strange and random happenstance

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Published by: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publication Date: November 7th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 640 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Everything Violet Sorrengail has ever known is a lie, even the fact that her brother Brennan was dead. She thought folklore was just that. Folklore. Tales to tell your children to behave or else the venin will come and get you. Only the tales about the venin are real. Dark Wielders who draw their power directly from the source, not from a bond with a dragon or gryphon. And she's seen what they can do. She almost died because of them. And her ignorance could have gotten her killed. But now it's her knowledge that is just as dangerous. Because she knows the real reason behind the Tyrrish Rebellion. Tyrrendor wanted to secede from Navarre so that they could join Poromiel in the fight against the venin. And Tyrrendor still plans to fight. Aretia wasn't destroyed as everyone was told. It's still the seat of the revolution. And Xaden Riorson is one of a seven member assembly leading the revolt, along with Violet's brother, Brennan. But the revolution needs continued access to Basgiath to arm themselves. So Violet must return to the War College and pretend that everything is fine, that her mother, the great General Lilith Sorrengail, hasn't been lying to her and the people of Navarre for years in order to protect Navarre at the expense of others. And on top of everything Violet is having dragon issues. Her dragon Tairn is bonded to Xaden's dragon Sgaeyl and Xaden has been assigned to the front, so much of their time is making sure the bonded pair gets to spend as much time as possible together, damn the inconvenience to their riders. Also Violet's bonus dragon Andarna is going through some changes and is laying low. The lie that they fabricated to cover up their run-in with venin means that the new Vice Commandant, Varrish, is suspicious of them. Suspicions that he acts upon in cruel and unusual ways, from trying to keep Sgaeyl and Tairn apart to inflicting punishments on Violet when she won't produce Andarna at his command. The breaking point though is when Varrish literally almost breaks Violet with five days of torture. Violet staged a raid into the archives to get information on the history of Basgiath and the First Six and how to replicate Navarre's wards. Needless to say an extreme interrogation session wasn't the outcome she had hoped for. But her eventual escape means that Basgiath is no longer safe. The revolutionaries, those who know or have come to know the truth, flee to Aretia and Riorson House. There they continue the education of the riders while also engaging in diplomatic talks with Poromiel. But even with allies the enemy grows closer and those closest to Violet still have secrets. Will Navarre survive or will they fall? It all depends on Violet and the secret knowledge she has gleaned.

This book is just bonkers in the best possible way. I mean, some of the things, I just can't. It's too absurd but at the same time totally makes sense to the characters. The gryphon riders legitimately call the dragon riders out on their barbaric practices and how they commit wholesale slaughter of their students and everyone from Basgiath is like, no, that's totally normal right? Kill the weak and all that. Why would you let someone survive? And the gryphon riders are all like, you're mental, OK? And you know what, they are mental, and I love them for it. A large chunk of the student population abandons Basgiath to join the revolution in Aretia and what's the first thing they do? No, they don't assign them jobs or ways in which to help the war effort, they open up their own school. They literally start schooling people in the middle of a war. Damn. I love these idiots. You really just have to embrace the chaos that is contained within the pages of these books. Because if you start to question anything, well, that way insanity lies. Like, how do they have the same months as us? Really. I kind of need to know. Because August is named after Emperor Augustus, the Roman leader, and well... There's no Rome here if you get my drift. And I'm not talking about a drift of gryphons! And you know, no Latin so no October. It doesn't matter that the first of that month is Threshing! Because I don't know how they have that month. But as is my motto with these books, embrace the chaos. These are basically teenagers riding around on giant siege monsters, so, well, suspend your disbelief. Because it's like this, no matter the fantastical in the fantasy genre it's the distilled truths that are brought to the forefront that make this genre more real, more human, than any other genre. What I really connected to is the bond forged between rider and dragon. And while you could say it's more a bond of never-ending friendship to me it's deeper. It's the bond between a human and their beloved pet. The soulmating of a person and a little ball of fur, or in this case a big ball of scales. If you've never experienced this kind of love just read Andarna's speech at the end of Iron Flame. Yes, it might decimate you, and it left me a wreck and in tears, but it's about choice and how you chose your person. Andarna waited for Violet for 650 years. She heard the elders talk of a girl with the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider and she knew that that girl would be hers. I get teary just thinking about that. About finding your soulmate, picking your destiny, and love. Because in the end that's what this book is about, love.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Andarna, Basgiath, Dragons, Gryphons, Iron Flame, Navarre, Pets, Poromiel, Rebecca Yarros, Revolution, Sgaeyl, Summer School, Tairn, Torture, Tyrrendor, Venin, Vice Commandant Varrish, Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Published by: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publication Date: May 2nd, 2023
Format: Kindle, 663 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

