Iron Flame (Chapter 18 through Chapter 20)
STATS
Title: Iron Flame
Series: The Empyrean (Book 2)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: November 2023
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Rating: 1/10
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entire story up through the end of the content covered in this part. Mild spoilers for elements later in the story may be provided, but I will keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible. Heavy spoilers from later in the book will be confined to clearly labelled sections.
STORY
Xaden visits Violet during his regularly scheduled leave. He figures out that Violet is researching how to expand the wards. The two bicker about this, with Xaden pointing out the risks Violet is taking and Violet claiming that he is a hypocrite, then Xaden goes with Violet to meet Jesinia for a book swap. The pair bicker some more, and then Xaden departs.
During the next round of flight exercises, Draconis attempts to punish Violet for failing to get Andarna to attend. Tairn punishes him by attacking Solas, forcing Draconis to apologize to Violet (on his knees, no less). The following weekend, Rhiannon walks Violet out to the flight field as she is departing for leave with Xaden. Violet has another meltdown, this time, about the cruelty of the Quadrant and the terrors Rhiannon is not prepared for. Draconis then searches Violet again at the flight field, only to again be thwarted by not searching Tairn.
Violet arrives at Samara to discover that Mira has been reassigned there. She and Mira have a scene alone, wherein they practice knife throwing. Violet struggles with not telling Mira about Brennan, tries to pry information about the wards from Mira, and then tries to tell Mira about the wyverns. This last attempt ultimately fails because Mira assumes that Violet is imagining things due to stress. That night, Violet and Xaden discuss exposition while in bed together.
GOOD THINGS
Much like with the disappointments in the last part, I think it’s worthwhile to take care of these first and leave the rest of the analysis to cover other things.
Violet and Mira
Reading the scene of Violet and Mira throwing knives together was a reminder of why I still thought Yarros was a good writer after reading Fourth Wing.
The emotional strain that Violet feels over not telling Mira about Brennan is palpable and effective. The bits of exposition that they discuss feel natural and framed in a way that is true to their characters. Violet’s decision to try to tell Mira the truth is fitting of her characterization (both in isolation and building off the precedent set with Jesinia). Mira brushing off Violet’s attempt is likewise completely reasonable in light of what information is available to her.
That’s not to say that this scene is without flaws. The worldbuilding that happens during this discussion compounds existing problems. Yarros manages to kneecap the Romance subplot by showing that Violet really does just want a security clearance, rather than having trust issues. Perhaps the biggest issue is that Violet’s struggle with withholding Brennan’s secret from Mira feels like it is coming awfully late. This is roughly 33% of the way through the book, but since this book is so immensely long, many books would already been going into Act Three by this point; that’s an awfully long time to leave this emotional threat idling. It feels like things should have been rearranged so that scene should have happened back in Chapter 12 (a full 14% of this book ago), thereby acknowledging this emotional weight a bit earlier.
Nevertheless, this is one of the few emotional scenes that does not receive an Exterminatus from either context or continuity. We’re not being asked to forget explicitly established information in order to feel the emotions of the scene. Violet is struggling with a simple and sympathetic burden in a scenario without complications, and both she and Mira act in ways normal people would act.
Secret in the Infirmary
Chapter 18 brings the shenanigans in the infirmary back into focus. Unlike with Rhiannon bluntly announcing, “Hello, I think rider leadership is sus because something weird is happening in the infirmary!” this actually works as setup. It’s setup to a pair of pathetic payoffs, but the setup is admirable all the same.
As Violet and Xaden are walking to the Archives, they encounter Nolon, a Good Teacher and rider with a mending Signet (the only other rider established to have this power, aside from Brennan). He affirms that he is a Good Teacher and then makes an offhand remark about “mending a soul”. It turns out that he is standing out in the hall, enabling this encounter to occur, because he is waiting for someone: Caroline Ashton. The pair enter the infirmary, and Violet and Xaden continue on their way.
This is a small moment, yet much like with the references to the luminary, it is an effective setup. Yarros wants us to care about what is happening in the infirmary. This casual and natural interaction keeps the infirmary fresh in the audience’s minds without dismissing all subtlety.
