The incomparable Jenn Lyons has done it again, only this time it’s with a standalone fantasy, so if you’ve been reluctant to immerse yourself in the gloriously bewildering saga that is A Chorus of Dragons, The Sky on Fire is your chance to see what you’ve been missing.

The cover blurb will tell you this is a story about a rescue from a warlord and a heist from a dragon, but don’t let that deceive you – nothing about this is that simple. It’s also a story about regrets, resentment, and revenge, with personal motives driving the narrative. Nobody is all good or all bad, it’s just that their objectives are sometimes violently at odds with one another – so much so that even villains can end up becoming heroes.

The world-building here is simple but nicely detailed and well thought-out. Below, we have the jungles of the Deep, humid lands where air, foliage, and danger all lie thick and heavy. Above hang the cloud cities, home to the ruling classes, merchants, nobility, and dragons. So many dragons! This isn’t just a book with dragons, it’s very much a book about dragons – their history, their mythology, and their overbearing presence in the lives of tiny humans. While we don’t get too deeply into human politics, we do explore a lot of dragon politics, which makes sense because everything in this world is subservient to their whims.

Very much like A Chorus of Dragons, The Sky on Fire is wonderful in its casual, no-big-deal, assumed diversity in gender, sexuality, and relationships. Characters wear garden rings and social that communicate their identity, preferences, and personality, and I loved the way it’s done as much as I loved the language around it: a ring to denote “male, both by birth and inclination“; another to show “a committed, monogamous relationship“; and yet another to communicate a preference for “both feminine and masculine partners.” Anahrod, our protagonist and POV, is a bisexual woman who begins exploring a polyamorous triad, and all people can say about it is that it’s about time they admit their feelings for one another. There are also some casual kink references sprinkled throughout that, again, aren’t a big deal for the characters, but refreshing to see as a reader.

If I were to have one complaint about the book it would be that it flounders for direction in the middle, with the pacing suffering as goals, alliances, and agendas are established. However, at this point, I know Lyons never does anything accidentally, never just fills pages for the sake of exposition, so I trusted that it would all come together and that we’d see how and why it all fits together – and we do. Along those lines, there were some questions I had early on about aspects of the story that seemed too simple, too convenient, but they’re all satisfyingly explained by the end as well.

The Sky on Fire doesn’t feel as grand or as poetic as A Chorus of Dragons, but that may actually play in its favor for new readers. It’s a narrative style that fits the urgency of the tale, and had I not read anything else by Lyons, I’d never notice anything missing.

3.5
I love the concept of this book, and I found certain parts of it to be amazing. But it took me FOREVER to get through until I had the audio to help me move along faster.
The audio is excellent, though! I think the narration was done really well and really helped me know how to pronounce some of those dragon names.

Honestly, I think this book was too long and drawn out, and yet there was also TOO MUCH happening that my brain felt like exploding sometimes.
The ending was wild and I loved how it all came together, but getting to the end was a lot.

I do love the characters and their relationships, we see such a wide variety of dynamics here. But it was all just overwhelming sometimes as a whole. The romance(s)??? Immaculate. It was definitely a side point, but the relationships were so good.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for this ARC Copy!

Dragons and a heist, what more could you want in a book! I did not know anything about this book going into it but I really enjoyed learning everything as we go. The dragons were really well done and had the quintessential dragon personality that is to be expected from such strong and powerful creatures. There was a large cast that were part of the heists and I think for the most part they were all done well with distinctive motivations and personalities. All in all this was a fast paced read with dragons, what more could you want in a heist book!

I literally have no idea what I just read. This felt like 10 different plots all in one that the author just couldn't decide on, squished them all together and hoped that it would work. It didn't, for me.

Which is sad, because each piece is something I'd love on its own! It just felt entirely directionless and almost written like a bad debut.

The garden rings intrigued me the entire time for example but the author never really explained or delved deeper into them. There are dragons and riders which I always love. There's a heist, some random love connections that felt forced. There's a rider school, hidden cities, magic and more. I think this would have made a good series. But it was just too much for one book.

