I read Iron Flame, Onyx Storm, AND Threshing Day.
It was great!
Here's my quick review on Fourth Wing.
SPOILERS BELOW
Last chance to avoid, only continue if you've read 'em or you don't care!
Iron Flame
Violet sort of turns violent in this one. I love the beef between her and Cat, and how that's overcome. But Violet was very much anti-kill for most of the first book. She was super uncomfortable killing Jack Barlowe, and now, rather suddenly, is all hot and angry all the time. That felt like a switch up that didn't make sense—maybe it's her bonds, maybe it's Tairn, maybe it's the situation. But I never really saw her as the violent type, even when Xaden was calling her Violence in the first book, I was disagreeing with him. Now, she's violent.
The end of this book is incredible. I gave it five stars on Goodreads, thank god.
I'm wondering/waiting for more info about Violet's dad. I'm wondering what they're going to do about Xaden.
I wonder if we're gonna lose another Sorrengail by the time the story's through.
I think I like this better than ACOTAR!
Not enough dragons in ACOTAR.
Onyx Storm
Violet being an “unreliable narrator” and also all of the riders being able to manifest any signet they want creates a sort of deux ex machina situation where problems can be solved in ways that aren’t foreseen. That plays right into me not trying to guess the endings of books... because it's especially impossible when any signet can be manifested to save the day.
Overall I really enjoyed the story, this was probably my favorite of the three! I love a little travelogue.
The end of this book is so sick. I was shocked, excited, and goosebumpy when Xaden produces the onyx storm and wipes everyone out. It was poetic, painful, and brilliant.
Finding out they had married was just as cool.
My wife Amanda has some theories—that Violet's dad was/is a venin. That Violet is half-venin. It’s a possibility.
One thing that bugged me in this book is that no one straight up stopped Violet when they went to the islands and said, "Hey, why the f*** can you speak to Tairn and Andarna still?" That should have been a way bigger deal than it was. Everyone blew it off. And, as Violet is interested in knowledge, especially that of the magical type considering everything they're trying to figure out, she should have looked into that more! Does her being half-venin explain that? I'm not sure why that would allow her to speak to Tairn. Tairn has said, more than once, "I know exactly what you are." That's foreboding foreshadowing.
Are Violet and Xaden gonna have little venin babies with silver hair?! IS SHE PREGNANT ALREADY!? You know they were like "let's bang one last time before we don't see each other for... however long." But it got wiped from her memory. Thank god.
There was much less sex in the book, which I appreciated. I’m here for the dragons, not the sex.
Overall I really enjoyed it, am really excited for the next installment of the story. Consider me hooked.
Threshing Day
FANTASTIC. This is what I wanted all along. A great way to get in the heads of more characters, dragons included. It also serves as a bit of a backstory dump for everyone. I enjoyed getting a deeper understanding of everyone. It felt like each story had a little easter egg to find.
One issue I have, one critique that isn't asked for nor warranted nor heard... The characters don't really have distinct voices. I've mentioned more than once that often in dialogue characters will use complex vocabulary that 90% of the population doesn't use. I've noted it in Violet, Xaden, Rhiannon, and Sawyer. E.g. in Threshing Day, “She’d never be so banal as to conform to quadrant expectations.” That’s Xaden on Sgaeyl. That feels like Rebecca Yarros speaking, not Xaden. Not that our characters shouldn't be educated and have big vocabularies—I think they should. But not all of them.
THIS book just highlights the lack of distinction between voices. Ridoc's, in Threshing Day is almost unique, but all the characters are washed in Rebecca Yarros' voice. All the dragons are virtually the same—they are cocky and pompous—but they all let their riders back-talk them. And ALL THE RIDERS BACK TALK THEM.
Xaden says this to Liam in Liam's chapter. He says don't worry about being overly respectful, that's what you do to dragons that aren't yours—the dragon that knows they're yours (or you're theirs) will already respect and like you to some degree, that's why they're bonding you. But that should have been made apparent before this moment, as it seems each person in Threshing Day is borderline disrespectful to their dragon.
Violet does it with Tairn in the other books, constantly, and it always bothers me. To set up the dragons as ruthless and vicious and requiring the utmost respect, and then for each rider to breach that respect upon their first meeting is repetitive and doesn't match my expectation! I suppose this is some expectation leakage from the dragon metaverse. That is, previous dragon stories are affecting my opinion on this current situation.
But whatever. I always feel bad giving a critique like that. Maybe it's more for myself to understand what I want out of my own writing. Anyone who's built a popular thing simultaneously achieves success and then along with that success comes the careful analysis of said work from the less accomplished in the field.
But I think most people would take the trade.