General Lilith Sorrengail is the Commander of Basgiath War College. But she is infamous for putting down the Tyrrish Rebellion with her dragon Aimsir by capturing the separatist leaders. Though she lost her son Brennan at the the hands of the rebel's leader, Fen Riorson, during the Battle of Aretia. Brennan's death broke his father's heart while his two sisters carried on as best they could. Mira always wanted to be a rider like her mother and is now a First-Lieutenant. But Violet took after her father. When her mother was pregnant with Violet she was gravely ill causing Violet to be born with all the color and strength drained from her. Her ligaments and joints tend to subluxate frequently so her future as a scribe, like her father, seemed assured. But then her father died and the spring before she'd start in the Scribe Quadrant her mother informed her that she was entering the Riders Quadrant. A move that seemed folly to all, but General Sorrengail was adamant. No child of hers would enter the Scribe Quadrant. Beyond all hope Violent survives Conscription Day where the hopefuls must survive the parapet to enter the Riders Quadrant. Which means she only has to somehow complete the Gauntlet and hope she bonds with a dragon during Threshing, neither of which will be easy. And that is if none of her peers decide to eliminate her first. She is a very desirable target. She is weak, but more importantly, she is General Sorrengail's daughter. And it just so happens that the Riders Quadrant is chock full of the children of the separatists who were conscripted after their parents' failed rebellion. Riders who very much hold a grudge against Violet's mother, making Violet a target for revenge. Especially by Xaden Riorson. Sure his father killed Brennan, but her mother killed his father. As well as the parents of all his friends. With only one loyal family friend, Dain Aetos, to look out for her, Violent learns she's got to look out for herself. What she lacks in brawn she'll make up for in brains and copious amounts of poison. And against everyone's expectations she succeeds. At a level that some start to question when she bonds with not one but two dragons. Something that has never happened before. And yet her mother isn't pleased. It's almost like she wanted her daughter to die. But perhaps that's because Violet is too smart for her own good. She starts to notice things, books missing from the Archives when they should have every book ever written in Navarre. And she starts to notice Xaden. She really shouldn't notice him. But it's like she can't help herself. By the end of her first year she'll perhaps wish that she hadn't survived the parapet because the truth, a truth that Xaden helps her to find, might be just too painful to bear.

Me and "popular" books tend to not get along. We're like fire and ice, or as I read recently, a library and a loud party. Which means I was very skeptical about Fourth Wing. But everyone was talking about how good it was and I don't like to be left out of book "movements" no matter how much I might regret it later and so I requested it through OverDrive and went into it knowing literally nothing. And yes, I mean nothing. I didn't even know there were dragons in it. But I now know one thing emphatically. I don't regret it at all. Even if you had told me the details I don't think I could have grasped how hard I would fall for this book that's like a sexy Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones but with even more death to such a degree that there's a campness to it. I mean it's like, how much more death is there going to be? All the death. And it will hurt. But it will also entertain. It's weird that this much death and destruction could be so entertaining, but here we are, it's the best book I read in 2024. It is what it is. Though what this book really did, besides remind me how much I have always loved dragons, is how much I love fantasy. What fantasy does is take you away to another place and time and then hit you with the home truths that you need to hear. Through the filter of fantasy we learn more about ourselves than I think in any other genre. And that's where this got me. Because this book was all about how history is written by the victors. That it "only takes one desperate generation to change history - even erase it." Books are knowledge but if that knowledge is censured then the truth is up for grabs. We're seeing it right now, all around us. Why else are they trying to ban books? It's not just because they fear the contents but because they fear us having any kind of reasoning, deductive or otherwise. Knowledge really is power. And moreover, readers are more empathetic, and well, we can't have that now can we? But what terrifies me is that while Rebecca Yarros says that it takes "[o]ne generation to change the text. One generation chooses to teach that text. The next grows, and the lie becomes history." We are seeing that around us at an accelerated rate. An attempt to literally overthrow democracy is viewed by many as just a peaceful gathering. We all saw it with our own eyes and yet people are denying that that's what they saw. Could it be because "[l]ies are comforting. Truth is painful." We must not accept the big lie! And the way this is presented to us, through Violet just looking for a beloved book her father read to her and realizing that there has to be a reason folklore is now considered dangerous is poignant. But she keeps digging and the truth she learns, well, that's the very reason her mother wanted her not be a scribe. Because General Sorrengail is ashamed of the truth. And maybe that's a sign that what she did is wrong?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Basgiath, Dain Aetos, Dragons, Fourth Wing, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, History, Navarre, Rebecca Yarros, Riders Quadrant, Scribe Quadrant, Summer School, Truth, Tyrrendor, Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Published by: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publication Date: May 2nd, 2023
Format: Kindle, 663 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

