Thank you Netgalley for the ALC for this book.

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang is everything I want in a novella—dragons, forbidden love, sapphic romance, and a badass dragon slayer who never takes off her armor in public. We follow Yeva, a dragon hunter sent to woo Queen Sookhee of Quanbao in order to uncover her secret.

The plot is pretty predictable, but honestly? That didn’t take away from the fun at all. It’s fast-paced, a total page-turner, and packed with heart. I loved Yeva’s journey—not just slaying dragons but slowly peeling off her armor (literally and emotionally) to show us who she truly is. Her quiet exploration of identity was one of my favorite parts.

Also, massive shoutout to Nancy Wu, the audiobook narrator—she absolutely brought this story to life. I felt like I was right there in Quanbao.

I just wish it was longer. I would’ve happily stayed in this world for a few more chapters.

I've had some really great reading experiences with novellas lately! Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame packs a strong, heart wrenching story about loyalty, love, and dragons into a small package!

Neon Yang does a great job portraying the journey Yeva has been on since she killed her first dragon when she was 13, and is whisked away from her family to train as a dragon hunter. There is a fantastic atmospheric tone that not every author gets right. What I love about novellas, when they are done right, is every detail serves a purpose. There were so many little things that continued to add up throughout, and I was on my toes, bracing for heartbreak in the best way the whole time!

I listened to the audiobook, and Nancy Wu had such a perfect voice for how I was imagining Yeva. She brought the supporting characters to life in a captivating way as well. I would be happy to listen to more books narrated by her!

Thank you, NetGalley and Recorded Books, for an early audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook.

The introduction was smooth and fanciful. It really drew me in and was giving fairytale.

I wish there was a little more information on what training was for Yeva. I feel like we could have ramped up into the story a little while longer to get a better feeling of what Yeva was like when she was younger, then the training arc, and more of her relationship with her cousin.

The pacing of this was overall very fast and there were times we were just getting told rather than shown aspects of the story. Though that kind of suits the opening that felt like we were being told a story, it did make me feel a bit detached from the characters. I liked that I could consume the story in one sitting, bit it felt like we skipped over a lot to make it bite-sized.

I found it easy to follow, and didn't struggle at all to picture what was happening in my mind.


SPOILER AHEAD


The sapphic couple doesn't explode into misery or die!!!!! We have something very big to celebrate here. Love that for us.

Bright than Scale, Swifter than Flame tells the story of a legendary guildknight, known for slaying dragons, and the woman king she falls in love with. Yeva, the knight, must learn how to show herself to another person, and Lady Sookhee, the king, has to learn how to trust someone with her secrets. Together they bring out the best in one another, though they have to band together to overcome a common threat.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot of this novella, but I was very enamored with this story. It was beautifully written and the imagery was lush without being over the top with purple prose. I was really impressed with how much Neon Yang was able to pack into so few pages and though I really thought this could have easily been a much longer story - full novel length - I also thought that it was perfectly fit into fewer pages as well.

The queer representation in this story was great as well. The relationship between the two women felt so natural and appealing. I'm not always that interested in the romantic elements of stories but I was happy to dig into this relationship. I would have loved even more depth, but I appreciate how much the author was able to do in the novella.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narrator, Nancy Wu, was wonderful. I loved her performance and would absolutely listen to other audiobooks she's done.

Thank you to Neon Yang for writing this, RBmedia for sharing it with me and NetGalley for facilitating its delivery.

Thank you Netgalley for the ALC!

I really enjoyed this novella! In this book, Yeva is a dragon hunter who has been sent to a reclusive kingdom to find out if they are hiding a dragon. As she spends her time in this kingdom searching for this dragon, she finds herself getting close to the Sookhee, the monarch and maybe finding bits of herself along the way.

I loved the atmosphere in this book. The writing was clean and made it really easy to envision each scene. I really enjoyed the main character. Yeva lost a lot of herself when she was taken from her home to become a Knight, and I liked the way she rediscovered herself along the way.

I do feel that this novella was a bit predictable, and I wish it were a little bit longer, but overall a solid 4 star read!

I received an audiobook arc from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. This book needs to be more than 4 hours. I knew it was a novella but this can easily be made into a novel or series. The main character is a dragon slayer whose group is kinda similar to the Mandalorian so she doesn't take off her armor and falls in love with the Queen. The book has strong female characters, queer, and Asian fantasy. I definitely wish there was more bc it was so good!

