The Dragon Djinn (The Songs of Dathos, Book 1) by Kirby Warner is clearly a labor of love, and that passion radiates from every page. If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s what you’d get if The Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, and a helping of Stranger Things horror had a child—ambitious, sprawling and occasionally messy. Much like the handdrawn cover art, it’s genuine in ways that many more polished fantasies forget to be.
Besides a brief prologue, the novel doesn’t begin with magic or dragons, but rather with a normal teenager at school, being asked about his future by a school counselor. “What do you want to be, Jordan?” Ms. Mason asked. “Where do you want to go?” It’s an immediately grounding opening that feels relatable for anybody not sure what they want to do in life. After spending some time with his friend Zoey, Jordan is tasked by his school newspaper to investigate the town’s infamous “Snake House,” a derelict home tied to decades of mysterious disappearances.
His research brings him to a particularly haunting case: in 1982, a child named Kayla Maxwell vanished despite her parents insisting she never left the house. It’s the kind of local legend every small town has, except this one turns out to be horrifyingly real. When Jordan ventures to the Snake House alone after Zoey cancels, the novel transforms entirely. Invisible forcefields trap him, supernatural forces drag him through rooms, and his desperate attempts to escape fail spectacularly. Before long, he is transported to the dragon-filled world of Dathos.
What makes The Dragon Djinn interesting is that Jordan’s story is only half of the novel. Warner employs a multi-POV structure, where we also follow Alexandre Drakeslayer, a soldier of twenty-one years who earned his legendary nickname four years earlier by single-handedly killing a dragon, creatures unseen in Dathos for eight centuries. At first, these storylines seem completely disconnected. But both protagonists are actually en route to the same rising threat.
After Jordan ends up transported to Dathos, he finds himself in front of Princess Vienna, who immediately attacks him with a stick, assuming he’s an assassin. Vienna quickly realizes Jordan speaks “Altanan” (which he insists is called English). Vienna becomes the first person in Dathos to support him as the fish out of water he is in this strange world, and Vienna and Jordan’s increasingly close relationship is the heart of The Dragon Djinn. Together with a motley crew, before long they will embark on a quest to find an ancient djinn before Mortaire, the evil villain, can claim it.
Now I need to address something that might be The Dragon Djinn’s most noticeable issue: the book feels slightly confused about its target audience, and potential readers should understand what they’re getting into. The main characters are definitely YA ages or slightly older. Much of the book delivers on these expectations. Jordan’s references to video games (as a fellow nerd, I appreciated the Ocarina of Time shout-out) and his disaster-prone but resourceful personality make him an engaging protagonist for that audience. Yet Jordan’s voice sometimes skews younger than all this would suggest, and lines like “Suck my dick, snake people!” create tonal whiplash.
The novel feels a bit like two books blended together: a modern teen portal fantasy with Percy Jackson‘s accessible energy, combined with a dark political epic fantasy borrowing stakes and violence from something like Game of Thrones or The First Law trilogy. Most reviewers would probably label this “Mature YA” or “Crossover Fantasy”. That said, I actually find something admirable about a book that refuses to sand down its edges to fit neatly into marketing demographics. Just be aware there is some bad language, “There was only one thought coursing through Jordan’s
mind: Holyfuckholyfuckholyfuckholyfuckholyfuckholyfuck.”
For an indie publication, The Dragon Djinn is impressively polished in its technical execution. The prose flows smoothly without drawing undue attention to itself, and Warner demonstrates good instincts for when to slow down for character development and when to accelerate through action sequences. The pacing occasionally sags in the middle sections, but the plot builds steadily and when the disparate threads finally come together in the climax, the payoff justifies the patience required to get there. I should mention that my ARC edition had excessively wide margins that affected readability and made the already substantial page count feel even more daunting, though maybe this has been corrected in the final published version.
The djinn magic system is another major success, giving heavy Aladdin vibes. The equivalent exchange principle prevents magic from feeling like an easy solution button. Likewise, the book’s romantic subplot, while sweet and generally well done, develops perhaps slightly faster than realistic given how much else is happening. Jordan and Vienna go from meeting (with her attacking him) to being in love relatively quickly. What’s present absolutely works for the story being told, though, and obviously, you have to suspend your disbelief a bit in a world with literal dragons.
Overall, The Dragon Djinn is an ambitious debut that succeeds more often than it stumbles. Yes, it has tonal inconsistencies and could be tightened in places, but it has something more important: genuine heart. Warner has obviously poured a lot of passion into building the characters and lore of this world and these characters, and that dedication shows on every page. I’m curious where Book 2 (The Reign of the Rexthazar) will take this story, and whether Jordan will ever end up getting home.
Final verdict: For fans of Christopher Paolini and C.S. Lewis, and dragon-based fantasy in general, this book is an easy recommendation. A lovingly crafted debut full of charm and big ideas, The Dragon Djinn proves that imagination can outweigh occasional rough edges.
You can get your copy of The Dragon Djinn here!
