The Ellyrian Code: The Treaty of Edriendor is an Epic Fantasy set amongst dragons and primarily set within a school.

The book revolves around four students and their attendance to an elite university, with the POV switching between each to weave the story together.

The chapters are much longer than I'm used to but given the backgrounds of the characters, I feel the longer chapters work as it allows you to really get into the world and really learn and understand the character whose POV you are reading.

Diar, Jenne, Christina and Jardon all come from different lives and yet B.F. Peterson blends them perfectly, which each character having a worthwhile, important role! Of the four, I actually really liked Christina ❤️.

There is also epic worldbuilding from the landscape to the politics and magical system, which all feeds back into this world! We also have dragons, though they aren't featured heavily in this first book... yet, I hope 😉!

As this was year one at the University, I can't wait to see what happens in the sequal... hopefully, we get to see more dragons and learn more about how they fit into society.

Fantasy Acadamia at it greatest. I liked this better than Fourth Wing I think. I loved the slow burn, The world building was rich and beautiful. I liked the pacing for the most part and the characters were likable.

If Fourth Wing and The Atlas Six had a darker, more ambitious cousin, then this would be it.

At Eshtem University, the path to power lies through fire, magic, and dragons—and four students will risk everything to earn their place among the elite dragon-riding Edrei. But ambition comes at a cost, and beneath the academy’s glittering legacy, corruption is quietly taking root. A high prince escaping his father’s shadow. A commoner haunted by a forgotten past. A noble caught between faith and love. A royal with everything to prove. Each of them are fighting to survive… and not all will make it to the end.

My Thoughts:

While the story begins slowly, once the characters arrive at the university, it really takes off. The multi-POV narrative is layered and surprisingly effective. This is a richly built world full of politics, secrets, and morally grey choices. I think it’s perfect for readers who love complex fantasy with a sharp edge. Just be warned: the world-building is dense, and the chapters are long, but it’s all worth it.
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This was a breath of fresh air, I am in fact getting a special edition of this as I enjoyed it that much. Solid world building and I didn’t feel lost in any of it. Am recommending currently to all my family and friends.

The Ellyrian Code has been marketed as being similar to Fourth Wing, but I think the comparison is more appropriate to Game of Thrones, if we spend the time at maester school. This book has a lot of characters (I definitely struggled to keep them all straight without a guide), but our main characters in Eshtem University are two royals: Princess Christina and Prince Jadon, and commoners Jenne and Diar, all of whom attempt to navigate their studies and a university which is supposed to be a place with equality, but contains its own hierarchy and cliques.

The book does a great job in balancing the mystery element of the epic fantasy and the romance subplots. As I said, I wasn't sure who all the side characters was, but I appreciated that the plot kept moving as a pace that wasn't slow and I could follow well. The characters are all well drawn, and I suspect most readers will have favourites (mine was definitely idealist Christina), even if they are still circling around each other rather than working as team.

By the end of the book, I was sad to see it end on a cliffhanger, and I will be excited to read the next entry into the series. Thanks to Angry Robot for the early copy - fans of George R.R. Martin or Brandon Sanderson will enjoy this one.

DNF - I found the world building to be a bit too convoluted and I didn’t want to come back to it after taking a break. I do think I wasn’t in the right headspace for this and I could see myself revisiting it maybe down the road!

Dragon Riders, Academia, Corruption, Magic!
I mean....you had me at hello! There is really nothing not to like about this book.
I'm a big fan of all of the tropes found within the pages, not that anything is new or different but it's all put together with well thought out world building, characters and prose.
This doesn't have the pace of Fourth Wing, for which I'm grateful and really isn't anything like it. This is slower and builds over time. I can see this setting up book #2 very well and I'm hopeful that everything just gets better and better as we go along.
We have lots of political machinations going on and our characters have to navigate that while trying to learn and grow as students. I wish we got to know more about the dragons themselves but I know it will be more of a focus going forward. I cant wait to see where this story takes us!
My rating is 4.5
Thank you to NetGalley and AngryRobot for this advance reading copy. My review is based on my own thoughts.

