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Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

Rebecca Yarros

Start date: July 1, 2023

Finish date: July 31, 2023

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What Members Thought

Jul 24, 2023 Logan rated it it was ok

Shelves: own-bought-ebook, fantasy, romance, tower-teams-x

I wish this book had been marketed for what it is and not what the publisher wanted it to be. I wanted and expected a rich fantasy world with high stakes and lots of dragons and soldiers preparing for combat. What I got was a YA story with a New Adult ending and sex scenes that happens to take place in a made up setting with dragons. We don't even see the dragons until halfway through the book and beyond some flying attempts we never see any training with them. There is no real magic to speak of I wish this book had been marketed for what it is and not what the publisher wanted it to be. I wanted and expected a rich fantasy world with high stakes and lots of dragons and soldiers preparing for combat. What I got was a YA story with a New Adult ending and sex scenes that happens to take place in a made up setting with dragons. We don't even see the dragons until halfway through the book and beyond some flying attempts we never see any training with them. There is no real magic to speak of other than some wards that are failing that we never learn about.

The synopsis explains the entirety of the plot. The book never fleshes out any of it beyond that description, because in true New Adult fashion the ending is clipped into a cliffhanger so you will keep reading the FIVE books that are supposed to make up the series. The problem is that the plot is weak and the author never establishes any stakes for either Violet's trajectory or the world's.

Exactly as stated in the synopsis, Violet was raised to be a scribe but for reasons unknown and never explained, her mother tells her she has to be a dragon rider instead. The problem is that dragon riders-in-training have what appears to be a death rate of 50%+ because this country in a 400 year long war thinks killing its talented soldiers (who have to pass an entrance exam to even get in) rather than reassigning them elsewhere is a sound training strategy.

Imagine if the Navy SEALs just shot anyone who rang out or allowed the trainees to murder each other at will and without consequence. That's what this school is like and it doesn't make any sense nor is any reasoning ever offered.

Violet is ill-prepared and doesn't want to be a rider, yet apparently she thinks death is better than just defying her mother and becoming a scribe. Every single character brings up multiple times that she is going to die during training because so few people (who have trained their whole lives to be there) make it out alive. But we know she isn't going to die because she's our main character, so there is never a threat that she might fail. So I have no need to invest in the outcome and so we'll probably just stop yammering on about the danger she will never actually face and get to some fun Hogwarts-style school scenes, yes?

Oh no. Definitely not. Violet doesn't bother to tell us how the school year is going to play out. She establishes that there will be combat face-offs with no emphasis on training and only on surviving. She establishes there is no actual instruction of any kind. The professors literally observe and share news from the front lines. They supposedly talk a lot about past battles for strategy evaluations but these are never included in the story's action and none of that information ever seems to be necessary. It was so boring to read about how she couldn't fight because she is so small and fragile but this school also couldn't train her or kick her out. Only kill her. What is the point of this "school?"

Right, the dragons. We never get any description of them and no idea of how to picture them. When we finally get introduced to the dragons we learn that they kill anyone who isn't worthy, so after months of "training" a bunch of them will die anyway because the dragons don't like them. Why isn't this step 1 in the selection process??? Why let a bunch of students die "because they may not be able to ride a dragon" if the dragons pick them anyway?

Once a dragon bonds to you, they still may let you die if you can't fly them...unless you're Violet who can't fly without falling off but HER dragon keeps saving her. And yet we see other dragons mourn deeply when their bonded rider dies, so why are they letting some fall to their deaths without a care? The lack of common sense and contradictory nature of the world building was infuriating to try and understand and the author never tries to explain or justify any of it.

The internal monologue of our MC is cringey and full of modern slang which is completely at odds with a fantasy setting. She is c o n s t a n t l y talking about how sexy the love interest is and how she is supposed to hate him but can't stop thinking sexy thoughts about him. The whole premise that riders have short life spans has led to a sex positive culture with a free love attitude. Yet these two can't seem to figure out they can bang whenever they want because how else can we build sexual tension?

This was a flimsy premise with zero stakes, no real plot or character development, and a poorly constructed setting. It is painfully obvious the author has no idea what she is doing and her editor doesn't know how to help her. I have no clue where the story is going because we didn't get a complete one in book 1. The only thing we know about what is happening in this world is told to us and we already know it from the book synopsis.

I gave it 2 stars because I liked the goofy golden dragon and the one action/battle scene. This was such a cool concept and it truly sucks that neither the author nor her publisher bothered to really develop it. Instead they threw it at TikTok and let a bunch of NA Romance readers feel like they read a fantasy novel. I'm glad it worked out for them but it could have been, you know, *good* instead of buzzy. ...more

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Apr 12, 2024 Rachel N. rated it really liked it

Shelves: play-book-tag, fantasy, dragon, read-in-2024

Violet Sorrengail has trained all her life to become a scribe (scholar) but after the death of her father Violet's mother is determined Violet will become a dragon rider. The problem is Violet is frail and has joint problems. The rider shcool is deadly, many people die just on the entrance test, but Violet manages to make it with a little help from her rider sister. There is a romance brewing between Violet and the head of her wing, Xaden. My favorite part of the book are the dragons. The two ma ...more

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Mar 07, 2024 Cha rated it it was amazing

Absolutely worth reading and worth the hype! 😍

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2023 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2.5 stars. Maybe it's as case of lowered expectations, but this was better than I thought it was going to be.

The author's writing was fine - not lyrical and poetic, but serviceable. The plot was pretty standard for a fantasy romance, but nothing bad. I would say that overall, my reaction is that I just didn't care enough. I wasn't attached to any of the characters other than the dragons. The characters come across as quite a bit younger than they are supposed to be - apparently Violet is in her ...more

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Feb 10, 2024 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

2nd time through:
I liked this even better on a re-read.

Original review:
I liked this quite a bit. I really could have done without the sex scenes (and then the hyper fixation on it once they started), especially listening to this on audio. Honestly, that's what bumped this down to 4 stars for me. Just not my thing, although had I been reading it in print it would have been lots easier to skip like I usually do. ...more

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Sep 17, 2023 Nicole rated it really liked it

I didn’t want to enjoy this book. I didn’t want to be so involved with it. But I read it over the course of a weekend (pacing myself, or so I thought), and I so enjoyed this and can’t wait for the second. Violet is a likeable, smart character who taps into her own individuality to grow and thrive, along with the ramshackle group of people in her wing. This book was so much fun. The world building was great. The character development was great. The twists and turns, while I was able to gauge them ...more

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May 21, 2025 Lauren added it

Although I’m not a huge fantasy reader now, it was the bread and butter I grew up on, and I appreciate a good fantasy. I realize that I am alone in this, but I did *not* appreciate the explicit sex scenes or the predictable love triangle that dumbed down an otherwise interesting premise.

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