- Story 3/5
- Ease of access 2/5
- Character 1/5
- Time commitment 2/5
- Trigger/Glimmer 2/5
- Cosiness 2/5
- Overall 2/5
Have you ever read something and then suddenly feel like you woke up in an alternate universe? A universe where everything is just slightly an inch to the left or at a four degree angle? Well that’s what reading the Fourth Wing and seeing what people online were saying about it felt like to me.
I’m going to get the quick review out of the way first and if you’ve seen my video review (the sober one) you will already know where this is going. Is the fourth wing a good book? It’s okay. That’s it. It’s just okay. I enjoyed parts of what I read, I disliked other parts. Overall a not hated read of an alright fantasy novel that doesn’t have a single new idea in its head and feels a little bit like it was written by committee (see Simpsons; s23 e6 “The Book Job”). I’m going to use a phrase adopted from one of my favourite content creators Blake Jennings; It’s a New York Times Best Seller Fantasy novel (Derogatory).
Now if you just wanted to know if it was okay and move on there’s your answer. But if you want more depth I hope you coffee is hot because my tea is ice cold.
Let’s deal with the Elephant in the room first, the New York Times Best Seller label. I’m not even focussing on the controversy and scandal that the NYTBS label has garnered over the years (you can do your own research). In short it is not a label I put much stock in, if I’m between two books and one is an NYTBS? I’m going to pick the other one (and not just to be a contrarian hipster emo boy).
The NYTBS is a best seller list, not a best book list. This is because sales are Quantitative and content (quantent?) is Qualitative, and there are dozens of ways publishers and agents can game the system to get on that list. Not to say Rebecca Yarross or Red Tower Books did game the system and not to say it isn’t an achievement be a NYTBS author. But the books that get the label tend to be very middle of the road, easy access and not necessarily a shining example of what it is trying to be. I can go on for much longer and probably will at a later date but let’s get back to the Fourth Wing.
Okay what’s good about the Fourth Wing? It’s well written if a little jarring using modern vernacular in a post medieval/pre-renaissance setting; a common issue I personally have with a lot of modern fantasy novels in the YA section. It has moments that really shine bright, some really great comedy (dragon babybjorn being the funniest thing I’ve read in years) and really well written “will they wont they” scenes. And if I’m being honest with myself I loved the world building, the way the world isn’t spoon fed. Deities and locations just mentioned and you have to piece the backstory together from context and clues. The opening scene with Violet does spoon feed a lot but I’ve seen much worse in world building to the point I didn’t even think about it until later reflection.
The avoidance of toxic masculinity in the main love interest is a real breath of fresh air. He (not spoiling) is mature, responsible, almost fatherly at times so I can understand why he is beloved by fans. He also never pushes while teasing constantly, an entertaining balance, and never goes too far. I’ve seen a lot of discourse online talking about Fourth Wing being a good book because of the diversity of the main cast being a mix of races, genders, disabilities, sexualities and gender spectrum. I hate to use the language of a podcast-bro but if DEI is the main selling point of your story it’s not a good story. I’ve seen so little of discussions of “my favourite characters is x because y” it’s always around diversity of the cast. As if pressing ctrl+H and replacing “white” with “brown” and “him” with “they” every 15 pages or so is masterful writing.
I regularly argue that unless you are writing contemporary fiction authors who use diverse cast of characters are not trusting to their world building. This is because, and I’m going to say this with my full chest, they are not actually writing about that race, subculture or demographic, they are selling them. And yes I have receipts for that claim.
I use Terry Pratchett as my litmus test for fantasy authors. His world is diverse; he also gives the culture and struggles faced by the cultures the respect they are due. Ankh-Morpork is a melting pot of people, very much based on the American dream, Constantinople/Istanbul and London. There are not just fantastical races like Dwarves, Trolls and Werewolves but also a vast cast of human races as well that are all unique.
In Jingo (1997), Pratchett goes into how people from the country across the sea (Discworld middle east) have struggled to get a foothold in Ankh-Morpork. In Pyramids (1989) the cultural research gone into both ancient and modern Egypt, Northern Africa and Greece is second to none. I can continue but the point is that when an author is writing diverse cast of characters the characters must actually be diverse, not just colour swapped. Otherwise do as Ash Hester and make everyone green. Rebecca Yarros, while giving a great spotlight to bisexual and Gender-neutral/Genderfluid characters and giving highlight to racially diverse cast (great for the HBO tv show right?). At no time does it feel like it’s enough to merit the praise she has garnered online. Especially when there are so many writers that do the same but better, giving each character a voice and a history not just a binary tick on the token diversity checker. Brent Weeks, Trudi Canavan, Xiran Jay Zhao and Mercedes Lackey all have as much if not more diverse cast (except Zhao but the disabilities and sexual spectrum make up for a lack of white people) with the depth such writing requires.
I’ve probably already alienated people with that last rant so I’ll focus on story. Which leads elegantly into my review of the actual story; it’s not good. Spoiler warnings ahead.
The Fourth Wing is neither unique nor original. Every twist and turn I saw coming by page 97, to the point I even made a declaration video saying as such. I’ve seen enough discussion online about how the Fourth Wing steals wholesale from [pick a popular female led story or fantasy series in the last 30 years]. Violet is an absolute Mary Sue of the category I’ve not seen since Bella Swan from the Twilight saga (2005). The hinting at the gold dragon and discussion of the black dragon made which dragon chose her obvious from the start and it still pissed me off. The powers Violet, Xaden, Rhiannon and every other character gets is directly ripped from half a dozen fantasy stories but the one I’ve seen mentioned the most is the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard.
Violet’s terrible character arc while a welcome ripping of Disney’s Mulan (cartoon not live action) did not endear me to her in a scene that I think was meant to make her look like a good person. In the scene a character accused and found guilty of trying to kill Violet is executed by dragon fire. The entire scene Violet is asking they spare the character, giver them another chance, that this is cruel, even when shown that such mercy caused this issue in the first place. This scene reminded me of new age romance heroines that were insipid but the story constantly told us they were tough and amazing, a disjointed and honestly badly written character scene. And just so I can’t be accused of sexism and hating female characters Rhiannon was the most well written and interesting character, with actual goals and desires to help and save her family. Meanwhile my most hated character of all was Dain, how he treats Violet the entire book even when she shows she’s capable and is growing, how he gives Nice Guy™ vibes while simultaneously being treated as the best guy instead of as the creep that he is.
In short, the characters are shallow. The story is lifted wholesale to the point that it feels like Harry Potter/Eragon fan fiction pulled through a strainer labelled “Hunger Games” before being thrown out of a moving car whose registration plate reads “50 Shades.” It also hits a couple of rocks in a Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones garden while thankfully avoiding the incest pit (though sadly missing the “well written smut scenes” koi pond because those scenes are boring in comparison to other books in the same genre). I’m not against inspiration and references but when it’s this much I can’t actually find an original story or even the writers own soul, it’s like the story was written by AI using tropes from the last 20 years of popular YA fantasy media and then edited by a human changing Harry, Bilbo and Katniss for Xaden, Rhiannon and Violet.
It’s not a bad read, I actually did enjoy myself, but whenever I tried to write anything good about the Fourth Wing it was drowned out by the bad. Take it on holiday, wait for the movie if you must but do not expect it to change the world. A fine entry book to the Dark fantasy genre if you’ve not really read any dark fantasy before. But if you have you will be sorely disappointed in how much people are talking about this book over others in the genre and unless something changes in the next few months I will not be spending my time on the sequel; Iron Flame.
Barons Bookshelf 