Fourth Wing - A Review

Here's the formula: Take one part Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, add the deadliness of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, and incorporate the coming of age drama of Harry Potter after book #5, or so. That's the recipe for Rebecca Yaros' novel Fourth Wing, a book that is so cliché that I'm stunned to find it featured in every book store's main kiosk. Its problems are numerous, its plot structure is derivative, its characters are unbelievable, and its setting is downright impossible.

Violet Sorrengail is best suited to be a scribe. In fact, she tells us early on in the story that she would be much happier as a scribe. But her mother is a dragon rider, as is her sister. So, to continue the Sorrengail family tradition, Violet must go to dragonrider school instead of the Scribe Academy. Does she stand up for herself? No. Does she assert her wishes? No. She gets "voluntold," and not only goes right along with it, but does so with such gusto and determination that it's almost as if it were truly her heart's desire. Except it isn't. Violet is a character who doesn't make any sense - brave enough to face almost certain death in dragonriding school, yet too weak-willed to even stand up to her own mother.

Is her mother abusive? She's a military mom, and a widow, but otherwise is not depicted as abusive at all. Just overbearing. It would make some degree of sense if that's how she were depicted, but Violet doesn't show any particular fear of her mother, nor does she express any dread at being in her presence. Again, we are left with a main character with zero motivation to do the impossibly difficult things she's attempting to do.

Meanwhile, the school is a phenomenal example of incompetence in education. Students at this school do not drop out. They die. And at a large percentage! 10% of all students get killed during final exam! And the very first hurdle first year students must face is walking across an unsteady and wind-strewn parapet, a challenge so daunting that a significant number fall to their deaths before ever setting foot in class. And this is by no means the only thing about this school which racks up a large body count. At every turn, students are expected to combat each other, compete with each other, and vendettas are apparently tolerated. In this society, life among dragonriders is so cheap that it strains all credulity. Some deaths barely get any sort of funeral at all, and even personal possessions of the dead are consigned to bonfires.

Violet can't help but like the boys. Even if (and especially if) they're one of the boys who is trying to kill her - and there's more than one of those. She admits in her narration to finding almost any boy impossibly attractive. It's pandering to youthful lust in the worst possible hackneyed way. One of the potential love interests trying not to kill her is Dain Aitos, who constantly tries to convince her to quit and go to the scribes. Yet somehow, Violet continuously refuses. Every time he tries to keep her alive, I think, "Yes! I'm on his side! Jeez, Violet, be a scribe! This is madness!" But she has a mysteriously persistent determination to survive dragonrider school, without any clear motivation whatsoever.

Again, it makes no sense.

Violet gets through the first months of her torturously deadly school by a combination of sheer luck and judicious use of subtle poisons which render her opponents more beatable during dueling sessions. Yet even this doesn't save her from getting severely and frequently injured. In spite of all the odds against her, she succeeds, more by cheating than by actual skill. It makes her character unlikable.

Things finally get interesting about half way through the book when the first years get chosen by their dragons. Violet not only gets chosen by the biggest and baddest black dragon of them all (of course), she gets chosen by a small, golden dragon too. Naturally, no other rider has been bonded to two dragons simultaneously in, well, ever. It makes Violet into some apparent "chosen one," a trope which somewhat explains her otherwise nonsensical desire to remain in dragonrider school, but at the cost of even more believability.

The large, black dragon is Tairneanach (Tairn, for short). The smaller one is Andarnaurram (Andarna). Andarna is grateful to Violet because, during the bonding ceremony (which the book calls "threshing," because so many students can and do get killed) some of the students tried to cull the gold dragon for not being battle-worthy - too small. But the gold dragon was under Tairn's protection, and so the black dragon found Violet "worthy."

Or so he says. Tairn seems constantly annoyed with Violet and her inability to do anything competently. (Hell, I agree with the dragon on this one!) Violet can't even hang on to Tarn's massive back without falling off over and over again. The interplay between these two starkly different personalities is entertaining, I'll grant you. The dialogue between old dragon and young whelp might be one of the few saving graces of this novel. But again, it makes no sense. The dragon finds her worthy, but why, exactly? Because she tried to save the little golden one? That clearly isn't enough in his estimation, and says so, but he doesn't bother to give any other reasons why he thinks Violet is worth bothering with. It's almost as if the author is subtly screaming, "She's worthy because she's the main, fucking character, you imbeciles! Quit asking stupid questions!"

Not long after, when Violet get sent to the library for an errand, she feels homesick at the surroundings - knowing that she's actually supposed to be there among academia. But again, she inexplicably wants to remain a dragonrider, without motive.

Even more puzzling is who she ends up making her permanent love interest. Xaden - a third-year whose father was executed by Violet's mother. In turn, Xaden's father murdered Violet's brother. (That dynamic is certainly going to make for some awkwardness at family dinners!) But she can't deny the powerful attraction she feels towards him, and this is doubly impacted by the fact that Tairn and Xaden's dragon are mated - meaning every time the dragons get hot & heavy, so does she - until she learns to block the psychic connection out somewhat. This makes for an over-the-top romantic tension which, when it finally breaks, collapses into complete and utter soft-core pornography. Hot as shit, and we're talking on a 50 shades level here, but way, WAY too much.

In conclusion, this book is perfectly written to appeal to corporate execs who wish to cash in on a book. It is also written to appeal to readers who don't read often, or to young readers who haven't developed their literary palette yet. It is NOT written for readers who appreciate high literary quality. Nor is it written to win a Hugo, Nebula, or (pun unintended) Dragon award. It is written to sell. And sell it does, because the corporate world has decided to shove this down the public's throat. But it is a caricature of a story, set in a mad-cap world where nothing makes sense, least of all the plot. The whole thing is one, big hyper-exaggeration.

Undoubtedly, it will be picked up by someone and made into film. This is the sort of crap Hollywood can't resist. So I recommend you save your money and wait for the movie.

Eric

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