Blazewrath Games (Amparo Oritz)

Blazewrath Games
Amparo Oritz
Page Street Kids
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: For nearly as long as she can remember, seventeen-year-old Lana Torres has been obsessed with Blazewrath, a game of strength, skill, speed... and dragons. Six bonded riders and one unbonded Runner compete in massive arenas, a full-contact sport with fans - and critics - from around the world. After all, even a dragon who has chosen to bond with a human is still a dragon; there are more than enough unbonded beasts to remind humans of the threat they can be. Now, there's another danger, in the form of The Sire - a formerly-bonded dragon who betrayed his rider and was cursed into human form, who has threatened to burn whole cities if the Blazewrath world cup isn't cancelled and the bonded dragons freed. But the best witches and wizards are on the trail of the man and his fanatical Dragon Knights... and, surely, if the threat were so great, the president of the sport would cancel the Blazewrath games, right?
Lana finally has a chance to join the sport herself, with Puerto Rico finally having a team on its way to the world cup and in need of a replacement runner: she may have lived most of her life in Florida with her white mother, but she was born on the island, and her father instilled a love and healthy respect for dragons in the girl from a young age. Never mind that Lana almost got herself incinerated at age five when she got into the sanctuary of an unbonded dragon - which is why she has to keep her application and tryouts a secret from a mother who has decided no dragon is trustworthy and the games themselves are death waiting to happen. Fortunately, Lana's best friend - a copper-level witch still waiting to grow into silver-level powers - has arranged a distraction. Unfortunately, that distraction is interrupted by an attack from the Dragon Knights. Worse, Lana recognizes the Dragon Knight as a former Blazewrath star who disappeared after his dragon was murdered. How can a man who used to stand for everything good and beautiful about the sport now be following a monster like The Sire? Barely surviving both the attack and an enraged dragon, Lana becomes an instant celebrity and is offered the spot as Runner on the Puerto Rican Blazewrath team. This was supposed to be her dream... so why does she feel like she's trapped, caught in a web of secrets, lies, magic, and The Sire's dark threats?

REVIEW: As usual, I'm a sucker for dragons, so I gave this one a try. In its favor, it does indeed have some very awesome dragons with unique abilities, and the book never forgets that they are dragons, not oversized puppies: for all that they seem relatively docile when bonded, they are their own beings and seem to have their own agendas. The Sire may have been the only known dragon to break its bond, but there is no doubt that any dragon in the book could, if they so choose, throw off whatever voluntary restraints they've accepted if pushed too far. At some point, though, this becomes almost frustratingly vague; the dragons in this world never quite fit in or make sense, even on their own terms.
And this segues into some of my other issues. The book is clearly inspired by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, particularly her somewhat-whimsical (and -vaguely defined/-plot convenient) concept of wizardry and the sport of Quidditch, mashed up with elements of the Triwizard Tournament (particularly Harry's face-off with the dragon.) I would not be surprised if this started as an alternate-world take on the Potterverse, one where wizards were not in hiding and muggles were allowed to play wizard games; one can almost pinpoint which characters or turn of events were transposed into this tale. In and of itself, that isn't a problem - every story is inspired by other stories, after all - but it becomes a problem when the pieces never quite gel into their own creation. Lana is also much older than Harry was when he discovered wizardry; the world feels juvenile compared to who the main character is supposed to be. Then again, Lana starts out somewhat immature for her age, sounding more like a young teen or a preteen. (Or maybe it was the way the audiobook was narrated that gave this impression.) She has an odd sense of entitlement, as though she's owed access and answers to her questions from the highest echelons of power; unlike Harry, for whom the matter of Voldemort became very personal from the moment the wizard slaughtered his family, it's only later that the stakes become high and personal enough to begin to justify Lana's pushiness, as she makes herself a target of The Sire's scheming and wrath. Speaking of The Sire, he's a devious beast indeed, but becomes almost laughable in his tendency to tease and dangle and endlessly monologue rather than just get on with the Grand Evil Plan he has bent decades of existence toward.
In any event, the story has plenty of things happening, but for some reason feels slow and cluttered in the buildup to the climax, spending a lot of time on the Blazewrath teams and players, not to mention the games themselves (which will please anyone who thinks Rowling didn't spend nearly enough time on Quidditch matches; even a game with fire-breathing dragons can grow tedious, especially with outcomes a foregone conclusion.) Eventually, though, it finds some momentum, and though some events of the climax are both telegraphed and plot convenient, there's a fair price to be paid for the outcome that adds weight to it. And then it spends a little too long on a wrap-up that not only overexplains itself but all but guarantees a sequel. While there are some good elements to Blazewrath Games and I liked parts of it, I wound up feeling disappointed, even with the dragons.

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