Please note: This article contains minor spoilers.
Intro:
Recently, I was visiting the office staff of the elementary school in my district. While there, my administrators were raving about a book series they were reading. I know they are avid readers, so I was intrigued. The book series they were talking about is called Empyrean by Rebecca Yarros. The book they pitched to me is Fourth Wing, the first book in the series.
After a little research, I discovered that the series gained a lot of attention on Book Tok, via the Tik Tok app. This is a ravenous group who talk about books; it’s a really strong literature community. So, again, my interest was piqued. I prefer physical copies, so I went to my local book store and purchased a copy.
My Review
Fourth Wing is a hybrid fantasy/romance novel, or “romantasy” if you will. It has a female protagonist, some intrigue, dragons, and some very steamy love scenes. For fantasy, it is an extremely fast read. It is straightforward and wastes little time getting to the meat of the story. This book feels light and fails to live up to what it could be.
In some ways, the lead female suffered from the same problems as Bella from Twilight. They are strong, but a puddle of goo around the oh-so handsome lead they share scenes with. For instance, while training, Violet can hardly work out due to Xaden being in the same room with his shirt off. I realize that many younger readers will relate to this tension and the subsequent multi-page sex scenes that follow. Again, the relationship that develops, happens far too quickly and is telegraphed from early on in the book. As for the sex scenes, there is no need for them to be so graphic; those pages are gratuitous and do nothing to develop the story.
Another issue that I have is the world building, or lack thereof. Before buying the book, I read some reviews and many mentioned the world building as a strength of the book. This is simply not true. As a reader of other fantasy series, this pales in comparison to the richness that other series offer. The seeds of other lands, other groups of people, history of dragons,etc. are there, but not fully fleshed out.
The point here was not to review the novel, or even give a complete synopsis. What I realized while reading this book, is that it is not for me and I will not be reading any more books in the series. I’m glad I read book one, it wasn’t painful by any means, just lacked what makes the fantasy genre so strong.It seems as though Yarros has her story mapped out and simply gets to each point as quickly as possible. Far too much is revealed about each character in a relatively short number of pages. Good fantasy novels allow the reader to sit in this world and engage in the world around them. We are immersed, not simply a bystander to a cliffs notes version of a new world. Perhaps, the speed here is more suited to the attention span of younger readers. Or, maybe this old fart is reading too much into it.
Final Thoughts:
As an educator, I am thrilled that young people are reading. I am over the moon that there is a Tik-Tok group dedicated solely to the purpose of discussing books. My hope is that folks who read this series and like it, will venture on to longer, more fully formed fantasy series to see what the genre truly has to offer. I would suggest the Wheel of Time, WoT, for those who like this but want a better, more nuanced and rich story revolving around strong female protagonists. Robert Jordan, the author of WoT, cuts no corners on world building- every group of people have their own dress, customs, politics, etc. The reader is truly dropped into another world. The story is paced in a fashion that allows the characters to grow slowly across novels and develop relationships that make more sense.
My genuine hope for those who like the Empyrean series is that they will take this spark and focus it on a fantasy series more worthy of their time. Fourth Wing is fantasy light, but a kindling of what the genre can truly offer.
