Iron Flame: Review
Dec. 23rd, 2024 03:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaThis is a hard book to review, for the simple reasons that there's so many things wrong with it. But ultimately, my biggest problem is that the book is boring. Even when a stretch of chapters is interesting, it's buried deep in the midst of chapters of literally nothing happening. It is incredible to me that this book was published the way it is, when it so badly needed significant reworking to be good.
So...accept my list of things wrong with this book, in no particular order, in lieu of a real review. Forgive me--I did not have the will to reread even one page to refresh my memory.
1. This book is so long
Guys, this book is 640 pages long.
It did not need to be. I firmly believe the book could have been trimmed down to a svelte 400, perhaps even less. And it makes terrible use of this word count, failing to set up things that really needed to be set up, lingering on things that did not need to be lingered on, and overall made the most satisfying part of the book the moment when I realized there was less than 10% left and I would actually be able to finish it before dying.
Here's an example: Xaden announces to Violet that they're fifty years too late to defeat the venin at the 77% mark. The book has had one wyvern attack and one lone venin in it so far. Where was this sense of dread earlier? Here's another one: Sloane's entire change of heart about Violet happens off-screen because of Liam's letters.
2. Xaden and Violet are so annoying
The conflict between Xaden and Violet in this book is extremely stupid, and made stupider by the fact that it lasts way too long. And it's just the same conflict, over and over, with long conversations between them that feel like a high school student's idea of therapy, with no resolution that satisfies because the conflict itself is so dumb.
Violet is mad at Xaden because he kept secrets from her.
Violet, the person whose inability to shield her memories meant that the one thing Xaden did share with her in Fourth Wing got stolen from her brain by Daine and directly led to the death of Liam and indirectly to the death of most of her squad.
Violet is mad at Xaden because he, a secret rebel leader in an extremely precarious position, didn't spill his guts about his secret treasonous activities to his girlfriend of...what, months? Weeks?
it is patently insane that Violet thinks Xaden is unreasonable for this. It's one of the few reasonable things the rebels seem to have done! Of course he didn't tell Violet anything--it wasn't his secret to tell, and telling her would have put other people's lives at risk (PEOPLE DID DIE)--and there's no reason for him to feel bad about not telling her. It's fine for Violet to say "I can't be in a relationship with someone who isn't fully honest," with me and if she and Xaden had just had an amicable break up and then gotten back together later that would have been FINE. But instead we have this prolonged argument about trust for way, way, way too long.
3. Every character in this book is required to monologue at least once about how great Violet is.
I'm not even joking. Instead of VIolet actually being smart or kind or strong, Yarros just has every character stop to tell us that she is those things. This happens way too often and only reminds me that Violet is, in fact, a dumbass.
4. Too many things don't make sense if you think about them even once.
A selection of questions that I have:
Catriona, Xaden's ex, is a prime example of romantasy misogyny. She's blonde, because blonde women are evil, she's hot, she hates Violet, and she wants Xaden. Violet is consumed with jealousy towards her, despite her and Xaden having no romantic feelings for each other, and Cat is portrayed as irrational in her hatred, to the point that her fellow fliers side with Violet against her. She's clearly just there to prop Violet up. Fuck this book.
6. Generic alphahole stereotypes vs actual characterization: FIGHT
Okay, Xaden has a bit of a split personality in this book, and I think it comes down to a larger problem, which is that fantasy is just not Yarros's genre. She is not good at it. It feels like she's got no love for it. On one hand, this book is about a rebel force trying to oppose an oppressive regime, and so Xaden and Violet are rebel leaders, motivated by their desire to do good and fight injustice. But on the other hand, Yarros wants Xaden to be a dark romance hero, a dangerous guy who is only soft for his beloved and would anything for her.
Here's the thing: the bad guy who is only good to you is a fantasy. And the brooding, tortured guy with the dark past who is good at heart is a fantasy. But those are two different guys!
So when Xaden says he'll sacrifice everything for Violet, he sounds like a psychopath and also wildly OOC. Is he motivated by his desire to restore his people and to protect the rebel kids he took responsibility for, or is he motivated solely by VIolet's pussy? It can't and shouldn't be both!
I feel like Yarros read a couple romantasy novels and just borrowed whatever she wanted without thinking.
