Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame
by Neon Yang
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted May 12, 2025
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This will be a short review. It is also a short book. While I think Tor is calling it a novella, by word count it may be a very short novel. I can recommend it, even though I also have to say it is a bit predictable in its major revelation. At the age of thirteen, Kunlin Yeva slew her first dragon, saving her young sister Beyar. It was not a big dragon, but it did bite her arm, breaking bones and ligaments, which were never properly healed. She now thinks of her right hand as a claw. I won't reveal why her father thought she was destined to become one of the guildknights of Mithrandon, the capital of the Sun Empire, but it involved the special properties of everstone, used to forge the guildknights' weapons. She is sent to Mithrandon to train, where her uncle was the leader of the guildknights. Her cousin Emory fashions her everstone sword, named Varuhelt, with grip and pommel designed for her "claw." Without naming her, the first chapter comprises a list of dragon kills by the 'masked guildknight of Mithrandon.'
I am not sure if she was the only girl guildknight, but she did not want her gender to influence anyone's assessment of her skills. She remains reclusive, always in her armor and helmet, only taking them off when she is alone. Skip forward about twelve years. Emory is now head of the guildknight order, but he is not a knight himself, only the administrator, and developer of new weapons. Word has come from Quentona, a nation to the south, of a possible dragon menace. Instead of sending a large force of guildknights, Emory appoints Yeva as the sole emissary. The border of Quentona is a short distance from Yeva's home village, but she had known the southern nation as Quanbao. She had heard the people there worshipped dragons, but knew little else. She later learned her mother had often visited the royal city of Daqiao, and had been friends with the former lady-king. The throne now belongs to the girl-king, Lady Sookhee. Yeva maintains her habit of always wearing her armor and helmet, refusing a room in the castle, insisting on sleeping in her carriage in the stables.
The only time she had removed it in front of someone else was when she met a woman cafe owner who had known her mother. Anuya insisted Yeva had to remove her helmet, "For how else will you be able to eat?" It is more than a week before she is able to meet Lady Sookhee, due to the girl-king suffering from a periodic illness. When she is presented to her, Yeva still refuses to take off her helmet. She eventually relents when Lady Sookhee presents her with a carved mask, and robes to replace her armor. On several occasions they go into the city incognito. Skip ahead a week or so. Yeva and Lady Sookhee become lovers. Yeva is finally comfortable without mask or helmet, without anything when in the girl-king's bed. Yet she still cannot see Lady Sookhee during her illnesses, which are monthly and last about a week. Yeva later learns of caverns, adjacent to and even under the castle, which are guarded, no one allowed entrance at specific times. Suspiciously, those times coincide with Lady Sookhee's illnesses. Once Yeva is given permission to enter the caverns, she doesn't get very far, stymied by pools of lava. The next time Yeva enters the cavern, she discovers a path around the lava, and while she does not see it, she senses a dragon nearby. She had supposed to have been guarding the cave entrance, not entering it, so she is barred from the caves thereafter. Then Emory and four guildknights show up to explore the caves, since she had written him about the vast amounts of everstone she discovered there.
Written in third-person, but I felt it would have been better if Yeva was telling her own story. Almost everything is from her perspective, and is descriptive of her thoughts and emotions. She had not seen her mother since she left the village for Mithrandon, and her parents had separated, which she believes was because her mother had not wanted Yeva to be sent away. She will probably know, beyond the last words of the story, because she has finally returned to the village to visit with her mother. But not to stay. She will return to Daqiao to be with her love, Lady Sookhee, who is determined to end her family's curse. A beautiful story of love, but also of intrigue and danger, lies and deceit. And hope. I think it likely most readers will anticipate several things in advance, but that should not interfere with enjoying the entire journey. Recommended.
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