Maybe I dived into this book with extremely high expectations but I was hoping for an epic fantasy with dragons, high stakes and an intricate magic system. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on those fronts for me.

There was surprisingly little focus on the dragons themselves. The pacing was slow, which in itself is not a bad thing whatsoever (at least for me), but while I usually enjoy a character-driven story, I struggled a lot on this point because I genuinely didn't connect with any of the characters. They felt a little flat and a little underdeveloped. Because of that I found it hard to care about what was happening to them or their world.

The worldbuilding had pontential but it was a bit too confusing at times. Obviously this is a fantasy book and that's usually how it goes when you first start reading them, but The Ellyrian Code felt confusing from start to finish. I do wish the magic system had been explained in more detail as it felt more like an afterthought rather than an important part of the story.

The stakes felt low for what was supposed to be an intense and dangerous setting and this only made it hard for me to feel any tension or urgency from the characters.

Overall, although my review criticizes a lot of caracteristics, The Ellyrian Code is not a bad book per say. I think this book might work better for readers who prefer a more slower-paced fantasy focused almost entirely on character emotions and internal conflicts. Unfortunately, that is not me and so I feel like this book wasn't targeted towards readers like me.

The Ellyrian Code follows 4 students: Jadon, a rebellious prince seeking an opportunity to find himself, Christina, a princess from a rival house who views the Edrei as the highest honor, Jenne, a commoner with amnesia and a hatred from the nobility, and Diar, a member of an outcast religious group, in their quest to become Edrei, an elite-group of magical, dragon-riders who are tasked with maintaining peace in the world. As they navigate the pressures of social rivalry and academic competition, unsettling truths about corruption within the Edrei order begin to surface. The quartet must realize their loyalties, beliefs and futures, how to challenge the status quo all while trying not to get expelled in the process.

This book, while I thoroughly enjoyed it, suffered from first-book in a fantasy series syndrome. Not much happens plot-wise while the author tries to setup the world and the characters. I enjoyed the characters and thought they were fleshed out while not revealing everything about them. The world building was also really good in establishing the hierarchy and the order of the Edrei. The academic competition was also really interesting to experience as well and honestly made me a little anxious for the characters with how easy it was to gain demerits. The one negative I had about this book was the wordiness of the classes. There would be pages of rhetoric and politics that ultimately felt like fluff with no real use for the story. At least I hope there is no use because the class monologues were so wordy, I found myself confused every time I read them. There are also a lot of minor characters that I was having trouble keeping track of who they were and who their loyalties lied with among the 4 main characters. The conflict at the end was honestly a little dumb in the aftermath of how it was resolved but at the same time I'm curious to see how it plays out with Jadon and Christina being linked for the rest of their years at Eshtem (hopefully Jadon's learned him lesson 0.0).

DNF at 30%.

Firstly, I think the comps of Fourth Wing x Atlas Six set this book up to fail

Aside from the issues I'll put below, I just wasn't massively drawn in. Maybe I would have been without the stuff below, but I was really disappointed by this.

I don't think anything I point out below are major plot spoilers, mainly because I didn't get far enough into the story. Read at your own risk (tw SA and descriptions of race/heritage)

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- There's a scene right at the start where the Prince (Jadon) is hosting an audience, and a father brings his daughter who is pregnant after being r*ped by one of the Prince's guards. The Prince (in his head) knows this is likely true, but settles it as a 'he said, she said' and that's that. While I am well aware that this can be the case for so many women, this just felt so unnecessary?? The Prince also points "She was so young - younger even than Jadon, who, at seventeen, had just reached majority himself" I'm sorry??

We're now on our way to the war college or whatever

- I wish I could speak more eloquently about why these parts bothered me. I think it's relatively clear? Quotes below all relating to Diar, the only 'dark-skinned' character (at least as far as I read)

"The dark-skinned initiate in the company of a strapping blond youth and a scruffy dwarf? ... There could hardly be two such trios wandering the streets of Lystra."