Another example: Violet and Mira beefing with Cat and Syrena during their introduction, even though Syrena and Cat are objectively correct and are the wronged parties. The gryphon fliers are the good guys, which is why Violet and Mira are now rebels, but this scene is still just our heroine versus the evil blonde women. Again we've taken a common romantasy trope and not thought about the actual book it's in.
7. The opening quotes of each chapters almost always spoil the chapter.
Why do this? Why?
8. In conclusion:
This book sucks and it actually sucks much more than Fourth Wing. Yes, I will be reading Onyx Storm.
So...accept my list of things wrong with this book, in no particular order, in lieu of a real review. Forgive me--I did not have the will to reread even one page to refresh my memory.
1. This book is so long
Guys, this book is 640 pages long.
It did not need to be. I firmly believe the book could have been trimmed down to a svelte 400, perhaps even less. And it makes terrible use of this word count, failing to set up things that really needed to be set up, lingering on things that did not need to be lingered on, and overall made the most satisfying part of the book the moment when I realized there was less than 10% left and I would actually be able to finish it before dying.
Here's an example: Xaden announces to Violet that they're fifty years too late to defeat the venin at the 77% mark. The book has had one wyvern attack and one lone venin in it so far. Where was this sense of dread earlier? Here's another one: Sloane's entire change of heart about Violet happens off-screen because of Liam's letters.
2. Xaden and Violet are so annoying
The conflict between Xaden and Violet in this book is extremely stupid, and made stupider by the fact that it lasts way too long. And it's just the same conflict, over and over, with long conversations between them that feel like a high school student's idea of therapy, with no resolution that satisfies because the conflict itself is so dumb.
Violet is mad at Xaden because he kept secrets from her.
Violet, the person whose inability to shield her memories meant that the one thing Xaden did share with her in Fourth Wing got stolen from her brain by Daine and directly led to the death of Liam and indirectly to the death of most of her squad.
Violet is mad at Xaden because he, a secret rebel leader in an extremely precarious position, didn't spill his guts about his secret treasonous activities to his girlfriend of...what, months? Weeks?
it is patently insane that Violet thinks Xaden is unreasonable for this. It's one of the few reasonable things the rebels seem to have done! Of course he didn't tell Violet anything--it wasn't his secret to tell, and telling her would have put other people's lives at risk (PEOPLE DID DIE)--and there's no reason for him to feel bad about not telling her. It's fine for Violet to say "I can't be in a relationship with someone who isn't fully honest," with me and if she and Xaden had just had an amicable break up and then gotten back together later that would have been FINE. But instead we have this prolonged argument about trust for way, way, way too long.
3. Every character in this book is required to monologue at least once about how great Violet is.
I'm not even joking. Instead of VIolet actually being smart or kind or strong, Yarros just has every character stop to tell us that she is those things. This happens way too often and only reminds me that Violet is, in fact, a dumbass.
4. Too many things don't make sense if you think about them even once.
A selection of questions that I have:
- Why was Violet's mom willing to make a secret deal with Xaden to keep Violet alive, but only outside of the parapet, challenges or "her own naivete?" What exactly does that mean? She was okay with Violet being murdered during the challenges? How would it not have been safer just to have her join the scribe quadrant and, like, tell her the big secret herself? Side note: the fact that General Sorrengail enacts this plan solely because she knows Violet is just too intelligent to not figure everything out and too talented to not get promoted is some of the most Mary Sue bullshit I've ever seen.
- How is having Violet last minute join the riders safer than her going to the scribe quadrant? If Violet had fallen to her death on the parapet, or been hurled to death by Jack Barlowe, how is that safer than her just...being a scribe? General Sorrengail loved Violet enough to sacrifice her own life at the end of the book, but she's willing to let Violet die in the riders quadrant?
- What does the military gain from keeping the venin secret from the general population?
- Why bother having Jack Barlow pretend to be a good guy for one entire scene when he's clearly evil for the rest of the book? It's a completely ineffective red herring.
- Why does Basgiath allow second years to kill each other? Why aren't there stringent rules and security to keep the riders alive, since they're a valuable and scarce resource?
- Why is Violet, supposedly our compassionate character who wanted to be a mender and hates killing, completely indifferent to the constant murder going on as part of the war college? Why is almost everyone indifferent to it when we learn in this book that the gryphon fliers have a normal school where no one dies? Why isn't this a plot point?