General Lilith Sorrengail is the Commander of Basgiath War College. But she is infamous for putting down the Tyrrish Rebellion with her dragon Aimsir by capturing the separatist leaders. Though she lost her son Brennan at the the hands of the rebel's leader, Fen Riorson, during the Battle of Aretia. Brennan's death broke his father's heart while his two sisters carried on as best they could. Mira always wanted to be a rider like her mother and is now a First-Lieutenant. But Violet took after her father. When her mother was pregnant with Violet she was gravely ill causing Violet to be born with all the color and strength drained from her. Her ligaments and joints tend to subluxate frequently so her future as a scribe, like her father, seemed assured. But then her father died and the spring before she'd start in the Scribe Quadrant her mother informed her that she was entering the Riders Quadrant. A move that seemed folly to all, but General Sorrengail was adamant. No child of hers would enter the Scribe Quadrant. Beyond all hope Violent survives Conscription Day where the hopefuls must survive the parapet to enter the Riders Quadrant. Which means she only has to somehow complete the Gauntlet and hope she bonds with a dragon during Threshing, neither of which will be easy. And that is if none of her peers decide to eliminate her first. She is a very desirable target. She is weak, but more importantly, she is General Sorrengail's daughter. And it just so happens that the Riders Quadrant is chock full of the children of the separatists who were conscripted after their parents' failed rebellion. Riders who very much hold a grudge against Violet's mother, making Violet a target for revenge. Especially by Xaden Riorson. Sure his father killed Brennan, but her mother killed his father. As well as the parents of all his friends. With only one loyal family friend, Dain Aetos, to look out for her, Violent learns she's got to look out for herself. What she lacks in brawn she'll make up for in brains and copious amounts of poison. And against everyone's expectations she succeeds. At a level that some start to question when she bonds with not one but two dragons. Something that has never happened before. And yet her mother isn't pleased. It's almost like she wanted her daughter to die. But perhaps that's because Violet is too smart for her own good. She starts to notice things, books missing from the Archives when they should have every book ever written in Navarre. And she starts to notice Xaden. She really shouldn't notice him. But it's like she can't help herself. By the end of her first year she'll perhaps wish that she hadn't survived the parapet because the truth, a truth that Xaden helps her to find, might be just too painful to bear.

