Fourth Wing: DISCOVER THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! (The Empyrean)
£17.80£20.90 (-15%)
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON!
Don’t miss out on the series that everyone can’t stop talking about!
‘This book contains an addictive, drug like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn’t warn you’ – Glamour
‘I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat, and when I finished, I had the overwhelming urge to just start it all over again’ ***** READER REVIEW
‘The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, need I say more?’- Stylist
‘If I can convince you to read one book I recommend it would be this one’ ***** READER REVIEW
‘You know when you finish a book, and it leaves an ache in your chest because it was so good, and now it’s over? That’s exactly how I feel after finishing Fourth Wing’ ***** READER REVIEW
__________________________________________
Welcome to the brutal and elite world of Basgiath War College, where everyone has an agenda, and every night could be your last . . .
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general – also known as her tough-as-talons mother – has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away . . . because dragons don’t bond to ‘fragile’ humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter – like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Alliances will be forged. Lives will be lost. Traitors will become allies . . . or even lovers. But sleep with one eye open because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Fourth Wing is only the beginning. The deadly second year at Basgiath awaits. Preorder, Iron Flame, the eagerly anticipated sequel in the Empyrean series now!
__________________________________________
OVER A QUARTER OF A MILLION READERS HAVE ALREADY GIVEN FOURTH WING FIVE STARS. ARE YOU READY TO ENTER THE WORLD OF BASGIATH WAR COLLEGE?
‘This book is probably the best fantasy book I have ever read’
‘A MILLION STARS!!!!!!!!! Everything about this book was incredible’
‘FIVE. FREAKING. STARS. There is no universe where I could give this book any less of a rating’
‘There are some stories you read and enjoy but every so often you come across one that just obliterates everything and takes over your entire being within a few pages and becomes your world and personality. Well, this is the one’
‘The world building in this was phenomenal. I lived, breathed and became a part of the college’
OTHER BOOKS IN THE EMPYREAN SERIES:
– FOURTH WING
– IRON FLAME (coming 07.11.2023)
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Piatkus (2 May 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 512 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0349436991 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0349436999 |
| Dimensions | 16.4 x 4.8 x 23.6 cm |
by allbythebook
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros has been a BookTok/Bookstagram sensation, with some readers absolutely obsessed with it and others forming a sort of counter-culture of hate. But for me, it’s a good easy-reading romp that kept me gripped, even if it’s not the best thing I’ve read this year – so a 4 star review from me.
So, first, it has to be said that I love that our female lead is disabled. It isn’t explicitly stated, but she reads as having Ehler Danlos or some other connective tissue disorder. And contrasting that with a really cutthroat fantasy setting where only the physically strong survive is a really accessible way to demonstrate the reality of physical disability to readers and develop empathy rather than sympathy – especially with an emotionally and mentally strong character like Violet. So big props to Yarros for this portrayal, I really liked it – and it’s nice to have a main character who isn’t a perfect Mary Sue, as can be a bit of a trend in fantasy romance. Whilst her intelligence is told about a bit more than it was actually portrayed (she has a good memory for facts but we all know that’s not the same as smarts!), her mental fortitude was demonstrated on numerous occasions.
However, saying that, we didn’t really see a whole lot of character development. Violet got a bit less perpetually terrified as she adapted, but she didn’t exactly read as a shrinking violet (sorry for the pun) at the beginning – I mean, she had a knife to a guy’s balls before she even officially joined the quadrant after all. And other than her coming to realise that her disability wasn’t perhaps as much of a death sentence as she had believed, she doesn’t really grow as a character. And we don’t ever really find out why she was special enough for not only the most badass dragon going to bond to her, but for a second rare shiny (literally) dragon to bond to her too – and the double dose of special magic powers that go with it. So that aspect falls a little flat.
I did, however, really like the crazy death school for dragons setting we had going on. It wasn’t the most descriptive and immersive world building I’ve ever encountered, but Yarros absolutely got across the feeling of never being able to relax and stop watching your back. This book pales in contrast to other crazy death school novels like The Novice by Tracy Canavan (Book 2 of the Black Magician Trilogy) or the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik (beginning with A Deadly Education) that have much more world building and a feeling of impossibility in actually getting to graduation – something we never reaaaaally feel for Violet despite the quoted statistics. But it kept moving quickly and the new challenges kept on piling up, and it was simple enough to follow without getting confused.
The male lead, Xaden Riorson (I must say, a pretty cliched fantasy romance lead name if there ever was one), was superficially hot. As in, I absolutely was convinced he was very sexy – Violet could only seem to think about that any time she was in a five mile radius of him – but not convinced that she fell in love with him. Where was the actual bonding (dragons aside)? I loved how her crush on Dain developed (best bit of character development in the book actually), but falling in love with Xaden was more like… just falling in lust, really. On both sides.
And don’t get me started on the horny dragons. Yes, many readers of Fourth Wing that found it via BookTok will be too young to remember the Dragonriders of Pern series by Ann McCaffrey, but it’s not an original idea, and if you’re going to do it, at least commit to how non-consensual it is like Dragonflight did.
But despite my criticisms, I did actually really enjoy it, and spent not only an international flight reading it (hi again to the lovely Aussie sitting next to me who was a massive ACOTAR fan) but stayed up way too late reading it once I got home because I couldn’t put it down. So I’ve added Iron Flame to my pre-order pile!
by Fluff
I really enjoyed reading this book (multiple times) and the number of different editions I own stands testimony to that.
It has everything : adrenaline-filled scenes, likeable characters, magic, dragons (so, so many dragons 😀 ), soul ripping moments (could have done with a few less), ¨romance¨ (a bit too detailed and coarse for my taste, but it sells book and I will not be the one to change our society’s mentality).
Although, just like with so many other books, it is hard not to spot the influence of TOG and ACOTAR, from the characters to some of the events, Fourth Wing it’s in a league of its own. There wasn’t a single moment where I struggled to read, I was completely and utterly swept of my feet and thrust into its world.
It made me laugh, it made me cry (again, could have done with less tear-jerking scenes), it made me hold my breath! I got attached to so many of the characters, especially the dragons! Tairn, Sgaeyl, and the ridiculously adorable Andarna will forever hold a place in my heart.
However… I was a bit disappointed by the last chapters. I mean, I still enjoyed them, but they left a sour taste behind.
First, Violet’s reaction when learning the obvious truth – way over the top ! It was just to create the usual temporary split in the ‘power couple’ in all YA books (yes, this is new adult but, basically, same thing with a different hat).
The battle – throughout the book we are constantly told how powerful dragons are, yet during the battle they did not do much, especially Tairn, who was supposed to be the strongest. I was so disappointed! And the unnecessary, predictable, YA-style, death of a beloved character – saw it coming and the author used it just to get some tears out of the readers.
Then, the big revelation, did not come as a revelation at all, as I knew it would happen from the start (if u read enough books, you will be able to spot the patterns and the direction of the story) , and did not buy into its delivery.
And to top it all up, Xaden, the mmc, suddenly changes personality and forgets the fact that a few of his friends died, including his foster brother, and he basically turns into Violet’s doormat and can only think with his ‘appendix’ . And this is what worries me the most, that the author will take the same direction as other YA writers and will ‘diminish’ the male characters (aka turn them into complet doormats, living in the shadow of the female characters’ ‘glory’), just to make the mfc seem stronger, which is beyond sad and I doubt I will ever understand the reasoning behind.
I really hope I am wrong and that I will also love the next books in the series ????????