Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times 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 …
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times 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.
This was a good book! I enjoyed reading it. Though at parts I thought it was a bit too long (but that could partly be because it too so long for me to read it and also because of world building.) the ending was the best part and it really really made me want to read the sequel soon! I’m hoping the next book has more action and less build-up.
4 stars because it was missing something for me to call it amazing, but it was a very good book nonetheless.
A re-read in preparation for Onyx Storm, which is due to be published at the end of January, and I didn't review upon finishing it the first time. Originally, I picked this up because I like fantasy and dragons, and was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it.
The writing is fine, the characters are well-drawn and easy to differentiate, the world building is good enough to please (albeit with a wobble or two), and it features a disabled protagonist. Also, dragons!
It's not Great Literature, but it was a fun read that had me racing through it. A re-read has also been surprisingly rewarding due to the manner in which the plot is structured.
Content warning
spoilers ahoy! discussion of horniness/gaping plot holes/character development
Decently written fighting sequences
Worldbuilding/history of lands great, logic of how/when magic works not
Enemies-to-lovers arc is Really Central
Two extended hyper-explicit hetero sex sequences that feel out of place with the rest of the text, kind of written like fight sequences (consent is prominent, don't recall any non-con threats/assault in text), but as someone expecting a magic-school-but-dragon-riders fantasy....yow! Maybe a disclaimer that this is not YA on the cover?! Such a horny book.
Dragons and characters outside the main pairing felt cardboard.
Protagonist is too small and thus can't handle riding the dragon (who's main descriptors are 'big and black') is cringe.
Of course the handsome male lead's magic power is smoke.
Of course he's overwhelmingly hot to her, but he shoves down all his trauma, so its just hot trauma.
Of course her power is lightning and its outside her control and she's the powerfullest.
Like cell phones in horror flicks set after Year 2000 CE, telepathy works only when its needed to advance the plot, and we have to forget the option is available when the plot requires.
Magical creatures are horses without agency but they do have their own lore and laws which we as humans can't know.
Why are the dragons helping the humans?
What's new and innovative to the lore of dragons coming from this book?
Logistics of 'war-bonded-pair' dragons that are supposed to live 200 years tied to the lives of humans who have...at most 20 years of good military service...don't add up.
Where's the Temeraire of dragon-kind who's letting the humans battle for 400 years and watching all their dragon-bros get killed?
Breadcrumbs were more bread-loaves that telegraphed upcoming events. (that comment based on snark from my spouse, hearing me rant to her about this book).
I guess we're just going to all have to agree that the only way to solve the problems in this society is through violence and a high death rate for the navy seals program.
Meh. I'm not sure who the target audience is for this one. #FourthWing
This book is so hyped, which is probably why this review is a little bit unfair.
If you've managed to avoid the hype it goes like this: really compelling fantasy series, with tons of hot smutty sex scenes.
So first, to address the latter. There are a couple of sex scenes. As in... two. They are both in the last third of the book. The rest of the book is filled with the kind of yearning a 7th grader might write about in her diary (drooling over a crush's muscular abs, or his thick hair). They are not the stuff of adult desire. At least, not from my perspective. And that's what's missing, even from the sex scenes for me: desire. I was not exactly carried away on the wings of fantasy reading them. I saw another review that said "these sex scenes were so explicit". Were they?! I'm worried about that person's sex life now. They were explicit, and they were graphic, but they described pretty vanilla hetero sex? and I'm not super kinky, and I like smut as much as the next person, but this was not compelling smut for me.
But here's the thing! I think, were it not for the awkward attempt at smut, this would have been a half-way decent fantasy book. Clearly, it borrows a lot of plot and universe building from other IP (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games). Still, it creates a mostly compelling narrative on its own (even though I guessed at every plot twist in the book since the author does some very obvious breadcrumbling). But the sex almost detracts from it: it feels completely unnecessary.
So... I will not be reading the sequels, is what I'm trying to say, unless I'm looking for something to occupy a weekend when otherwise very depressed.
Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would
5 stars
Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would! We follow Violet SorrengaiI when she joins the Basgiath War College to become a dragonrider in the kingdom of Navarre. All she wanted was to become a scribe, but her mother, who is a war General, forces her to join the Dragonriders Quadrant, instead of the Scribe Quadrant. Just to keep family tradition (her older siblings were also dragonriders). I feel bad about the ruthlessness nature of this military school (there are zero concerns with safety and well-being of the cadets) but I got past that. Cadets die if they make mistakes or fail the crazy challenges and test assigned to them. They are prepared to bond with a dragon and become a rider. The bond is strong, rider and dragons can telepathically communicate. And if you're a rider and your dragon dies, you die! I'm loving the mental …
Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would! We follow Violet SorrengaiI when she joins the Basgiath War College to become a dragonrider in the kingdom of Navarre. All she wanted was to become a scribe, but her mother, who is a war General, forces her to join the Dragonriders Quadrant, instead of the Scribe Quadrant. Just to keep family tradition (her older siblings were also dragonriders). I feel bad about the ruthlessness nature of this military school (there are zero concerns with safety and well-being of the cadets) but I got past that. Cadets die if they make mistakes or fail the crazy challenges and test assigned to them. They are prepared to bond with a dragon and become a rider. The bond is strong, rider and dragons can telepathically communicate. And if you're a rider and your dragon dies, you die! I'm loving the mental banter-dialogues between the riders and the dragons. The romance is a slow burn well developed enemies-to-lovers. It's over the top and I loved it! I definitely want to check out the second book in the series.