'Bringing his dark-skinned roommate to an event for War House nobles would certainly irritate some, as Diar's obviously Rishara heritage made him unlikely to be either noble or War House-sworn.'

This follows to say Rishara people worshipped 'the White God' ... 'keeping the White way' and how 'few dark-skinned people had married into noble families, and in War House territory, intermarriages were rare even in the lower classes'

Diar is offered help to learn how to ride a horse and replies "White help me, no"

Are you picking up what I'm putting down? That was quite enough for me.

I really thought I was going to love this one; the premise sounded amazing and I was excited for dragons and a big fantasy world. But the book felt incredibly dry instead. There were so many characters and not enough depth, and I never really connected with any of them. It wasn’t bad, just kind of flat and forgettable, which was disappointing.

DNF at 33%

This book sounded so great from the synopsis and the first couple of chapters had me intrigued but after that it fell flat for me. I found once they'd got to the school there were so many different characters mentioned by name and I couldn't keep them and their allegiances straight. I would have liked more information about the different countries in the world and my lack of knowledge and ability to separate the different characters in my head affected my enjoyment because I lost interest in what happened to anyone.

I'm hoping this might have just been the wrong time for me to read the book and will consider trying it again in future because I have heard good things from people.

Thank you to Angry Robot and Netgalley for the ARC.

I was very excited to dive into this book as I wanted to read a book with dragons, but there were barely any dragons!! This high fantasy novel was slow paced and I feel like it was more character focused than plot focused at times. However, to me the characters were a bit flat and I quickly grew bored as I was reading. I didn't feel any connection to the characters at all which made it hard for me to care about what was happening to them. The world building was also okay but at times it was hard to keep track of and I wish the magic system was explained more.

Thank you to Angry Robot and Netgalley for the ARC!

This is my first read from B.F. Peterson. I thought the story was interesting, it has dragons, political intrigue, magic, and an academic setting with different houses. All aspects I love in my favorite books, though I wish there were more moments to have further discussion about magic systems, I hoping that these characters grow further and their relationships deepen. The world was interesting but also something I assume is expanded upon as the series goes on.

We follow first year students of various socioeconomic backgrounds attending Eshtem University, they navigate the social structure of the university while trying to learn as much as they can to overcome competition style challenges intended to filter only the best of the best. Despite these grueling and gruesome trials there is a lot of mistrust around the idea that they are peacekeepers. At the end of the day Jadon, Christina (a stand-out character for me), Diar, and Jenne all want the same thing: a dragon, mastery of their own power, and becoming Edrei. If you are a fan of multiple-POV character study style books, I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for a copy of this novel for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Ellyrian Code is a multi-POV high fantasy novel centred on a college to train individuals to become Edrei, a selective and mysterious order. It follows Jadon, a High Prince; Christina, a Princess; Diar, a commoner formerly from a merchant family; and Jenne who has lost her memories.

It attempts to interweave the typical academic struggles a highly strict setting demands with a wider conspiracy about the ethics of such an organisation and what happens when corruption seeps in.

If you are expecting dragons, don’t. They feature minimally to the extreme that I forgot they were originally included at all.

Ultimately, the book has too many POV characters and everyone else suffers as a result of it. Jenne’s missing memories are barely factored in due to her intensity about the class structure; Diar acts as a foil to her and his own unique stance as being part of a niche religious order isn’t highlighted; Christine is trying to uncover potential corruption while being a historic first for her region and neither points land as they should because the viewpoint is split; and Jadon is pulled between his family obligations and his own aims.

The book is nearly stagnant in places with the sheer volume of characters the narrative jumps between and in other places, it moves along at a good pace. The reader is dropped into the middle of the action of high fantasy standards and it can be daunting at the start with the sheer volume of information and interwoven connections.

In terms of comparisons, I’ve not read the Atlas Six but I have read Fourth Wing and I believe the comparison does an injustice to both. This book focuses heavily on academics and on class disparities so readers’ expectations should be tempered, while the characters in the Ellyrian Code are more diverse and thought provoking.