PLOT
Rebellion
Our self-insert Mary Sue’s dragon explicitly threatened to murder the face character of the antagonist faction, spitting on the rider leadership as a whole by overriding the chain of command and literally forcing this face character to grovel and beg forgiveness.
No antagonist with any amount of credibility would allow this to happen.
Prior to Tairn invalidating the antagonist, Violet and her accessories discuss why Draconis is out to get her. Violet admits that he is obsessed with Andarna but refrains from telling them that Andarana is in the Dreamless Sleep. Yarros tries to play this as Violet navigating the waters of half-truths (holding the audience’s hands the whole time). Maybe if the topic of discuss were focused more on the rebellion, this might work. Putting the focus on the dragons definitely does not work. Not only does this threaten to revive the dragon agency issue, but the epigraph of Chapter 4 confirms that the rider leadreship - and, judging by the source listed for the epigraph quote, all riders - know about the Dreamless Sleep already. What secret is Violet keeping here? Why would she not simply invoke the Dreamless Sleep as a mans to negate Draconis’s orders, seeing how Andarana can’t be summoned anyway if she is in this state?
Then there is the matter of Violet getting searched for contraband in the back half of Chapter 19 - or, rather, NOT being searched for contraband in the opening of Chapter 20. She carries two heavy bags filled with alloy, which apparently radiates so much magical power that Violet can feel it despite not actually touching the alloy, right into Samara. If Draconis and his people are not willing to search Tairn, why would they not arrange to have Violet searched after she dismounts? We are meant to believe that rider leadership is able to arrange Xaden’s duties so as to minimize contact between him and Violet. Whomever can make that happen should also be able to arrange a second search.
The book would have ended in the opening of Chapter 20 if these antagonists had the slightest shred of competence.
Romance
These three chapters double down on all of the previous established issues of this subplot. They also bring up not one but five new issues.
Hatred
On the way to the Archives, Xaden and Violet encounter her accessories. They invite Violet to go to the town that the rider cadets go to when they want to have sex with non-riders. (Yes, that is indeed how it was introduced in Chapter 5.)
“Sorry, guys.” I turn to my friends. “Trust me, there’s nothing I would rather do than go to Chantara with you, but unfortunately, I have to run an errand. Next weekend?”
"You’ll be in Samara.” Xaden folds his arms across his chest.
How is it possible to both love someone and loathe them all in the same moment?
Remember, Violet and Xaden have leave scheduled EVERY weekend to accommodate their dragons. Their dragons apparently refuse to see one another without their riders. Previously, Violet described even a week's separation as "a near-constant state of pain" for the dragons. By the standards of Violet's own morality, she has an obligation to facilitate Tairn.
On top of this, Violet wants to aid the rebellion. They need her as a courier. Lives depend on her taking her leave.
Why, then, does she "loathe" Xaden for reminding her about this? Is it just because he spoke out of turn? Does she prefer to make false commitments and break them over looking bad in the moment?
Or is it that Violet is dropping the mask and revealing herself to the audience as a toxic, spiteful person, much like she previously did in her interactions with Dain?
It's really hard to root for Violet and Xaden to get together when Violet repeatedly reminds us that Xaden is best off getting far away from her.
Do You Love Me?
While Violet and Xaden are bickering, we get this line of internal monologue from Violet.
Says the man who’s never so much as told me he loves me. If he does. Gods, I’m so sick of having to make the first move when it comes to this man. And today isn’t the day to open myself up to that rejection, too.
Since when was THIS the focus on their conflict? I thought the issue was that Violet didn’t trust him anymore. Flawed as that whole conflict is, it is at least straightforward. There was no, “I don’t know if he loves me,” element to it. Violet is refusing Xaden’s love because he won’t bend knee to her demands.
Also, this monologue spits directly in the face of what we are shown. Xaden is going out of his way to show how much he loves Violet. He is refusing to leverage her weaknesses to control her. He wrote her a love letter to pour out his life story to her. With how the two of them are characterized, the only reason he hasn’t explicitly stated the words, “I love you,” is that Violet is freezing him out. He knows that it won’t do any good.
Plus … “sick of having to make the first move”? Is Violet referring to how she stalked and sexually harassed Xaden in the last book to drag him into a relationship?
