Iron Flame

Empyrean, Book 2

By: Rebecca Yarros

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton

“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity." Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College-Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year. Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

The Empyrean series is best enjoyed in order.

Book #1 Fourth Wing

Book #2 Iron Flame

©2024 Rebecca Yarros (P)2024 Recorded Books

Pick a different narrator!!

Rebecca Soler breathes into the mic, swallows, sniffs, she can't keep a steady pace, or volume. I enjoy her narration other than I genuinely had to slow down and speed up in the story so much that I had to be more active than if I had just picked up the book. This is incredibly inconvenient for those who are visually impaired and switching these would be more of a nuisance. I restarted chapters over and over trying to figure out what happened. My normal speed is 2x-2.5x, however, I had it down to 1.15x and that was too fast. Then she would slow down again and 2x then felt slow.

I can't even guarantee this is a good audio for a reread because of her bad narration. The audio for Fourth Wing had to be redone because Rebecca was sniffing up snot for 11 chapters. You can still tell she was sick, but this is telling about the quality we're expecting from her now.

Amazing story, still don’t love the performance

This is very likely my favorite book of all time but the spots where the narrator is reading spoken character lines using the wrong character voices she’s established things start getting lost. It’s way better than the problems in Fourth Wing’s audio but had I not been reading along I would’ve been kinda lost. Def worth it but still kinda wish they did more edits

WHAT THE F***

I’m not sure if I can recover from the damage. This book was a perfect sequel with the most unseen twists and turns coming. Just mentally prepare to not be okay.

y’all are haters

i rlly like the narrator, i think all these other reviews are dramatic. book is amazing and full of plot twists

Favorite Series ever!!!

I am in love with this series!!!! Narration was great! I was grasping for more after each page!

Engaging

I like the story line. The characters are well developed. I’m not sure about the end, but we shall see how that plays out in book 3.

Phenomenal

This book tore me down and built me back up just to tear me down again. Tears and laughter and more tears. BRAVA!!

Dragontastic!

Definitely enjoyed this second book of the series. Both narrators are great and I just wish the books were written with different characters points of view throughout the book instead of just Violet. This book definitely kept me entertained and some very great twists added throughout. Since this book is so long I will most likely listen to it again cause I excitedly listened to it basically non stop in the span of three days. Definitely worth a credit and a listen!

Love the series, hoping for a better ending to come!

I stayed up to start this book the second it was released and listened to it almost nonstop to finish it. I love this series so much, can’t wait for the third book. Definitely a few wtf moments, but so far it’s a great series! I pride myself in being able to figure out most of the twists and turns before they happen, but I will say this ending totally caught me off guard. Can’t wait to see what happens!

In regards to concerns about the narrator, I typically listen to audiobooks in 2X speed or faster so I didn’t notice any weird pauses, breaths, or swallowing😂 However, I did notice a few times where she may have used the wrong character voices, but with so many different characters speaking that’s understandable. One of my biggest regrets about listening to so many audiobooks is that it’s sometimes hard to tell what is thought or spoken and who is saying what, but for the most part I think this narrator does an amazing job.

I have faith

You broke my heart but I have faith they will be strong and overcome <\3