A renowned dragon hunter who never removes her armour is sent to a faraway kingdom to discover if a dragon is hidden away there.
She meets the queen, Lady Sookhee, and finds herself becoming at home in this mysterious land and with these people.
I loved the prose, and I liked the main character Yeva. There was a sapphic romance, and the story kept my interest.
It was very short, and I would have loved more, or another book with these characters, however I appreciated what we got and would recommend this.

First I would like to suggest that authors try and stick to shorter titles that are easier for readers to remember. The books of my youth were seemingly all short titled. I think that changed somewhere along the line with The Particular sadness of Lemon Cake? I digress.

This very long titled novella, is a quick read about a young dragon slayer who never takes off her helmet..think The Mandalorian. Under this helmet, is a fierce, lonely girl who has been sent away from her home at an early age to train and hone her skills with the guild knights. Years later, as a renowned dragon killer, she is sent to a distant, secretive kingdom reigned by a fragile “ Girl King”. It is rumored that in this kingdom they revere and keep a dragon within their borders. It doesn’t take long to figure out the mystery, but it’s an enchanting tale, none the less.

The excellent audiobook is narrated by the talented Nancy Wu.

Oddly enough I started reading two similarly themed books at the same time, and this one came out stronger!

After a terrifying near-tragedy in her childhood home which leaves her with a maimed hand, Yeva is sent to the imperial capital to train and serve out her life as a Guild Knight, a servant of the Sun Emperor specifically trained to kill dragons. This isn't just because she encountered one in said near-tragedy, but because her blood makes her specifically able to not only wield legendary weapons, but to take on these dragons.

So when she's sent by herself to the kingdom of Quanbao - the capitol of the land in which she was born - to find any tell of the last remaining dragon that perhaps may have escaped and lived there years ago it's a melting pot in the brain of the consequences of diaspora (when not personally chosen) and not the homecoming Yeva thinks it could be, despite how the taste of foods from her childhood make her heart ache. And beyond this, the Girl King Sookhee, soft voice, light, an intriguing figure, taking her in as a friend and more...

I got away from myself, but anyway! This book is only about four-ish hours on audio and 176 pages to read, a tight little story about dragons and coming home to somewhere that hasn't BEEN home for more than half one's life, of mysteries and a touch of romance between the two women in a way that flows well with the story. There's not much extraneous here (which maybe I noticed more because the other similar book I was reading at the time had a lot of dead time between anything happening/character development), and it's neat to see Yeva come into her own separated from the indoctrination of the Guild Knights and the life she's had to build for herself while burying the rest of herself. I appreciated too the more queernormative overall world, not just for Yeva but for her cousin Emory as well despite being born into the duties that may not have best suited him, but taking them in a way that suits him and his skills.

Nancy Woo's narration and dialogue are lovely - her voice is warm and deep for the most of it, shifting effortlessly into light and airy for the dialogue of Sookhee and keeping the accents separate for the characters of Quanbao and Mithrandon, and I would definitely listen to more of her narration!

Thank you so much to RBmedia | Recorded Books for approving my ALC request - I had a lovely time.

This was a short and enjoyable fantasy novel, featuring queer characters and, more importantly, dragons! The reader will easily figure out the mystery before Yeva does, but that doesn't detract from the story at all.

Narration is also quite good, making it easy to just get lost in the plot.

A beautiful, atmospheric novella set in an Asian-inspired fantasy city that deftly handles topics of cultural erasure and colonization as a young warrior returns to her mother's homeland and discovers her own history.

Yeva was taken from her family young, sent by her father to train with the other elites as a dragon slayer of the Empire. She's grown used to the language of the Empire and can never take her armor off in the presence of others. When she is hand-selected to travel to neighboring Quanboa, her mother's homeland, to investigate rumors of dragons and integrate herself into the newly-crowned (and chronically ill) Queen's court, she is unprepared for the culture shock awaiting her. But the Queen, Sookhee, is welcoming, and slowly Yeva learns to remove her armor - both literally and figuratively. There's still that rumor of a dragon to handle, though, and decades of training are hard to set aside.

This was a lovely little story! Yeva was a fascinating and sometimes frustrating lead, stuck as she was between the culture that had raised her, and the one that she had never known but was just as much a part of her blood. So many times I wanted to scream in frustration as she allowed her training to overrule her morality, but it was so true to the indoctrination she had experienced in her life. Following along as she slowly learned to integrate into Quanboa's way of life, and into Sookhee's court as her lover, was a lesson in patience.

