Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
Fiction | Fantasy
Blurb:
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Goodreads | Amazon
pooled ink Review:
I struggled at first…but now I’m desperate for book 2 and to describe the style of this story succinctly: pure entertainment.
At first, no matter how much the fantasy world and the main character sucked me into the story, I kept having issues with just how blatantly familiar it all was. If The Hunger Games combined with Divergent with a dash of A Deadly Education and you throw in How to Train Your Dragon then boom you get Fourth Wing. Actually, you could probably sum it up just with “Divergent” and “dragons”. Throwing out those best-selling titles isn’t just to entice those readers though, it’s a genuine description of this book. Even the Gauntlet was practically a word for word description of an American Ninja Warrior course. Things just felt a bit too familiar at times I guess. Books have overlaps and similarities all the time but for some reason it felt like too much with this one and I kept being pulled out of the story and huffing and puffing about it until I finally just told my brain to please shut up and then I could finally immerse myself into the story for what it is, entertainment, and came out the other side utterly obsessed. OB-SESSED.
There was also the issue of foreshadowing. It was so painfully obvious and annoyingly blatant. Zero attention need be paid to the “clues” because they were flashing like neon signs revealing the story within the first twenty pages and accidentally revealing too much every instance after. Again, it pulled me out of the story and had me sighing with dramatic annoyance haha.
Finally, despite being a fantasy novel, there has to be some basic grounding of realism and that is something this book plays fast and loose with. Sometimes the amount of thought the author put into making things real was a standout factor, but at other times it felt like the Romance Hat was stuck back on where reality is but a word. Realistically Achy Breaky Violet would’ve died so soon even with luck on her side (not to mention all her ~specialness~ bordering on Chosen One-ness) but then there’d be no book so…we let it slide haha. Honestly we let things slide in most books so I’m not really sure why it made me roll my eyes in this one…
For whatever reason I genuinely struggled because everything about it called to me and I wanted to submerge myself into the story but I couldn’t. All I could feel was how there was a distinct lack of cleverness, originality, and artistry in the crafting of this book but it does do an excellent job of grasping popular tropes and marketable elements that sell dependably and reusing them under a guise just unique enough to seem new. This book sold out everywhere almost immediately and why?? Because the first print had fancy sprayed edges?? How simple we are (myself included lol I really wanted those pretty edges).
I know you saw my rating and are probably feeling confused by my complaints but if you’ve been around for a while you probably already know how I ramble and basically… The startling similarities this book borrows from past best-sellers will either be the reason it becomes your favorite, the reason why you can’t get past the first few chapters and toss it aside, or the reason why you wrestle with both annoyance and utter obsession. I fall into the last category. Eventually I just told my brain to put things aside and submerge and then I didn’t want to come up for air until reading that final page and now I’m counting down the days for the sequel. Once I got my dumb brain to stop comparing this book to past favorites I could see how clever and good Violet is, how utterly badass and swoon-worthy Xaden is (honestly this was never in questions haha *swoons*), how epic and cool the dragons and their connections with their riders is, how exciting the world is and its tension-packed wartime vibes that filled it, and just how awesome the book is overall.
From the first page I knew I was going to love this book. Even though within the first twenty pages I was huffing and puffing and being all picky and particular and annoying, I still knew I was going to love this book. And I did. I surrendered to its call and have zero regrets. Epic, fast-paced, swoony, and pure entertainment it had everything I’ve loved in books past and I can’t wait for more. This book is amazing and I love it, but it also is rather familiar. Is that a bad thing? That’s up to you. Nothing is wholly original and the dragons are pretty freaking cool so I’m choosing to let it go and just enjoy the ride.
Cheers.
Meet Rebecca Yarros!
Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing, The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.
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