Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros.

 

     
     Well, here I went again (nothing wrong with my grammar!), into the amazing fantasy of the Empyrean, Ms Yarros’s five-book series about Dragonkind and the Riders they choose to bond with them.  To be honest, I didn’t think she could keep up the same level of suspense, horror and mile-a-minute adventure plotting, but what do I know:  Yarros has done so with ease and one hand tied behind her back – the other is driving her characters relentlessly along to the next twist in the tale, and there are many of them.

            Frail, tiny Violet Sorrengail has survived her first year at Basgiath War College, bonded with not one dragon like other riders, but two:  Tairn, one of the largest and most fearsome, and Andarna, a half-grown ‘adolescent’ who also decided that Violet was her darling;  between the three of them they make a formidable team, especially when Violet’s signet or special gift, manifests itself:  she finds that she can throw lightning bolts – if only she can ever learn to aim them!

            She is also in a sizzling-hot romance with impossibly handsome Xaden Riorson, erstwhile revolutionary and lover extraordinaire – of her, no-one else.  Violet has her own allure, and emerging gifts of leadership and compassion which wins her devotion from all the other students, so much so that they follow her when she finds out that all their teachers have been lying to them:  evil magical forces are poised to strike their continent, and their leaders – including Violet’s mother the General – are downplaying attacks on outlying towns and subsequent terrible fatalities, saying that all is under control, when it obviously isn’t;  well, it’s time to rebel, to go off and train properly to fight these new, terrible foes and to do so, they must unite with Gryphon fliers, traditional enemies (according to their former teachers) but devoted to their country as the Dragonkind are.

            Ms Yarros has woven a complicated, very detailed plot;  this reader had to go back every now and then to get the finer points down, but she doesn’t falter for a second:  all the I’s are dotted and t’s crossed, as they should be.  There are many great secondary characters, especially amongst Violet’s classmates, and their funny, smart-alicky dialogue is a huge relief from the breakneck pace as we are dragged yet again to a cliff-hanger that I never saw coming until the very last page.

            And I still want a dragon (or two) for Christmas:  I am small and frail, just like Violet – surely I’m eligible?  FIVE STARS.  

 

 

 

Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros.

           

       

     My nails are totally wrecked, and it’s all HER fault, that Rebecca Yarros!  Her Fantasy novel fairly crackles with suspense, menace, romance (naturally!) and dragons, lots of them.  Dragons are my favourite fantasy creatures, and Ms Yarros has created some truly majestic beasts, as befitting their vital importance to the welfare and protection of their riders, chosen by each dragon from students at Basgiath War College, who all hope to become Dragon Riders, protecting their country from enemies, both territorial and magical.

            Violet Sorrengail is 20 years old and expecting to go to the same college as a Scribe, a recorder of all history and battles fought now and in the future;  her mother is a powerful general in the military and her sister Mira is a Dragon Rider;  her brother Brennan was a Healer but lost his life to Insurrectionists. Because of her small stature and frailty, Violet is happy to have a sedentary but peaceful life as a recorder of her country’s achievements – and failures.

            Until mother suddenly changes her mind:  Violet is to audition as a first-year dragon rider, an audition so cruel and beyond her abilities that Violet knows now beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’s definitely not her mother’s favourite child.  Well, OK, she’ll give it her all:  she’ll show Mother Dear that she went to her death courageously, and the appearance of her sister Mira to give her last-minute private advice and secret notes from her late brother spurs her on to miraculous success:  at the end of the day she’s still here – not dead yet!

            Sadly, her success also releases a dog-eat-dog survival-of-the-fittest attitude from the other first-years.  They see her as a weak link, someone to be disposed of so that choosy dragons will pick them instead – why, she’s too small to even climb on a dragon’s back, much less fight and kill from that position:  better get rid of her by fair means or the other kind.  No self-respecting dragon would choose her anyway:  she’s goneburger.

            But she’s not:  as we all know, love and hate are both sides of one coin;  Xaden Riorson, leader of Fourth Wing, Violet’s first-year group and son of a notorious Insurrectionist (Xaden was forced to watch his father’s execution) has overcome his initial loathing and is now firmly in her corner – because their dragons are mated!  In fact, Violet has TWO dragons who chose her, not one, so that when the showdown comes at the end of Book One, she has twice the power against their enemies.  Well done, Ms Yarros;  you didn’t let me go until the very last sentence, and that will lead me straight into Book Two.  And I want a dragon for Christmas!  FIVE STARS.

 

             

 

 

Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans.

 

            Miriam Price, arrogant, brilliant A &E Medical Consultant at one of Britain’s most prestigious teaching hospitals – has died.

            And she’s not happy about it!  Firstly, she has been murdered but her death has been arranged to show that she died by misadventure after ingesting heroic amounts of pills and booze:  the nasty cow (Miriam has no friends, doesn’t want any) was an unapologetic alcoholic pill-popper, so her end has come as no surprise to any of her colleagues;  they’re just surprised that it took her so long.  Miriam, on the other hand, knows that her death was no accidental loss of control;  she has been a ‘functioning’ alcoholic since she was sixteen – no, someone else has done this to her and arranged the death scene to look as it did.  But who?  Miriam is furious with herself for not remembering and, after a visit to Limbo, learns that she will be stuck there for many decades unless she can indeed prove that she was murdered.  The Afterlife has more rules and regulations than her posh boarding school before one reaches the Nirvana of Eternity and really, from what she’s seen so far, she could die of boredom all over again unless she can prove to Limbo Admin that she died by foul means.  Then she could meet again with her beloved Dad – and her mother, who had a very unique approach to life – and death.  Is she ready for that?

            First things first:  not everyone can ‘see’ Miriam;  her presence is felt by very few people, which makes eavesdropping very entertaining, especially watching friends and families as they mourn her passing at her memorial service, and the various reactions of people that she cared about (not many) come as a shock – including the appearance of her elderly next-door neighbour with whom she has been feuding for two years:  Miriam’s cat was murdered by that old battleaxe, who squashed her beneath her car, and has come to her service to make sure Miriam is really dead, not to pay any respects. And she is one of the very few who can see her.  AND, by various torturous events, the only one who can help her prove her very real suspicions.  Talk about making a deal with the Devil!

            Which is struck, as it should be in Maz Evans’s hugely entertaining debut novel.  This book is seriously good fun, but also raises the big questions, especially how everyone grieves in their own ways, i.e. Miriam’s father committed suicide and her mother was furious, because she’d already cooked his dinner when Miriam found his body:  there was a meal wasted!  That surely is a singular way to react to one’s nearest and dearest’s death.  There are many more well-drawn characters in this clever story, but Miriam is the star, even though she is initially so unlikeable – which is a shame, because we won’t be meeting her again.  Not in this life, anyway!  FIVE STARS.