I have a love-hate relationship with this book. In the end I'm glad(??) that i read itEon has grew up his entire life having a single thought literarlly beaten into his head "everything feminine is bad". Emotions are feminine therefore Eon should not feel. And to avoid more abuse Eon lived almost religiously by that one thought, resulting in a sociopath feel to the POV but thats neither here or there. My main issue with this book is this:If Eon had felt more of an inclination to male characterisics then this book wouldve been totally fine. But he didn't. He was forced to be more male. Because he was constantly told and shown that being female was bad, and lesser. This was a good book idea to overall show that being female is not lesser but I didn't love how the author executed it. Eon kept making mistakes just constantly trying to be more manly. It was literarlly trial and error for half the book. This isn't a cliche woman dressing up as male to manipulate a situation while secretly plotting shit. Eon literarlly don't think about the fact he's a woman because its unacceptable to him. And that broke my heart. That being said, this book did a great job with some diverse characters. I loved Lady Daya, a man with the characteristics of a woman because she CHOSE that. She was so strong in her identity, I was in awe....kinda wish we read about her instead of Eon at first but I'm hoping Eona finds the same acceptance&self-loveI had no dragon name, no true power. No hope.Another thing is that the author kept (almost painfully) forcing Eon to be an underdog. It was literarlly one thing after the other on how it was impossible and so unrealistic but somehow it will kinda work out and isn't that amazing? I just got tired of it. "Alert your men," Ryko said. He turned his head and I saw the rise of violence in his eyes. I wondered what he saw in mine. "Here we go." There were some great lines and general great writing in this book. Secondary characterwise Ryko defintely top 3 and I got really curious about what it meant to be a Shadowman* more details book 2 please? However, as the book went on Eon began to feel emotions. Except it was mostly anger. Actually I thiink it was only anger.. either way it slowly began to show some spunk in the character. A eunuch and a Contraire. How the gods would laugh, she said bitterly.The gods are already laughing, I said. How else could the future of an empire rest on my shoulders?I guess I love this book for the world building and the end product. I loved how it all turned out in the end for Eona as a character. In the end, Eona is a much stronger person. She learned how to fight, finally accepted her self (though will need to work at it more), and Eona found a purpose when before Eon was simply following whatever people said. "But I am not Lord Eon. Not anymore. I am Eona, the Mirror Dragoneye. I looked up at the black smoke that hung over the palace and Dragon Halls, then turned my attention back to the startled man beside me. And I want to join your resistance.Because of this last sentence I am really looking forward to book 2 while secretly encouraging people to skip the first one and just go the sequel.

If I hadnt been reading this book on a very expensive bit of technology, I would have hurled it against a wall. I believe my exact comment, upon reaching a particular moment of infamy towards the end was, and I quote, what the fucking fuck was that fuckery? I have all the feelings about this book. And so I share them. (Which is why you guys like me, dont even try to lie).Right, so, this is a fantasy about a girl posing as a boy in not!ancient China, and she impresses bonds with an ancient dragon who hasnt been seen in 500 years, and there is imperial intrigue and stuff.I would probably be less furious if this book were incompetent. But the thing is, its not. Its treatment of the girl posing as a boy fantasy trope is genuinely interesting. This is not one of those books where a girl proves her worth by being able to pass for a boy, that being the important measuring stick, you know. And it has these great moments where our protagonist reflects on what living as male for years actually means, how eventually shes doing more than just binding her breasts and wearing pants, that and she doesnt have the language for this, but its what she means that her gender identity is complicated. And one of her friends in the book is an actual transperson. And the whole thing is done while maintaining the universe-appropriate and really medieval idea of gender, of womans place, etc. Hard to do, and parts of it genuinely interested and impressed me.But then. Oh but then.I had . . . inklings. The sense of thunder rumbling ominously in the distance. The lurking suspicion that something was going to go very wrong. Yeah, that interesting stuff Goodman did with gender even though shes working in a constrained medieval framework? When it comes to disability, she just brought the medieval beliefs and called it good. Hint: its not.Let me tell you what I learned from this book from the protagonists culturally embedded narration, and far more damningly from the structure of the narrative and the meta implications. Disability is a curse. It means you are ugly and unlovable, and that no one should touch you. Absolutely no one should desire you. But if you are extra special, and you do everything right, maybe youll acquire power. And the way youll know you have is your disability will be magically cured! Because that way youre finally worthy! And you are finally a whole person (being disabled being synonymous with being less than a person), and now you are not untouchable anymore! Disability is also a metaphor for being unwhole and not yourself -- it'll be imposed when you start pretending to be someone else, and then magically taken away again when you stop!And I havent read the sequel, and do not plan to, but Im going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess it also means you can have a romance now.And for Gods sake, please dont anyone try telling me yet again that this sort of thing is okay in fantasy novels, its a different world and a different culture, and it makes sense for them to think that way. Yeah, and who designed that world? Who chose which societal biases to import and which to leave behind? Who designed a story that validated and supported every horrible and ablest thing the protagonist thought about herself?Secondary world fantasy is not an excuse for something this offensive. There arent any excuses for something like this.

Enjoyable and solid story, with excellent worldbuilding and interesting magic system - plus dragons! This book also falls into that somewhat narrow category of YA fantasy suitable for older readers that doesn't have a romantic sub-plot. Honestly, the characters in this story are far too busy keeping mortal secrets and involving themselves in various plots to worry about romance.The pacing of the story is very good and I found it quite tense in many places. It's an entertaining read given depth because of the interesting characters, not just Eon, the struggling Dragoneye who is hiding the fact that she is actually a woman, but also supporting characters such as Lady Dela, a transgendered Court Lady who becomes a faithful friend and ally to Eon.My only complaint is that the difficulty Eon struggles with for much of the book seemed somewhat obvious in its resolution, but that didnt really detract from my enjoyment of the story overall. The ending to this first book is intense and exciting, and made me want to pick up the conclusion to the duology fairly soon.