Dragon Riders Vie For the Top Spot To Lead a War

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The Buzz

Many book bloggers know that I am a dragon lover!! If it has a dragon I will pretty much move heaven and earth to read the book... and its hard to hate a book with a dragon in it. I met my match in Fireborne.

The cover is okay. I wish that it gave a little more of a hint to its ancient classic underpinnings. And less feature to the dragons. I also think the original title was a little more on target... The Dragonlord's Son. It's just this book isn't really about dragons. So all the marketing is really misleading.


The Premise

There's been a brutal and bloody revolution. A pair of kids who survived to grow up in an orphanage will now battle it out in the new regime to become the leader of the guardians. And I've made this sounds way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more exciting than Fireborne really is. I'm sorry but the potential is there for a really incredible book. Even now I'm reeling at how underwhelmed I was. A lot of it is I expected a pretty dragon stuffed adventure. What I got was a cold war.

The thing is I totally liked both Lee and Annie. They both come from pretty horrible experiences when the new regime takes over. Each day they were just trying to make it to the next one. They didn't realize that they came from different sides in the war. While they still have issues between them I loved this history from their childhood. Both the trauma and how they survived due to the presence of one another. And this history has created a very nuanced relationship. It clearly effected every interaction between the two of them. But I was expecting a dragon stuffed adventure...

And what I got from Fireborne was a reimagining of the world from Plato's The Republic. I applaud what the author was trying to do (according to her note at the end)... and I think she successfully recreated that ancient classic world. But what a boring and dry world it is. I wanted tons of dragon battles and lore. What I got was one off page battle between enemies and two on page battles between allies n dragonback. We didn't even get to see patrols or other war like scenes. We got two mentions of dragon lore. It was so, so light. And we got pages, and pages on the regime. Considering we were along for the ride for 448 pages this isn't a lot of dragon adventure. They were actually quite incidental to the story.

As for the war the Fireborne premise talked about... not much happened. It became a personal war that Lee struggled to deal with. Sure we see how the regime "dealt" with it but it wasn't by taking action. The lack of action in a war time really frustrated me. Especially since we have dragons waiting in the wings.

In the end Fireborne is an incredible slow, slllllllllooooooowwwwwwww burn romance. The pinnacle is a kiss. Yeah, that slow (we're talking about 448 pages here after all.) Everything is about the relationship between Annie and Lee. Even the difficult decision Lee goes through is about Annie. There is a twist at the end which I thought was odd. It served no purpose but to change how we see one character. That may be pertinent to the next book... but I'm not sure I'm up for a Fireborne sequel.


My Experience

By the time 35% of Fireborne rolled around I was firmly rooting for Annie and Lee to overcome the uncomfortableness between them to be together. But I also realized this read like a boring adult fantasy to me. Cool ideas were introduced but bogged down by politics (not much), government (a lot!) and day to day interactions (slice of life feel).

The farther I read the more bored I got and at 55% I realized not much action was going to take place. The "battles" we were told about do happen but they are rather anticlimatic as they are only really about Lee and Annie's relationship. The battles aren't about the regime or the war. I will admit though this scene is the MOST EXCITING scene in the book. I was quite effected by Lee's reaction and the way fire was born.

I did like Annie and Lee. I liked Lee and his determination to do what is right. It mirrored Atreus who was willing to commit atrocities to remake the world. And Annie was a classic empowered female with a story that fit her life a glove. But my favorite character was Power, an amoral jerk and guardian, one of 4 leaders with Annie and Lee. I liked Power because in a sea of boringness he made waves. But he’s a swing character, crafted to do the opposite of what you expect when the author needs something doing that doesn’t make sense.

I said this at 68%... "Gosh this is incredibly boring!! So drawn out. Really a romance between two adultish teens who will become the leaders of their country. The romance is nuanced and slow burn, as they jockey for position in the government as well as with their feelings. The dragons are very light. There is no action plot! It’s all classes, personal interactions and slow moving war chest beating."

By 80% I wanted to kill myself or DNF the rest!! Because the regime imagined from Plato's The Republic is incredible depressing. They are totally amoral and no different than the powers they overthrew. Again I thought... this is so adult. Sure the world is not a nice place. As we age from teens to adults we realize that life isn't all books, tea and leather chairs. We have to work to pay for our books and once college is over real life takes over. I just didn't want to read this in book form. Life will catch up to us with time, when I read I want to have hope, be inspired and take action!!

Fireborne is a reimagining of Plato's The Republic written for YA readers. It adds in a cadre of dragons to make the world a hotter place, but ultimately what saves this book is the slow burn romance. If you like a lot of government, a touch of war and an in depth relationship then you've got to check this out!!