Unconditional Love
This is how Violet reacts to Mira dismissing her talk about wyverns.
Of course she doesn’t believe me. I wouldn’t either. But she’s the only person in the world who absolutely, unconditionally loves me. Brennan let me believe he was dead—would still let me believe it. Mom has never seen me as anything but a liability. Xaden? I can’t even go there.
We'll come back to the bit on General Sorrengail later. For now, let's consider the examples of Brennan and Xaden.
Brennan's love has never been conditional. We have been told that he allows people to think he is dead so that he aid the rebellion. That's not a condition for him loving Violet.
Xaden is offering Violet unconditional love. It's only a security clearance he's withheld, and even that is only because of his obligations.
The reason I list this under Plot, rather than under Character, is that we're not learning anything new about Violet here. We know she is delusional and narcissistic. However, this does directly ram those flaws back into the Romance subplot.
Violet's definition of unconditional love is that people bend knee to her whims and desires. Why should we root for someone so blatantly selfish to succeed in romance?
Classified
When Mira rebuffs one of Violet's attempts to get classified information, this is Violet's reaction.
“Fine.” It stings a little that she won’t tell me.
This is a small point, but given Violet's reason for holding Xaden at arm's length, it is damning.
Violet has once again expected a personal relationship to give her access to classified information. This supports the idea that Violet is only mad at Xaden because sex doesn't equate to a security clearance. All her talk about personal trust is garbage. Had she brushed off Mira's refusal to leak classified information, perhaps admitting to herself that she hadn't really expected it to be that easy, then we'd have a point of contrast between her reaction to Mira and her reaction to Xaden, and that contrast would have supported Yarros's desired interpretation of Violet. As it is, we are now 2 for 2 of Violet thinking she is above such a fundamental concept as need-to-know information.
Also, this technically contradicts Violet stating that Mira offers her unconditional love. I suspect the reason that Mira is not now on Violet's shit list because, by Violet's own standards and admission, the alternative would be for NO ONE to unconditionally love her.
Failed Sextortion
It was in Chapter 20, as Violet is sleeping in Xaden’s room and he climbs into bed with her after a long day, that I realized that Violet and Xaden are still a couple.
What I mean by this is that, despite Violet insisting that she can’t trust Xaden, despite her refusing anything but a sexual fling, there is a domesticity to their relationship. They sleep in the same bed. They spend time together during leave. Sure, some of this could be attributed to the necessities of supporting the rebellion, yet taken all together, the only thing differentiating their current state from where they’d be without the pointless relationship drama is that Yarros isn’t bombarding us with pornography. The only toxicity or dysfunction in this relationship comes from Violet.
You know what this reads like?
It reads as though a military wife tried to punish her active-duty husband by withholding sex, only for it to blow up in her face when she discovered that she needed the sex far more than him. She trapped herself in a sexless marriage that only remained sexless because she was too proud to either admit that she’d chosen the wrong tactic or to give her husband any ground on the issue she was mad at him about. This issue was only further compounded when she chose to drag this out across her husband’s deployments, resulting in a dry spell that lasted months or years, thereby increasing her frustration and resentment.
By itself, this is not a bad idea for a story. A good writer could work with this. It could be a reflection upon the consequence of pride as a character flaw, or how we project our own needs and flaws onto others and thus lash out at them with the weapons that actually reflect our own weaknesses. It could even make for a comedy about self-imposed suffering.
Iron Flame does not take either of these avenues. We are both supposed to side with Violet and to take this self-inflicted situation seriously. The result is a mess that is as pointless and aggravating from the reader perspective as it is within the context of the scenario itself.
Timeline and Pacing
It's around this point in the book that I noticed a rather interesting phenomena.
