili’s own Indlovu. Odili is staging a coup to prevent Tsiora from making peace.

Tau, Kellan, Jabari, and Scale Jayyed fight through tunnels into the keep. Inside, Tau confronts Dejen, whom the KaEid has enraged into a monstrous Ingonyama. In a brutal fight, Tau blinds Dejen and maintains pressure until the KaEid’s shroud collapses, killing her. He then drives his father’s broken sword through Dejen’s heart. Odili flees, but Tau chooses to save Jabari rather than pursue.

When Odili’s forces breach the gates, Zuri frees the captive dragon youngling, entreating it alone and knowing she will die when her shroud collapses. The creature incinerates dozens of Indlovu. Tau enters Isihogo and draws energy into himself to lure demons from Zuri but is mortally wounded. Queen Tsiora, revealed to possess secret royal Gifted abilities, enters Isihogo and saves Tau through a power called expulsion. She cannot save Zuri: When Zuri’s shroud collapses, the dragon incinerates her. Tsiora re-binds the youngling and uses Warlord Achak’s son as a hostage to negotiate peace.

In the epilogue, the grief-stricken, demon-haunted Tau is confined to a room in the keep. Tsiora comes alone and tells him Odili has fled to Palm City, where he controls her younger sister Esi as a puppet queen, splitting the Omehi in two. She presents Tau with two dragon-scale swords fitted with the hilts from his father’s and grandfather’s blades and asks him to be her champion. Tau accepts, vowing to kill Abasi Odili.