Iron Flame

[Anonymous]

Chapter 43 and I think a lot of the criticism about the "War College" in book one got to Yarros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chapter 43 and I think a lot of the criticism about the "War College" in book one got to Yarros.

Don’t think I saw that. What was the criticism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chapter 43 and I think a lot of the criticism about the "War College" in book one got to Yarros.

Don’t think I saw that. What was the criticism?

That 75% of recruits are either murdered by other recruits or killed in training accidents and that's not how a war college works. That a good military redirects people from areas they can't be successful at to ones where they will be.

Yarros wrote a military academy where something like 20% of the incoming students die immediately.

[Anonymous]

The writing is getting worse as this goes on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The writing is getting worse as this goes on.

I’m on chapter 42 and still going with the overall assessment of “It’s fun, not great.” There are scenes and characters I really enjoy. There are others I’m rolling my eyes and wondering why. I’m prepping for a shocking ending based on reactions I’ve seen on booktok. I have a prediction of what it is. We’ll see.

[Anonymous]

Just finished it. It was okay.

I must be old because I skimmed the sex scenes.

[Anonymous]

Finished last night. I thought the second half was pretty bad. The death scene was meh. They spent so much time making us hate and distrust that character, so why should we care? And the big twist was like “okay, so yet another obstacle for these two.”

They’re planning five books of this? I think it would have been better if each book dealt with a different couple. The guy who wants to learn to sign because he has a crush on the scribe friend was cute…they should develop that instead of making another book all about Violet and Xaden.

[Anonymous]

I finished today and I’ve got to say I thought it was terrible.

[Anonymous]

I finished yesterday and really enjoyed the whole thing. That said, I have embraced the whole things as kind of like, the reality TV of reading. This isn't high literature and yes kind of YA level writing.

I also feel like it is QUITE evident this was a rush job. A couple more trips through the editors and this could have been a much better book. I am hoping they pump the brakes a bit and put some more time into book 3. Rebecca Yarros has a cultural phenomenon on her hands, if she wants to properly capitalize on it she needs to take a breath and focus on writing the rest of this well instead of fast.

I found the death quite moving and have suspected that there has been a bit going on with that character that will come out in subsequent books.

[Anonymous]

I finished this morning. Still going with fun, not great.

My theories for future books:
1. Dain is venin. They mentioned his dragon’s bad breath twice, Jack’s dragon had the same thing, and Jack said he wasn’t the only one at Basgiath.
2. Violet is part venin, or her mother was touched by a venin while pregnant. The same way Dain has gray handprints on his arms from Jack trying to drain him, a venin tried to drain her mother but ended up targeting Violet in utero by accident, hence the half silver hair.
3. Tairn dies, but Violet can choose to live because of Andarna. Cue the training montage of Andarna getting stronger and learning to carry a rider.
4. Sawyer flies again with a saddle like Violet’s.
5. Violet’s second signet is resurrection, gifted to her by Malek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I finished this morning. Still going with fun, not great.

My theories for future books:
1. Dain is venin. They mentioned his dragon’s bad breath twice, Jack’s dragon had the same thing, and Jack said he wasn’t the only one at Basgiath.
2. Violet is part venin, or her mother was touched by a venin while pregnant. The same way Dain has gray handprints on his arms from Jack trying to drain him, a venin tried to drain her mother but ended up targeting Violet in utero by accident, hence the half silver hair.
3. Tairn dies, but Violet can choose to live because of Andarna. Cue the training montage of Andarna getting stronger and learning to carry a rider.
4. Sawyer flies again with a saddle like Violet’s.
5. Violet’s second signet is resurrection, gifted to her by Malek.

Oh, I love these ideas!

My only contribution: the excerpts from their letters were labeled as "recovered" correspondence between Violet and Xaden. Since this society burns all your stuff when you die, what could it mean? Could it mean they die and the scribe friend saves everything? Could it mean they flee and settle elsewhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finished this morning. Still going with fun, not great.

My theories for future books:
1. Dain is venin. They mentioned his dragon’s bad breath twice, Jack’s dragon had the same thing, and Jack said he wasn’t the only one at Basgiath.
2. Violet is part venin, or her mother was touched by a venin while pregnant. The same way Dain has gray handprints on his arms from Jack trying to drain him, a venin tried to drain her mother but ended up targeting Violet in utero by accident, hence the half silver hair.
3. Tairn dies, but Violet can choose to live because of Andarna. Cue the training montage of Andarna getting stronger and learning to carry a rider.
4. Sawyer flies again with a saddle like Violet’s.
5. Violet’s second signet is resurrection, gifted to her by Malek.

Oh, I love these ideas!

My only contribution: the excerpts from their letters were labeled as "recovered" correspondence between Violet and Xaden. Since this society burns all your stuff when you die, what could it mean? Could it mean they die and the scribe friend saves everything? Could it mean they flee and settle elsewhere?

I’m thinking Jesinia gathers all this in the future and Xaden & Violet lived a happy life together, turning over their correspondence to their friend for the official record. Wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

I LOVED the first book but thought this one was only OK. Boo. I will keep reading the series though.

[Anonymous]

don't any of you read the classics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't any of you read the classics?

I do, yes. Is it surprising to you someone could like both? And to be fair, how about we show up to threads about classics asking “Don’t any of you read fantasy?”