Because Violet and Xaden have leave on alternating weekends, it is very easy to track the progression of time within this story. As of Chapter 20, 6 weeks and either 2 or 3 days have passed since the opening of Chapter 1:
In Chapters 5 / 6, Xaden receives his assignment and departs. This is more than 48 hours but less than 72 hours after the end of Chapter 2. (0 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Xaden gets leave and visits Violet in Chapter 10. (1 Week, 2/3 Days)
Violet visits Xaden in Chapter 12. (2 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Violet misses Xaden's visit in Chapters 14 and 15 on account of being on the RSC exercise. (3 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Violet visits Xaden and discovers that he is assigned to duty in the operations center at the end of Chapter 16. (4 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Xaden visiting Violet makes up all of Chapter 18. (5 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Violet visits Xaden in Chapter 20. (6 Weeks, 2/3 Days)
Providing one's audience with a clear understanding of the passage of time is usually a good thing. Here, though, it backfires. I look back over the six weeks of time that have passed and find myself wondering:
When is the plot going to move forward?
Really think about all of the plot details that we've covered in the past several weeks (both in real time and book time). How much of it has advanced the overall narrative? The Venin plot and Luminary subplot are referenced but otherwise untouched. The Rebellion plot and Romance subplot make a lot of noise, but that noise is the screeching of an unlubricated hamster wheel. The Wardstone subplot has progressed slightly, but given that nothing else is moving, it amounts to incremental progress through filler. The RSC subplot feels utterly disconnected from anything else at this point.
It is bad enough that we are 20 chapters into a 66 chapter book with barely anything happening. Adding a clear timeline makes things worse. Rather than floating in a narrative limbo, we are constantly being reminded of just how much time is grinding past without the plot moving with it.
I don't think this would be a problem is this book were solely focussed on Violet and Xaden's romance. The story could buckle down, focus on the visits, and progress during those visits. Unfortunately, the Romance is a subplot. The filler that pads out the chapters between visits is the core narrative, and it is suffocating.
I think that cutting RSC and anything involving Draconis would have gone a long way to resolve this problem. Aside from the fact that large chunks of unproductive word count would be removed, it would allow the minimal progress in the Wardstone subplot to take focus.
CHARACTERS
Violet
Tepid Discharge
Violet's outburst to Rhiannon in the back half of Chapter 19 is the antithesis of her conversation with Mira in Chapter 20.
Both scenes, in isolation, work as character development. However, whereas the scene with Mira is not damaged by the broader context of the story, the scene with Rhiannon absolutely is.
The scene with Rhiannon starts with her and Violet passing the Gauntlet on the way to the flight field. They begin discussing the necessitity of the Gauntlet and, by extension, the general death toll of the Quadrant.
Violet's response is ... I need to stretch my vocabulary for insanity. Let's see ...
Violet's response is demented.
The long and short of it is that Violet tries to frame the Quadrant as a crucible to psychologically prepare the cadets for war. She goes off on Rhiannon for not understanding how terrible the battlefront is. She valdiates herself by talking about how this crucible has made her stronger.
The thing is, I read Fourth Wing. Despite Yarros's low expectations, I paid attention. I therefore know that what Violet is spouting is utter nonsense.
The Quadrant is a bloodbath because the dragons want to weed out the physically weak. We were explicitly told this multiple times. The Gauntlet, in particular, is a series of obstacles meant to model various battlefield scenarios involving dragons.
Yarros is gaslighting the audience with this scene. She is actively twisting the meaning of the death school, and of the Gauntlet specifically, to validate Violet. She is manufacturing strength that Violet did not earn and does not possess while ignoring how Violet is only alive because other characters shield her.
Stepping back from the gaslighting, this scene also fails from a relationship perspective. The emotional weight of Violet blowing up at Rhiannon depends on Rhiannon being more than an accessory who exists to validate Violet. Their relationship is almost entirely told to us via Violet whining about needing to keep secrets. For this outburst to have weight, it was need to be directed at someone whom Violet has actually built a relationship with, like Imogen or one of her dragons or even Jesinia.
Redactions
In Chapter 18, Violet has the following commentary on the books she is using for her wardstone research.
This book is mostly scribe-centric stories about the Great War that are heavily redacted, with one vague passage about discovering the ability to extend the wards.
How does Violet know that the book is redacted?
Redaction is associated with the black bars on text (and that is how it was previously used for Violet's mail), but the dictionary definition of the term doesn't necessitate it. The word just means that information has been edited or censored before publication. However, if there aren't black bars on the text, how does Violet know that she's not reading an unedited text?
