This was a captivating read, and is definitely something fans of “The Priory of the Orange Tree” and “The Poppy War” trilogy would love. It’s also a concise story with a satisfying ending in under 200 pages. I will say however, that the paragraphs are LONG AS HELL. The first page of the first chapter is literally one long paragraph. Once you get past that, however, it’s good. Also loved Yeva as a character, she was super relatable in my opinion. I also think if it was a bit longer so we could get more about Yeva’s rise to famed masked Guildknight and then everything afterwards, I would like it a lot more.

This story was beautifully told - in the style of a fairy tale or folklore. From the first pages, you understand as the reader that by the end of the story you will have learned an important lesson - so you must pay attention. The hero has a lot to learn.

The prose, the sapphic love story, and the threads woven by the author to tell us this story were well conceived and well executed.

This was my first Neon Yang book and can’t wait to read more of their work.

Great world building and amazing characters I had so much fun reading this book and following the story. I did find at some parts the pacing was off but it didn’t effect my enjoyment of the book

A lushly descriptive novella filled with vivid imagery, this Sapphic love story follows a fearsome renowned dragon slaying knight into a rich and secluded neighbouring kingdom that may be harbouring—or worse yet—worshipping—the very dragon this knight seeks.

Despite being a novella, I felt Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame to be a much longer—it felt like an epic in miniature form. A lack of characterization and emotionality made it near impossible to even attempt to connect to the figures meant to represent the protagonist and her lover. Rather than rendering them caricatures, this lack served to give them an allegorical quality elevating the story to a legend or myth in itself, which reinforced the themes of duty, heroism and sacrifice.

I can't quite decide on this one. I find the beautifully chronicled story lingers in a visually arresting manner, within my vivid imagination, but the characters— unrealized—are largely absent from this tableau, and the result is desolate and haunting.

Expected Release Date: May 6, 2025

Many Thanks to NetGalley, Neon Yang, and Tor Publishing Group for access to an eARC. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:
Few know the true identity of the masked guildknight of Mithrandon. She barely remembers herself.

The masked guildknight—Yeva—was thirteen when she killed her first dragon. With her gift revealed, she was shipped away to the imperial capital to train in the rare art of dragon-slaying. Now a legendary dragon hunter, she has never truly felt at home—nor removed her armor in public—since that fateful day all those years ago.

Yeva must now go to Quanbao, a fiercely independent and reclusive kingdom. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper, but instead loved and worshipped. It is rumored that there, they harbor a dragon behind their borders. While Yeva searches for the dreaded beast, she is welcomed into the palace by Quanbao’s monarch, Lady Sookhee. Though wary of each other, Yeva is shocked to find herself slowly opening up to the beautiful, mysterious queen. As they grow closer, Yeva longs to let Lady Sookhee see the person behind the armor, but she knows she must fulfill her purpose and slay the dragon. Ultimately, she must decide who—or what—she is willing to betray: her own heart, or the sacred duty that she has called home for so long.

Genre:
Epic Fantasy

Fav Quote:
“There was no reason to think I wouldn’t see you as an abomination.” “Indeed.” “No more of an abomination than I.”

What I Loved:
* Sapphic romance, dragons, a lady knight - what more could you want??
* Even though this is a novella, the beautiful details and setting combined with the magic system and pacing make this story feel fully-fledged with a satisfying ending.
* I adore reading about moral conflict and this book delivers! Torn between duty, patriotism, familial love and romantic love makes for some difficult choices and beautiful character growth.
* Ultimately, I’m a sucker for epic/high fantasy with mythical creatures and detailed story-telling. If that sounds like something you reach for, this is definitely for you!

For fans of:
* Samantha Shannon
* Sue Lynn Tan
* L.R. Lam

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you so much to the Netgalley team at Tor/Forge for providing me with this ARC 🫶🏻

Sapphic, fantasy Mandalorian who slays dragons is the best way to describe this little novella.