Thank you netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

The Sky on Fire is a stand alone epic fantasy/heist novel by author Jenn Lyons, who burst onto the SF/F novel scene with her 5 book epic fantasy series "A Chorus of Dragons". After a rough start in book 1 (The Ruin of Kings), A Chorus of Dragons soon became one of my favorite fantasy series of the last few years. In that series, Lyons built a phenomenal set of characters and relationships/romances (both in the present and through reincarnations) and used an incredibly pageturning prose (so so so many end of chapter cliffhangers) to keep readers on the edge of their seats and it worked so well. It was a very queer epic fantasy series that dealt with some serious themes and often was unforgiving of what might happen to its characters, and Lyons wrapped it up in an incredibly satisfying fashion. So even if I hadn't heard two authors/reviewers praise this new book of hers, I'd have been extremely eager to give it a try.

And well, The Sky on Fire is indeed as excellent as I'd hoped. The story is kind of a Heist novel, featuring protagonist Anahrod being recruited - not as willingly as she'd like - to help an oddball team rob Neveranimas, the present queen of the dragons who rule the human cities in the sky. But Anahrod was thrown off the sky cities - literally - on behalf of Neveranimas and, after barely surviving, has spent the last few years rebuilding her life in the deadly jungles of the deep with her animal controlling powers and has little interest in returning to the sky cities that once tried to kill her. Add in a pair of romantic interests - a handsome and way too smart but ruthless warlord of The Deep and a mysterious dragon-rider woman who is planning the heist for revenge - and well, you have an excellent mix of characters and developments to underpin this novel. It all works really well, even if early on some of the end of chapter cliffhangers can get maybe a little repetitive, and I would gladly welcome a second book in this world if Lyons ever wants to return to it.


Plot Summary:
Nearly 20 years ago, Anahrod Amnead was thrown off of the dragon-ruled sky cities of the Seven Crests on order of their ruler, the regent Neveranimas. She was supposed to die, as befits a traitor who plotted against the First Dragon and who stole from Neveranimas' vault. But Anahrod used her powers - to talk with and magically interact with animals - to save herself....barely and has spent the years since wandering on her own through the harsh jungles of the Deep. It's a dangerous life, with no one to count upon but the trained titan drake she keeps and can control by her side, but it beats dealing with dragons.

But that all changes when an odd group of adventurers - one a sorcerer from the deep, others from the Sky above including a damned dragonrider (Ris, who is way too attractive and alluring) as their leader - rescues Anahrod from the forces of a deadly warlord. The four adventurers - and the 15 year old boy with them - know somehow who she is and want Anahrod to come back to the skies with them, whether she wants it or not. For even if Anahrod didn't really break into Neveranimas' vault back in the day, Ris and her team have a plan to use her to ACTUALLY do so this time.

But it's a plan with a LOT of moving parts, one in which any wrong move could get them all killed - especially Anahrod, whom the whole populace now thinks of as the ultimate evil. But as Anahrod begins to actually care for the team....and other associates from her past re-emerge....she finds herself deeply invested in making the plan work....and making sure it doesn't end with her actual execution this time at Neveranimas' craws....

The Sky on Fire features a narrative that very much is in the same style as A Chorus of Dragons, despite it featuring a very different world. Yes the story is almost entirely from Anahrod's point of view (as opposed to A Chorus of Dragons, which splits its narrative POVs), but the story is told in very easy prose and features lots and lots of end of chapter cliffhangers to tease readers and to get them to read more. It's a style that may not work for all readers and can sometimes get a little repetitive - Lyons has a habit of having her characters black out at the end of a chapter from a kidnapping or similar attack and she even lampshades this by having characters note how maany times Anahrod gets kidnapped in the first third of the book. But it never feels like Lyons' cliffhangers are too contrived and they all payoff, so it all flowed really nicely and kept me constantly wanting to turn the page and was never annoying.

The book also features an excellent and really enjoyable set of characters. Anahrod is a really fun character, a bit sarcastic and witty like Lyons' past protagonists, incredibly flirty at times (with both men and women - this book is very queernorm and no one really cares about it) and her narrative makes her very easy to like. She's good at heart, but also deeply damaged from her betrayal as a teen by the family who threw her to her "death" and thus wants mainly to survive and to avoid having people around her to trust....and yet she can't help but trust and care for those she is forced to be around. She's willing to take some big risks to save her own skin and to save those she cares about, but also knows how important it is to have limits and to not fall into an "ends justify the means" outlook - as she's seen first with her parents throwing her to her doom and later with her lover taking revenge and becoming a deadly Deep warlord. And well, her libido and attraction to certain people (Ris, Sicaryon) can lead her to bad thoughts....but she still keeps largely her head and doesn't let those attractions crowd out reason too much.

