Fourth Wing

I think one of the reasons that I didn't love this, is that I love the Temeraire series so much. Perhaps that is unfair, considering that the books have very little in common other than dragons. However, how Naomi Novik described dragon riding makes so much more sense than the world of Fourth Ring. In the Temeraire books, there is also extensive training for riding a dragon, but it's about using gear to assist you in staying on board, such as straps, saddles etc. It was ridiculous to me that these people were expected to go through what seemed to be a ninja warrior-style gauntlet to prove they could stay on a flying animal they had no experience with, instead of just giving them some riding gear. And the Tairn shows up wearing a saddle! Why would you not just give everyone a saddle from the beginning? The cadet death toll seemed to be entirely avoidable. I was wondering if there was going to be some kind of population control issue, or maybe it's a whole system of government control regarding the threat of conscription into a high-mortality death school, but I guess I'll have to wait for the second book to find out more.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I felt it was weak in world-building. I didn't have any clear idea of what their land was like outside of the war college. When Xaden gives Violet a saddle for Tairn, I was honestly wondering where it came from, is there some sort of leather artisan on the premises? This would have been a great spot to use a couple of sentences to flesh out the community they are living in.

My other big issue with the book is that I could not figure out what the dragons were getting out of these bonding relationships. Do they even like the humans? They don't seem to care whether they live or die, even after bonding with them, with a few exceptions regarding our main characters.

I found Violet genuinely annoying. She wants everyone to respect her, but then she does things like insist she be allowed to stay in a battle when she has no experience and has to be practically dragged away. She is also presented as being the smartest cadet in her year, but she lacks any curiosity about why they are there, or why the rebellion happened, or whether the things they are being taught should be questioned - even when evidence is right in front of her.

Also, there is a whole conversation about how we need to hide that feathertails are juvenile dragons, but it is going to be abundantly obvious to everyone when Violet's bonded dragon turns into an adult in a year...