As with most fantasy novellas, I always find that I wish it were just a whole novel because it doesn't feel fleshed out, and I just want to sink into the details of the politics and lore of this world. However, I will say the storyteller-esque prose made it a little easier to digest this kind of story. I don't think I've every read anything with this kind of prose before and it was a bit jarring at first but once I settled in and imagined an old storyteller sitting by a fireplace, narrating to their rapt audience the events of Yeva's story, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.

____________________

Thanks Netgally for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley, Tordotcom, and Tor Publishing Group for this advanced copy! You can pick up Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame on May 6, 2025.

I have to give Neon Yang so much credit for packing so much incredible lore, world-building, and character development into so few pages. The pacing of this was incredible, and I found myself deeply entrenched in Yeva's story as the masked guildknight of Mithrandon. The comparisons to The Mandalorian are spot-on, but I love how this story tackles identity, gender, disability, and sapphic love.

After years of training to be the best guildknight and dragon slayer, loyal to the Sun Emperor, Yeva's finally given a task that she feels ill equipped to handle -- infiltrating a rival nation's court (and one close to her old home). There, she meets Lady Sookhee, who helps her literally and figuratively unmask herself and acknowledge that she's more than the Emperor's tool.

While I did see the ending coming, I really appreciated how Yang handled it and what it meant for our lovely main couple. I'd love to revisit this world someday, and you can bet I'll be rereading this closer to its release in March!

4 stars! I liked this novella a lot; it was emotionally hard to follow along with Yeva’s story and growing up the only brown girl in a colonial, patriarchal institute of the guildknights. But then she’s able to start reimagining herself and her future outside of their grips and I was like yes! I was so nervous reading this that it was going to have a sad ending, especially when Yeva continues to follow orders from her superior officer despite it going directly against her heart. Thankfully it did have a happy ending, and I am very pleased with myself for picking up the clues and predicting the big reveal. Thanks to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for the e-arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Neon Yang's Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame follows the story of a dragon hunting hero named Yeva who has never shown her face to the public. When whispers of dragons send her to Quanbao, she is faced with a fiery battle between love and duty.

Being a novella, this book is short and keeps it's focus on the most important elements of the story. Reading this will give you all the action that comes with slaying dragons and a beautiful journey of the characters finding their identities. Despite the short length of the book, it still has a world you can lose yourself in and characters that face challenges and grow. Although, I felt the middle of the book had room to do a little bit more. With the pages we had, some of them could have been utilized for a little more plot and character development.

Neon Yang's writing in this novella transports you into this stories world. Reading this made me feel like I was sitting in the world with the characters reading one of the legends they grew up with. It's the type of book that will make you forget you're reading as soon as you start it.

I fell in love with this books concept and soon as I read the synopsis. The execution was almost exactly what I was hoping for. With the main character being a dragon hunter, dragons obviously play a major role in the story. The way they're incorporated into every part of the world gives it all so much depth. There was just enough world-building to draw readers in without any negative effects from the shorter page count a novella allows. The character development is what stood out the most to me. We watch the characters grow and learn and change over such a short time, but it never felt rushed or unfinished. And of course, the sapphic love story was incredible. The way Yeva and Sookhee's love played into the plot and the development of the characters was wonderful. There were secrets and challenges they had to face, but they came out of them stronger than ever.

Every good story needs a strong ending. The last few chapters of this novella are everything I could have wished for. The action and the plot twist and that ending were as satisfying as any ending ever could be. My heart was pounding for the final chapters of this novella. This story starts and ends strong.

Even though Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is under two-hundred pages, it will leave you with all the passion and feelings a full-length novel would. If you love dragons, flaming-hot action, and queer love stories, this is the novella for you.

Review on Goodreads (sophreadingbooks https://www.goodreads.com/sophreadingbooks) as of 1/19/2025
Review on Instagram (sophiesreading https://www.instagram.com/sophiesreading/) expected 2/25/2025

Dragons and lady knights and a sapphic romance? Sign me up.

