Synopsis
Enter a world ruled by dragons . . . The Sky on Fire is a daring new fantasy heist adventure from Jenn Lyons that will thrill fans of Temeraire, Fourth Wing andDragonriders of Pern.
Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. It’s Anahrod’s past catching up with her. These cunning misfits – and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleader – intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s just one problem: the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas – and she wants Anahrod dead.
From the acclaimed author of the Chorus of Dragons series, this soaring stand-alone fantasy combines conniving dragons, lightning banter, high-stakes intrigue and a little bit of heat.
Review
Jenn Lyons has been an author on my tbr for some time. When I got the chance for an ARC for this book I was over the moon. Even though it took me a long time to read it (real life issues getting in the way) I had fun with this book for so many reasons.
First of all, it’s a heist. That’s always a winner for me. And what’s more, it’s a heist with dragons! This book has a fun vibe right from the start and it kept that feeling all the way through for me.
We follow a woman named Anahrod, who has been living in survival mode for some time and has a bit of story to tell about her past. She is soon captured by a group of individuals who, instead of wanting to kill her, want her help on a job. It’s full of fun characters, an interesting world that is ruled by dragons and non-stop action. Anyone who likes adventure stories will have lots of enjoy here I think. That is where this book really shines. The pacing worked really well for me and I never got bored as the story jumps from beat to beat really well, despite the fact that the actual heist takes quite a while to actually happen in the book.
The characters we follow are a bit of a ragtag bunch of misfits, all with their own stories to tell and their own reasons for being where they are. While I really enjoyed all of them I can’t deny that it felt like some were given more depth than others. Anahrod is a great main character and I liked her a lot. I also like Sicaryon, Ris and Gwyndinion but some of the others really did feel quite one dimensional, which was a shame as they all had a lot of potential for some great backstories.
The world building was interesting, with the concept of rampaging dragons who have gone mad from overuse of magic and a different take on the common dragon bonding trope. I loved the battle scene where you really get to see how this world has had to adapt itself to prepare for when dragons go rampant at potentially anytime. Some aspects of how the world works are glossed over (like how the dragons actually rule and the details of that), but it is a standalone story so I wasn’t too bothered by that personally.
There is a romance angle in the book which I loved but found the tone of things a bit inconsistent at times, with the spice rating for example. Which was more odd than something that bothered me personally.
All in all, while not perfect I did enjoy this book a lot. I’ll definitely be checking out Lyons’ other works and recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventure packed standalone story.
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC copy. Due to real life situations it took me a long time to read this book but that has nothing to do with my enjoyment of this read. I truly had a blast with this one.
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