Iron Flame is a 2023 new adult fantasy novel by American author Rebecca Yarros. It is the second book in the Empyrean series, a planned five-book series.[1][2][3]
Background
The second installment in the Empyrean series was released on November 7, 2023.[4][5][6][7] Yarros took to Instagram to announce the title and release date of the second installment of the Empyrean series two days after Fourth Wing’s release.[8] Three months before Iron Flame hit shelves, TODAY.com posted an exclusive 500-word teaser excerpt.[6]
The storyline continues where the first book ended. Violet has to use the abilities she learned during Threshing at Basgiath War College and achieve her true power, even though the vice commandant is determined to show her how weak she is.[1][9][10]
Plot
Set immediately after the events of Fourth Wing, Violet Sorrengail learns that her brother Brennan, operating under an alias, is alive and a lieutenant colonel in a secret rebellion headquartered in Aretia that is fighting against the venin threat that Navarre's leaders have been hiding for years. The Assembly of the revolution are wary of trusting Violet, but they eventually vote to allow her and the other cadets who survived the venin attack at Resson to return to Basgiath, so long as they keep the venin attack a secret. The group returns to the war college, lying that they were attacked by gryphons. The Quadrant is introdced to their new vice commandment, Major Burton Varrish, an ally of General Aetos. Violet publicly ends her friendship with Dain, blaming him for Liam’s death.
Xaden, now graduated and a lieutenant, is sent to the outpost of Samara. Due to their dragons' mating bond, Violet and Xaden are granted leave every week on a rotational basis to see each other. Violet is hurt by Xaden's insistence that he cannot be honest with her and his refusal to involve her in the weapons smuggling ring that the other rebels at Basgiath are implicated in. She grows a camaraderie with Imogen and Bodhi, two other marked ones who survived Resson with her, but becomes distant from Rhiannon and her other friends as she struggles to keep secrets from them. On conscription day, Violet and Dain recognize Prince Cam, the youngest son of King Tauri, who is going under an alias - Aaric Graycastle. She also meets Sloane, Liam’s sister, who blames Violet for Liam’s death. Violet survives an assassination attempt orchestrated by General Aetos, while many of the other Resson survivors begin to mysteriously die. Meanwhile, Andarna enters the “dreamless sleep,” which all dragon hatchlings must go through to enter adolescence.
Learning that there is an unactivated ward stone in Aretia, Violet begins secretly investigating the First Six, who built the first wards in Navarre. She enlists the aid of a scribe, Jesinia, who breaks Scribe Quadrant rules by smuggling books out of the archives for Violet. Xaden confronts her about her covert research, while Violet also struggles to keep secrets from Rhiannon and her sister Mira. She finds out that Aaric knows about the venin threat and has come to Basgiath to try to find a resolution. Varrish, suspicious of Violet and the marked ones, begins to target her, routinely searching her bags whenever she leaves for Samara. During an interrogation exercise, Varrish orders Dain to read her memories, but he refuses. Violet and her squad members are shocked when Jack Barlowe, whom she presumably killed in the previous book, returns to Basgiath, having been miraculously mended.
On a trip to Samara, Xaden and Violet rekindle their physical relationship and Xaden trusts her enough to have her join him on a rendezvous with a group of gyphon fliers, where he delivers smuggled daggers to help them kill venin. The group includes Xaden's ex-girlfriend, Cat. Xaden gives Violet an alloy dagger, capable of killing venin, which she hides in her jacket, but upon returning to Basgiath, Violet is apprehended by Varrish. Rhiannon secretly uses her telekinetic signet to hide the dagger from Varrish, but Violet is simultaneously forced to reveal the truth of the venin to Rhiannon and their other friends, Ridoc and Sawyer.Her friends agree to aid her in her research of the First Six. Believing that a pair of valuable journals written by Warrick and Lyra, two of the First Six, are hidden in a vault in the archives which can only be unlocked by someone from King Tauri's bloodline, Violet ropes Aaric into their mission. Violet and her friends successfully steal the journals, but Violet is caught by Varrish. Varrish tortures Violet for five days and brings in Dain, who read Violet's memories of the venin attack and kills Varrish upon learning the truth. Xaden arrives, rescuing Violet, and they rally the students of Basgiath, exposing them to the truth. A mass exodus of riders leaves Basgiath and joins the rebellion at Aretia, where they set up a makeshift war college. Mira is amongst a group of riders who also abandon their military outposts and join the rebellion.
Violet translates part of Warrick’s journal but her attempts to activate the ward stone are futile. Learning that Viscount Tecarus, a former ally of Fen Riorsan, has a luminary that would allow the rebels to begin forging their own weapons, Violet flies to the province of Krovla in Poromiel to broker an alliance with him. She learns that Cat is Tecarus's niece and was formerly betrothed to Xaden, who ended the engagement only a year previously. Tecarus agrees to give them the luminary in exchange for the rebels taking 100 gryphon fliers back to Aretia, so they can also train alongside the dragon rider cadets. Violet is initially jealous of Cat’s past relationship with Xaden, before Xaden reassures her of his devotion to her. Andarna finally awakens after an unusually long dreamless sleep, but Violet is ridden with guilt after learning that the fight at Resson, where Andarna was forced to use her powers to save Violet, affected her growth and that she will never be able to bear a rider.
Violet enlists Dain’s help in translating the journals and the two rekindle their friendship after he promises her he did not know about the venin or intend to hurt her. During a training mission, Violet, Cat, and Sloane are attacked by Varrish’s dragon, seeking revenge on Violet for causing Varrish’s death. Andarna intervenes and kills the dragon. Violet, coming to a sudden realization about signets, finds out that Xaden has been keeping a secret from her: he has a second signet - he is an intinsic (mind reader). Although she is upset to learn another secret he kept from her, he promises not to keep any secrets from her in the future and they reconcile. Violet realizes she has mistranslated a phrase in the journals and seemingly activating the ward stone.