Is she just assuming that every book prior to Navarre's history being edited had the information that she needs, and thus every book without that information must have been edited? Surely someone trained as a scribe would know that not every book will contain every possible scrap of information.
Are we to assume that, between this and her meltdowns over Markham, that Violet is just irrationally paranoid at this point?
Mira
Mira is very clearly the Cool Big Sis archetype who loves and mothers Violet the way their actual mother never did. It may be shallow, and it may only exist to serve the emotional power fantasy, but at least it is consistent. The way that she brushes off Violet's inquiries and efforts to tell her the truth feel natural and in keeping with her previously established traits.
Draconis Umbridge
After being humiliated by Tairn in the first half of Chapter 19, Draconis has the chutzpah to actually say this when he shows up to search Violet.
“You know the drill, cadet.” He closes the distance between us and points to the ground. “Or are you going to argue that you’re not under my command at all now?”
Yes, you idiot. She absolutely can argue that. Her dragon is the one in charge here. You were, and still are, at his mercy, and therefore at hers. Otherwise, both of them would have been punished for Tairn attempting to murder you in front of so many witnesses.
General Sorrengail
These chapters manage to double down on both faces of this character's inconsistent characterization.
Recall this line that I quoted while critiquing the Romance subplot.
Mom has never seen me as anything but a liability.
This is wholly is keeping with General Sorrengail's Fourth Wing characterization, but it clashes aggressively with her characterization in the opening chapters of Iron Flame.
However, we also got this in Chapter 18, when Xaden notices all the books Violet has for her research and asks where she got them. Violet answers:
“Mostly from my old room in the main college ... I crated them before Parapet and thought my mother would have shipped them off to storage, but it appears she is more sentimental than Mira or I thought. They were right where I left them.” It had been a surprising discovery. Nothing had been touched in my old room, like I was expected back at any minute.
This is in keeping with the Iron Flame characterization ... except, per that characterization, Violet should not have been surprised by her mother's sentimentality. After all, we are now supposed to think that the cold distance of Fourth Wing was all an act.
What's sad is that both of these inclusions could have worked if Yarros had shown from restraint and patience in her efforts to redeem General Sorrengail. Imagine if Yarros had held General Sorrengail accountable for the climax of Fourth Wing rather than turning Colonel Aetos into a scapegoat. Violet could have hated her mother's cold detachment and willingness to send her to die. Then, we could have gotten this scene (shown, rather than told) where Violet goes back to her own room and finds that it has been preserved. She would be confronted with seemingly contradictory evidence that her mother does, in fact, love her. It would force her to reevaluate her conclusions about her mother, eventually opening the door to this redemption that Yarros is so desperate to write. Her later assuming that her mother sees her as a liability would not contradict this discovery, as the room by itself would not be enough for a total reversal of her mother’s identity.
WORLDBUILDING
Pacing and Exposition
In previous parts, I stated that I liked how Yarros is dripping exposition about the luminary and the alloy gradually, in situations where it would naturally arise, rather than front-loading information that the audience doesn't yet need to know. I do stand by that assessment. That said, the pacing issues above ripple into the worldbuilding.
In this section, we learn more about the wards, the alloy, and Mira's Signet. The information we get, for all its problems (which we will get into below), is important to understand the story. It is presented as a payoff to an investigation. Violet is searching for answers, and these nuggets of information are what she is able to extract. It's just that it is a weak payoff. We aren't getting answers to deep mysteries that we are deeply invested in. We're getting bread crumbs to wet up things coming way, WAY down the line.
This would be fine if the pacing was good. Because the pacing is bad, the worldbuilding is some of the only progression that we have. Frankly, what we are learning is not worth it. I read the scene where Violet gets Mira to talk about wards and the line where Xaden reveals what the alloy is made from and find myself asking, "That's it? You aren't going to tell us anything more?" I'm not even asking it in breathless anticipation of more answers. I'm annoyed that the author is stringing me along.
To make a long story short: slow exposition is not inherently a bad thing, but when your story's pace offers no other form of progression, slow exposition feels like a rather irritating and unnecessary tease.
RSC
Mira delivers this warning about RSC during the knife-throwing scene.
“If you don’t break, they can accidentally torture you to death, and if you do break, they’ll kill you for it.”