In 180 pages, Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame accomplishes what some full length novels simply cannot. Neon Yang is a master storyteller whose prose is as poignant and beautiful as the world that they've created within the pages of this book is. The characters are easily the most compelling parts of this story though.

Yeva and Sookhee are fascinating on their own and incredible together. Though this book felt both longer (in scope) and shorter (because of my enjoyment) than it actually is, their individual and collective growth over the course of Brighter than Scale was incredibly well-paced. I also love, love, love lady knights (see my obsession with The Fireborne Blade and The Starving Saints) and Yeva is no exception to that. Her overall character arc was immensely rewarding and there was nothing that I loved more than seeing her reconnect with the parts of herself that were sanded away to be the perfect weapon that her empire demanded her to be.

I loved the dragon mythos as well and could easily see this world and the lore behind it setting the foundations for a longer story in the future (though I might just be hopelessly optimistic for more stories of this caliber).

That said, I do wish that some of the scenes had been fleshed out a little more. In particular, the moment that Yeva's face was revealed to Sookhee didn't feel as compelling emotionally as it had the potential to be. Her mask was a massive part of her character and I felt like the struggle she had with being revealed to other people was diminished in an otherwise charged scene. Then again, this might just be me projecting my belief that this could have been a fantastic full-length novel.

All in all, this is a book to add to your radar! Super excited to get my hands on a physical copy when it releases.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own!

While I loved the premise of this book: Sapphic, dragons, human connection, and a rich world, I honestly did not enjoy the writing. At times it felt choppy and short, and other times I felt it dragging on. While I feel there’s a lot of potential here, and some readers may enjoy the writing style, it was not for me.

What a well told novella.

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is an excellent read for those tired of recent trends of dragon use in fiction.

It's written in that way that feels authentically folklorish and the emotion imbued into each chapter is clear.

Honestly that is my favorite aspect of how this fantasy is written. Yeva is a character presented with an objective clarity to who she is and how she acts.

It's beautiful and cathartic. A story told as graceful and mighty as the dragons in It's pages.

There is nothing in this text that doesn't feel like an integral being to the beating heart of its story. To remove any piece would be to have it bleed out and that is why this is my first five star read of the year.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for letting me read this beautiful little book early!

A story of belonging, acceptance, and love set in a world with competing dragon lore, this book checked all of my boxes. Our main character, Yeva, is a legendary masked guildknight for the Empire and is committed to her duty that was thrust upon her at a young age. She no longer thinks about her home close to the border with the reclusive nation of Quanbao. But following rumors of a dragon escaping the guildknights by crossing the border in Quanbao, Yeva is sent as a envoy to the king, Lady Sookhee. Yeva is no diplomat and constantly finds herself wrong-footed in this country where she feels like she could belong (her mother being from there) but her customs from a lifetime in the Empire clash. Just when she feels she might not truly belong anywhere, Lady Sookhee takes an interest in her and through their emerging friendship, become even closer and Yeva begins to enjoy her new life and almost-but-not-quite forget her mission. Lady Sookhee has a recurring sickness that requires her to go into isolation once a month and Yeva uses this time alone to explore the caves under the palace. While she never finds anything of note, she remains suspicious. As a reader, you also quickly being to realize that all is not what it seems with Sookhee's illness. A dragon is being harbored somewhere in the palace and Yeva is determined to find and kill it, but little does she know that she was never told the whole truth. While I ultimately guessed the twist much earlier, I still enjoyed the story as it raced to its conclusion. Yeva and Sookhee's friendship and love was fast, but sweet and I knew from the get-go that I would root for Yeva to stay in Quanbao for good.

Fast-paced, intimate story-telling, and vividly portrayed settings and relationships, this is the perfect book for fans of Studio Ghibli and Samantha Shannon's Roots of Chaos series.

First off, the cover art is beautiful. The artist did a really good job with it - it was definitely one of the reasons I wanted to read this book.

