Kingdoms at War

I browse on Amazon looking for things to read from time to time. It's unfortunate that I find my recommendations often filled with entire series whether I'm interested or not. Even more frustrating are the "new releases" that are not out yet. Grrr. I'd rather see a broader variety of first books... or at least first book in a series that I haven't read?

I my latest pass, I picked up Kingdoms at War (first of the Dragon Gate series, apparently). It was kind of a mixed bag.

There are interesting fantasy concepts here. It's a fantasy world where dragons are legend and mage-kings are reality. "Terrene" humans live under this magocracy under fear of mind-reading mages killing them  for stray, treasonous thoughts. Power certainly corrupts, though there is at least one example of a mage-warrior "zidarr" who seems to adhere to austere principles rather than bask in power and decadence.

The story largely centers around a mother-son pair of archaeologists, who dig up a Stargate-like device believed to have been used by dragons to enter/depart the world, and the mercenaries who get entangled in trying to protect them. Those two hope to be able to use the portal to contact the dragons an gain allies to unseat the magical overlords of the land. Of course, no sooner do they dig it up than mage agents arrive to take possession of it.

The foundational ideas draw me in, though the actual events... I don't know. The main characters don't have much agency for about 99% of the book, getting pulled along as captive or conscripts by the rulers above them. I get that it's setting up a starting point for the characters, one of whom shows some magical aptitude while another is fairly young into a merc career so not yet much to talk about in capability. So things will probably build from there, but it didn't feel very rewarding to me as far as stories go. There isn't a great deal of character change/growth along the way either.

So... it's okay. I'll consider whether to continue the series...

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