This novella was small but packed a punch. The worldbuilding was just enough to make a person want more in this world, combining Yang's beautiful prose and a world that was so atmospheric. Not everyone could tell quite such a compelling story in such a short amount of space.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review!

I love a good novella, and Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame was such a treat. The worldbuilding is great and I really enjoyed Yang’s prose; I also think they did a great job at telling a full story in a very short space. The aesthetics and vibes of this book are immaculate, and while I think it maybe lacked a certain depth that is common in novellas, the story was deeply satisfying nonetheless.

The audio was great and I enjoyed Nancy Wu’s narration a great deal.

This is a beautiful sapphic asian-inspired novella with dragons.
I absolutely got lost in the atmosphere of this world and the journey our character goes on to discover herself and to discover love was undeniable.
I will forever be thinking about this book and yearning to venture further, I need more books in this world asap!

3.5 stars.

I had forgotten just how gorgeous Neon Yang's prose is. Despite being less than 200 pages, they are able to craft a world that feel so rich and alive. I really enjoyed Yeva as a main character and following her journey. My favorite aspect of the novella was seeing Yeva reconnect with her mother tongue and homeland. It was so heartbreaking and vulnerable seeing her feel like an outsider in a place that used to be home. Nancy Wu's narration continues to be so engaging, as usual.

I'm very glad I got the chance to read this and I am hoping to make my way through Neon Yang's backlist soon.

Thank you to Netgalley and RBmedia for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Yeva was thirteen when she killed her first dragonling in defense of her little sister and herself. In doing so, Yeva manifested a magical ability that runs in her father’s side of the family. Because of this gift, Yeva’s father sent her to his homeland Mithrandon to be trained as a guildknight (i.e., dragonslayer).

Years after cementing her image as a merciless dragonslayer, Yeva is commanded to travel to the mysterious Quanbao to find and root out any remaining dragons. Although the guildknights are revered in Mithrandon, the profession is treated with suspicion in Quanbao. While Yeva investigates for evidence of dragons, she must also navigate this foreign culture and the girl-king Lady Sookhee’s court.

This novella interestingly explores themes of colonization and biracial identity. It also has great atmospheric prose, making it a quick and folkloric read. What brought this down to three stars was mostly the predictability of the plot, the insta-lovers romance, and the unnecessary framing device.

As for the audiobook, Nancy Wu gave a great performance. She has such an interesting voice and was a perfect choice for the tone of this book.

Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame is a standalone fantasy novella with a sapphic romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

3.5 stars!

This is not a book that was on my TBR but I am glad I recieved it as an e-arc!

For a novella it was very well done! I listened to this one and I thought the narrator did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life!

I really enjoyed the main character and the relationships that she made and the struggles she went through. I enjoyed the whole cast of characters! I liked the ending. I kinda had a feeling that was how it was gonna end but it was very satisfying all the same.

I did feel as I do with most novellas I would have enjoyed this more as just a full length novel even if it was a shorter one. There was so much world building I would have to love to have seen and it would have made the characters that much more complex!

I did find myself not totally drawn in until about 40% so again I think had it been slightly longer it actually would have gotten me more invested!

Overall enjoyable and I would read more by this author! Thanks for the arc and all thoughts are my own!

4.5 stars —> This is a beautiful story of loyalty, love, and finding your way in life, steeped in Asian mythology. And of course, dragons!

Yeva grew up trained to slay dragons, and has a sense of duty and loyalty to her guild. Their whole purpose comes to question once they begin to fall in love with Lady Sookhee, the queen of the rival kingdom Yeva is sent to infiltrate. Who is Yeva behind their mask, and what choice will they make between love and duty? I loved the twist involving the dragon at the end! I will definitely be reading more from Neon Yang in the future.

🎧 Narrator: Nancy Wu
🎧 Length: 4h 54m

Nancy Wu did an incredible job with her narration. She brought out Yeva’s emotion, and it felt like I was listening to someone tell me a folktale.

Thank you to tordotcom and Recorded Books for providing me with copies of this book. This review is voluntary, and all opinions expressed are my own.

As a child, Yeva put on the armor of a dragon-slaying guildknight and did her best to forget what life was like before her journey to Mithrandon. But when she is sent to Quanbao, she is forced to face the part of herself she has tried to hide and the fact that she may not know all there is to know about dragons.

This was an incredible novella that packed in so much mythology and world-building into a beautiful story about suppressing self for misplaced loyalty and duty.

This was wonderful. I love the way this novella opens, relating the story of a famed dragon killer, the masked guildknight Yeva, who must find and kill a dragon in a neighbouring kingdom. Yeva is believed to have died on her last mission for her ruler. Then, we hear the actual story of what happened to Yeva on her last mission, and how profoundly life-changing it was for her.

Yeva finds Quanbao fascinating, as her mother and she were originally from this reclusive kingdom. Yeva finds herself struck by the differences in culture in Quanbao, as well as the way people look at her for constantly sporting her armour and helmet.

The queen of Quanbao, Lady Sookhee, is way of Yeva, but both find themselves drawn to the other, and Yeva begins loosening her rules the more time she spends in the kingdom, even removing her armour, while continuing to look for an elusive dragon and explore the elaborate cave system below the palace.