Despite this, I would continue the series. Jadon was my immediate favourite and while the characters were under-utilised, it was solid writing. I just hope future stories in this series stay with one, maybe two, characters so they can get the story that they deserve.

I was really excited to dive into this book. The blurb intrigued me and was straight up my alley of books I love to read. I normally can kick out a book in a day or two, but this book took me over 2 weeks to read because it just felt like I was dragging my feet whenever id sit down to read it. I am all for authors being unique when naming their worlds, places and characters, but the names in this book were just a little too much. I know it's tough to find the balance between the fantasy aspect and also having names that fit into that fantasy genera without being over the top and funky. The names of the characters and places were just hard to read and got in the way of the flow of reading. Maybe a pronunciation guide in the beginning of the book could have really helped. The characters themselves didn't feel relatable or that likeable. There were constant contradictions throughout the book that made you confused. The princess waited her whole life to go to the school and worked her butt off to get there, and then throws it all away to try to solve a mystery that she comes across in a few days time? I also wasnt a huge fan of the school itself. I understand the goal for the multiple points of view, I just wish there was only 2 or maybe 3 POVs tops. I also really wish there was a little less politics and a lot more dragons. Dragons were one of the big points of interest for me and I feel disappointed with the little dose of dragons that we did get. Maybe it'll be better in book 2? I feel like this book and a lot of others like to draw inspiration or name drop other major hits like Fourth Wing or On Wings of Blood to draw people in, but I get really disappointed when they don't come close to the books they reference in their blurbs. It's like seeing a movie trailer that hypes you up, only to see the movie and all of the good/decent bits were all in the trailer. I felt like that with this book. Overall, it just felt inconsistent, the numerous characters were flat, the magic system didnt feel consistent and was confusing and was a bit of a let down. I hate saying that because I love to support authors, but for me this was a 3.5☆ read.

Thank you Netgalley, Angry
Robot and B.F. Peterson for letting me read an early reader copy of this book!

I wanted to love this, but it fell a bit flat for me. I will continue the series, because I am excited about where this is going, but the pacing was very slow for me. I had a very hard time staying engaged, and it took me a lot longer to finish than books normally do. I also did not feel totally invested in all of the characters, but I did enjoy the very frequent POV changes. I think comparing this to Fourth Wing is not the right marketing move. This is high fantasy, and I fear the Fourth Wing comparison may attract an audience who does not have patience for this level of world building and fantasy story.

The blurb sounded right up my alley however the plot falls flat. The POV change was nice but the plot and pacing was not for me.

Thank you for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a great start to an epic fantasy series. I really enjoyed this one and it’s one I would definitely recommend it. It starts with some world building of course. It enjoyed this and it and didn’t take me long to get my head around what we have learned so far. I can’t wait to hear more about the world.

We hear some things before the academic setting that are not explained yet but are a backstory to what’s happening in the book. It will be interesting to see it get explained because there are some unanswered questions!

So we don’t see a lot of the dragons this book but it’s only their first year of studying. When we do see them it’s even intimidating to the students because they aren’t seen much. I like how the magic system works and in looking forward to seeing what talents our four have!

The characters: Diar - I like him. He is the the naive but sweet hero who doesn’t realise his worth yet. He is loyal and is in touch with his feelings.
Jadon - Bad boy Prince but has a lot on his shoulders due to his father and his future role. Doesn’t share this with people. Acts out but is good at what he does.
Christina - I quite like her and think that will develop more as the series continues. I like what she did at the end and am curious to see how that works out!
Jenne - I didn’t like her all the way through. Thinks too much of herself even though she is common born. Wow is me kind of attitude. I hope she gets better.

I’m really looking forward to book two and to see where the series goes. Its definitely got me hooked!

Thank you to @angryrobotbooks, the author and NetGalley for the gifted review copy.

3.25 stars

I was kind of waiting for more which made me sad because I saw the premise and thought it was promising. I just needed a bit more in every aspect (plot, world building, character development). Not bad but not super memorable which makes me feel bad.