This book really helped with the Crescent City hangover I was going through. I can’t believe I held out for so long when it came to this series as it was honestly becoming a hassle trying to avoid spoilers online. But it fit in with this month’s theme, fantasy, and now I can peruse the internet without fear or anxiety of having the plot ruined! I say that because I immediately started on the sequel hours after finishing Fourth Wing, because it ends on a really heartwarming cliffhanger and I had to know what happened. But you will have to wait until Thursday next week for that review, I am not that quick when it comes to writing my thoughts down.
Fourth Wing takes place in a fantasy world of two kingdoms in which dragons and gryphons exist, along with magic. The territories of Navarre and Poromiel have been at war for four hundred years and it seems like there will never be an end to it. Even the trade agreement put into place two hundred years ago, in which goods are exchanged four times a year, doesn’t stop the two kingdoms from constantly fighting with each other. We follow our main character, Violet, a girl born with a weak body due to an illness her mother had while she was pregnant. She had been training her entire life to work in the library as a scribe due to her physical limitations, but after the death of her scribe father, her General mother forces her to join the riders quadrant to become a warrior. Either the General has a lot of pride or she just doesn’t even like her daughter at all, because she has to know that Violet’s chances of surviving the brutal training that comes with being a cadet of the riders quadrant are slim.
That’s the plot without giving too much away. Still, I do want to talk about some of the characters. Dain, Violet’s friend since childhood, seems nice at first in his desire to keep her alive and safe, but he soon starts to rub me the wrong way with his hovering, overprotectiveness, and lack of faith in her. He constantly tells her what she isn’t and what she cannot do, and I know I would have lost my patience with him long before she did. Contrary to Dain, Mira, Violet’s older sister, goes about trying to protect her in the correct way, by giving her as many tips as she can in the short period of time she has with her before she enters the quadrant. Mira knows that Violet was better suited to be a scribe, not just because of her physical limitations, but because of her brilliant mind. This doesn’t stop her from being the good kind of protective, by providing Violet with an armored corset that she tells her to wear at all times, and a book from their older brother, which they are not supposed to have but is full of valuable information for survival. There are a lot of other characters in the book, but I warn you, try get too attached to anyone, as there is a lot of death.
I also wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite theme that is an essential part of the story, and that is sexuality. Because the riders quadrant is the most dangerous, a place where you can literally die any day, the cadets live as though every day could be their last. That translates to a lot of sex. Violet, being weak, has to be on guard at all times, so she refrains from getting physical with anyone because being killed before, during, or after sex is a possibility. This leaves her feeling lonely and frustrated, and sometimes the butt of jokes with her few friends. Finding someone to trust enough to have a physical relationship also poses a problem for Violet, as relationships are discouraged. The training in the riders quadrant is so rigorous, and the competition between cadets is so great, that death from training or assassination is something that occurs nearly every day. No one wants to date someone only to see them die during a training exercise or watch them get stabbed by a fellow cadet, so everyone tries to leave emotions out of their physical encounters and this leaves Violet without any options. Besides all that drama, I do love the representation of heterosexual and homosexual characters.
I am excited to see where this story goes. I imagine that there will be one or two additional books in the future. And as long as the second book is as good as the first I think this is a series I will anticipate in seeing the conclusion of the tale.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 