When Yeva's Prince arrives unexpectedly, this forces Yeva into significant conflict with her dragon-killing past and current orders, her growing love for the kingdom, and Lady Sookhee.

The mystery at the centre of this story is not really about the dragon in Quanbao. Rather, it is about what Yeva will do once she's confronted and forced to choose between her orders, and the life she has built for herself in Quanbao, and her beliefs about her heritage and what she is unfortunately very, very good at.

I loved the feel of this story, with its folktale feel and its delicate prose.

It's the inner conflict of cultures and beliefs in this novella that make this such a gripping read. Voice actor Nancy Wu beautifully brings the characters to life, and shows us the constant turmoil Yeva experiences from her entry to Quanbao to her fateful decision.

Thank you to Netgalley and to RBMedia for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Having previously read this author in the Tensorate series, I was expecting gender exploration and cool worldbuilding, and Yang absolutely delivered in this, packaging it all in dragons and the mythologising of storytelling, an absolute favourite trope of mine. Brighter than Scale Swifter than Flame is a story of indoctrination and being torn up from your roots, learning to reconnect with them even if it might tear down the entirety of your known world. With lyrical prose and memorable characters, this is a beautiful and quick read I highly recommend to every fantasy fan out there.

The narrator does an incredible job of balancing the narrative voice with the character vocals, I listened to this in one sitting because i was so enamoured with their storytelling!

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is a standalone sapphic fantasy about a knight, Yeva, who is scooped up by the imperial guard for her innate ability to kill dragons. She is sent to a neighboring kingdom to investigate rumors of dragons in their possession, and there learns more about her parents and family as she spies for her king.

I found this story a bit slow moving, but overall enjoyed it.

Great audio narration.

This book absolutely blew me away. Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is the kind of fantasy that pulls you in with its rich world and gorgeous writing, but what really makes it shine are the characters and the emotional depth. It feels epic without ever losing its heart.

The story moves quickly but still gives you time to connect with what’s really going on—there’s magic, yes, but also a lot of personal, human moments that stick with you. The world feels alive, full of history and mystery, and the themes of identity, legacy, and change are handled in a really thoughtful way.

It’s poetic without being confusing, powerful without being too heavy. If you like fantasy that’s beautiful, bold, and full of feeling, this one’s a must-read.

Thank you NetGalley and Recorded Books for this ARC Audio Copy!

Gorgeous cover, sapphic, tea, and dragons, what more could a girl possibly want from a book right? Maybe for the story to be just a little longer because I was not ready to leave the world. When will I ever learn with novellas that I will always be left wanting more. That is in no way a complaint about this book and actually quite a bit of praise.

I really enjoyed the folklorist prose and the world building, and I am definitely interested in reading more works from this author.

I would have liked this better as a full novel. There was plenty of opportunities to further flesh out the characters and show their development over the course of the story. Some minor inconsistencies also threw me off. With a longer novel we could really tease out the relationship between Yeva and Sookhee, the power behind the everstones, the dynamic of the Quanbao court, the relationship between Yeva's parents, and the history between Yeva's mother and Sookhee's mother. This novella was good but I would have been happy spending more time in the world. I was left with lots of questions and few answers.

What I did like about this novella was the representation of queerness and identity. Yeva has to fight against the expectations of everyone around her, first as a biracial outsider joining the knights, and then as an outsider knight joining the girl-king's court. The exploration of duty, loyalty, and command was important in Yeva's journey. She has to find a way to assert her own will instead of blindly following orders.

This is a review of the audiobook.

I got this as an audio arc on Netgalley and it has since come out. My God this was stunning and the narrator with this story was a perfect match. I got completely lulled into a slumbering state of enjoyment, like a dream. It's sapphic, it has dragons, it has mythes. Everything my queer heart needs.

Solid fantasy romance about a dragon slaying knight and the sickly princess of a kingdom she is sent to as an envoy. The twists aren't too subtle, you'll be able to see them coming, but they're still well done and the story itself is a lovely, wistful one. Great narrator as well. Worth your time.

I don't think I've ever 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. As a novella, this does a great job of grounding you in the world and the characters pretty quickly. I loved the lore of this world, the rich descriptions of setting, food, culture, and legend.
Because I liked the setup so much, I of course ended up wanting this to be at least a little bit longer. The ending wrapped up super quickly; not surprising, for a novella, but still a bit disappointing to me. I couldn't help but want a bit more! I would love to know more about the dragon father.

Thank you to NetGallery

This Novella was really well done. For such a short story it felt very complete. It was well thought out, the characters were complex their story made sense. I felt like I got the past present and future all in the 140 pages and wasn’t rushed or too slow. It was interesting, although I did figure out the plot twist was before our MFC. But that’s didn’t deter for the story. Definitely worth the read!

**Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for the ALC; all opinions are my own.**

4.0 ⭐️
1🌶
🎧

This was a very good novella about dragons and the knights that hunt them. If you're looking for a sapphic, Asian-inspired fantasy, look no further.

☆sapphic
☆forbidden romance
☆queen x knight
☆dragons
☆sad childhoods
☆complicated choices
☆magic

This was an interesting story, but it could have used a bit more backstory and I didn't connect with the maincharacters.
I think with more length the worldbuiding and characters could have been more interesting.