Is Fantasy Dying?

A hate letter to Fourth Wing

I’ve been trying to formulate this piece for weeks now. I finished the Empyrean series (Fourth Wing) July 18th and I’ve been sitting on my thoughts since. I want this to be a good piece, I’m not looking to get you angry to pull you in just for you to find out I actually did enjoy the series either, I promise you, I hated it.

This was a hate read.

The only reason I finished it was so that I could talk to my friends about how much we all hated the series and I could write this piece. And I hate that it consumed me so much, I sent several 20+ minute voice notes to my friend ranting about what was going on and what I was feeling. I stood in the hallway with my flatmate as we passionately ran through theories about what we wanted to happen but knew wouldn’t (because that would be good storytelling). I filled a note on my phone with my commentary so much so that at one point, around page 419 of Onyx Storm (iykyk), I realised I should have been annotating these books but then that would tank the resell and I really don’t want to keep them on my shelf.

This series sucked. I’m sorry to all those that liked it, I’m sure you took something from it that had a positive impact on your life. From what I’ve seen online, a lot of the positive takes were that it got people reading again. Good. You should be reading again. Now that you’ve gotten back into it, can we move away from the pick-me characters and the men who are /not/ emotionally mature??? There are better books to read than whatever slob this is. Fuck me guys there’s better ‘romantasy’ out there! In fact this series made me like A Court of Thorns and Roses more. And Feyre is an immature idiot.

Okay sorry, I’m getting heated. Feyre wasn’t that bad, Sarah J Maas got me back into reading as an adult. I’m glad that Rebecca Yarros is getting so many people back into reading, I just need you to know that yay for reading but recognise trash when it’s in front of you. This is a review of the Fourth Wing series, the state of publishing is a completely different issue that I’m not qualified for.

Before we get started, two things to know;

1. This is going to be riddled with spoilers

2. I knew absolutely nothing about this series except it was a fantasy with dragons and enemies to lovers. I knew it was popular, and I trusted the voices of book-tok, that was my first mistake.

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The thing that I could almost forgive is the premise because the premise is needlessly violent and nasty dragon college. That’s fucking cool. - Bethany Gwynne

Book 1: Fourth Wing

Two chapters and you’ve told me everything I need to know about the three female characters within the Sorrengail family.

The main character and youngest child, Violet ‘Violence’ Sorrengail, is clearly her (dead) daddy’s little girl, has been educated and trained for something much bigger than her, and has a complicated and strained relationship with her mother that can be boiled down to the fact that none of them have any communication skills. She’s made out to have a higher intelligence than the rest of her peers but then needs most things pointed out to her by said peers throughout the series. When she does figure it out it’s about 300 pages after the reader.

Her mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, is clearly named that to give her the perception that she’s sort of a bad guy in the eyes of Violet. Ignoring the fact that Lilith is a popular and phenomenal name. Lilith’s biggest flaw is also what I like about her. She’s grieving. The love of her life, the father of her children, and her only true confidant has died just one year before this series begins. He died of a heart attack but it is insinuated that it was a broken heart after the death of his son, Brennan. So not only has she lost her eldest and only son but also her husband. I get the impression that Asher, her husband, was the guiding light for Lilith, and without him, she’s lost. She pours all of the little energy she has into her work as the commander of the war college (yes, a college where they teach you how to be soldiers) and ignores her daughters.

However, none of this is actually explored in any way and I’m only getting this impression because I have something called critical thinking, not a common skill in the world of Fourth Wing. Violet is so self-centred and cares very little for her mother in the beginning that this relationship isn’t explored at all. Making her death have so little of an impact than it probably should have.

