Review Of Becoming The Dragon By Alex Sapegin

Becoming the Dragon is the first instalment in the fantasy epic The Dragon Inside by Alex Sapegin. Becoming the Dragon follows the story of Andy, a teenage boy growing up in small town modern Russia. Andy’s life started to change when he was struck by lightning on a school trip, after which he has a strange effect on any technology around him. When Andy wanders onto the site of his father’s teleportation experiment, his strange magnetic effect causes him to be transported to another planet complete with dragons, orcs and other supernatural beings. This immediately sets off a chain of events which lead to Andy beginning his journey to being reborn as a dragon.

I usually really enjoy a fantasy epic, especially with the added element of someone being transported from our own time into a fantasy realm. Becoming the Dragon has all the key elements, but unfortunately the way they came together did not work for me. This book was translated into English and it does feel like something is lost in translation. The foreshadowing before Andy is transported to the fantasy realm is far too heavy, with Andy conveniently being trained in archery as well as other medieval weapons, and his sister suddenly getting involved with a cosplay group who transparently discuss how someone from modern times would survive in a fantasy world. It all feels very heavy-handed and contrived. Once Andy starts his adventure in the new world, things should have started to pick up. However, the writing felt overly descriptive and dull, even in the action sequences. Andy as a character felt flat and one-dimensional, and the ‘horny teenager’ aspect didn’t appeal to me, especially as it led him into ridiculous situations. The flat characters meant it was difficult for me to form any emotional attachment to the characters or the adventures that they were experiencing. I did enjoy the dragon’s point of view and the sad back story, however the multiple points of view did start to detract from Andy’s story as the apparent main character, and felt a bit like filler. Things do start to build quite nicely at about the halfway point, once Andy starts becoming the dragon. It continues to include a great level of detail about the history, world and the people, which I tend to enjoy in books but in this case just confused the pace of the story. The end of the book hints at some interesting developments in the novels to follow.

I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars, as unfortunately as a whole, I didn’t get much enjoyment out of this book and have no interest in reading the next one. I’ve read a lot of fantasy epics in my time, and this one just didn’t deliver in terms of character development, pace, subtlety, consistency and depth. This book may be suitable for younger male readers or those unfamiliar with the fantasy genre, but those who love a good solid fantasy epic will be disappointed with this novel. I do recall that Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series started off shaky due to his youth and inexperience but took a strong concept and turned it into a standout dragon-centred fantasy epic across the novels – maybe Alex Sapegin can manage to the same here by building some depth into Andy’s character and finding a rhythm that works for this story.