Ever since its release in May of 2023, book fans all across social media platforms have been buzzing about Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing, the first installment of the envisioned five book series Empyrean.
The book stands at a strong 528 pages full of action-fantasy, dragons, magic, and scorching enemies to lovers romance with writing that will leave you holding your breath and turning pages for more. This is a five out of five shields story you must add onto your list!
Fourth Wing takes place at Basgiath War College in the fictional land of Navarre. It opens on Conscription Day, where thousands of twenty-year-olds are assessed to take their place among the healers, scribes, infantry, or riders. Only the most elite attempt to join the selective dragon riders, where not even half of the cadets survive.
Raised as a scribe and marked with a chronic illness that leaves her with weak joints, Violet Sorrengail is immediately set up for failure when her mother, the commanding general, forces her to partake in the cutthroat and competitive process of becoming a rider.
Fewer dragons are willing to bond with cadets this year than the last, and fellow students will stop at nothing to better their success. Others, like ruthless wingleader Xaden Riorson, would target her just for being her mother’s daughter. With nothing more than her wit, there’s no guarantee she’ll ever see her next sunrise.
Yet as Violet finds herself suspecting the very leadership that she grew under and the war only grows outside of Navarre’s crumbling protective barriers, she realizes that making it through first year is only the beginning.
The character development as well as the storytelling flows naturally and realistically.
Determined to prove to everyone that she is more than just her family’s shadow, Violet’s mindset begins to change the moment she becomes a cadet in the riders quadrant. She began reserved and desperate to survive to appease her mother. But over time, she found a dangerous home within the dragon riders and showed that strength is not just in the body.
As a dissenter–those marked as the children of traitors–Xaden holds a deep hatred for the leaders of Navarre, especially the Sorrengail bloodline. Though we do not get his point of view, we can see his character develop throughout the story as he grows closer with Violet.
Worldbuilding can make or break a fantasy book, and Yarros presents the land of Empyrean flawlessly.
Throughout the story, Navarre and the way it functions as a society is revealed through the eyes of Violet only for the reader to realize along with her that not everything that they’ve been told is true. With this, the author’s message is that storytelling affects history, and it takes one generation to change or delete history completely.