Dragon and Ceremony takes you on a quest through a world shrouded in secrets and the arcane – a high fantasy setting with historical and cultural backgrounds as its focus, certainly a theme seldom found in the genre.

It presents a mystery set in an unfamiliar world, an investigation of long forgotten history. However, despite being a fantasy, it remains very human in nature – a world torn by territorial, religious, and racial conflict and power struggles, and one where customs and tradition evolve, sometimes even losing their meaning over time. The logic and arguments that can be used in our world, can also be applied here. Perhaps the only things that truly separates their world from ours are the presence of mythical creatures and utilization of magic.

The story focuses on two main protagonists, Ix, a fledgling wandmaker - an architect of the tools needed to channel magic, yet one that is unable to use magic, and his client, Yuui - a young girl hailing from a distant land staying at an unfamiliar kingdom for reasons undisclosed, owner of a powerful wand, and someone who is unsure of her place in the world.

In order to fulfill his client's request, Ix needed to find clues regarding a creature of legend, long thought to have been extinct - a dragon. Yuui accompanies him in the search, and the pair try to find anything related that may become a lead; from old books, records about different indigenous customs, and hearsay, but trying to find factual information about something that has already been deemed nothing but a myth proved to be challenging. By going on a journey to pursue the few leads that they did find, the both of them who were unsure of their purpose in the world, now worked together temporarily towards a common goal.

Worldbuilding is the strongest aspect of this novel. Each region mentioned has their own cultural backgrounds and origins, traditions, and unique atmosphere. The setting feels like a world that has existed long before the story had begun, and one that will continue to exist long after its conclusion had been reached. Though at the beginning things may seem vague and incoherent, the bigger picture is steadily revealed, and the groundwork was steadily laid as you progress through the story. It starts going at a more interesting pace, and keeps that momentum until the very end. As the main mystery calmly unravels, it focuses in on the reasons as well as the different thoughts of the characters.

The illustrations and artwork are very nice and pleasant to look at. Simplistic but compliments the story well, and character designs definitely fit the image they present. In fact, the cover was the main reason I was drawn to read this novel in the first place.

In terms of characters, the protagonists are interesting in their own right, they have good chemistry, fitting personalities, and the dialogue exchanges between them were a fun read. In the early parts of the novel, their origins are mostly left to the reader’s imagination, the ones pursuing a mystery being a mystery themselves too makes for quite a fascinating narrative. For the side characters however, they were a bit lacking in depth, especially compared to the protagonists, but they still served their purpose in the story well enough, just not as memorable.

“Does that mean I can have hope we will understand each other someday?”

“Maybe in a hundred, or a thousand years from now, but someday we will."

At its core, Dragon and Ceremony presents a journey - a journey about change and finding a purpose in the world, showing coming to terms with a painful past and not letting it decide the future, one about acceptance and self-reflection blended in with the pursuit of the unknown. It offers a unique spin on the adventure-fantasy genre by incorporating mystery elements in tandem with fictional history and culture, presenting a rich world and flawed but interesting main characters. The story draws you in by showing only disconnected fragments of a puzzle, piecing them together slowly with each page, and then finishing off with a solemn, yet satisfying conclusion.