I don’t know what Yarros insists on continually doubling down like this. Is she really this oblivious to the damage she is doing to her story by trying to milk tension out of nothingness?
First, how incompetent are the intelligence services of Navarre that they ACCIDENTALLY torture cadets to death during training exercises? The point of torture is to cause pain to break the subject’s mind WITHOUT killing them. Surely, if Navarre has developed a system to train people to endure torture, they have an understanding of how to do torture properly? Also, if this is really a problem, why not have a rider with a mending Signet on hand? This story has already implied that Nolon assists in torture by keeping subjects alive (and he will be used in this very capacity later in the book).
Second, Yarros is doubling down on the problem of why dragons would allow RSC to occur after Threshing. Is it not a horrific humiliation for a dragon if a rider is too weak-willed to endure torture? Is Tairn the only dragon willing to enact vengeance for harm done to the rider? With everything established about the dragons, it is simply not credible that the dragons would ever allow a rider to be executed in this manner. If there truly was no other option than to have RSC after Threshing, why execute the riders who fail the training, rather than forcing them to repeat the year the way that cadets who can’t get dragons have to do?
Third … Yarros has handed her antagonists yet another chance to dispose of Violet and the rebel children. The rider leadership has an established means to simply torture them to death, or else torture them until they break and then execute them. Forget evidence or trials. If accidental deaths due to torture are happening, then clearly there’s not enough oversight to prevent such losses. Draconis Umbridge and the Bad Teachers could simply subject Violet and the rebel children to extreme torture until either their bodies or their minds give out, then turn around and say, “It sure is a shame that they were so weak. Oh, well. Their dragons will pick better next time.” (Obviously, this is not exploited.)
Alloy
Finally, 34% of the way into a book where the alloy forged in the luminary is the MacGuffin that drives the plot, we actually learn what the alloy is. In Xaden’s own words, it is:
“An amalgamations of Talladium, a few other ores, and dragon egg shells.”
At first glance, this works as an explanation. Dragon egg shells make a lot of sense as an ingredient. Dragons are integral to the magic system, and this is a magical alloy for wards that suppress all magic that isn’t dragon magic. “A few other ores” is vague, but that’s not a problem. The vagueness just tells us that the specifics of those other ores is not going to be important to the story, so we shouldn’t worry about them.
That leaves Talladium.
Talladium does not appear in the periodic table. In fact, it is not the name of any real-world substance. This means that, at first glance, Yarros has tried to explain the composition of her fictional, made-up metal by telling us that it is made of another fictional, made-up metal that she isn’t bothering to explain.
However … there is the slight matter of Talladium being a proper noun, not a common one. That sent me down the rabbit hole. What I found, and what others on the Shadiversity Discord confirmed when I asked them to check my work, is hilarious.
Talladium, Inc. is an American company that “manufactures a complete line of gypsums, investments, alloys, [and] zirconia” for dental applications. Their flagship product is Tilite Alloy, a “medical grade alloy with Titanium insuring biocompatibility and indication for use with dental implants”. This alloy is a registered trademark of the company, and thus is referred to on some sales pages as Talladium Tilite.
Not since John Boyne wrote a Historical Fiction novel that incorporated alchemical recipes from The Legend of Zelda have I seen a worldbuilding and research gaffe this egregious. It’s possible that Yarros made up a metal from scratch and just happened to pick a real-world product, but given how she treats this metal as a proper noun (something she hasn’t done with the alloy or any other references to metals in the book), I an not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt here. It is far more likely that she just heard about or saw a Talladium product at the dentist’s office or some other doctor’s appointment, thought it sounded cool and scientific, and dropped it into her book without bothering to actually verify what the name was attached to.
To be clear, the fact that a metal alloy used in biocompatible dental implants is used to make ward-sustaining metal and venin-killing daggers is not inherently a problem. It is not inconceivable that man-made materials exist naturally in a fantasy setting. I’m also willing to buy into the idea that, within this magic system, a medical alloy somehow produces the venin version of Kryptonite when smelted with dragon eggshells. My issue here is the blatant amount of No Fucks Given that Yarros displays for her worldbuilding. At this point, she might as well have the hedonistic party in Chapter 5 serving up Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Dos Equis.
