The Sky on Fire

I received an audioARC thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. The opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

 Dragons rule the world and humans are pretty much just there to serve. And at the top of the dragon power structure is the worst of the worst - the dragon that condemned Anahrod to death 17 years ago. Unfortunately for Neveranimus, she survived and has been living in the deeps ever since. Even more unfortunately, a group of people have tracked her down to help them pull off a robbery of Neveranimus' vault. Hijinks ensue.  

I really liked book. It's largely a heist story, with political intrigue, found family and a romantic subplot that is queer and poly. There was an interesting system of rings to indicate job roles and sexual preferences.  The world building was very well done, giving enough information to enable me to not feel lost without becoming info-dumpy. The magic system made sense and held together. The character building - meh - many of the supporting characters were not very developed beyond archetypes.  But it worked for me, as this is not a character story.  It's a seat of your pants adventure.

This is a fun ride, and isn't trying to be anything more. And I was here for it all the way. It's billed as a stand alone, but the possibility of further adventures is hinted at in the epilogue. I'd be there for that as well should it happen.

I enjoyed this a lot. And I'd expected a lot from it, when I realized it's a heist with dragons story. :D
I appreciate that there's a lot more to this world than dragons and who can use them, and that dragons seem to be kind of a pain (at minimum) or actively but quietly unwelcomed by everyone who can't ride/bond them. 
I deeply enjoyed the queer normative world and the Anahrod/Ris/Sicaryon relationship. I especially liked the small hints about the ring system for indicating what type of attention you'd be interested in from others, if any at all. I'd like to live in that sort of setting, though preferably without dragons occasionally losing their control.

This was a very 2024 book.

First of all, it's a lot of fun. It feels so modern, with splashy characters, a super fast pace, very neat and tidy plot twists, a fairly technologically advanced world - I loved reading this book. If you are a fantasy fan and love dragons, you will love reading this book. The “crew” felt like Mistborn, the world was vibrant and cartoonish (and much, much brighter than I expected), and I really liked the general pace of the story. It worked. The ending was good.

Rant below.

This book is advertised as romantasy. It is not romantasy. It is an epic fantasy novel.

Jenn Lyons already has a reputation for excessively horny books. So do Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros. The difference is that the popularity of Maas and Yarros comes from the shock value of their protagonists' horniness, the protagonist's and reader's feeling that what's going on is so inappropriate that we really shouldn't be reading this, but god damn, we can feel this way anyway.

The horniness, among other things in this book, is so natural and normative that it provides no shock value or excitement, even in a very descriptive scene near the end of the book. Instead of the incredibly effective, unshameless frustration of Maas and Yarros that comes across so easily in their writing, Lyons's horniness has always just seemed her natural style, no different from her previous series, A Chorus of Dragons. I would think a new reader would pick up on this as well, that this is an author who has no issue writing this way and is doing so completely shamelessly.

The same applies to the queernormativity, which is really well thought out, but again, so natural that it doesn't really make a difference to the story at all. I thought it was interesting, but I didn't feel it had any relation to real-world queer issues at all, and I'd be very hesitant to recommend this book as “queer rep” despite it featuring a very queer central relationship.

The most obvious example of this is the portrayal of transgender people. Everyone in this society wears rings to signify their gender and sexuality in public. if you're trans, you get a magical inscription to instantly undergo gender reassignment, and you can wear a ring to signify that you have done so. Some trans people probably envision this world as their dream, and some may be insulted by the ease of it all. Is writing an incredibly queernormative world really good queer representation? I'm not sure anyone really has a conclusive answer to that. This book is maybe at least a good place to start the discussion.

Regardless, I have to assume that the link is just either a very loose take on Fourth Wing (it's better than Fourth Wing), or Tor/MacMillan trying somewhat desperately to get this book to go viral, which it won't. But it's good, and interesting, and addictive. Read it! 8/10 from me.

A first Jenn Lyons book for me, and I was not disappointed. This book ticked all the boxes for a high-fantasy, dragon filled adventure, bursting with action from beginning to end.

The world building is immense - so large that it definitely takes some time to get your head around. The descriptions are lush, the creatures and people painted so strongly, mixed in with the system they have in their world. I will say that I still don't 100% understand the meaning of the social and garden rings which people seem to pick at 15 years of age. Alas, there was no explanation but a lot of hinting, so maybe I'm just dense...

The storyline was amazing, being split into sizable parts to allow a sense of where a new major plot point was happening. While the beginning may have been a bit slower, with the plot set up and the meeting of all our beloved characters, it was worth the build up because it was just non-stop action, adventure and dragons. Gwydinion grew on me a lot, his mischievous mind always turning. I also loved Sicaryon and wished there was almost more of him.

There was also hint of a potential growing poly relationship, which didn't feel forced or sudden at all. While it's true that the attraction between Ris and Anahrod felt quite quick, the story not being too clear on how much time passed between start to end, it wasn't quite insta-love nor slowburn.

I am seeing this a standalone, even though it opens up a way for a sequel if needs be with the ending. Since that is the case, I look forward to reading Jenn Lyons other books.