- Again, again, again, WHY IS BASGIATH'S RIDER TRAINING PROCESS SO STUPID. How is letting all your rider candidates die during training an effective strategy. PLEASE.
- If dragons don't answer to human authority, why do Varrish's threats carry any weight? How is he allowed to threaten Violet over Andarna if he has a dragon who presumably would be pissed if he hurt an adolescent dragon? The dragons collectively conceal all information about their young from humans, right? For that matter, why doesn't Tairn just eat Varrish the first time he mouths off? What consequences could there possibly be for this? He's one of the most powerful dragons, period, and everyone is jerking off constantly about how powerful Violet and Xaden are, so shouldn't the priority be keeping them alive and in the military so they can fight?
- Why does the military need to covertly assassinate Violet's squad after Resson? Why can't they publicly declare them traitors and just execute them? The military rule Navarre and seem to have unchecked authority--Varrish is allowed to torture Violet multiple times and deny her leave--so why are they allowed to just waltz back into Basgiath at the beginning of Iron Flame?
- Why does the rebellion not recruit scribes, infantry, or healers?
- How did Aaric, the king's son, manage to secretly join Basgiath under a fake name without being caught? Violet recognized him--shouldn't others?
- What is the point of the land navigation exercise? The infantry never appear again, so it doesn't serve a plot purpose. All the riders have a psychic connection to their dragons and the bond-dampening drug they're given during the exercise was literally JUST INVENTED, so presumably in combat they can just...ask their dragons to come get them.
- Oh, yeah, why the fuck does the military spend so much effort on bringing Jack Barlow back to life when menders are extremely rare?
- Speaking of signet idiocy, what signets count as being an intinsic and which ones don't? Why does Xaden's "intention reading" count but Dain's literal mind-reading and Imogen's memory-manipulation don't?
- How is it possible that no one ever tried to teach Violet how to aim?
- Why does Violet figure out how to raise the wards (she doesn't, she's wrong) and then not tell anyone how to do it and instead go a mission where she almost dies? Why does no one in this book seem to know about operational security?
- How does the truth-sayer's powers work? It seems to be based on bodily reactions, but that's complete junk science and not accurate (see: real life polygraphs) so is Yarros just stupid?
Catriona, Xaden's ex, is a prime example of romantasy misogyny. She's blonde, because blonde women are evil, she's hot, she hates Violet, and she wants Xaden. Violet is consumed with jealousy towards her, despite her and Xaden having no romantic feelings for each other, and Cat is portrayed as irrational in her hatred, to the point that her fellow fliers side with Violet against her. She's clearly just there to prop Violet up. Fuck this book.
6. Generic alphahole stereotypes vs actual characterization: FIGHT
Okay, Xaden has a bit of a split personality in this book, and I think it comes down to a larger problem, which is that fantasy is just not Yarros's genre. She is not good at it. It feels like she's got no love for it. On one hand, this book is about a rebel force trying to oppose an oppressive regime, and so Xaden and Violet are rebel leaders, motivated by their desire to do good and fight injustice. But on the other hand, Yarros wants Xaden to be a dark romance hero, a dangerous guy who is only soft for his beloved and would anything for her.
Here's the thing: the bad guy who is only good to you is a fantasy. And the brooding, tortured guy with the dark past who is good at heart is a fantasy. But those are two different guys!
So when Xaden says he'll sacrifice everything for Violet, he sounds like a psychopath and also wildly OOC. Is he motivated by his desire to restore his people and to protect the rebel kids he took responsibility for, or is he motivated solely by VIolet's pussy? It can't and shouldn't be both!
I feel like Yarros read a couple romantasy novels and just borrowed whatever she wanted without thinking.
Another example: Violet and Mira beefing with Cat and Syrena during their introduction, even though Syrena and Cat are objectively correct and are the wronged parties. The gryphon fliers are the good guys, which is why Violet and Mira are now rebels, but this scene is still just our heroine versus the evil blonde women. Again we've taken a common romantasy trope and not thought about the actual book it's in.
7. The opening quotes of each chapters almost always spoil the chapter.
Why do this? Why?
8. In conclusion:
This book sucks and it actually sucks much more than Fourth Wing. Yes, I will be reading Onyx Storm.