Wards
Function and Signet
Mira provides this helpful analogy for the wards.
“Think of an umbrella. The wardstone is the stem, and the wards take the shape of a dome over Navarre… But just like an umbrella’s spokes are strongest at the stem, by the time the wards reach the ground, they’re too weak to do much without a boost.”
This is followed by some recycled lore about the alloy. This is a serviceable explanation.
We then get to a description of what Mira’s Signet does.
“I kind of pull the wards with me. Sometimes I can manifest on my own, but I have to be close to an outpost. Kind of like I’m just another thread.”
This would also be fine … except it’s going to be contradicted in Chapter 42 so that Yarros can write herself out of a corner.
Also, we get a line in this same scene about how weaving wards is something taught in the third year of the Quadrant. Can all riders weave wards, then? What, exactly, makes Mira’s Signet special? Can anyone manifest wards, and Mira just has the power to tap into the wardstone?
Lost Magic
In Chapter 18, when Xaden learns about Violet's research, the following discussion of the wards happens.
“No one knows how it was originally done, only how to maintain them.” He rises from the chair, and his shadows follow as he paces, a barometer for his mood. “It’s a lost magic, and you can’t deny that it was probably lost on purpose.”
“Someone knows,” I counter, tracking his movements. “There’s no chance that someone didn’t leave a record somewhere in case they fail. We aren’t going to destroy the only thing that could save us. We would hide it, but we wouldn’t destroy it.”
Violet almost makes a good point. Almost.
WHY would this knowledge even be hidden? I could understand classified it for security purposes (especially since classifying information is already established as something Navarre does), but hiding it outright just runs the risk that Navarre would lose it. The knowledge of how to make and imbue the alloy still clearly exists and is actively being used, so why bury the knowledge of how to activate / make the wardstones?
Also, what does Xaden mean by a "lost magic"? Is this a thing in the setting? Were there ancient, advanced civilizations that were wiped off the map? Did Yarros watch Fairy Tail and think that the Lost Magic was a cool idea to copy?
Shields
In both Chapter 18 and Chapter 20, Xaden reminds Violet of the importance of keeping her mental shields up at all times.
Why?
Navarre surely has multiple riders with Signets that access the mind, but Dain is the only one whom has been established (and hammered upon) as a threat thus far in this book. In fact, near the end of Chapter 20, Xaden tells Violet that her shields are now strong enough to protect her (something else that she has not worked towards or earned), and Dain is again the only one acknowledged as a threat. On top of all this, we know that the only reason Dain’s Signet didn’t get him executed is that he needs to touch a target. Inntinnsics are the ones who read minds at range, and they don’t live long enough to make much use of that.
So … what, exactly, is the danger here? Where is the tension supposed to be derived from? Why does Violet need to worry about shielding herself in situations where Dain cannot possibly be near enough to be a threat?
Sign Language
Let's talk about swearing and obscenities in written media.
While I am happy to criticize the preadolescent vomiting of obscenities in this book, I do not think that such language is inherently flawed from a literary perspective. Foul language can be used to convey characterization, tone, or worldbuilding. The key is to use it in moderation. Spraying obscenities onto a page does not, in and of itself, make a work more mature. If anything, the overuse waters down the benefits while making it seem like the writer possesses a child’s understanding of maturity.
I think a good example of swearing done well is Captain America in the MCU. He rarely used profanity. There is a gag in Age of Ultron about this fact. As a result, when Infinity War ends on him collapsing to the ground and saying, "Oh, God," it cuts deep. The man has finally experienced something so beyond his ability to process, despite everything he had previously been through, that taking the Lord's name in vain is the only thing he can verbalize.
Why am I explaining this?
Well, during my first reading of Iron Flame, I was sticking notes all over the text. These were often off-the-cuff reactions. Sometimes, to help preserve my emotions in the moment, I included profanity. I have been screening this profanity back out when drafting these posts. (The profanity I have used throughout this series was introduced during the drafting process, so that those of you who haven't read the book can better grasp the nature of its prose). There is one, though, that I want to share with you verbatim. It captures just how frustrating this book can be.
During the scene where Xaden and Violet visit Jesinia in the Archives, we get this.
