Fireborne

What a wild ride! Fireborne is everything a fantasy novel should be: a complex grey world with a rich history, dragons, wonderful characters struggling with choices, dragon tournaments, found family, cute teenage dragons that have trouble finding their fire. Cute baby dragons the size of a dog. Dragons that are very animalistic and think very differently yet you can share thoughts. And a squadron of dragonriders! I think it’s safe to say I just loved the dragons. There were tournaments on who becomes the first dragonrider (and future leader), and it was so exciting!

And also, the premise was quite unique! We have Lee, the son of a very high placed leader in the old regime. His family was slaughtered before his eyes when there was a coup and a new leader and a more democratic reign began. Normally you would expect that Lee would be out for revenge. And while this is a constant struggle, actually he tries to see the world as it is and decided for himself that in fact this new regime is better and that he loves his fellow squadron members. Well, most of htem anyway. But a lost family member approaches him and that brings up a lot of feelings...

Annie is the victim of the old regime, her family slaughtered by dragon fire. Yet in the new regime she rises along with Lee, whom she’s known since the orphanage. They have a beautiful, though very complicated friendship and I’m here for it. They believe in each other and have each others backs and I loved that. But with a war looming, when the old regime wants to take back what was once theirs, some things might shift and stakes are higher than ever. Annie used to be from the lowest place in society, as a former serf, and she has trouble to muster self confidence, she feels like she’s not good enough, when really she’s amazing and can beat everyone in the air. Her character growth was amazing, and there were so many feels as trauma resurfaced...

The world is a very intricate one with many sides, and it read more like an adult fantasy novel, a bit dense and the complexity was there. I sometimes wished it would be a little less complicated (or better explained), but I did manage to understand it all after a while. The moral implications of this world made you think a lot, especially what you would do in these situations. The novel is character driven, but there’s enough action to keep it interesting. For me, there were some pacing problems, I sometimes didn’t notice the POV had shifted, and once I missed an entire tournament which was a huge deal, I thought they were just training. But those are all minor and I might have needed to pay better attention but I just had to read on because I was SO invested in this story!

The characters and the dragons made this book wonderful, the world and feels and unique plot made it epic.