Fourth Wing

Empyrean, Book 1

By: Rebecca Yarros

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton

Length: 21 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Now with two bonus chapters read by Teddy Hamilton. Re-download the title now to listen to the extended version!

A #1 New York Times bestseller • Optioned for TV by Amazon Studios • Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 • Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 • Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023 • NPR “Books We Love” 2023 • Audible Best Books of 2023 • Hudson Book of the Year • Google Play Best Books of 2023 • Indigo Best Books of 2023 • Waterstones Book of the Year finalist • Goodreads Choice Award, semi-finalist • Newsweek Staffers’ Favorite Books of 2023 • Paste Magazine's Best Books of 2023

"Suspenseful, sexy, and with incredibly entertaining storytelling, the first in Yarros' Empyrean series will delight fans of romantic, adventure-filled fantasy."—Booklist, starred review

"Fourth Wing will have your heart pounding from beginning to end ... A fantasy like you've never read before."—Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away … because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

©2023 Rebecca Yarros (P)2023 Recorded Books

Amazing story and characters, audio quality wasn’t great.

I’m so glad this lived up to the hype! I don’t even want to read another book right now.. just want to listen to this one again to go back and see what I missed the first time. LOVE the main characters. I really like that Rebecca added some relatable details to the spicy scenes, and referred to the anatomy as more than “bundle of nerves”. The ending was so unexpected. So ready for the next book!


The audio book quality is lacking some. I can get past the narrator being sick and yes you can sometimes hear her swallowing like others have said. The story was so good I hardly noticed. What drew me out of the book and distracted me was you can tell where edits were made in the audio track and it’s like she re recorded bits in another setting or with another mic. That bothered me a bit. Overall I do really like her reading style… just wish the quality was consistent through out.

suspense, danger, and romance that hooked me

This story has all the elements I love in fantasy romance. We have dragons, magic, a heroine with a disability and an “enemies to lovers” romance. From the very first chapter, the author hooked me and kept me listening. When I wasn’t listening, I was thinking about it and now that I am done, I am left counting the days until the next release. l love that kind of book high.

I want to talk about the audiobook itself. Rebecca Soler narrates and does a stellar job of not only voicing the characters but of capturing the emotions and tone of the story. Her voices are such that I immediately recognized characters. Teddy Hamilton narrates near the end of the book, giving us Xaden’s perspective and gave a wonderful performance. However, the Recorded Books finished copy had editing issues. From hard swallows not being edited out to dead space. These infractions pulled me out of the story. It was a tremendous disappointment. I am hoping more care is given with the next audiobook.

Great book, bad narration please get new narrators

The book is amazing, the narrator and editing are a little rough, with some practice the narrator could get better. The editing is horrible because some words are randomly in another voice, volume, tone etc and are clearly edited into the recording after the fact. I love the book but the narration and editing make it just barely bare-able when it should be a phenomenal experience. For such a best selling book there should be another audio available or a different narrated version etc. it’s worth the investment.

Binge read in less than 2 days!

At first Fourth Wing didn't catch my eye at all but I decided to read it after seeing a reel on bookstagram. It was on my list but I heard it had some of my favorite tropes and it did not disappoint! I really enjoyed the details of the world building and everything that happened. The characters were also great, and I'm glad they weren't strictly black and white morally. I look forward to buying the physical copy to reread!

My only complaint is the narration, the female narrator did well but I didn't really like the male narrator they threw in the end. I get the point they were trying to make by changing the point of view but he sounded too old? He didn't sound too bad it just threw off my image of a character.

Such a good book, awful narration

Loved the story line, but the narration made the book hard to understand sometimes. Voices were hard to differentiate and were inconsistent. Her lack of punctuation at times made it difficult to understand if something was being said out loud or in Violets head. There were also multiple times when background noises in the audio were were distracting. Multiple times I couldn’t understand certain words because they were garbled. I hope they get a new one for the next book cause she isn’t good and this series is fire.

This was so good!

The only thing I struggled with were some of the transitions. Overall, I loved this story! Can’t wait for the next one!

My New Favorite

What an absolutely amazing book! I was able to envision everything. It was so exhilarating and the narration captured it all, especially towards the end! The story had me so immersed I couldn't stop listening, I didn't want to stop listening. Can't wait for the 2nd book! There were a couple times the narration changed tone of voice out of no where, that took me out of the immersion which I didn't like. However she still did an incredible job and captured feelings so well. The story itself was so well written and I love that it didn't hold anything back when it came to language. There were a few thing that were a little more predictable then I would have like but it still surprised me even when I knew it was gonna happen. ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDING!

Shaken to the core

Ahhhhhh I’m going to be in a reading slump until November. Put me in a coma so I don’t have to torture through the next few months.

Can't wait for more!

It was what I was expecting of dragon riders and so much more! All of it was so exhilarating, frustrating, and sad! Such an amazing story it had me wishing I had more hours in my day I just didn't want to stop. I did notice that the narrator was sick all through till ch11 though. I kinda wish the editing was a little better to take out the sniffles or heavy wet breathing and near the end some character voices got mixed up for me but it wasn't hard to follow. I honestly can not wait for the next book please stay well every one!

Book was amazing! Audio was awful.

I absolutely love this book. The audio was good except the narrator was clearly sick. She sounded congested and was breathing heavily. I feel bad for her because she should have been resting. The performance would have been a 5 if she wasn’t sick.