Audio Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Narrator: Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton
Series: The Empyrean #1
Published by Recorded Books, Entangled: Red Tower Books on 2023-05-02
Length: 643 pages
Length: 21 hours and 22 minutes
Listening Speed: 2x
Reviewing Audiobook, Hardcover from Audible, My Book Shelf
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2025 Audiobook Challenge, 2025 Beat the Backlist, 2025 SFF Reading Challenge

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

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.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

I cannot believe I waited so long to read this book! Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is the first in her fantasy series The Empyrean which features all the things I love in a fantasy: dragons, magic, dragons, romance, dragons, adventure, and did I mention dragons? Violet Sorrengail has spent her life training to be a scribe, but as the general’s daughter she’s ordered to join the elite of Navarre as a dragon rider. The story follows Violet through her first year at Basgiath War College where she learns she’s stronger than she ever thought she could be.

Violet is the youngest daughter of the famed General Sorrengail, her mother, and was born “weak.” Her bones and muscles are fragile, and she suffers from constant pain as a result. Her father, recently deceased, was a scribe, and Violet spent her time growing up around the books and parchments he loved. She thought, and trained, to follow in his footsteps, but after losing her brother in the Tyrrish rebellion and then her father to a broken heart, her mother has other plans. She forces Violet to enter the Riders Quadrant, where Vi will be pushed to the point of breaking with hundreds of others all vying for a chance to be a dragon rider. With Violet’s health, she believes she’ll die early in the training if the dragons don’t sense her weakness and burn her first.

I loved Violet’s stubborn streak. This stubbornness and determination to prove not only her mother and everyone who thinks she is weak wrong, but also to prove to herself that she can make it. The training is grueling and life threatening. They are told from the start that half of them will die in the first year alone, but none of that stops her. She trains just as hard, if not harder, than her classmates, and I had to admire that.

While the entire story is told from Violet’s perspective, there are some fantastic side characters: Rhiannon, Ridoc, Dain, Xaden, and Tairn, just to name a few. Rhi is one of the first people Violet meets as the cross the parapet, the first challenge all new cadets face. They form an easy friendship that blossoms into a deeper, lifelong one as the story progresses. Ridoc is the comic relief and another friend. Dain is Violet’s oldest friend and has known her the longest. They grew up together, and he joined the Riders Quadrant the year before her. He isn’t one I cared for, but I also felt he was necessary to understand what Violet is up against. Xaden is *swoon*. He is the wingleader, the son of the rebellion’s leader, and Violet’s supposed adversary. I love their interactions together. And Tairn is…I’ll let you meet him when you read it 😉 Let’s just say, he’s my favorite.

Overall, I loved Fourth Wing. I barely skimmed the surface of what I loved about this book in this review. The magic system is well built and easy to understand. The academic setting adds to this as we learn about the dragons and magic as Vi encounters it. The bonds between Violet and the other riders as well as her professors are well fleshed out. This is just an overall well written, exciting adventure. If you are a fan of fantasy, dark academia, and romance, I highly recommend it.

Audiobook Note: While I own both an audiobook and hardcover copy, I opted to listen and follow along as I had no hope of pronouncing the dragon names, and I just wanted to listen. I’m glad I did. Rebecca Soler is fantastic! I felt like I was there in the thick of the action with Violet. I did not want to stop listening or set the book down at any point. I listened at my normal 2x speed.

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