Mira, in the beginning, appears to have an actual personality. She’s smart, one of the best in her class, and a very supportive sister to Violet, gifting her a set of armour made from her own dragon’s scales in the opening scenes. She very much gives Nesta, for those who have read ACOTAR, but in a more obvious way where you know she’s stubborn for survival from the beginning and her sister doesn’t secretly hate her (I’m sorry it’s just, Feyre is not a reliable source). Sadly, Mira loses that personality by the second book and is just added to the list of female characters for Violet to have beef with. By book two, all supporting characters that don’t have an immediate impact to the plot lose any depth in their characterisation, this includes Mira. RIP

Mira gives Violet some advice for going into the Basgiath War College and the book of Brennan, gifted to her by their brother of his (and now her) tips and tricks for survival, a very explicit piece of advice. “Stay away from Xaden, Violet. I mean it.”

Ahh yes Xaden. Son of the great betrayer who led a rebel against Navarre, the kingdom in which Violet resides. All children of rebels are conscripted to Basgiath War College when they come of age. Xaden, the oldest, takes all rebel children under his wing. I'm sure nothing bad can happen from this.

Remember when I said one of the only things I knew about this book was that it was enemies to lovers? Yeah nah. ‘Enemies’ lasts about two chapters and then Violet ‘climb him like a tree’ Sorrengail is infatuated and Xaden is broodingly following her around as if she’s the first woman he’s ever seen. They are not enemies, their parents were.

Oh and there’s the first of THREE love triangles that aren’t actually love triangles. This one is Violet’s childhood best friend who is a terrible human and somehow becomes slightly redeemable in the later books because we just forget that he stole her memories and laid hands on her when she told him no????

The first book is Violet’s first year at college. She builds relationships with her fellow classmates, most of which are two dimensional, she bonds with two dragons which is the biggest scandal since the rebellion apparently. One dragon is one of the biggest baddest mother fuckers in the land, Tairn, a black dragon who’s previous rider, Naolin, died protecting Brennan (its all connecting already). He chooses her after Violet stands up for another dragon, his adoptive daughter, Andarna, who is only a small youngling at the time. Returning to the college with both dragons, the council, which includes her mother, are flabbergasted because for some reason they think they have authority over the checks notes giant flying fire breathing lizards who are native to the land and known to kill humans. Huh. Oh and just to bring it all together, Tairn and Xaden’s dragon are mates. Great.

Also they put sex pollen in the dragon book. That’s possibly what blew my mind the most about this book. For those not aware what sex pollen is, good. But that scene genuinely made me put the book down because I was so flabbergasted with it. I don’t even know what to say except they put sex pollen in the dragon book. What the fuck.

Whoever is reading this series for the spice is not getting their money’s worth. There’s on average about four sex scenes per book and it's just her not having control of her magic and him not liking doing the deed in bed. It reads like smut I would find on archiveofourown.org. As my flatmate said, if you can’t write sex scenes just say that. Look there’s nothing wrong with a fade to black, does Yarros know that? It’s okay.

It took me a month and a bit to finish this book. I read it alongside the audiobook because playing the audiobook while I biked to and from work was the only way I could get through it. Look it was alright, I didn’t like it but at the time, when I ended the first book in this stupid series, I wasn’t directly hating it…I was pretty close, but I thought, it must have something that people are loving.

We’re not even going to get into the fact that half of these backgrounds, names, and mythology is stolen from Celtics. But it should be at least noted down.

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Book 2: Iron Flame

I genuinely could not tell you what happens in this book??? Bethany Gwynne and I had a call the other day where we discussed our mutual hatred for this series and both of us had to pause. What happened in book two? What was it called?

Anyway there’s some ridiculous forced love triangle which makes no sense and just highlights the fact that none of these characters represent a very good female relationship. Violet continues to be a self centred asshole and only thinks about herself and her boyfriend.

There was something about war and the world of magic explored a bit more. You know, the bare fucking minimum of the fantasy genre. The amazing magical feats such as…um…a pen? Not a pen that turns into a sword like in Percy Jackson. No, it’s a pen. They use magic to write in pen.