Me and "popular" books tend to not get along. We're like fire and ice, or as I read recently, a library and a loud party. Which means I was very skeptical about Fourth Wing. But everyone was talking about how good it was and I don't like to be left out of book "movements" no matter how much I might regret it later and so I requested it through OverDrive and went into it knowing literally nothing. And yes, I mean nothing. I didn't even know there were dragons in it. But I now know one thing emphatically. I don't regret it at all. Even if you had told me the details I don't think I could have grasped how hard I would fall for this book that's like a sexy Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones but with even more death to such a degree that there's a campness to it. I mean it's like, how much more death is there going to be? All the death. And it will hurt. But it will also entertain. It's weird that this much death and destruction could be so entertaining, but here we are, it's the best book I read in 2024. It is what it is. Though what this book really did, besides remind me how much I have always loved dragons, is how much I love fantasy. What fantasy does is take you away to another place and time and then hit you with the home truths that you need to hear. Through the filter of fantasy we learn more about ourselves than I think in any other genre. And that's where this got me. Because this book was all about how history is written by the victors. That it "only takes one desperate generation to change history - even erase it." Books are knowledge but if that knowledge is censured then the truth is up for grabs. We're seeing it right now, all around us. Why else are they trying to ban books? It's not just because they fear the contents but because they fear us having any kind of reasoning, deductive or otherwise. Knowledge really is power. And moreover, readers are more empathetic, and well, we can't have that now can we? But what terrifies me is that while Rebecca Yarros says that it takes "[o]ne generation to change the text. One generation chooses to teach that text. The next grows, and the lie becomes history." We are seeing that around us at an accelerated rate. An attempt to literally overthrow democracy is viewed by many as just a peaceful gathering. We all saw it with our own eyes and yet people are denying that that's what they saw. Could it be because "[l]ies are comforting. Truth is painful." We must not accept the big lie! And the way this is presented to us, through Violet just looking for a beloved book her father read to her and realizing that there has to be a reason folklore is now considered dangerous is poignant. But she keeps digging and the truth she learns, well, that's the very reason her mother wanted her not be a scribe. Because General Sorrengail is ashamed of the truth. And maybe that's a sign that what she did is wrong?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Basgiath, Dain Aetos, Dragons, Fourth Wing, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, History, Navarre, OverDrive, Rebecca Yarros, Riders Quadrant, Scribe Quadrant, Threshing, Truth, Tyrrendor, Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Published by: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publication Date: November 7th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 640 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Everything Violet Sorrengail has ever known is a lie, even the fact that her brother Brennan was dead. She thought folklore was just that. Folklore. Tales to tell your children to behave or else the venin will come and get you. Only the tales about the venin are real. Dark Wielders who draw their power directly from the source, not from a bond with a dragon or gryphon. And she's seen what they can do. She almost died because of them. And her ignorance could have gotten her killed. But now it's her knowledge that is just as dangerous. Because she knows the real reason behind the Tyrrish Rebellion. Tyrrendor wanted to secede from Navarre so that they could join Poromiel in the fight against the venin. And Tyrrendor still plans to fight. Aretia wasn't destroyed as everyone was told. It's still the seat of the revolution. And Xaden Riorson is one of a seven member assembly leading the revolt, along with Violet's brother, Brennan. But the revolution needs continued access to Basgiath to arm themselves. So Violet must return to the War College and pretend that everything is fine, that her mother, the great General Lilith Sorrengail, hasn't been lying to her and the people of Navarre for years in order to protect Navarre at the expense of others. And on top of everything Violet is having dragon issues. Her dragon Tairn is bonded to Xaden's dragon Sgaeyl and Xaden has been assigned to the front, so much of their time is making sure the bonded pair gets to spend as much time as possible together, damn the inconvenience to their riders. Also Violet's bonus dragon Andarna is going through some changes and is laying low. The lie that they fabricated to cover up their run-in with venin means that the new Vice Commandant, Varrish, is suspicious of them. Suspicions that he acts upon in cruel and unusual ways, from trying to keep Sgaeyl and Tairn apart to inflicting punishments on Violet when she won't produce Andarna at his command. The breaking point though is when Varrish literally almost breaks Violet with five days of torture. Violet staged a raid into the archives to get information on the history of Basgiath and the First Six and how to replicate Navarre's wards. Needless to say an extreme interrogation session wasn't the outcome she had hoped for. But her eventual escape means that Basgiath is no longer safe. The revolutionaries, those who know or have come to know the truth, flee to Aretia and Riorson House. There they continue the education of the riders while also engaging in diplomatic talks with Poromiel. But even with allies the enemy grows closer and those closest to Violet still have secrets. Will Navarre survive or will they fall? It all depends on Violet and the secret knowledge she has gleaned.

This book is just bonkers in the best possible way. I mean, some of the things, I just can't. It's too absurd but at the same time totally makes sense to the characters. The gryphon riders legitimately call the dragon riders out on their barbaric practices and how they commit wholesale slaughter of their students and everyone from Basgiath is like, no, that's totally normal right? Kill the weak and all that. Why would you let someone survive? And the gryphon riders are all like, you're mental, OK? And you know what, they are mental, and I love them for it. A large chunk of the student population abandons Basgiath to join the revolution in Aretia and what's the first thing they do? No, they don't assign them jobs or ways in which to help the war effort, they open up their own school. They literally start schooling people in the middle of a war. Damn. I love these idiots. You really just have to embrace the chaos that is contained within the pages of these books. Because if you start to question anything, well, that way insanity lies. Like, how do they have the same months as us? Really. I kind of need to know. Because August is named after Emperor Augustus, the Roman leader, and well... There's no Rome here if you get my drift. And I'm not talking about a drift of gryphons! And you know, no Latin so no October. It doesn't matter that the first of that month is Threshing! Because I don't know how they have that month. But as is my motto with these books, embrace the chaos. These are basically teenagers riding around on giant siege monsters, so, well, suspend your disbelief. Because it's like this, no matter the fantastical in the fantasy genre it's the distilled truths that are brought to the forefront that make this genre more real, more human, than any other genre. What I really connected to is the bond forged between rider and dragon. And while you could say it's more a bond of never-ending friendship to me it's deeper. It's the bond between a human and their beloved pet. The soulmating of a person and a little ball of fur, or in this case a big ball of scales. If you've never experienced this kind of love just read Andarna's speech at the end of Iron Flame. Yes, it might decimate you, and it left me a wreck and in tears, but it's about choice and how you chose your person. Andarna waited for Violet for 650 years. She heard the elders talk of a girl with the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider and she knew that that girl would be hers. I get teary just thinking about that. About finding your soulmate, picking your destiny, and love. Because in the end that's what this book is about, love.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ancient Rome, Andarna, Basgiath, Dragons, Gryphons, Iron Flame, Navarre, Pets, Poromiel, Rebecca Yarros, Revolution, Sgaeyl, Tairn, Torture, Tyrrendor, Venin, Vice Commandant Varrish, Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson