Jenn Lyons is back on the dragons again, it would seem. Is she also back with her complexity addiction? Let’s find out!
Despite already having a fantasy series tied to dragons, this new book has no link back to that story whatsoever. This is its own new thing; a new kind of story with a new set of dragons. And just what kind of story is The Sky on Fire? Rather than a sprawling fantasy epic, this time we’re dealing with heist!
We are also dealing with a massive inversion of Dragon-rider lore: whether you’re familiar with Temeraire or Pern or the Targaryens, you get the impression that the dragon rider is the one calling the shots. However, as the title says, ignore the marketing—this is quite different book from the ones mentioned above.
Knowing how powerful dragons can be, you have to wonder why they pushed back into playing second fiddle so often. Well, not so in The Sky on Fire, where the dragons are definitely the ones that have the upper hand in society. And being a Dragon Rider is not always a blessed thing. A Dragon Rider is not needed for their skills in navigation or military command, like so many other stories; a Dragon Rider is needed to make sure that the dragons’ minds doesn’t disintegrate, causing mad rampages.
By the time we meet Anahrod in the story, she has been in exile for several years, having somehow incurred the wrath of the dragon Neveranimas. Now, with an Ocean’s Eleven-style crew planning to rob Neveranimas’ hoard, Anahrod finds herself somewhat reluctantly drawn into their scheme. After… several kidnappings. It was starting to get funny, honestly.
The really positive thing here is the breakneck speed of the plot; this was a book that I had a lot of trouble putting down. The book is broken down into 10 separate sections and the structure of it made me think of a particularly well put together limited series television show.
Like most heists, of course, not everything else goes to plan; no matter how intricately and well put together all the moving parts are, our Ocean’s team are constantly running into issues and complications no one would have predicted. Jenn Lyons is back with her complexity addiction after all it seems, and this is where she gets to show it off. She also gets to flex her complexity prowess when crafting the relationships between her main protagonists; while nothing like the web of interpersonal drama we had to deal with in A Chorus of Dragons, a number members of our core heist group are more closely linked to Anahrod than they first appear.
Unfortunately, not all of the side characters are as fleshed out as they deserve to be. There’s also a fledgling polycule romance that doesn’t work quite as well as the one presented in A Chorus of Dragons—that’s very much down to personal taste. But what I did wish for was more detail on the relationship between the dragon riders and the dragons themselves; as I pointed out pretty much from the get-go, it’s very different from the standard fantasy trope. We’re told of how important it is from the dragon’s perspective, and do get to observe one pairing that is more harmonious than perhaps most of the rest, but we don’t really get a proper first hand look at how this bond exactly operates.
But that is mostly nitpicking on my behalf. If you want a fast paste and more importantly, a fun heist this is definitely worth checking out. Three and half stars; might have given an extra half if there were footnotes.
Right that’s it. Finished me half cannonball. I’m out for the year!