Upon re-reading the book’s summary I have realised a lot happened…I just didn’t really care. There’s zombies dark wielders warlocks venin. They pull magic from the earth blah blah big bad guys to make you forget how big and bad the government and administration of the kingdom is. There’s a prince who runs away from his father because he’s too righteous for his own good but at no point does anyone actually turn to him and go “hey man, you’re royal, you get educated on the external world, do you think you could tell us what’s actually going on.” And because they don’t ask him, he doesn’t tell them. Good lad, you can live. They kill the only likeable character (the comic relief) in her direct group of friends and replace him with another comic relief who I am surprised to say survived the big battle in book three.

By the end of book two you’ve got two versions of the main love interest because there’s no way book 1 Xaden would approve of the actions of book 2 Xaden. This isn’t even an original thought, I’ve seen several posts about it on social media. You’re telling me selfless ‘for the greater good’ Xaden would choose to give a part of himself to the BBEG before he killed himself? Fuck off. I don’t normally like the whole ‘first love is never the end game’ thing that we have going on at the moment but in this instance I was hoping for it. His death would have made a much bigger impact than whatever the fuck happened.

This one only took me 24 days to read because at this point I had convinced my friends who are much faster readers to take part in this self prescribed psychological torture with me so I actually had motivation to finish it.

We’re introduced to the much cooler, much better moral code and culture, that is the Griffin flyers who are apparently the rivals to the Dragon riders. Sorry that’s the most unoriginal shit ever, griffins vs dragons?? Is that a fair fight? Their entire introduction shows how their way of living and their principles are better than whatever Navarre have going on but none of the riders, including smarty pants Violent, recognise the issues within their own society? Maybe you shouldn’t be killing young people before they even set foot in the training camp for the war you started.

This book ended with me sending two 20+ minute voice notes, several long passionate rants in the hallway, and all of my coworkers knowing I despise it. I hate the series now, about half way through is where this really became a hate read. About ten pages before the end I added a post-it note for my flatmate who was reading after me that says “STOP HERE” because it only needed to be two books and anything after is just unnecessary and a money grab. You could have solved it all there

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Book 3: Onyx Storm

We’re skipping over key points here I know, I’m trying not to make this incredibly long.

The main characters are juvenile. They’re in their early to mid-20s acting like 16 year olds. If this was a young adult series with teenage characters and none of the boring sex then I don’t think I would hate it as much as I do. Why did this have to be an adult series? You aged up the characters but didn’t add any of the emotional or intellectual maturity that comes with being an adult. Where is the critical thinking? Where is the ability to say no? Have a fucking conversation with each other. Ask questions too, fuck me team, I thought she was supposed to be smart?

I have a calming aromatherapy diffuser in the background.

Anyway, Xaden is turning into a venin. I’d seen a spoiler for the end but a small part of me was hoping Violet was going to have to kill him and I still really want that to happen.

The entire first half of this book introduces a dozen characters that you don’t need to remember because they make almost zero impact on the story but for some reason have detailed descriptions and backgrounds??? Oh and remember the runaway prince from earlier? His brother is Violet’s ex DUN DUN DUNNNN. He’s a dickhead and another attempt to add ‘real world’ conflict into Violet and Xaden’s relationship (the third love triangle). He doesn’t last long because apparently his only skills are making people hate him and nepotism so bye bye Prince Dick.

Oh wow we’re halfway through and nothing of note has really happened. We’re back with the original team and setting off to find out about some origin mythology and her father’s deep dark secret of a past. The deep dark past which turns out to be him researching different lands and their religious practices…his known job. Jfc guys give me strength. He's living the dream and you’re acting like it's a war crime.

Have you seen Disney’s Zombies movies? I’ve been watching them recently, and one of the plot points is the FMC not knowing her origin and why her hair is naturally white. Turns out she’s part alien. That was more compelling than it taking 527 pages for Violet to realise she was blessed under a god by her father against her mother’s wishes. Sorry no she didn’t figure it out, her sister told her. Do they touch on it much except for their siblings fighting about their strained relationships with their parents? No. Don’t be silly.

Look, one of the main issues with this series is that there’s too much of it. There’s too many different sub plots to follow and not enough time to explore any of them in any depth, there’s too many characters. You forget who half of them are so when they die it doesn’t really mean anything. Who were they again? What was their purpose? A healer? Or just your excuse to finish the unneeded love triangle from the second book?