However, the wards soon prove to be faulty and Violet and the rebels fly to Basgiath, where the venin are launching an attack. Jack reveals himself to be a venin, while hundreds of other venin descend on the college and engage the cadets and fliers in battle. Jesinia provides a corrected translation of one of the journals, revealing the locations of seven dragon dens crucial for a ritual. Violet realizes that Andarna, whose scales originally seemed black, has unique camouflage abilities and is from an unknown seventh den, gathering the seven dragons needed to activate the wards. Violet nearly burns out attempting to imbue the wards with power, but her mother saves her life and sacrifices her own to lift the wards, dying in the process. Meanwhile, Xaden fights on the battlefield against the venin sage, who has been plaguing his dreams. In a desperate attempt to save Violet, Xaden channels earth magic and turns venin himself.
Characters
Violet Sorrengail: The protagonist and narrator. Second year in the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath War College who is bonded to two dragons, Tairn and Andarna, defying expectations that she would not survive due to her size and physical strength (a condition that reflects Ehlers-Danlos syndromes). After being betrayed by those she trusted, Violet needs to decide between aiding the rebellion or hiding behind a lie. She also needs to survive another year in the Rider’s Quadrant and all the life-threatening tests it throws at her.
Xaden Riorson: Now lieutenant, he must balance leading a secret rebellion, surviving the venin attacks, and his rocky relationship with Violet. He is bonded to Sgaeyl who is mated to Violet’s dragon, Tairn.
Dain Aetos: On the outs after using his signet of retrocognition on Violet, Dain has to earn back her trust or risk the success of Fourth Wing of which he is now Wingleader.
Rhiannon Matthias: Violet’s best friend. She knows Violet is keeping secrets from her
Mira Sorrengail: Lieutenant dragon rider in the Eastern Wing and older sister to Violet. She is assigned to the same fort as Xaden. Bonded to Teine.
Brennan Sorrengail: Violet’s older brother who was previously known to have died in battle. He is now leading the revolution. Bonded to Marbh. His signet is mending.
Burton Varrish: The new vice commandant at Basgaith War College who takes particular interest in Violet. He is known for his history with brutal interrogation methods due to his signet: reading a person’s weaknesses.
Development
The writing schedule Yarros follows makes it so that she can write 2–3 books a year.[11] The process for Iron Flame was expedited due to consumer momentum from the success of Fourth Wing and the excitement from Entangled Publishing, making it so that Iron Flame could be released only seven months after its predecessor.
Yarros’ parents were lieutenant colonels, and her husband was in the United States Army, both of which inspired the death culture of the Empyrean series: “I can tell you: when you go to war, your friends don’t always come home. And so, it was important to me to... keep that realism [in the Empyrean series].”[12][13] Her husband also aided in developing “aerial combat” scenes with his experience as an Apache pilot.[13]
Genre
Iron Flame is considered romantasy: “fantasy with...a romance vein.”[14] Yarros is considered a notable writer of the genre due to her work on Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. Romantasy is largely written by women and marketed for women, but Iron Flame has proven to appeal to a male audience because of its inclusion of dragons and dragon culture reminiscent of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, which continues to draw a heavily male audience.[14]
Reception
The book received widespread acclaim upon its release day, selling over half a million copies.[15]Iron Flame generated significant buzz online and offline with 200 Barnes & Noble stores throughout the USA organizing midnight release parties for the book, including a notable event in New York City attended by Yarros.[16] In addition to these official gatherings, independent bookstores hosted their own celebrations, quickly running out of tickets due to the high demand.[1][16]
After the release, many readers pointed out that their copies of Iron Flame had a variety of misprints. These included spines that read Fourth Wing instead of Iron Flame and covers that had the title and author's name printed upside down. Other readers said there were pages inside of the book printed the wrong way, or out of order. Entangled Publishing agreed to exchange the misprinted books.[17][15] The deadline to register for a replacement of a misprinted book was January 17, 2024.[18]
In November 2023, Iron Flame was ranked #1 national fiction bestseller by Publishers Weekly.[19] It has garnered over 400,000 5-star reviews on Goodreads.[20]
Controversy
Rebecca Yarros speaking at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2024 in the United Arab Emirates after the release of Iron Flame.
Yarros has been accused of misusing the Scottish Gaelic language in her series after mispronouncing several Scottish Gaelic words from her novel during interviews leading up to Iron Flame’s release.[2] This along with the speed at which Iron Flame was released following Fourth Wing and various misprint issues has led to comparisons between the current state of the publishing industry and fast fashion.[2]
The Empyrean series is planned to contain five books.[1][2][3] On December 26, 2023, Yarros posted a reel to her Instagram profile showing her “head[ing] back to Basgiath” to begin writing the next book following Iron Flame. On March 28, 2024 it was announced that the third book, Onyx Storm, will be released on January 21, 2025.[21] The time between the publications of Iron Flame and Onyx Storm will be longer than the time between the first two books due to Yarros’ health limitations which were pushed in the expedited release of the first two installments of the series.[13]
Adaptation
A week prior to Iron Flame’s release, Variety announced Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for streaming. The deal includes Fourth Wing—which was released in May 2023—Iron Flame, and the three remaining books Yarros plans to write to conclude the series. Yarros is set to executive produce the series with Liz Pelletier, the founder of Entangled Publishing, and Liz Raposo, the president of Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. Yarros is not set to have any writing credits in the series. The series has yet to be green lit.[4]
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