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Iron Flame by Rebecca YarrosThe Empyrean #2
Published by Entangled: Red Tower Books on November 7, 2023
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Romance
Representation: main character with chronic illness (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome), nonbinary side character, deaf side character, queer side character
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Don’t miss the explosive new sequel to Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling hit, Fourth Wing.
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.
Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
Trigger & Content Warnings: psychological and physical torture, imprisonment, intense violence, brutal injuries, perilous situations, blood, dismemberment, burning, murder, death, animal death, loss of family, grief, war
I am thoroughly convinced I only made it through Iron Flame because I was grinding for gear in a long dungeon battle in an MMO, and I will not be that person who tries to watch a movie at the same time only to miss when it’s my turn (I admire everyone who can multitask while playing games though). After reading Fourth Wing, I walked into the sequel with not as high expectations as I did with the first one; I was mostly looking forward to having a good time.
But honestly? Iron Flame was quite painful to read, and I think if I weren’t farming in a game, I would have DNF’ed this hard and early. I think subconsciously half of my brain was like, “Will I get my gear first, or will I finish this book first? I bet you’ll get the gear first.” and the other half responded, “WATCH ME, RNG. WATCH ME.“
Spoiler: I finished the book first because RNG dislikes me and wants me to suffer. 
The world-building has improved compared to the first book.
I personally felt like Fourth Wing‘s world-building was surface-level, but it was easy to understand and read. But with Iron Flame, I think the world-building improves a lot more in comparison. The sequel is still set in Basgiath War College where Violet is now a second year, but we also get out in the world and explore more as Violet and her friends uncover secrets that have been hidden from them and everyone else.
Yarros fleshes things out and dives into more details about not only the world itself, but also the history: we learn a little about the First Six, the creation of Navarre itself and the wards, the venin and a little bit of dragon lore. We also get to learn more about the other quadrants beyond beyond a basic “here’s what this quadrant studies and does.” There’s enough information where some of the questions we had in the first book answered, but it’s also enough where we want to know more.
I do still think some of the choices made are still questionable, though. One of the characters early on says, “those of you who have completed your third year will now be commissioned as lieutenants in the army of Navarre.” I’m sorry, you want them as officers? Where they get access to more information? What?! (We find out why later on, but it’s still questionable.)
The side characters shine… a lot! The main characters… not so much.
(By default, dragons are cool, and they’re the best part of the book. No other comment is needed other than I might be biased to dragons in general.)
Look, I love it when side characters have more of a personality than “Girl the MC gave one of her boots to at Parapet and they later became besties” and they pop in for maybe one or two more scenes, never to be seen again. Sometimes they die a tragic death (iykyk).
Yarros introduces a lot more characters in Iron Flame, but there’s also more page time and development to Violet’s squad and some of the side characters from the first book (Imogen is literally the best side character; I love her so much), which I absolutely loved because based on everything that’s happened so far, they’re going to be much more involved as the series continues (for Violet’s squad, this absolutely makes sense considering they spend a lot of time together). It would be very weird if they didn’t do anything more than just existing.
But while I really love the different relationships and the camaraderie among her squad (and to an extent, a growing understanding among the different quadrants), I think the side characters develop more than Violet herself does – enough that they almost seem to overshadow her, even her own mother. Honestly, if the book wasn’t in Violet’s POV, I’d probably think we had a main character swap or a standalone series going on.
(It is very possible this evens out in the long run after all five books are out and we’re looking back over the series. Lots of things can happen when we have three more books! The big question is, though, will I actually read the third book?)
The pacing is messy.
I don’t know where to begin with this. Iron Flame is a huge book: there is a lot going on and a lot of information to absorb. And while I enjoyed myself sometimes, I think there’s so much going on at times that it bogs down the book. In fact, I felt like most of the book was an absolute slog to read through; it became practically insufferable for about roughly 50-70% of the book.
There’s a multitude of factors that could have contributed to the pacing, but if I had to choose one thing, the biggest one has to be Xaden and Violet’s relationship. God, I wanted to throttle them both. Every time they’re together on the page, they’re fighting while everyone else seems more concerned about a potential war that’s brewing. And if they’re not fighting, they’re usually banging. (I guess furniture isn’t getting broken this time, though.)
Violet’s untrusting toward Xaden and feels like he’s not communicating with her; Xaden feels like… I don’t know. Like she’s not asking the right questions? Xaden seems to expect Violet to know exactly what questions she’s supposed to ask, but he isn’t entirely forthcoming when she does ask. Or he brushes it off/dodges the question. I don’t know about you, but when you’re like, “Ask me any question, and I’ll answer,” you can’t really turn around and go, “It’s not the right time for you to know the answer.”
In both of their defenses, I get where they’re coming from and why, and I’m also aware it is realistic to have miscommunication and trust issues in actual relationships. It happens all the time, and it’s frustrating. But it was also very repetitive and Violet is constantly telling him, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to ask. I don’t know if the question is one I’ll get actual answers to.”
I don’t even want to get started with Cat.
Overall
There were some things I enjoyed about Fourth Wing’s sequel, but overall, Iron Flame suffers from a huge case of second-book syndrome. I wish I could say that I would be interested in reading the rest of the series, but I unfortunately don’t think I’ll pick up the remaining books.