The mystery itself was not much of a mystery, since I think the truth is pretty easy to guess from the get-go. Genuinely, while this was a lovely story, it's one that would have benefited from a longer format to really build up the relationship between Yeva and Sookhee, the true threat of the Empire looking for a reason to invade Quanboa, and more emotional impact on the realities of wiping out a species with such cultural significance for the sake of erasure.

The narrator was great, bringing so much life to Yeva and her struggles.

3.75/5 ⭐️

Neon Yang crafts a tale of oppression and identity that hits in all the right ways, especially for a book this short. The parallels between the literal armor Yeva wears to the mental and emotional armor we (especially women) wrap ourselves to protect us from emotional harm is very poignant. There isn’t a lot of depth to the world building or the side characters but that is to be expected in so few pages. Its drawbacks simply make more room for its lead to dull and shine throughout.

Yeva was taken from her home and trained to become a dragon hunter. Now the empire is sending her back the isolated nation of Quanbao to investigate the possibility of dragons. She mist become close to their leader, the Lady Sookhee to attempt to uncover the secrets.

This was a really greta novella. I'm always excited to read a sapphic love story, adding in dragons makes it even better. I was impressed with the amount of world building and character development that was packed into here. The relationship between Yeva and Sookhee was really beautiful. I loved the changes that Yeva experienced and how she learned to deal with her anxiety and feelings of not fitting in anywhere. This was my first Neon Yang book but will not be my last. Nancy Wu is a great narrator for this book. I really enjoyed the audio experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable and heartwarming novella set in a fascinating world that I would love to read more stories in. Yeva was a fascinating protagonist and her inner turmoils surrounding her past and where her duty lay was really well conveyed. I did think that the 'reveal' was fairly predictable, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment. Overall, I had a good time with this one and would definitely recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is a fantastic novella with dreamy prose that explores identity in the face of imperialism. Nancy Wu expertly narrates the twists and turns of our main character, Yeva, a dragon hunter, as she goes to the isolated kingdom of Quanbao to meet with the girl queen, Lady Sookhee, in search of destroying the dragon who is rumored to live there. As a romance unfolds between Lady Sohkee and Yeva, she wrestles with her identity as a fearsome guildknight.

I really enjoyed this sapphic fantasy romance novella. I thought that it did a lot with its characters in its limited pages and thought that the imperialistic world that it created was really interesting and well developed.
My one negative is that the “twist” presented was really easy to guess, and made easier if you pay attention to the materials provided by the publisher (cover/description/etc).
Overall I enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone looking for a short sapphic fantasy story.
Four Stars

Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang is a fantastical novella that tackles identity, commitment, familial history, and love. This is a nicely focused story that hit the spot for me. I loved the two main characters, Yeva and Lady Sookhee, and their struggles.

Yeva was destined to be a dragon hunter. It's in her blood. Lady Sookhee is new to the throne and has an illness. When their worlds converge, it'll mean either destruction or peace. There are secrets bubbling up from the past and those that will define the future!

This novella is not long (4 hours of listening time), but it packs a punch. While I expected most of the reveals, I think the topics and messages it covers is a greater reason to read it. I don't read many novellas, but I'm glad I read this one!

An elite knight trained to slay dragons goes on a journey of rediscovering herself. the atmosphere of the narrative feels lush and evocative. slowly (and literally) coming out of her protective shell she learns to question her who she is and if she truly wants to continue her purpose. the descriptions of the tea and the foods were lovely. The narrator of the audiobook has a dream-like quality which enhances the feel of the fantastical world. A book about lady knights and dragons and drinking tea are all my favorite things in a book. I had slightly expected more dragons but the explanation of why there weren't more was well done.

moment for the cover, cus it's the most beautiful standard cover I've seen so far

this novella was very nice, quick read, perfect for one cozy evening, sapphic fantasy with dragons, wish it was longer tho, cus I was really invested in everything and would like to read more about them😩

Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

“Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame” by Neon Yang is an Asian-inspired epic fantasy novella.
Overall, it was a pretty entertaining and fast-paced read, though I found the mystery quite predictable. Still, I would absolutely recommend it to any fantasy lover.

The narrator did a wonderful job, and the quality of the audiobook was excellent.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.