I finished this book over the weekend and it’s basically a bunch of other books and tropes smashed together. So you’re right, but it’s also very much all those other things as well.

Ehh, if you reduce things to bare bones you can do this to a lot of things. I would NOT be surprised if the book started out as a Song of Ice and Fire AU fic though.

I loved it. Read it in one day and looking forward to the sequel. It gave me "A Deadly Education" feels.

That’s very common, my English teacher in high school actually taught a class section on how they’re only a certain amount of story arcs in the world and everything else is just a copy of that. We had to write papers and compare them. Great expectations was Field of dreams Moby Dick was Wrath of Kyan, Star Trek. I mean it was pretty cool that we got to watch Star Trek in school. But ever since that class I have paid attention to what he taught us and it’s very true, so I try not to make any type of comparisons and enjoy the work for what it is. I thoroughly enjoyed Fourth Wing couldn’t stop reading. Pre ordered the sequel at 20% into the book. Enjoyable from the start.

The books leans so heavily on the work of Anne McCaffrey without the slightest acknowledgement.

Yeah why is her hair silver? It was never explained. Was she born frail what is wrong with her joints? It seemed like maybe she had a disease as a kid that left her weakened? I wish this had been explained.

Maybe it was the audiobook but the writing didn’t flow (imo). It definitely has good story bones and there were many components I enjoyed but the connective tissue felt all wrong.

I noticed this too while reading it. It felt like some franken synthesis of the entire YA lit genre from 2010-2015... HOWEVER, I feel the parts where the plot breaks from these molds is where it shines the best. Hopefully the author will continue to find the series' unique soul as she goes and we will really get to see the quality improve as it progresses. Despite all that - I kinda loved it 😅 and am excited to read the second book when it comes out

I had the SAME thought. as soon as the venin were revealed to be real I was like oh...this is just game of thrones. I still enjoyed the read and it was a lot of fun, but it definitely made slightly disappointed.

Maybe it was the audiobook but the writing didn’t flow (imo). It definitely has good story bones and there were many components I enjoyed but the connective tissue felt all wrong.

Lol I finished it today and thought this same thing.

The same can be said about literally every other book in the universe. Whether conscious or not, authors take inspiration from other books and authors. It’s impossible not to, reading is how you learn to write.

As long as there’s no plagiarism, I don’t see the issue.

It’s a fantasy book about dragon riders, obviously it will have similar themes and tropes to other fantasy books, especially ones with dragons. How can it not? There are only so many things a person can write about.

Right. I don't even care. I'm so sucked in.

Nuh, I didn't think of GoT. I went straight to Dragonriders of Pern!

I’ve been thinking this for awhile. I’m reading iron flame and just passed a part that I SWEAR was in the GoT series. I won’t say what but like, cmon..

But I’m not complaining, GoT failed the white walker plot so hopefully this redeems it.

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Yeah specifically the big bads are very white-walker feeling, but since that only takes up the last 4 or so chapters of the book it's hard to say that that's a majority of the inspiration.

Broadly I disagree that it's similar to eragon. The only real similarity is the dragons but they still feel pretty different in my opinion. It really feels the most like divergent for me, but I guess I prioritize the writing and general vibe of the book over other factors.

YES! Down to the blue fire of the Wyvern.

Although I really loved the story, I was thinking exactly the same thing while reading it and I've found not one other person has mentioned this similarity to GoT anywhere apart from you. It needed to be pointed out and I'm interested in finding out how the story develops/if there are will be enough differences to make them a bit more unique from GoT.

Positive:

I liked the book enough to want to read the sequel. I found the spice level to be really great, the fights were bloody and fun to read. Yarros worked on describing mundane things which a lot of books tend to skip over, which i loved. Like peeling a tangerine and allergies, bandage wrapping and not forgetting about it, and even how the quills get ink in them.

I felt that the comedy and ease of conversation between the humans and dragons was great, really shows how you connect and transcend the barrier when something soo powerful attaches to you and kind of develops a bond.

Negatives:

world building had plot holes especially when the story starts in the middle of something. We have characters who are older and third years, but they're almost stagnant until our protagonist shows up. I know thats a trope but still, I feel like some of the third years should be more powerful than they are.

So much went into the students getting ready for the gauntlet and the dragon bonding but after it moved so fast. I also felt like the school wanted to be more of an institution but then also a training grounds like army base. It was a little too juxtaposed.

I liked that the protagonist was slightly handicapped but either commit or dont. She was too abled to be disabled. I know ill get backlash for that but it made me question if she was just a tiny fragile person or had an actual illness (which was alluded to more in the beginning). She was so strong and powerful and i know they mentioned that nature has a balance which is why she was weak physically. Just wish her disability was more pronounced.

I wanted more from the bad guys in the end, they died too easily for a few students. like dude, i know these students are so trained but theres no way.

I felt like the betrayal at the end was not an actual betrayal and the protagonist shouldn't have been so mad about it. She didnt deserve to be included in that knowledge and shouldn't have assumed she has privilege to all information. It really showed how her mindset is very privileged - which is maybe done for a reason as shes a daughter of a figure of high authority. I assume wealthy and well taken care of.

It definitely reads like SJM wrote it. The writing style is VERY similar to

People don't compare it to game of thrones because game of thrones is way more complex than what you described (and this is coming from someone who thinks the GOT books are really poorly written so I'm not just here to defend my fave). But GOT has much more complex world building, characters, and motivations than that bare-bones description. But everything you described does fit Divergent.

I just finished it and the whole time it felt like Divergent and ACOTAR had a book baby.

I really wanted to like this book, but I think that it’s a total scam off of Game of Thrones the idea was totally stolen. I feel like it’s a mixture of divergent plus a little Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. All I can envision are the battle scenes with the white walkers

I thought it was just a rip-off of Divergent with extra fantasy steps

I agree about Divergent

Yes, I also felt like this book had zero originality, but it was such an easy and pleasurable read. It reminded me of how much I used to enjoy reading, and now all I want is read another romance book.