Just finished Fourth Wing / Book 1 of Empyrean Series

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It was kind of weird that in the middle of magic/dragons and such that dudes starts eating everybody out

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Thats an interesting synopses

I will add this here as well incase the discussion gets better traction in this thread:

I would like to share my thoughts on 4th Wing and Part 1 of Iron Flame and would love to know your opinions.

We can discuss part 2 when you finish.

Fourth Wing SPOILERS start now if you haven't read it:

I thought the book was great. The will they, won't they between Xaden and Violet was done well and drawn out perfectly. I could definitely do without the graphic sex scenes. A page or 2, sure but entire chapters of explicit descriptions was unnecessary and I found myself just skipping them after the second one because it does nothing to drive the story along. They did a good job of developing side characters and I loved her friend group and liked the arcs of Daine and even Jack Barlow. I was legitimately shocked at the ending and felt Yaros did a good job layering the story throughout. She gave subtle hints at things but not to the point where I could predict what was happening next. Even when the foreshadowing was heavy like it was with the "lone unbonded black dragon" she threw you off the scent by introducing Andarna and even having the green dragons confront Violet at Presentation.

Iron Flame Part I SPOILERS:

I thought Part 1 was a great continuation of the story and it introduced a conniving, power hungry weasel as the villain. Obviously losing the borderline porn scenes could have made this book much shorter. And as opposed to the will they won't they of the original book where the sex was a final release of built up tension, the scenes seemed forced in this book as there wasn't any legit reason for them other than the author wanting some X rated stuff to keep with appearances. I honestly thought this should have been a stand alone book by itself so that more of the story could be fleshed out. While Varish was evil, his character was kind of hollow as we never know his real motive and why he would be so loyal to Col Aetos. And if Violet's mom is in charge of the school, why would she create a position for someone to harass her daughter? I get not interfering with Violet's school experience but creating a position to be detrimental to her didn't make a ton of sense. I felt they also could have developed the back stories of some her friends a bit better in this part if the book. We really don't know anything about any friend other than Rhi beyond their school experience. And even with Rhi, we don't know her motivation to be a rider, we just know she has a family and a nephew. Like why did she want to be a rider when no one else in her family is one? They should have fleshed some of that out as well as others in her friend group to make us more attached to them.

At this point I am not sure what was in part 1 vs part 2 so I will stop so I don't actually spoil anything. I have feelings one way or the other with how it all plays out and don't want to influence yours as I want to know your unbiased opinion before sharing mine.

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What chapter(s) is this?

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Not sure since I skipped them but they are pretty graphic with cringy wording like "He's throbbing at my entrance"

BUT the books have been picked up by Prime (I think) to be made into a show so you will get to watch the scenes in like 5 years or so

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Oh, and he doesn't bang her after to show he's not just there to get sex or some shite.

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This type of soap opra nonsense is where Yaros starts to lose me. This and the whole "ask me anything" BS is annoying and beta as frick. Xaden is the alpha of all alphas in this world and this type of shite degrades his character into a simp.

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didn't give it much thought until the end and then I had lots of thoughts.

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Finished it Thursday.


Spoilers.





It aggravates the hell out of me that the author is constantly destabilizing Xaden and Violots relationship so that they can have make up sex or some shite.

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It aggravates the hell out of me that the author is constantly destabilizing Xaden and Violots relationship so that they can have make up sex or some shite.

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Yeah part 2 of Iron flame became a YA novel that was dumb af. Also I HATED that Xaden just turned Venin at the end. Yaros spent 1000 pages telling us how these Venin were power hungry freaks that just want to destroy the world and then ruins it by making it take 2 seconds to become one but somehow you can never go back? It just made no sense. If he was gonna burn out from channeling Dragon energy, then why was he able to channel Venin energy without issue? It was such a BS move that makes me question whether I want to keep reading. Either Violets pussy is the antidote to being a Venin or Xaden has to turn full heel and become evil and the remainder of the series needs to be Xaden vs Violet.

I'm probably gonna give it at least one more book to see if she can remedy this shite hole she put this story in or I'm gonna bail.

I HATE when authors or show runner stake a great concept and ruin it by doing too much. Dragons and Gryphons vs Venin was a great concept. Turning the main character was some twighlight BS that we didn't need.

I've read a couple of the "romantasy" books, and this was definitely the best one that I tried. It's a bit of backhanded compliment because very few have been good at all.

Second book was a definitely step down, but I'll probably read the third book anyways.

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Still think it was extraordinary weak that people were able to draw power from the earth with no explanation in the book.

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This is the part that pisses me off so much and I couldn't put my finger on exactly why until your comment. Its not like the Venin turned like a zombie bite or something, he just decided he would use "earth" energy instead of dragon energy because it was convenient. If it was that easy, then the idea that the Rider college only wanted the most ruthless people is MAJORLY flawed.

Ruthless people want the most power and if they can get more power from the earth than from a dragon and its as easy as Xaden made it seem then there would be much more stories of riders turning Venin. We know there aren't any other such stories because the general public didn't even know Venin existed.

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I get that it's magic and such. I'd still prefer things like human nature, relationship dynamics, etc to be as realistic as possible.

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Right. In Fantasy worlds, there are "laws of physics" for lack of a better term that dictate how the magic or whatever works. Thats what makes fantasy worlds so cool, its like our world but with slightly different rules and hierarchies etc. If an author just throws caution to the wind or the rules within the world they built then it ruins everything. Anytime they need a solution they can literally do anything which ruins it for me. They have to come up with solutions within the rules of their world or wtf are we even doing.

I am going to read the next book to see if she can explain her way out of this without it being dumb but at the end of Iron flame it felt like I wasted my time reading it.

One theory I have is maybe its not that easy to tap into earth power and the Venin guy taught Xaden how to tap into the power in his dreams in an attempt to get him to turn to their side but Xaden used it to defeat him instead? But even that would need to be fleshed out to a point of believability that I can't fathom.

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10x more whining.

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She was insufferable.
“How can I trust you?” Ad nauseam.

Apparently there are 3 more books in the series.

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This and the whole "ask me anything" BS is annoying and beta as frick. Xaden is the alpha of all alphas in this world and this type of shite degrades his character into a simp

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So true.