The genre has apparently boomed over the past few years along with the popularity of the two biggest names in the business right now, Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros. Among other works, Maas writes the series stemming from the book A Court of Thorns and Roses (conveniently called ACOTAR by fans); Yarros, meanwhile, is known for her Empyrean series, a romance/military/fantasy mashup that started with the novel Fourth Wing.
This probably isn't a direction I would have taken my reading otherwise, but with my wife now excitedly starting conversations with me about stuff like bonding with dragons and magic use (in a world where no one has heard the word "Muggle"), I had to get in on it. So, I started with Fourth Wing, recently finished it, and figured I'd share my thoughts here in a review...or, at least, some mini-thoughts in a mini-review.
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| Image from Goodreads |
Fourth Wing is the story of the young woman Violet Sorrengail's first year at Basgiath War College, where she is learning to go into battle on the back of a dragon as part of the Riders Quadrant. Most of the story is told in the first person, from Violet's perspective. We follow her trials and successes as she navigates through a world of danger she never planned to be a part of.
You see...Basgiath is a freaking brutal place. Students in the Riders Quadrant die all the time. The tests are dangerous, the dragons are dangerous, and -- if all of that isn't enough -- cadets regularly kill each other in the normal course of training. This may further their own success, but more importantly, it eliminates weak links before they jeopardize the whole army in battle.
Violet, meanwhile, has spent her entire life dreaming of joining the Scribe Quadrant (pretty much what it sounds like, although there's an acknowledgement of the power held by those who control information). She also has what seems to be a congenital disorder giving her bones and joints below-average sturdiness (apparently based on Yarros's own experience with such a challenge). Oh! And her mom just happens to be the the commander of the war college...and there was no way General Sorrengail was going to have her third child skip out on following in the footsteps of the two siblings who achieved renown as riders before Violet even became a student there.
If I had to give Fourth Wing a pithy little "____ meets ____" description, I'd say it's like Harry Potter meets Full Metal Jacket. But there's another part of it, too, and how one reacts to that other part may be what will have the greatest bearing on whether or not a reader likes the series. It's the part where every other page or so (an exaggeration, I'm sure...), we're reminded that Violet is a horny 20-year-old who can't help but notice how good some of the manly men around her look, and smell, and make her feel. I guess you could add Twilight into the mix I'm trying to describe, but Fourth Wing takes the descriptions of intimacy up to another level.
Now, I am honestly not all that well-read when it comes to the breadth of fantasy literature. For romantic fantasy, I think of books that were explicit influences on the Blue Rose RPG, as discussions of that game are the main places I've ever seen the term used. Having never read the works of Mercedes Lackey or Diane Duane, I can't say how closely Fourth Wing follows that model. In some of the broad strokes, I think it's probably quite comparable. The world of Fourth Wing (centered on a kingdom known as Navarre) is home to a society that is quite egalitarian when it comes to gender roles. There's unequivocal LGBTQ representation. And there isn't a focus on the interactions of all the high fantasy species we're used to...elves and dwarves and orcs and all that. It's just humans and their dragons (or, for the opposing kingdom, their gryphons).
However, I've never imagined that the smoochy, sweaty aspect of the romantic designation would be this prominent in those earlier well-known works of romantic fantasy, although I could be way off. I also don't think I've ever read a real romance novel in my life, so maybe I'm just surprised by any story that gives that much attention to the steamy sessions played out by the heroine and her love interest. A couple of times, Fourth Wing reminded me of passages from trashy paperbacks that a friend would entertain us with through interpretive readings in high school.
And so, this is the biggest qualifier I would have to throw out there in recommending Fourth Wing to anyone (even though I enjoyed the book quite a bit), and why I wouldn't give it as a blanket recommendation for anyone who likes fantasy. I imagine the conversations I'd later have with friends to go something like this:
"How'd you like Fourth Wing?"
"It was tedious and unnecessarily detailed."
"Unnecessarily detailed? But you love Tolkien...!"
"Well, Tolkien never wrote the line, 'It might damn us both, but I can't wait to feel you come around my cock.'"
"Fair point."
To completely belabor the issue...in case it means anything to you, Fourth Wing earned 4 out of 5 flames for spiciness from romance.io, falling into the category of Explicit Open Door and fulfulling the criteria of "At least two intimate scenes, explicit language with a variety of sexual acts."
But...now that that's out of the way, let me say again that I really did enjoy the story! There's nothing incredibly innovative about the worldbuilding, but it's a good universe, and one that I've spent plenty of time thinking about gaming in. The students in the Riders Quadrant have a fighter-pilot-esque cockiness about them, and the core concept -- of bonding to dragons so that together you become the pinnacle of combat ferocity -- is just cool.
The greater intrigue to be found within the realm of Navarre is set on a slow burn throughout the story, and (hopefully without giving anything away) I can say that the book ends in a way that ratchets up that aspect of the plot enough that I was happy to jump immediately into the series' second entry, Iron Flame.
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| Image also from Goodreads |
It should also be noted: You could remove the romance from the story and it would still work pretty well, especially to someone like me who thinks about the whole thing in terms of how it would play out as a D&D campaign. I guess it wouldn't be as popular, but it would definitely still be a cool story. At this point, I'm kind of afraid that I've talked about it enough that my dismissals may sound like I'm "protesting too much" and trying to hide my interest by making sure you all know that there was no way I was into all of that girly stuff. But truly...I accepted the romance portion of the book for what it was, and I embraced the fact that the interpersonal conflicts tied up in it do impact the novel's fantasy framework as a whole, and for the better. (And really...to compare it to works of literature especially germane to the typical topics of this blog: Am I really going to act like the romantic interactions between Sword & Planet princesses and the heroes of Edgar Rice Burroughs's stories are particularly well-written? Nah...)
Even aside from the romance, though, Fourth Wing isn't going to be for everyone. It seems to be a fairly divisive title among fantasy aficionados, with many readers simply disliking Yarros's style of prose. As a first-person narrative from the perspective of a 20-year-old, it is quite informal, and perhaps even more grating for some, it feels quite modern. I actually think this works well in making the characters seem real and relatable, especially for readers who may not be used to the tropes of ostensibly medieval fantasy. But I've seen enough anger about Poe Dameron making a "your mother" joke that I recognize that the shattering of verisimilitude takes different forms for different people. So...be warned, I suppose.
I've also seen criticism of of Yarros's writing centered on its repetitive nature. And indeed...there's some stuff that seems to come up a lot. Ironically, one example is that "fair point" line I spoke above in my own hypothetical conversation...it's used multiple times and has the sort of modern feel that will make it especially noticeable to some. There are a lot of jaws ticking and lips curving into smiles. And the gazes...gods, everyone has a gaze.
Overall, though, the prose does what it needs to. It drew me into the world of Basgiath War College as it has many, many others before me. The characters are solid and generally likable or unlikable as the story dictates, and there's enough of a connection forged that at least one genuinely emotional moment pops up. As someone approaching the book wanting a good story, I got what I bargained for, and as someone approaching it as a fantasy RPGer looking for inspiration, I got even more than that. If I'm giving it a simple thumbs up or down, it's definitely pointed up, just keep those caveats above in mind if you decide to give it a shot as well.
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Thanks for reading, all! I was going to tie this into my usual Monstrous Matters fare by also sharing a simple Dragon Rider class here...but I didn't expect to write so much about the book itself. That'll be coming soon though...!
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