Fourth Wing
By Rebecca Yarros
The Empyrean Series
#1
Warning! Spoilers!
IMAGINE Harry Potter without the professors. Eragon
without the complex relationship with Sapphira. Any of the enemies-t0-lovers
paranormal novels out there without the actual enemy part. That’s Fourth
Wing.
I’ll admit, the first third of the book had me hooked.
There’s nothing cooler than a badass dragon school. Violet is the daughter of a
high-ranking military leader forced to undergo the dragon rider trials at her
mother’s whim, rather than become a scribe like her father. She’s weak,
unprepared, and hurting because her brother died while serving as a dragon
rider. Xaden is introduced as the son of the enemy, forcibly conscripted into
the army to make amends for his family’s betrayal. There’s also the hostile
Jack Barlowe, who hates Violet’s guts for some reason. There’s peppy friends
and some differentiation between dragon species, and no shortage of
tribulations.
However, the strong start quickly nosedives into erotica
fanfiction land. The world-building is flimsy and unmemorable. Why these
age-old super powerful dragons submit to humans at all is a mystery. Violet’s
determination to get into Xaden’s pants becomes the sole driving relationship,
and every other character blurs into the same person—a Team Violet cheerleader,
or a Violet Hater for paper thin reasons. Xaden is supposed to despise Violet.
Her mother killed his family. However, despite this initial chapter stating
this, there’s never any showdown between them, no real hatred. That’s saved for
Jack, who despises Violet without any development or deeper understanding of
why. It makes the tension between Violet and Xaden spaghetti-noodle-limp, and
Jack’s vendetta a big yawn. You just don’t care.
Plus, the professors who are responsible for running this school
(with its high student mortality rate) aren’t present at all. Not one of them
is memorable the way Professor Snape or McGonagall was in Harry Potter.
If you’re going to have a dragon rider school, at least give the professors
some real personality and a stronger mentor relationship agenda with Violet.
Instead, it’s the older students teaching the younger cadets everything.
The dragons were the best part by far. I did like the twist
that Violet became bonded to two dragons. What if they were at odds with each
other? Had different philosophies? However, we barely get any time exploring
dragon society. For some reason, bonding with a dragon isn’t enough—they also
give our intrepid heroes superpowers. Violet gets lightning and another
super-special power, so now the stakes of her dying are at an all-time low. At
least give her the taboo mind-reading power which is a death sentence in this
society. Instead, there just aren’t any stakes, and by the end, I was bored.
The casual modern-day dialog in a medieval setting also continued to remind
that this was just soft serve with dragons thrown in.
The baddies show up the last few chapters. They are mean.
Overall, I don’t see how
this plot could survive four more novels. Considering the price of books these
days, there’s probably better fanfiction out there. Read for an airplane novel,
but otherwise, recommend skip.
Recommended for fans: Sarah J Maas, Stephanie Meyer, Colleen Houck
