Fireborne: 1 (Aurelian Cycle)

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Fabulous reading, magnetic scenes, and the turmoil of being a young adult expected to become steely warriors. See the threads of forged bonds fray, mistrust grow and feel the tension of the unknown. Rosaria Munda has created a fantasy that comes to life with clarity as the real world fades away! Highly recommended! This tale stands on its own merit! Early on, we get a glimpse of a past event, an execution. Lee and Annie, tight friends, both misunderstood the other's reaction--and when the reader realizes it, the game alters. Nothing is predictable anymore. Moral dilemmas, with huge emotional freight attached, lie like landmines everywhere. There are no easy choices in this world. This series is not what I expected. I assumed it would be a cheeseball fantasy romance with weak world-building. Nope. This story centers around Annie and Lee, two orphaned survivors of a great revolution that brought about the end of the ruling Barron class of dragon riders in favor of a 'communist' system. Annie's family was killed by the establishment, while Lee is the last surviving child of the dragonlords that oppressed the masses. Years later, they find themselves competing for a coveted spot in the country's dragon-riding military, only to be faced with the return of the surviving dragon lords and the reality of a second war. 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. This series opener thrills with dragon action, from aerial tournaments to wartime battles . . . a near-perfect work of high fantasy with wide appeal.” — Booklist, Starred Review

Until the revolution that overthrew them, and nearly stamped them out by killing all the dragon lords down the the smallest kid. But total annihilation is more difficult than it looks when it's hand to hand slaughter, and a few got away, or were spared--including one of our protagonists, Lee, who was born Leo, his father an important dragon lord. Fireborne is everything I want in fantasy: deep world-building, fierce and vivid characters, heartbreaking choices, and dragons, dragons, dragons.” — Rachel Hartman, New York Times bestselling author of Seraphinaand Tess of the Road

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the story is pitched as Aegon Targaryen and Hermione Granger with dragons, set in the aftermath of a bloody revolution. 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? Fireborne is everything I want in fantasy.”—Rachel Hartman, New York Times bestselling author of Seraphina 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. The story may have been good. The idea is good, but I did not enjoy the execution. And the writing is nowhere near the books mentioned above. Those "name-dropping" popular books may have done a huge disservice to the author and the book.

In the beginning, I really struggled with the characters. I was unsure if I really enjoyed Lee's POV because just in his first POV, I was annoyed by Annie before we even really meet her. She was just so heavily mentioned that I could not stand her. But in the end, I prefered Lee's POV to Annie's. His character was calmer, more reasonable and less... sensitive in a sense. I felt like Annie was always annoyed by something or someone. Also, can I just say that the comparison to Seraphina and Red Rising just undid me? I mean, when Rachel Hartman praises a book, I'm in—that woman has always impressed with the philosophy in her books...

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I loved everything about this book: it’s exciting, it’s philosophical; it’s hopeful; it’s dark; it’s full of dragons and politics; it’s romantic in that grand, heroic tradition, without downplaying the ugly reality of governance and revolution and war. It talks about the cost of leadership, the weight of decision-making, and the responsibility of those in power to those without it. At the same time the story works as a close, intimate tale of friends who have been through fire together and what they will do for each other. It’s been a long time since a book made me this happy. Fireborne is my new favourite dragon book.” — Kristen Ciccarelli, internationally bestselling author of The Last Namsara 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. The cover is okay. I wish that it gave a little more of a hint to its ancient classic underpinnings. And less feature to the dragons. I also think the original title was a little more on target... The Dragonlord's Son. It's just this book isn't really about dragons. So all the marketing is really misleading.

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 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! This series opener thrills with dragon action, from aerial tournaments to wartime battles . . . a near-perfect work of high fantasy with wide appeal.”— Booklist, starred review Game of Thrones meets Fourth Wing in a debut young adult fantasy that’s full of rivalry, romance . . . and dragons.By the time 35% of Fireborne rolled around I was firmly rooting for Annie and Lee to overcome the uncomfortableness between them to be together. But I also realized this read like a boring adult fantasy to me. Cool ideas were introduced but bogged down by politics (not much), government (a lot!) and day to day interactions (slice of life feel). Imagine for years and years that whenever you saw a dragon in the sky on the way to your village you knew that the rider, a dragonborn noble, will take your crops and money and dole out fiery punishment and death, and you might get an idea of how conflicted the ordinary citizens are about dragons in this fantasy novel. Who’s to say that the new regime won’t become like the old, when those in power forget their promises? 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.

I look down at this boy, vulnerable, at my mercy, and think, To the ends of the earth I will protect you.the story is pitched as Aegon Targaryen and Hermione Granger with dragons, set in the aftermath of a bloody revolution." Fireborne] pulls readers in with political intrigue and action. What keeps them invested, however, are the complex relationships between many cast members… Full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes.” — Kirkus, Starred Review