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Iron Flame
2023 fantasy novel by Rebecca Yarros From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Iron Flame is a 2023 new adult romantic fantasy novel by American author Rebecca Yarros. It is the second book in the Empyrean series, a planned five-book series.[1][2][3]
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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]
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Plot
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Set immediately after the events of Fourth Wing, Violet Sorrengail discovers that her brother Brennan is alive and a lieutenant colonel in a secret rebellion against a hidden threat in Navarre. The revolutionary group hesitates to trust her but eventually allows her and other cadets who survived an attack to return to their college, provided they keep the attack a secret. They lie about being attacked by gryphons. Colonel Aetos, who lead them into the trap during the War Games, is demoted by Violet's mother, General Sorrengail and reassigned to another outpost. A new vice commandant, Major Burton Varrish, is introduced, and Violet ends her friendship with Dain, blaming him for Liam’s death since he used his retrocognition signet on her without her knowledge or consent. Before leaving, Colonel Aetos makes a veiled death threat to Violet, noting that secrets die with the people who keep them.
Xaden, now a lieutenant, is stationed at the Samara outpost. He and Violet can see each other weekly because of their dragons’ bond. Violet feels hurt by Xaden's refusal to share the truth and his unwillingness to include her in a weapons smuggling operation with other rebels. She grows closer to Imogen and Bodhi, fellow survivors, but distances herself from Rhiannon and others while keeping secrets. On conscription day, Violet and Dain see Prince Cam, who is using the name Aaric Graycastle. Violet also meets Sloane, who blames her for her brother Liam’s death. Violet survives an assassination attempt by General Aetos, while many survivors start to die mysteriously. Andarna, Violet's dragon, enters a necessary phase of growth called "dreamless sleep."
Violet learns about an unactivated ward stone in Aretia and secretly investigates the First Six, who created the wards in Navarre. She gets help from a scribe named Jesinia, who illegally smuggles books for her. Xaden confronts Violet about her secret research, while she struggles to keep the truth from Rhiannon and her sister, Mira. Violet discovers Aaric is in Basgiath looking for a solution to the venin threat. Meanwhile, Varrish grows suspicious of her and regularly searches her bags and asserts his authority over her. During an interrogation exercise on Violet's squad, he orders Dain to read Violet’s memories, but he refuses. Violet is shocked to see Jack Barlowe, whom she thought she killed before, back in Basgiath, seemingly healed.
On a trip to Samara, Xaden and Violet deepen their physical relationship. Xaden trusts Violet enough to bring her along to meet a group of gryphon fliers, where he smuggles daggers to help them fight venin. The group includes Xaden's ex-girlfriend, Cat. He gives Violet a special dagger for defense, which she hides. However, upon returning to Basgiath, Violet is captured by Varrish. Rhiannon uses her powers to hide the dagger, but Violet has to reveal the truth about venin to her friends, Ridoc and Sawyer, who agree to help her investigate the First Six. Violet believes that journals written by Lyra and Warrick the First Six are hidden in a vault that only a royal bloodline can access, which contain instructions on how to raise wards. She convinces Aaric to join their mission to steal the journals. They succeed and Violet gives Xaden Warrick's journal to take to Brennan. However, Violet is betrayed by Nolon and tricked into drinking a serum that suppresses her signet and connection to Tairn, before being captured by Varrish. Varrish tortures Violet for several days for information before once again ordering Dain to read her memory, claiming she is conspiring to bring down the wards. Dain does so but Violet makes him view the memories of the Venin attack in Athebyne. Realising he's been lied to, Dain turns on Varrish and stabs him. Xaden arrives and they kill Varrish. In order to expose the truth about the Venin, Xaden had Wyvern carcasses dropped as several outposts, prompting Navarre leadership to frantically try and cover it up. They are intercepted by General Sorrengail, who helps Violet and reveals she forced Violet to join the riders quadrant to keep her away from Markham, knowing he would groom her to be his successor but have her killed when she tried to expose the truth about the venin. With the truth exposed, many of Basgiath's riders choose to leave for Aretia to fight against the venin.
Violet translates part of Warrick’s journal, but she cannot activate the ward stone. She discovers that Viscount Tecarus, an old ally of Fen Riorson, possesses a luminary that could help the rebels make weapons. Violet travels to Krovla to seek an alliance with him. She finds out that Cat is Tecarus's niece and was once engaged to Xaden, who ended it a year ago. Tecarus agrees to give them the luminary if the rebels take 100 gryphon fliers back to Aretia for training. Violet feels jealous of Cat's past with Xaden, but he reassures her of his love. Andarna wakes up after a long sleep, but Violet feels guilt over Andarna's sacrifice during the fight in Resson, knowing it harmed her ability to bear a rider.
Violet asks Dain for help translating the journals, and they become closer again after he assures her he didn't know about the venin or intend to harm her. During a training exercise, Violet, Cat, and Sloane face an attack from Varrish's dragon, which seeks revenge for Varrish's death. Andarna saves them by killing the dragon, and Sloane manifests a siphon signet. Violet discovers that Xaden has a second signet as a result of Sgaeyl being originally bonded to his grandfather. He's an inntinnsic, allowing to sense people's intention but keeps it a secret due to it being an illegal signet. Though upset about his secret, they reconcile when he promises to be honest. She also realizes she misinterpreted a phrase in the journals and is able to raise the Aretia wards though only temporarily as they are still missing a key element to truly activate them.
The wards fail, leading Violet and the rebels to Basgiath during a venin attack. Jack reveals he is a venin, and many others join the battle against cadets and fliers. Jesinia uncovers a translation that shows seven dragon dens important for a ritual. Violet discovers Andarna can camouflage and is from an unknown seventh den, needed to activate the wards. Violet almost exhausts herself trying to empower the wards, but her mother saves her life and dies to complete the wards. Xaden fights the venin sage in his dreams and, trying to save Violet, uses earth magic to become a venin.
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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 a 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.
- Imogen Cardulo: A third-year rider at Basgiath War College and Xaden's close friend.
- Garrick Tavis: An experienced dragon rider and Xaden's childhood friend.
- Aaric Graycastle, also known as Cam Tauri, His real name being Camlaen Aaric Tauri: The third son of King Tauri and a first-year rider at Basgiath War College.
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]
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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]
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Reception
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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]
In November 2023, Iron Flame was ranked #1 national fiction bestseller by Publishers Weekly.[18] It has garnered over 400,000 5-star reviews on Goodreads.[19]
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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]
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Sequel
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.[20] The time between the publications of Iron Flame and Onyx Storm was 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]
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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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References
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