I was already mourning how short this book was when I finished the first page. I loved the world-building of this eternal conflict between men and dragons, and an order of dragon slayers that became integral to society to surmount the threat. I also really enjoyed the main character's struggles with her identity. She forged a place for herself in the order, but felt like she needed to hide because of the way others perceived her due to her differences. She struggles to find meaning and balance to her life when she is left without constant duties to perform. The majority of the plot of the book focuses on how livelihoods can affect the core of our being, changing us forever, and how sometimes we get lost in upholding our sense of purpose. I also really liked reading this story because most "monster slaying" focused stories obviously have men as their main characters, so it was really enjoyable having a woman be a legendary warrior.

Really loved this book and finished it within a few hours of being accepted to read it - couldn't put it down. Thank you to Netgalley and to Tor for letting me read this beautiful story!

I feel so conflicted about this book. because on one hand I love sapphic books immensely. I also love books with dragons. The world and plot were super fun to read too. But the writing at times felt like I was being told things and spoon fed information. It felt a tad distant at the end. I wish I knew how to put it better into words. But overall, I liked it. I would def recommend it. I might give the final copy another go to see if anything changes

I loved this new novella from Neon Yang! I'm a huge fan of their Tensorate series - they're a great writer of short stories which can be hard to do with limited pages. I was extremely pleased with how this book turned out - it has some traditional fantasy tropes like the farmboy (girl, in this case) manifests powers and is whisked away to the kingdom to train. Still, it quickly diverges into themes of colonialism, power, self-confidence, and that good good sapphic love. And of course, DRAGONS! I definitely recommend checking this one out when it's published in May 2025.

🌈Queer rep: FF main couple, lesbian love interest. Secondary lesbian characters.

( smacks the novella ) this bad boy can hold so many treasures… alright so if you’re looking for lesbians, this is THEE novella. it’s a novella & novellas are always going to be tight & perhaps leave you wanting a little more, but there was also a lot of good stuff here both in worldbuilding as well as in delicious characterization (yall know i love when CHARACTERS are CHARACTER-ING). our mc yeva was a delight. more lesbians, pls, neon yang, i will read all of them

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an ARC of this novella!

I’ve never encountered this authors work before, and if you are in the same boat I highly suggest picking this up first before moving on to Yang’s full novels. This is a fast paced. dramatic and interesting sapphic fantasy, with dragonslayers and knights. Yang spun the classic dragonslayer fantasy into something fresh and new, and I really enjoyed it. I just wish this was longer; I feel as if the characters could be even more fleshed out with more pages to work with. I thought Yeva as a character was very interesting, and we could clearly see her motivations in her magic and abilities, but I just wanted a little bit more from our MC. The novella was full of women, sapphic romance, political intrigue, and magic — this was something new that is needed in the fantasy genre to freshen things up. It was believable, and magical; I will be sure to pick up Yang’s longer works in the future.

(3.5 rounded)

this will be a novella that a lot of people will love. it is about understanding, connection and creating your identity. there’s a lot more that this is about as well like loyalty, etc. but there’s something that pricks at the heart while reading this. i won’t lie, it was a short novella and i still skim read some parts that were a bit boring but that’s not all of it. i found joy in the relationship of Yeva and Sookhee but also wanted to dive deeper into her relationship with Emory. Because it’s a novella and you only get a snippet in time, i think the plot and the arc worked well for this novel.

Firstly, the people have spoken!! This is a stunning cover!! Secondly, it’s also a gorgeous novel!! There’s so much to like in this book! like there's lesbians and dragons… It literally contains a very interesting sword that activates with magical blood? like that’s so cool! I actually liked it so much I started to be sad that it was only a novella, which just means I need a spinoff book in this world, and I need to read more from Neon Yang. I also really liked how beautifully this was written. Ahh many compliments to this book! special thanks to Tor and netgalley for letting me read this as an e-arc! I really liked this fantasy lesbian novella<3 please support this book on its publication in May!!