Synopsis
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.
Review
Fundamentally, Fourth Wing is about relationships: the bonds between dragons, the bonds between dragon and rider, the bonds between family, friends, lovers, and enemies. The bonds between a kingdom and its people.
This is a dragon-riding tale, set in a military school for dragon riders, with a subplot of scribes woven in for the library geeks among us.
Its genre is “Romantasy,” and much has been made of the Romance half of this descriptor. This has led many Fantasy fans—myself included—to avoid it. I’m glad I finally gave it a try. There’s a reason this book has four million ratings and half a million reviews on Amazon. It’s a great story, and an example of Fantasy at its best. As for the Romance part, I’ll get to that in a minute.
Fourth Wing is written in first person, in a very internal-dialoguey, modern-day tongue. So much so that you can hear the protagonist, Violet, talking very clearly, even when she’s only thinking. Even more so with the audiobook (narrated by Rebecca Soler and Teddy Hamilton), which I listened to and thoroughly enjoyed. (Don’t miss the bonus chapters from Xaden’s POV at the end; there are apparently extra bonus chapters in the US version.)
Added to that, there is “internal” dialog between the main character and dragons, which allows the reader to understand the dragon side of this whole epic. And I do mean “epic.”
Fourth Wing refers to a unit at the military academy. There are trials to enter the academy, with deaths common and part of the core curriculum. The book is action packed, with lots of hair-raising challenges, internicene fighting, and outright battles.
The objective is to complete the academy’s training and be chosen by a dragon to bond to. It’s a highly competitive environment, and the death toll is high. There are rival political factions, with a former rebel province represented among the student population, creating bad blood from the start. The dragons themselves have strong personalities and their own drama. Add to all of this an external threat of mythic proportions, and you have yourself a true Epic Fantasy.
Now add romance into the mix, and you ignite an already volatile situation into something hot and sizzling. Yes, I chose those words on purpose, and yes, there is sex. A lot of it, but not until later in the book. There is no kink or sexual violence, and the descriptions, though long and detailed, are written well enough that the cringe factor is low. The author does go on and on, however, devoting entire sections to the carnal trysts. Yarros has an extensive bibliography of Romance novels, and she knows her craft.
The Romance aspect makes sense, in that the love-hate relationship between the main characters is pivotal to the plot. The enemies-to-lovers trope is masterfully done, with several layers of intrigue, betrayal, and secrets, all woven together and delightful to uncover, and all anchored in core fantasy tropes and lore. It helps that the main characters are interesting, complex, heroic, likeable, and very human.
I found the tension to be addicting, and I flew through the book (well, actually, I listened with rapt attention). It’s well worth a read, or a listen. Book Two, Iron Flame, was just as good, and I’m looking forward to Book Three, Onyx Storm.
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