And outside Anahrod you have a really fun side cast. Ris and Sicaryon are fun kind of mirrors of one another - the dragon-rider and Deep warlord who both are too willing to go as far as it takes to enact their revenges - and their dynamic around Anahrod and the scheme is really fun to read. The other members of the crew, like a magic-wielding man who only speaks in quotes from plays and has to have a bodyguard translate for him, are enjoyable even if they feel like smaller players. 15 year old boy Gwydinion almost steals the show with his charm, earnestness, and intelligence. Seriously he's the best and Lyons writes him and all of the other characters so so well with some seriously fun dialogue and character developments.

The heist parts of the book - this is a heist novel after all - are pretty solid, nothing super crazy or inventive, but it all works well enough. And the setting is super fascinating, with the dragon-ruled sky cities featuring humans with decent luxuries in living (at least except for the poorest humans) but forces the humans to live in fear of dragons who rule with a dictatorial fist...and who might go mad at any moment. And then the Deep features none of those luxuries...except its people are in theory free from dragon oppression (assuming they can survive the warlords and deadly as hell animal life forms). There's a fascinating queer and sexual-desire friendly type of signaling practiced in the sky cities, to go along with interesting dynamics between dragon-riders and their dragons (most of whom simply treat their humans a slaves, but Ris shows it could be different?). And there's some solid themes here of the power of stories and religions to manipulate things - who's evil, who's righteous, who was created to serve whom, etc.

It's all really great is what I'm saying and I'd love to read a second book set in this world, but the finale we get here is entirely satisfying in and of itself. Recommended.

Can I be honest in this review?

Jenn Lyons could write anything and I'd probably love it. She became a favorite and auto-buy author after I completed her chorus of dragons series and I was ecstatic to be late on the bandwagon because that means I did not have long to read this.

If you enjoy a heist, will they/won't they story with dragons that truly feel like main characters this standalone was made for you. I was hooked after the first chapter and its a testament to Jenn's unbelievable pen game that she was able to tell such a well rounded story in a standalone. There's some fantasy writers that cant do that with multi book series :-(.

If I could add anything to this story is higher stakes, I want to feel that anxiety of not knowing what will happen and being afraid for the characters safety.

The Sky on Fire is an action-packed heist fantasy with an endearing cast of characters.

I have to admit that I am not generally a big dragon fan. I don't find them that compelling and I don't go out of my way to read books with dragons. Despite that, I really enjoyed the world-building around the dragons in this book. The Sky on Fire delivers powerful, terrifying, and arrogant dragons with a range of magical abilities. The dragon rider dynamic was really interesting and I loved that the dragons had distinct personalities.

As this is a heist book of course there is a large cast of characters pulled together to complete this impossible heist. I liked all of the characters. I thought they played off of each other well and the banter was incredibly engaging. I was expecting the romance but I love that the book also explored some found family and friendship dynamics as well.

I do feel like Anahrod as a main character was a little bit flat. You would expect someone with her history to have a stronger or more distinct personality. But she almost lacked motivation and was mostly a tool for other people’s plans throughout the book. I enjoyed the group of characters enough that it didn’t really bother me until I was reflecting back on the book.

This was a very fast and engaging read for me, however, the pacing in the second half did feel a bit off. I thought it was rushing to the heist really quickly but then they ran into a bunch of delays that slowed the story down awkwardly. That delay made the ending feel crammed, which was unfortunate given the scale of the final confrontation.

Part of me feels like the story would have been more successful as a duology. Not because there is too much happening in this book, but because the story and the character dynamics would have been more successful if more had happened to achieve these goals. With all of the series that I’m in the middle of, however, I do appreciate that this was a standalone.

