Stand back for the hot breath of dragon sex in Onyx Storm

The first book in this series was delightful. The third is hot as hell.

American author Rebecca Yarros. Picture: Facebook

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros is the third in the romantasy author’s series about young dragon riders. The series is a phenomenon — the first volume, Fourth Wing, has sold three million copies globally and Iron Flame has sold two million. The latter sold half a million copies on its first day of publication.

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

We have not seen such devotion to a fantasy series since the Harry Potter books — and the two have a lot in common. Like JK Rowling, Yarros has created a world that revolves around a magical school, with exclusive entry requirements and more than the usual amount of physical danger — and, as in the later Harry Potter books, the young students must leave their studies behind to fight a magical war.

There are also plenty of differences, however. Rowling set her tales within the world we already knew, but made it magical: she took London’s King’s Cross Station and added Platform 9 and three quarters.

Yarros invents a new world entirely — her school is in a kingdom called Navarre, on a continent called, well, The Continent. Navarre is essentially a military state, and its children are brought up to protect the realm. Some join the healers quadrant, becoming magical doctors; others are scribes, aka librarians; the more athletically inclined join infantry quadrant; and then there’s the riders quadrant. That’s dragon riders, obviously. It’s unclear who’s collecting the bins or fixing the plumbing.

Here’s the story so far. Our heroine is Violet Sorrengail. Her mother is one of Navarre’s top generals, so she insists that Violet — a bookish type with a genetic condition that makes her joints weak — forgets about becoming a scribe and instead becomes a rider. So off she goes, a nepo baby who also manages to be an underdog, to complete the gruelling physical challenges required to enter Basgiath War College: crossing a narrow bridge hundreds of metres in the air, fighting other students to death, and participating in war games.

Violet is in a perilous situation on every other page, partly because there’s a target on her back: her mother orchestrated the brutal crushing of a rebellion a decade previously and personally executed the parents of many of Violet’s fellow students. It makes for an awkward freshers week.

But it’s all worth it when Violet makes it through to Threshing, the day when the dragons choose which riders they will bond with and which they will burn to a crisp. Despite being smaller and weaker than the other candidates, Violet is chosen by not one but two dragons — huge, mighty and rather sarcastic Tairn and tiny, sparkling, ethereal Andarna. Being bonded to a dragon means you can communicate with it telepathically. You also gain a magical power called a signet: Violet gets the power to wield lightning at her enemies — and, bizarrely, when she orgasms.

At this stage we’re still barely 250 pages into the first book, Fourth Wing, so I’ll speed things up a bit. Violet discovers that the children of the dead rebels, led by the devilishly handsome (and straight up devilish) Xaden Riorson, are up to something. Navarre’s leaders, including Violet’s mother, have also been suppressing the fact that there exist evil humans called venin who swap their souls for the ability to channel power from the earth — and wreak destruction. Disillusioned by the lies, Violet joins the revolution, which erupts into all-out war.

That’s where we are at the start of Onyx Storm, which — like the final Harry Potter book — warns us that “there’s no more time for lessons”. In it, Violet balances edge-of-your-dragon-saddle battles with what she does best — academic research — to find a way to destroy the venin. Or, better, to cure them: because that handsome Xaden Riorson chose to become an evil venin so he could save Violet from death. Why? Because — guess what — they are in love.

Yes, this is the bit you’ve been waiting for. Romantasy is a blend of romance and fantasy, and the genre is beloved by its fans for its sexual content. Despite beginning the series as enemies — and can you blame Xaden for not wanting a mother-in-law who executed his father? — Violet and Xaden are instantly attracted to each other. Helped by the aphrodisiac effect of their dragons having sex (honestly, don’t ask) they eventually kiss, then do more than kiss.

Although its dialogue can be clunky, I found the first book, Fourth Wing, enjoyable and entertaining. The combination of boarding school, adventure, romantic intrigue and the warmth between Violet and her dragons works really well. By the time I read Iron Flame and Onyx Storm, however, I felt like I’d gorged on chocolate. The romance in this volume can be cringe-worthy. But rest assured, the bestseller charts for the next few weeks are going to be distinctly fiery.

Onyx Storm

By Rebecca Yarros
Hachette, Fiction
544pp, $32.99