Which brings me to a point that myself and my friends all agreed on. We’re sick of authors pitting female characters against each other. Every book had Violet pitted against a female character as a plot device that wasn’t needed; her mother, Xaden’s ex-girlfriend (the griffin flying princess), the Big Bad venin’s protege. Characters that had potential to be rather extraordinary if they were actually explored. Her biggest opposition is a venin woman who possesses her mother’s powers. At no point is this actually looked into other than “oh fuck I thought she had lightning oops” and that’s at the very end of the third book!

Where is the depth to these female characters? Why does one side male character get a complete arc including losing a leg, falling in love, and accepting his disability but the griffin flying princess of the neighbouring land gets unseen character development and a childhood best friend turned lover who dies only a few pages after it's even revealed that something is finally happening between them. Why is everything we know about the princess tied to her relationship with men?!

There’s stark differences between this series and ACOTAR. I can’t help but compare them. They’re the same vibes, one is just slightly more violent than the other and has dragons. As much flack as Sarah J. Maas gets (and lowkey deserves) she does write one thing really well, battles and fight scenes. I gotta give it to her, the way she writes battles is easy to follow and builds tension. Every time I’ve read one of her battles I’ve been on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens and crying sobbing over a character’s death I didn’t think I cared that much about (RIP Gaveriel).

Rebecca Yarros’s fight scenes did not grip me in the same way. At some points they made no sense. There’s an attempt to show us other character’s perspectives, but none of them have unique voices so you easily forget who it is that you’re following in each chapter. The multiple perspectives only start at the very end of the third book so you haven’t built up a relationship with these characters already and don’t know much about them because Violet only talks about herself, or Xaden, at length. You’re having to remember details about them from the first book that were mentioned in one throwaway sentence in the middle of a bigger plot.

Then it just ends? It just fucking ends. She passes out. After a giant flux of magic she passes out?? And the battle ends without us knowing??? And she’s married??? And Xaden has relinquished control to the venin (doubt) and runs off with his whole group of rebels and she willingly gets her memory wiped??? Was that needed? Do we need a fourth book? I guess it’s fourth wing right, why not a fourth book.

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It could be that this series just isn’t for me. Perhaps I don’t like romantasy, but according to my reading history, I do. Maybe I don’t like dragons, but according to my stuffed toy collection, I do. I’m thinking this book series just isn’t good. And I’m sick of people pretending it is. There are better romantasy, let alone fantasy, books out there. For the love of the gods please dive deeper. And recognise that Xaden sucks. Just because he’s hot doesn’t make him a good love interest.

I give this 0.5/5 stars, there are four characters that I like, it would be five but he died. Those characters are so much in the background that they don’t really redeem the series at all. A lot of stuff has to happen in the fourth book to change my opinion in any way, a lot of things that I don’t think will happen, and some that I sort of hope don’t (dragon turned human? personified gods?).

Reluctantly though, I am going to read it.

If you don’t believe me that this book sucks, even after all of that, check out what other people have to say

Some more comments from my flatmate Annelise:

- when she starts dreamwalking it is incredibly clear that it is not her dreams we are seeing but xadens, not only does it take her 100 years to figure this out, it’s also intimately linked with two other significant plot points which are again OBVIOUS and she does not figure this out (page 419, when Xaden realises she can dreamwalk, is cemented in my brain as some of the worst storytelling I’ve ever read)

- all the mention of the god of death it would at least have been interesting to have used that and xadens shadow powers to be like a) he’s the god of death or b) he’s like somehow tied into the god of death but no you took the laziest route

- i think the thing that genuinely pisses me tf off the most is that considering it’s a ROMANTASY the romance is the least prevalent part of the series, she establishes very early on that they can’t be apart from one another and their lives are also now tied to one another and then spend the next three books writing increasingly ridiculous scenarios whereby they are specifically kept from one another and for one reason or another can’t even fuck when they are together??? If you can’t write sex scenes just say that

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