The thing that bothered me the most about the story was surprisingly the romance. I liked the relationship and I thought Anahrod had great chemistry with both her partners. But the romance was not well integrated into the story itself which makes it feel a bit clunky and unsatisfying. I was almost taken aback by how quickly the romance was introduced in this story. I was expecting it to be a later development given that the romance is only a subplot. But it started right away with instant attraction and flirting. I was on board because I like the dynamic but then the romance is completely dropped for the next couple hundred pages. It felt like the author was just rushing to get the romance to a certain point so it could be sidelined or taken for granted for the rest of the story. The other partner was a previous relationship revisited with no real time spent on the romance in this book. We get all these love confessions that feel so unbelievable because there is no time spent building the relationships or chemistry between the characters. The resolution to the romantic tension was incredibly unsatisfying and almost off-putting. There were also some random spicy scenes that were just wedged into the story awkwardly. I like that the romance did not distract from the heist plot or the other character dynamics. But as a subplot, I wish it had been more woven throughout the story.

Though I think there are some things that could have been executed better, overall, The Sky on Fire is a very enjoyable reading experience.

I loved the premise of this book but I just didn't click with it for some reason. The writing was well done but I could not get into the characters.

I really enjoyed this book. Heist stories are always a hit for me and this one had dragons to?! Yes please.

I enjoyed many aspect of this book. The world building was great, Jenn Lyons can certainly tell a fun story, while also making the world believable and immersive. The characters were fun and I loved the relationships between them. The relationship aspect was a little rushed, and felt a bit Insta-lovey but I loved all the character as individuals so it still sort of worked for me.

The dragons are written wonderfully and the way the magic is woven in felt like a different take on what is quite a common fantasy trope.

The only part I didn’t love was when certain things happen at the end that felt a bit convenient plot wise.

A really fun read and I certainly need to get to the authors other works soon.

Anahrod is supposed to be dead, but years ago she survived a fall–execution if we are being specific– that should have killed her but didn’t, depositing her in The Deep where she has attempted to make a life for herself. This is made easier thanks to her special talent, the ability to communicate with animals and even take over their bodies. While this can come in handy, it is a talent that others fear. Now she has two separate groups attempting to kidnap her for their own personal, and selfish, reasons. To make matters worse, Neveranimas, the leader of the dragons, is eager to find her as well.

The Sky on Fire is a novel that has some great things about it, and some not so great things. I really enjoyed a majority of the narrative–it is action-packed and Lyons’ world building is amazing–as well as the characters, who were well developed and relatable to a degree, but there seemed to be a lot of fluff throughout. There were events and characters that added little to nothing to the story, which made some parts a little boring and slow. I also liked how there were characters who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but at times I did not like the ways in which they were described or referred to, such as using the term “late-blooming” to refer to individuals who identify as trans. I believe that this is something that people might find offensive, leading them to abandon the book; I know I struggled with the terminology used. There is a great story in The Sky on Fire, it just wasn’t executed fully, nor was it done in the sensitive ways that it should have been.

As anyone who knows me can attest, I love dragons. Like. Please give me all the dragons. And then include:
-mental bond with humans
-actual personalities and not just 'rawr dragon bad' or 'uwu dragon good'
-queer, trans, and poly rep
-a neat magic system

and you get 4 stars from me. Chef's kiss. This was a rollicking good time. I would die for these disaster bi/pan/queers and GUYS THERE ARE QUEER DRAGONS TOO okay thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Have you ever wanted to read a fantasy book about dragon riders where the dragons are absolute assholes? Then you should read The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons. At a glance this has:

- adult high fantasy
- DnD inspired
- cast of characters
- queer representation
- dragons & dragonriders
- a heist

This was quite the fun adventure-type story and it follows a ragtag group of people trying to steal from a dragon hoard. The cast of characters worked really well, I loved the banter between them and the romance was very believable and quite sexy!

The Sky on Fire read almost definitely like a DnD campaign or at least some sort of TTRPG setting. I found the worldbuilding to be very imaginative and rich. We had a world where dragons are the superior species to humans and are almost lording over humanity which, honestly, makes way more sense than humans keeping gigantic dragons as pets. While they are usually regaled to being animal companions, the dragons in this book definitely had agency and their own motives.

