Fourth Wing
core novel 2023 The Empyrean
Record
| First published | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.56 (3,957,313 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781649374042 |
Synopsis
Fourth Wing introduces Violet Sorrengail, a twenty-year-old who has trained to become a scribe, a path suited to her fragile body. Instead, her mother, a commanding general, forces her into the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath War College in Navarre, where cadets bond with dragons and survive brutal training to earn a place in the military. With only a fraction of the preparation most peers have had, Violet must compensate for her physical limitations while facing deadly trials meant to weed out the unworthy. Complicating matters is Xaden Riorson, an older, powerful rider whose father was executed years earlier on the orders of Violet's own mother during a past rebellion, and who has every reason to want Violet gone. Surrounded by hostility and danger, Violet must prove she belongs among the riders before the college's trials end her chances for good.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Empyrean
- Series: The Empyrean core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Rebecca Yarros
Notes
- From the series record (The Empyrean): New author record. The Empyrean (Fourth Wing, 2023; Iron Flame, 2023; Onyx Storm, 2025) is the current dragon-rider 'romantasy'/New Adult fantasy phenomenon that drove much of the BookTok-era genre's mainstream crossover -- explicitly named in Carlos's own brief for this batch. In progress: a 4th, untitled volume is publicly confirmed in development but has no publication date (multiple entertainment-press sources place it no earlier than 2027) -- isn't counted here yet.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Empyrean: position 1 of 3: next Iron Flame (2023)
Sources
← The Empyrean dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.