Title: Fireborne (The Aurelian Cycle #1)
Author: Rosaria Munda
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: December 2020
Format: Hardcover
Length:  432 pages

Read if you like: intricate world building, political machinations, dragon riders, repressive regimes, revolutions, rivalries and secrets

Rating: 

It took me a while to write my review for Fireborne by Rosaria Munda. The book is structurally very sound, it has so many elements that I love in a fantasy, and there were times when I was reading it where I was so thoroughly gripped and invested in the characters that I couldn’t stop turning pages. Objectively speaking, I feel like this book is a very strong young adult political fantasy, but ultimately, I’m not sure that I’ll finish the series myself. While there was a lot to love, I found the build to the action was so long that I almost gave up. I’m glad that I didn’t, because the end was utterly devastating, but I’m not sure that I could make it through another book with so little actual action purely out of personal reading preferences. 

It’s rare that I’ll recommend a book that I don’t personally feel like I’ll continue on with, but I’m making an exception for Fireborne because my feelings for it are utterly complicated and I genuinely feel like this is a great story, but perhaps just not for me. For a YA audience, or someone who thrives in the slow build of a dense political system and fantasy world, I think Fireborne could be perfect.

The Synopsis: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone–even the lowborn–a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

The Review

I’ve become very good at picking out books that I love. I think when you read voraciously, you get pretty in tune with what works for you and what doesn’t, but every now and then a book comes along that checks all your boxes but somehow doesn’t quite hit the spot. In retrospect, that’s how I feel about Fireborne, a book that is technically excellent and that I thoroughly enjoyed at times, but nearly lost me in the mountain of build. 

In so many ways, this book was masterfully crafted. The detail in the world-building and the way that it was slowly and meticulously articulated ensured that it built a lush universe without ever feeling overwhelming. The political machinations and the depths to which the revolution had gone and would go were also incredible. The story was so intricate and unfolded so perfectly that it had my attention most of the time, though admittedly, it started to feel like it was going long towards the last third of the book. Structurally though, it was sound and I think it was less a pacing issue and more a personal preference gap. 

The character work in this book was also excellent. I loved seeing both Annie and Lee develop so well from start to finish, juxtaposed against each other in so many ways. Annie was a well and true manifestation of what could be possible in a post-revolution world, and Lee was a representation of all that had passed, but also, that the traits deemed universal of his class were not necessarily inherent. Their respective arcs were truly magnificent, I felt like Munda very expertly developed them so that at the climax of the book the events that grip them hit you extra hard. 

Despite this book being technically and structurally great, it felt like it took an incredibly long time before there was any action. It was a very, very long build before we finally made it to the peak, and it almost lost my attention as a result. But then the ending went ahead and took my breath away, so ultimately, I think the journey was worth it. 

In principle, this book is truly excellent fantasy, and there were moments that I absolutely loved it, but I’m still very undecided about if I’ll continue the series from here. I like a plot that is rooted in a little more action than I felt I got from Fireborne, though that is no fault of the book or the author, just a personal preference. If you’re looking for something with exceptional world building and intricate political machinations though, this one might be for you, and I’m giving it four stars anyway because even if I’m not sure if I’ll continue from here, I felt like the strength of the writing and the story really warranted it anyway.