Fireborne: 1 (Aurelian Cycle)

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Rosaria Munda's Fireborne is an upcoming fall 2019 release that I hadn't heard much about. Having spent much of my time wedding planning over the past 8 months, the following is what I knew: it's fantasy, said to be a mix of Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Pierce Brown's Red Rising, and Munda was inspired by the Aeneid and the Republic. I'm always down for fantasy; I haven't read Seraphina, but I did read Red Rising and felt iffy about it; and I could barely get through the Aeneid and the Republic in college. I didn't have high hopes of enjoying Fireborne, but I kept my mind open and unassuming. The telepathic dragon/companion trope is pretty well worn by now, and Munda doesn't do much to add to it. But if you like that trope, you're going to be okay with the eggs, impression, shared emotional states with dragons, etc. Munda does a great job with it. And—even more intriguingly—what would that look like in a society where rulers ride dragons? What if a revolution transformed hereditary dragonriding into a test-based selection process?That's a yes for me! Thank you very much I'd like it tomorrow?! That’s where Lee and Annie’s stories start. An aristocrat in hiding, and a former serf who meet in the orphanage, test side by side into their new regime’s dragonriding program, and have to decide if they really can leave the past behind them—and if the new regime really is better than what came before.I've always needed a book questioning a revolution rather than starting one!

First line from my Booklist review: “What happens after a revolution, when the fire and fury of the righteous must turn from violence to governance?”

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What inspired you to write this particular story? The French Revolution, Plato's Republic, and before either of these, the Blitz... the story is pitched as Aegon Targaryen and Hermione Granger with dragons, set in the aftermath of a bloody revolution. From action fans to romance fans, political junkies to fantasy lovers, many different audiences will find something rewarding here.”— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The author does not shy away from violent and horrific imagery in the past and current day. The narrative truly makes you feel deep empathy for both Lee and Annie's life circumstances and gives you true pause when considering what to believe about the world they inhabit. Fireborne's world is a brutal one, and one of the harshest and most realistic portrayals of a complex government I have seen in a book. Nobody here is framed as all good or all bad, and Rosaria Munda asks you to be critical of every character and power structure. Fireborne moved me, it surprised me, it thrilled me, it enraged me, it made me cry, it made me think. I know my teenage self would have LOVED this, but its heady mix of fantasy, politics, philosophy, and yes, a dash of romance feels entirely fresh.” — Bridget Tyler, author of The Pioneer Only children when they were orphaned during the revolution past, the two found friendship in the other. Despite the wretched secrets and past that constantly threaten to rip them apart. With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs And, man, I'm glad I went in suspending hopes of any kind. Fireborne hit every need of mine when it comes to a fantasy story:

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TLDR: What of Daenerys Targaryen was a boy and Jon Snow was a girl and they went to dragon school together and experienced an existential crisis about their government? Where this book takes a left turn, I thought, was with the political situation. The story (sort of*) begins ten years after an especially bloody revolution, overthrowing the dragon lords who were this world's nobles. They kept the dragons to themselves, and of course they had everything. Including the leisure time for poetry. The rest of the world scrabbled to support them. Annie and Lee's new world involves book burnings, tightly spun propaganda, and a clear overclass that still has privilege over the expendable lowest class. Their rulers believe that murdering children from the old regime is okay. and yet...things were truly worse under the DragonLords

The characters are exceptional. The side characters have enough depth to make you care what happens to them, but Lee and Annie are both beautifully fleshed out and trigger some intense emotions in you as the reader. The book does a great job developing their long-term friendship and showing how they have come to understand each other and despise growing up in the circumstances they did. Both characters also have very unique and fascinating internal monologues where they work through both their trauma and their relationship with the new world that has been built around them, 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. This book revolves around Lee and Annie, orphans of a world trying to start over. The regime before was cruel, and heartless, and lost to greed and entitlement. They believe power was given rather than earned. They never left space for listening, and took what they wanted without mercy. From the beginning, this book pulls readers in . . . full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes.”— Kirkus, starred review That's not even considering the explanation to the synopsis: And then what pulled it all together was Plato's Republic, which I studied a bit in college. I was captivated by its dystopian/utopian approach to propaganda and meritocracy. What would a society look like that granted political power unequally according to intelligence, rather than unequally according to birthright?As for Lee's family, let's talk about Julia, I'm really surprised that she got killed off so fast. I expected her to play a more important role in the series, the family standing against each other. Plus she was possibly flying her dragon for longer than Lee, and I suppose she would get better tutors. And still, Lee's win felt very cheap. I think someone cursed me because lately, I'm facing too many disappointing books, I do not like this.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he's come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.Wait. What???? What kind of synopsis is that?! (The kind to make me add it, that's what kind it is 😐😂) Thought-provoking and full of social and political intrigue.”— School Library Journal, starred review So, at first, I was really curious about this book. I have to say that I was a bit nervous about the number of other books this book was compared to. Game of Thrones meets Fourth Wing in a debut young adult fantasy that’s full of rivalry, romance . . . and dragons. As for the books to which it was compared to, I do not get those. I see the comparison and mention of Plato's Republic and the French Revolution, even Blitz and I personally saw some similarity with the Russian Revolution. And this aspect was really good, probably the strongest point of the book. But the rest, Hermione Granger (I suppose that was Annie, but I don't really see it), Game of Thrones... No, nowhere near.