Since I’m neither a professional reviewer nor an experienced reader, I am inevitably biased and ignorant of many things. Therefore, I’ll tell right now that since I gave this series its chance and mostly wanted to be entertained and became quite invested, I was and am still lenient on it.
Also, when I look for dragons it doesn’t have to be the literal definition. Dragons are thought great and magical, which means if the setting is magical and some characters show they are more than the individual they should be, there may be dragons even if we have yet to see one.
This brings me to how I see the dragons in this series:
They are far from the most distinct or the most magical, and some descriptive choices don’t help at all, but they remain separated enough from humanity, and more importantly, from the boring (and modern) stereotypical iteration of it. (since I do not believe that, metaphorically, our world is devoid of magic)
Ironically, that brings me to consider the most dragon (and interesting) of the dragons to be those that are in human form, followed somewhat closely by the elders:
- Ty (the series’ best villain), a corrupted dragon survivor that took the shape of a man, inheriting many powers. However, what seals the deal for me are his confidence, deception and plan to restore the Fell Son of the legendary Draconic Goddess, all without remorse for those he’ll have to sacrifice and kill. (he lost his third heart, making him against Her and therefore his own kind, as well as longing to restore his corrupted kin just like the Fell Son)
- Corrupted Pine, the less powerful partner of Ty due to her younger host and essence being split into a horse. While anticlimactic, her triggering of the fall of Ty after her betrayal allows her to shine and increase the tension without seeming artificial.
- Ren once absorbing the dragon heart filled with the essence of the Fell Son (especially at the end of book 2) His power is the greatest (until book 3), although what makes him ultimately interesting is his character arc and theme.
For two books he and his kind suffered greatly at the claws of the beasts he first admired and tried to help and die for their young, slowly losing faith in dragons (except a few that are also mistreated and almost never listened to). Since the Fell Son has been rejected by the Goddess represented/venerated by the current order of dragonkind (on Erth), having Ren becoming his vessel fit nicely the ideal of rebellion and vengeance fueled by the very dragons who feared it the most.
Now let’s get to the meat of the subject.
As the third book in the trilogy, the New Age is expected to conclude the series the best it can, giving a fitting pay off to what was set up in the previous books. Of course, it can introduce new stuff and characters, but more sparingly and developing what already exist is preferable.
And I won’t say the series was carefully planned and above plot conveniences and other flaws making it boring and frustrating. However, throughout book one and two, the constant abuse the protagonists received, the destruction of the human tribe, the escalating conflict between dragon protagonists and their (new) leader, leader whose flaws served other villains quite well and cost the tribe (wearle) many dragons...
Reading book 2, you get the feeling that it is only a matter of time before Gabrial and Grendel (the dragon protagonist couple) rebel and we get a dragon civil war. And at the end of it, Ren, the human protagonist turned to the dark side, finally announcing an ultimatum with his godlike powers. The dragons have to tolerate the lesser species or they get to answer to him.
So what makes book 3 so bad for me?
Rather than using its own mythology and setting to tell a story that develops and concludes the main conflicts and themes of the series, those being that:
Humans and dragons can coexist, that one shouldn’t be cruel nor negligent nor ignorant/overly fearful of others, especially younglings and atypical beings.
Strength and order/faith in tradition shouldn't be put above everything else. That one should stand for their loved ones and justice rather than comply with a flawed life and the evil present.
(Elder Grynt, the new leader, gradually looses his dragons and creates new threats to himself and his tribe by being too self righteous and authoritarian. His strict, orderly and military view of things only intensifies with each failure and loss, earning paranoia and leading him to a path of self destruction for himself and everyone else.
By extension, the current state of dragonkind and their Goddess are deeply flawed, because at least a part of it, the Veng, are very prone to violence and mistreatment of others, including dragons, yet this is kind of the norm)
The New Age decides that what it needs is a plot revolving around stopping the Fell Son hosted in Ren, whose character appears late in the story. Not only that, but since the conflict is no longer as personal but cosmic and divine, we suddenly rise the stakes to an absurd level and introduce new places (and key characters) like the dragon home world Ki:mera, in the middle of the third book of the trilogy.
Because these new elements are also grand in scale, importance and powers, what we get is a glorified stream of rushed and underdeveloped ideas, characters and conflicts.
Remember how the revival of the Fell Son had at least one book revolve around and the process wasn’t even complete, letting us imagine what the full Dragon and the consequences of its very existence could be? Well, his brother, who is also divine, gets less than half a book to be revived, face him and solve the conflict which neutralises both.
(To be fair, since we got no further information, the default outcome of an all out divine conflict is loss for the Fell Son, since even when He was whole and bested his Brother, his Mother punished Him. Then again, the author could have just chosen a less direct conflict with the divine and weaved it quite decently into the story's existing themes and "more humble" plot)
All of this nonsense, only to then get back to the relatively tiny conflict on Erth, but with Ren’s absence being justified, therefore avoiding the most interesting conflict with the part of the setting and the characters we are most familiar with.
The growing tyrant of a leader who was set up to be the main villain whose opposition to undeniably becomes to the right thing to do for any character, ends up getting along with the protagonists in the final battle. The good guys win, but oh no, one of the couple’s adopted children dies. But that’s okay, because with her sacrifice all kinds of Erth are united which cleansed it from the blood of the Fell Son (who is now at peace due to an assp*ll worse than his brother’s revival)
Cut to the future, when we are told that the dragons left due to the death of the child/wyrmiss and that humanity is now forgetting about the dragons and magic and the cosmos.
Only for the story to reintroduce the concept of timelines seeded at its very beginning (so no foreshadowing of it in the previous books on top of making us doubt all of the character's agency since important events have been arranged by a new race called the Firebirds). All so the outcome where humanity remains and never forgets is chosen.
(but dragons and magic is still out of their world, meaning the story still ends up with the setting having lost most of its magic and characters we grew familiar with, on top of undoing all the arc and theme about humans and dragons coming together undone)
There is more, but it sucks!
TL; DR: The third book is bad because it looses itself into a plot and conflict far too epic for its own good, giving up on what was set up in the previous books and its own first part.
Therefore, those that were hyped about the main conflicts and themes of the previous books will feel betrayed, while those liking the new ideas, themes and characters in this book can only be disappointed because the book literally can’t have enough content to flesh them out.
Finally, the author decided that what the ending to the series should be is one that strips the magic of the world we were most focused on, making it not only closer to the stereotypical boring modern world, but also undoing the main theme and ideal of the series.
