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Book: “The Sky on Fire” by Jenn Lyons
Publishing Info: Tor, July 2024
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Anahrod lives only for survival, preferring to thrive in the jungles of the Deep with the titan drake she keeps by her side. When an adventuring party saves her from capture by the local warlord, Sicaryon, she is eager to return to her solitary life, but this is no ordinary rescue. Anahrod’s past has caught up with her. And these cunning misfits intend to spirit her away to the cloud cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard.
There’s only one in the cloud cities, dragons rule, and the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas―and she wants Anahrod dead.
Fans of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Rebecca Yarros’s The Fourth Wing will enjoy this page-turning adventure with conniving dragons, high-stakes intrigue, a daring heist, and a little bit of heat.
Review: I somehow still haven’t read Jenn Lyons’ popular “Chorus of Dragons” series. And, as it is with all multi-book series, at a certain point it begins to feel a bit intimidating to start! So I was thrilled to see she was releasing a standalone fantasy book this summer! What better way to get on the bandwagon without having to commit to an entire series right from the start! It was helped by the fact that the book itself has an excellent cover. It’s eye-catching enough on its own, but it gets even better the longer you look at it, when you start noticing the details of the castle and city. So definite props to the artist on this one!
Unfortunately, this wasn’t quite the homerun of a read that I was hoping for. I will say that it’s easy to see how this author could be capable of producing a beloved fantasy series, and, given some of my problems with this book in particular, some of the weaknesses I found here could easily translate into strengths in a longer format. Some of these strengths include excellent world-building.
I loved the idea of flipping the entire “dragon rider” concept on its head. This is a hugely popular trope in SFF fiction, and, while enjoyable, myself and many other fans are often left scratching our heads when reading about some of these partnerships. Why, oh why, are the humans the more powerful members of these societies when so often the dragons are described as having more powerful magic, greater physical abilities (obviously), and often a much higher general IQ than their human compatriots. So I loved the what Lyons did here by flipping this relationship around to show a society where the dragons, not the humans, are the more dominant members of this society.
I also liked the expanse of this world and that we travelled to numerous locations throughout the story. Yes, this could also feel like a bit much at times, especially given that it was all packed into one, stand-alone book, but it was also incredibly interesting and made the world feel lived in and worth exploring to discover what else might be in store.
Where things began to fall apart was with the characters, and the problems were twofold. First, there were simply too many of them. As I read on, there seemed to be more and more characters added to the list well-past the point of reason. This increase in characters also resulted in a love triangle quickly rearing its head. The story took a different tact here, shifting the traditional love triangle into a polycule as the story went on, but as I’m not personally a fan of polycule romances, this sadly wasn’t an improvement. The characters all quickly began to fall flat as well, each seeming to only be defined by one or two overall traits with little other characterization to be found, either in the beginning or as the story progressed. I also felt no chemistry between any members of the romance, which really put the nail in that coffin for me. At times, some of these interactions were downright cringe-y.
That said, there was potential to be found here, even in these fairly stale characters. Again, given a longer book or a series, perhaps the author could have built out these characters better, helping them feel as full and realized as the world itself. So, while I didn’t love this book, I’m still very intrigued to check out the author’s other work. If you’re a fantasy reader who enjoys polycule romances, this might be one to add to the list! But I do think it fell a bit flat, overall.
Rating 7: A lot of potential to be found, but weak character ultimately let this one down.
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Sky on Fire” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2024 SFF Books with Female Leads or Co-Leads.
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