Fireborne

The Aurelian Cycle, Book 1

By: Rosaria Munda

Narrated by: Christian Coulson, Candice Moll, Steve West

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

"One of fantasy’s best series."—Booklist, starred review

Game of Thrones meets Fourth Wing in a debut young adult fantasy that's full of rivalry, romance . . . and dragons.

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.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you've chosen.

©2019 Rosaria Munda (P)2019 Listening Library

Critic reviews

★ ★ ★ ★ Four Starred Reviews!

A 2019 Cybils Award Winner

An Illinois Reads 2020 Selection

A 2020-2021 Maine Student Book Award Selection

An AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award Winner

★ "This series opener thrills with dragon action, from aerial tournaments to wartime battles . . . a near-perfect work of high fantasy with wide appeal."—Booklist, starred review

★ "From the beginning, this book pulls readers in . . . full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes."—Kirkus, starred review

★ "Thought-provoking and full of social and political intrigue.”—School Library Journal, starred review

Beautiful written

I loved this book. The characters are well developed and nuanced. The writing beautiful, and the story intriguing, suspenseful, and unpredictable.
I originally thought it was a fantasy book but I think it falls into the dystopian category. Although labeled as young adult, it is a sophisticated read- much of the plot coming from Plato’s Republic. I’m an old adult and found it to be an extremely satisfying read. Narration was good, and it can easily be listened to at 1.25. The narrator for Lee started out slow, but he ended up being quite good.

So good!

This book had me hooked right from the beginning! The story telling and writing are great.
I really enjoyed the audiobook, the narrators did a great job.

Great performance, good story

the Narrators performances were great. the story was pretty good. would've liked more behind the scenes political positioning and scheming. At times it seemed like they were skimming over all the juicy details and jumping to the next event. really enjoyed the story.

Disturbingly violent

Disturbingly violent, poor kids are so traumatized especially Lee. Way too young to be military leaders.

A Whirlwind of a Book that had me HOOKED

I loved this so much that I didn't want to get to the end! It was Game of Thrones meets Throne of Glass meets Eragon in this fast paced read. I loved the struggles and the heartaches that Lee and Annie had to go through to get to were they ended up. I just need more!

3.5 stars

Interesting storyline and plot, but the writing style and teen angst was a bit much for me.

obsessed!

I read a review that says this book series is comparable to 4th wing. I may have liked this series even better!

All the Feels!

Get ready for highly relatable characters who make logical decisions and face conflicts that are absolutely heartwrenching. The moral dilemmas made it nearly impossible to put the book down, and I got way too attached to the characters. This book made me cry more than any book has in years. I’ve never seen an author build tension and stakes so perfectly. OH and the audiobook production is brilliant. All the main characters are voiced perfectly.

In response to the review stating that it’s too violent and they’re “too young” to be military leaders, the reasoning for this was explained very well in the story. As an Afghanistan veteran, I found the most heartbreaking and realistic part of the story to be the conflict between the characters’ humanity and their sworn duty to protect their nation. This, and the brilliant characterization, sets the Aurelian Cycle far above other titles in its genre.

Look up what Dystopian means

I have some mixed feelings. I usually like books that are an escape from life. They're usually a little more light hearted. This book is pretty heavy/political and the characters are put though some pretty rough stuff without many great outlooks on life. Me being unaware, it was a hard listen on my long road trip. They live in between a rock and a hard place the entire book. It's also a very slow build up. However, the writer is showing you the characters strengths, weaknesses, and who they are, which I really liked. You get a really good feel for the main characters and their rational. I feel like there might be something missing, but I can't for the life of me put my finger in it. Honestly, it might be some sort of happiness or contentment at all for the characters. For now, I think I'll choose something more uplifting, but I could see myself comming back to this when I want a more serious read. I know it's fantasy, but it's a more heartbreaking realistic version of fantasy, if that makes sense? The narration is decent!

Fantastic book

Fireborne was fantastic! The clever writing and story telling giving hints of a world that is not was it appears to be. The readers are great and normally I don’t like books with multiple readers. Looking forward to the next to.