The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons – Review

Published: July 9, 2024

Publisher: Tor Books

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 432 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
From the acclaimed author of the Chorus of Dragons series, this propulsive new standalone fantasy is Dragonriders of Pern for a modern audience.

Enter a world ruled by dragons…

Anahrod lives only for survival, preferring to thrive in the jungles of the Deep with the titan drake she keeps by her side. When an adventuring party saves her from capture by the local warlord, Sicaryon, she is eager to return to her solitary life, but this is no ordinary rescue. Anahrod’s past has caught up with her. And these cunning misfits intend to spirit her away to the cloud cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard.

There’s only one in the cloud cities, dragons rule, and the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas―and she wants Anahrod dead.

Fans of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Rebecca Yarros’s The Fourth Wing will enjoy this page-turning adventure with conniving dragons, high-stakes intrigue, a daring heist, and a little bit of heat.

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I didn’t expect The Sky on Fire to be one of the most unique dragon books I’ve ever read. There are dozens of stories about people becoming dragon riders – from Eragon to Fourth Wing, but The Sky on Fire focuses on someone who is trying very, very hard to avoid dragons and their riders entirely. 

This follows Anahrod Amnead, infamously known in the Skylands as Anahrod the Wicked. We are first introduced to her as she and her six-legged titan drake are trying to outrun hunters sent by a man named Sicaryon, the self-proclaimed King of the Deep and Anahrod’s former friend.  Rather unexpectedly, Anahrod runs into a group of Skylanders who are willing to pay a huge sum of scales for her to act as a guide. Even more unexpectedly, this group (Gwydinion, Ris, Naeron, Kaibren, and Claw) are actually after Anahrod herself and they kidnap her and take her back to the Skylands, where she was originally from. You see, they need Anahrod’s help to break into the vault of Neveranimas, the terrifying dragon that is currently ruling things because Anahrod supposedly broke into the vault years before and that’s why she was thrown off the side of an airship.

If that isn’t enough to pique your interest, then all hope that you’ll read this book is lost. This book is next level. There’s so much going on with the plot and the characters that I could never hope to summarize it well and I wouldn’t want to because it would spoil all the fun! Needless to say, there is a heist segment, but there’s also a brief stint on a leviathan hunting ship, and a rather important section at the school for potential dragon riders. There’s also some fantastic worldbuilding and cultural elements that added so much richness to the story. I don’t usually expect something so vibrant from a standalone because worldbuilding takes time and it has to be balanced with plot and character development. I love the dragon lore, the tidbits about religion, the description of the cities, and the exotic locales found in the Deep. Oh, and the concept of using rings to describe oneself – from basics like careers to more personal things like sexual preference – there’s a ring for just about everything!

I am honestly so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Sky on Fire. It was action packed and had a great group of characters all around. Anahrod and Gwydinion were by far my favorites, but I certainly appreciated Claw and her violent tendencies. I can’t forget to mention Ris and Sicaryon as well, and while they were certainly important to the plot for a number of reasons, I think the most standout reason was how their fondness for Anahrod helped bring the two halves of her life together. Plus, the dragons are just damn cool. They rule things, overuse of magic can drive them to madness, and they horde all sorts of oddities. Overall, this book was definitely a win for me!