Overall, The Sky on Fire was a fast-paced, action-packed adventure that I recommend to fans of Nicholas Eames' Kings of the Wyld. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARc in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I thought this was fun. It wasn’t anything special, but I found myself enjoying it. I do think the author tried to bite off more than they should have for a stand-alone, but it is what it is. What really bothered me was the repetition of certain phrases and actions.

However, it was still interesting to see a take where humans haven’t gained control over the dragons and dragons are actually kind of scary

An overall fun fantasy heist read with great world building and an interesting take on the ever popular dragon. Pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, Didn't fully connect with any of the characters, but the story was fun and interesting.

Unfortunately this felt very pieced together and rushed in many areas. The characters didn’t really gain much development, and the romance didn’t make me feel anything. Really disappointed :(

This was a fun read. I really enjoy it when a book has good world building and plenty of action and you get dropped right in the middle of it haha! I especially loved the take this author took on the dragon/dragon rider dynamics. That being said, I do feel like there was A LOT going on for one book and that it caused a bit of what I call reader whiplash 😂. This many elements would've been more feasible in a duology or trilogy but for one standalone book, it left me reeling a little. I also found that I didn't connect with the characters as deeply as I would've liked.

Either way, I think it was a fun read with plenty of action, a heist, dragons and queer rep!

I went between ebook and audiobook for this one and both were enjoyable! The narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life.

A big thanks to Tor books, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC/ALC. All opinions are my own.

Jenn Lyons' The Sky on Fire delivers an exhilarating blend of fantasy and adventure, though it sometimes feels like it’s moving at breakneck speed. The story leaps from one event to the next, which, while keeping the reader on their toes, can occasionally lead to a sense of disorientation due to the rapid pacing and frequent shifts in focus. Despite this, the novel is undeniably engaging. Lyons' world-building and character development shine through, making the characters endearing and relatable. As the story progresses, you find yourself invested in their journeys and growth. The climax of the book might feel a bit rushed, leaving some threads hanging or resolved too quickly, but it’s clear that Lyons is setting up for future installments. This rush does not detract significantly from the overall enjoyment of the book. The fast pace and energetic plot, combined with characters you grow to care about, make The Sky on Fire a compelling read.

It took me quite some time to get into this book and forever to finish it.

I love heist stories and dragons hence I figured this would be the perfect book for me...it wasn't though.

I'm someone who needs to connect with the characters on some level and I just couldn't.
Anahrod I honestly disliked from the start and the romance/relationships were also not for me (the rings 🙈).

The writing style itself, the dragons and also the world building were great, the rest just fell flat for me.

For fans of: heists, found family, dragons, throuples, lush histories, and inclusive worlds. While not as complex as A Chorus of Dragons (it is a standalone, after all), Lyons manages a fair bit of world-building that has me eager to dive into its histories.

Amazon Review submitted
Blog review goes live August 30th

TL;DR: This one felt like it couldn’t stop twisting but it worked SO well!
Source: Netgalley! Thank you to the publisher!

Plot: This one went from kidnapping, to heist, to save the family, to so much and I was just holding on enjoying the ride.
Characters: Everyone felt distinct and interesting and I was genuinely upset at several points when someone would die or be at risk. A fun and diverse cast.
Setting: This world felt very well drawn, it was a little standard with floating islands and low lands but I still really enjoyed it.
Magic: This was very fascinating and I’d love to read more books in this world just to learn more about the magic!

Thoughts:

I’m probably the last person to finally read Jenn Lyons but this won’t be my last of her books. I generally find something lacking in standalone fantasies that are longer than a novella. They reach just enough but not quite to a five star. This one breaks the mold for me though, I loved this.

We follow Anahrod as she’s living her best, exiled life in the jungle when things go sideways. She’s kidnapped and returned to the Skylands from where she came. There she is the ultimate criminal, the boogeyman and she thinks she is being returned to the Draconic ruler for her final death. Things aren’t quite that cut and dried though and we go on a wild and twisty journey that changes her world.

Everything from the characters to the setting worked so well for me. I felt a bit of a slump in pacing midway through but it didn’t detract enough from my reading to matter ultimately. I loved this. The dragons were unique, the world fascinating, and I was very invested in all the characters. I really recommend this for any Dragon Lovers out there.

5 out of 5 Dragonstones