From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

Rebecca Yarros

Start date: June 1, 2023

Finish date: June 30, 2023

Discussion: Fourth Wing

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Showing 2 of 7 topics — 248 comments total

Fourth Wing

FW: Representation & Disability
By terpkristin · 18 posts · 103 views

last updated Sep 07, 2023 06:16PM

FW: WOW, that beginning!
By John (Taloni) · 25 posts · 128 views

last updated Aug 04, 2023 07:05PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 24, 2023 Erica rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, library-books

This is just a reminder to myself to not read books recommended to me by tiktok/social media hype. I'm always disappointed.

Let me state why:

1) I can definitely tell this is the author’s first fantasy book, and that she comes from a contemporary romance background. There’s nothing fantastical about the prose she uses, it’s relatively simple, extremely repetitive (How many times can she use the word “hot” to describe someone in a single sentence? Too many times.) and feels too modern for a suppos This is just a reminder to myself to not read books recommended to me by tiktok/social media hype. I'm always disappointed.

Let me state why:

1) I can definitely tell this is the author’s first fantasy book, and that she comes from a contemporary romance background. There’s nothing fantastical about the prose she uses, it’s relatively simple, extremely repetitive (How many times can she use the word “hot” to describe someone in a single sentence? Too many times.) and feels too modern for a supposedly medieval-esque fantasy setting with dragons. It’s not bad, per-say, I’ve definitely read worse attempts at prose for fantasy romance (coughFBaAcough), but it feels really off to me as someone who has read fantasy novels since I was a young girl. It’s also problematic that the only “fantastical” prose is in the use of Scottish Gaelic words in her book that the author cannot even properly pronounce (and were also mispronounced gratuitously by the audiobook narrator too, sadly).

2) It’s extremely trope-y, and she borrows (steals? debatable) a lot of ideas from other popular fantasy novels. Again, not necessarily a bad thing (lots of art is derivative) but it feels very same-y. Some people like that, I personally prefer more variety. This is very formulaic, which I suppose is good for hyping your book on social media? I don’t think I would’ve read this if it wasn’t recommended to me by the social media machine. I want to love fantasy romance books because I love romance plots and I love fantasy, but I just wish they were more well done. The first fantasy romance novel I ever read was Kushiel’s Dart and I guess that just spoiled me for life, because I’m continually disappointed by the mediocre writing and storytelling of the romantasy genre right now, along with incredibly lazy world-building . This is not unique to Yarros, obviously, but kind of a problem for the most popular books in the genre at the moment.

3) There’s A LOT of plot holes in the lore, some aspects of it that don’t make a lot of sense including the magic system and why it's a good idea to kill a shit-ton of recruits for a supposedly perpetual war that they need more people/riders for. I can suspend my disbelief if I don't think about it too hard, but again I have that lingering “off” feeling. Things don’t quite click. The foreshadowing is also extremely heavy-handed, so there was no surprise in any of the plot “twists” for me.

All this being said it’s an easy read despite its length and the pacing is quite fast (any periods where "nothing happens" is basically skipped over in the narrative, we're talking several months just jumped over) so it was quick for me to finish. It also did make me laugh, which is why it’s not getting less stars.

So I guess I can still say I enjoyed reading it in a this-book-doesn’t-make-me-think sort of way, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. It was just okay. There are way better books to spend your time on. ...more

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Mar 14, 2024 Jennyfer rated it it was amazing

I really didn't want to read this book, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun and kept my interest. ...more

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Nov 18, 2023 Nicholas Metz rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed this one. I was slightly intrigued after hearing a podcast I listen to read it for their monthly book club pick. Ended up enjoying it even more than I thought I would.

The concept can be simplified to a grown up How to Train Your Dragon. Dragon riders bonding with their dragons and training while slowly being pulled in to the bigger picture.

There is an emphasis on the "grown up" as there are a couple spicy scenes that are very descriptive.

My only drawbacks were from listening to ...more

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Dec 12, 2023 Michael Pate rated it it was amazing

It wasn't Tolkien but I thought it was clever enough that I want to finish the series. ...more

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Feb 21, 2024 Jen (NerdifiedJen) rated it it was amazing

That was just so fun!

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Jul 30, 2023 Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-book, audio

My only disappointment? Book 2 isn't out yet! I really, really enjoyed this book and can't wait to continue the story. ...more

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Nov 23, 2023 Kathy rated it it was amazing

I really love this book. I just read it for the second time in preparation for book three coming out and I appreciate the handling of disabilities and boundary setting in relationships (among many other things!)

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