“Thank you for helping us,” Xaden signs.
Jesinia nods, then disappears into the rows of bookshelves.
“You can sign,” I whisper at him.
“You speak Tyrrish,” he replies. “One is far less common than the other.”
This was the note I had attached to that first line.
MOTHER FUCKER. WHY BOTHER HAVING A DEAF CHARACTER?!
Crass, I know, yet it captures very real frustration at a rather glaring issue.
What is the point of Jesinia being a Token Disabled (Deaf) character, outside of a virtue signal? I do not believe for a moment that Yarros wrote Jesinia as a character that happens to be deaf. If that were the case, she should have put in the effort to actually reflect the realistic obstacles that this poses. Instead, she is erasing obstacles at every turn. It's as if she decided to add a Token Disabled (Deaf) character in the last draft, and rather that rewrite (or reformat) any dialogue, she just went back and gave everyone the ability to speak sign language.
Xaden's explanation for why he speaks sign language doesn't even make sense. Forget Navarre's brutal perspective on physical disability for a moment. Why is sign language more common than speaking Tyrrish? We have been introduced to at least a dozen named Tyrrish characters (including all of the rebel children as well as Amber from the last book). We only have one established deaf character. It's not even like sign language has been established to serve a purpose outside of communication with the deaf - my proposal that sign language could be a tool of the scribes was manufactured from head canon. It would actually be far more realistic if our virtuous Mary Sue was the only non-deaf character to speak sign language.
We will get into this more when we discuss the deafness virtue signal in Chapter 45. For now, let's update the tally.
Deaf People: 1
Non-Deaf Speakers: 4
THEME
Immigration
Chapter 18 features another snippet of text that leads me to conclude that Yarros is limiting the commentary on immigration to a moral binary to support the existential conflict. Violet and Xaden’s pre-Archives discussion include the following:
“Civilians are fleeing for our borders, no one in Navarre knows the truth, and Aretia needs to defend itself - to protect the people I’m guessing you’re prepared to take in when venin inevitably reach Tyrrendor.” I clutch the old tome to my chest. “You are going to take people in, aren’t you?”
“Of course we are.”
“Good.” At least my faith isn’t misplaced.
That’s nothing explored here. There’s no depth. However, what we have here is still a functional dividing line that converts the existential threat into an understandable moral binary. As long as Yarros continues to limit the amount that she leans into this theme and keeps it relevant to the overall plot, I think that this can still work.
PROSE
The moment where Violet and Mira begin discussing the wards begins with a rather strange formatting choice.
“… and you’re a walking shield. Kind of a waste of your signet.” She’s a shield.
Why the hell didn’t I think of asking her about the wards sooner?
Violet has a paragraph of dialogue, ends it with repeating that Mira is a shield (the second instance of the word “shield” is italicized in the original text, to really emphasize the point), and then we get the paragraph break. This is framed as a moment of revelation for Violet, but with how it is formatted, it honestly reads like Yarros is once again underestimating the audience’s intelligence and thinks that we won’t remember what Mira’s Signet is. At best, this is an editing mistake.
ANOTHER ATROCIOUS MESS
Chapter 21 certainly is special.
The first part of the chapter is all theme and commentary. It’s hideous. Whether or not one agrees with Yarros’s politics, the arguments that she puts forth don’t work within the narrative she has written. The result is a nonsensical slurry of ideas that feels like another of her American university copy-paste jobs.
The second part finally sees Violet have a confrontation with Dain, the “friend” she has abused non-stop for nearly a year now. It’s a very strange scene. What’s actually on the page absolves Dain of any wrongdoing and spells out how unhinged Violet needs to be to keep blaming him and spiting him. This could have given Violet a chance to grow as a character. However, that would require that Violet have her emotions or morals challenged. Yarros instead does the literary equivalent of fitting an SUV into a compact parking space by bashing said SUV with a crowbar. She goes out of her way to try to frame Dain as the bad guy while making Violet out to be a battered victim fighting off her abuser. The result is a baffling mess that still fails to fit in said parking space.
It’s going to be delightful mess to untangle. I hope you’ll all join me next Friday for the grand unraveling. Have a good week, all.
