Empyrean Saga

La saga Empyreal -or Empyrean, from its original title in English— covers to date three books of high fantasy and romance written by the American author Rebecca Yarros. Written by wings of blood (2023) iron wings (2024) and Onyx wings (2025), quickly became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to review platforms such as Booktok and Goodreads.

In fact, it was so successful that the author sold the rights to create a series that will be brought to the small screen by Amazon Prime. In general, Empyreal has stood out among young people for its construction of a fantastic world full of dragons, a language that is not very challenging for the reader and explicit sex scenes where magical bonds develop.

Chronological synopsis of the saga Empyreal

Fourth Wing — Blood Wings (2023)

The first novel in the trilogy opens the doors to the world of Violet Sorrengail, A fragile girl who has studied all her life to join the Quadrant of the Scribes in order to lead a quiet life. However, by order of her mother, she must abandon her dream to join thousands of applicants at the War College of Basgiath, where they must fight to the death to become part of the elite of Navarre: the Quadrant of the Dragon Riders.

At first, Violet has a lot of trouble because—as the author points out an exaggerated number of times—she is very weak, and dragons do not bond with humans like that.There are many more of these beings than people, so getting your own dragon is a challenge., especially when she has to face the sensual and ruthless Xaden Riorson, one of those who want to kill her.

Iron Flame — Iron Wings (2024)

To the surprise of all the inhabitants of Navarre, Violet Sorrengail manages to pass the first test at the Basgiath War CollegeHowever, this is only the beginning of her fierce training. Luckily for her, she has two dragons on her side, as well as the love and protection of Xaden Riorson, who, despite his feud with her family, can't help but feel what she feels.

Even so, the protagonist faces the new vice-commander, who is determined to show her and the entire world how fragile she is.The recurrence of this argument is almost suffocating, not only because Violet ends up overcoming all the obstacles, but because it is inconsistent with the ideals of a young woman who, in principle, only wanted to be a Scribe.

Onyx Storm — Onyx Wings (2025)

And this is how we finally get to the third and final book of the saga. Empyreal. By this point in the story, eighteen months have passed since Violet entered the Basgiath War College. But What she thought was a grueling training session soon turns into a real war. To protect her land, her family and the love of her life, the protagonist must leave for a faraway place.

Her mission is to find allies who can fight alongside her for Navarre. In addition, She sets out in search of magic and a truth that, apparently, only she can find. At the same time, Violet is keeping a secret that could threaten the integrity of her world, and she must realize that she can no longer trust anyone, because the fury of the storm could be on anyone.

General review of the Empyrean saga

While it is true that the democratization of literature and literary media is a blessing for readers and the publishing world, it is also true that more and more books of very poor quality are reaching the market. This is precisely the case of this trilogy. Although Rebecca Yarros proposes in her work a concept that fascinates us all —dragons—, these creatures are not enough to sustain the plot.

Overall the best of Empyreal are its magical creatures and the interactions they have with each other and with other characters. If it were necessary to summarize everything else, it could be said that It is about building a romantic relationship with many communication problems, unnecessary sexualization, infantilized explicit sex scenes and an avalanche of literary clichés.

The infantilization of women in contemporary literature

It is with deep sadness that we see how the «Romantasy» has lost its quality of exploration fantastic worlds while a complex love story unfolds to focus almost exclusively on the most superficial aspects of couples' relationships. In addition to this, It is worrying how the authors present the figure of the woman as a kind of hybrid that has not finished maturing.

Initially, these women are described as strong, intelligent, shrewd, perceptive and resourceful. However, As the various plots progress, a decline in their behavior is noticeable., which are far from the way they were originally built. Examples of this are the protagonists of titles such as A court of thorns and roses y The cruel prince.

About Rebecca Yarros

Rebeca Yarros was born in Washington DC, USA. She studied at Troy University, where she graduated in European History and English. As the daughter of military personnel, she traveled the world for many years until her parents retired. They later moved to Colorado. Yarros later married a military man and had six children with him. Her own family has moved several times, but they returned to Colorado when her husband completed 22 years of service.

Yarros is an experienced writer. Throughout her life she has created more than fifteen novels. However, became really popular after the release of wings of blood, a novel with which he has won multiple awards, remaining on the list of best sellers of New York Times and getting good reviews on Waterstones and Amazon.com.

Other books by Rebeca Yarros

Independent novels

• Against All Odds (1984);
• The Last Letter (2019);
• Great and Precious — Great and precious things (2020);
• Muses & Melodies — Muses and melodies (2020);
• The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021);
• A Little Too Close (2022);
• In the Likely Event. Montlake — In the likely event (2023)

Series Flight & Glory

• Full Measures — Full Measures (2014);
• Eyes Turned Skyward (2014);
• Beyond What is Given (2015);
• Hallowed Ground (2016);
• The Reality of Everything (2020)

In Luv duet

• Girl in Luv — Girl in love (2019);
• Boy in Luv — Boy in love (2019)

Series Legacy

• Point of Origin (2016);
• Ignite — Ignition (2016);
• Reason to Believe (2022);

Trilogy Renegades

• Wilder — Wilder (2016);
• Nova — New (2017);
• Rebel (2017)

The best fantasy sagas to read this month

• The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien;
• The cemetery of forgotten books, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon;
• Kingdom of Souls, by Rena Barron;
• The Saga of the Sealed Tomb, by Tamsyn Muir;
• The archive of storms, by Brandon Sanderson;
• Harry Potter, by JK Rowling;
• The songs of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons;
• A Song of Ice and Fire, by George RR Martin;
• Shadowhunters: The Origins, by Cassandra Clare;
• Chronicles of the Tower, by Laura Gallego;
• Geralt of Rivia, by Andrzej Sapkowski;
• The wheel of time, by Robert Jordan;
• Malaz: The Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson;
• Born of the mist, by Brandon Sanderson;
• Midnight Eyes, by Daniel Hernandez;
• six of crows, by Leigh Bardugo;
• Stories from Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin;
• The age of madness, by Joe Abercrombie;
• The Fragmented Earth, by NK Jemisin;
• The Vatic Trilogy, by Robin Hobb;
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke;
• Discworld, by Terry Pratchett.