Northeastern professor Catherine Fairfield sounds off on why books with dragons, fairies, and love triangles are so popular right now.
Northeastern University visiting teaching professor Catherine Fairfield had never read Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean books until a friend recently invited her to a launch party for “Onyx Storm,” the latest installment in the series that came out on Jan 21.
When Fairfield got to the party, she found an enthusiastic crowd decked out in book-themed apparel, including Basgiath War College gear (the college in the book). It piqued Fairfield’s curiosity about the series enough that she picked up the first book and quickly saw why “Onyx Storm” broke records as the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years.
“I totally get it,” says Fairfield, who is part of Northeastern’s English department. “The plot is really compelling and it plays out like a movie in your head, which I think is a hallmark of most really popular fantasy novels and series. … It has a strong independent woman at the center of it. It has a lot of diversity among the other characters … (and) it’s exciting. They get to ride dragons and do physical feats that you would not normally do in your everyday life.”
The Empyrean series — which so far includes “Fourth Wing,” “Iron Flame” and “Onyx Storm” — follows Violet, a young woman with a joint mobility disorder that mirrors Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (which the author also has). Violet was meant to become a scribe, but her mother, a powerful military general, forces her into the dangerous world of training to become a dragon rider. Along the way, she finds herself drawn to some of her fellow dragon riders, falling into a love triangle.
The popularity of the Empyrean series is part of the larger rise of romantasy — a portmanteau for a genre of books that combine romance and fantasy. Sarah J. Maas, author of the A Court of Thorns and Roses romantasy series, was one of the best-selling authors in the United States last year. Videos about this genre get billions of views on TikTok.
There are many reasons these series appeal to people, from the writing to the plot to the escapism it offers in a time of political and social strife in the real world, Fairfield says. They also offer a point of connection for many readers, both to each other and to their past.
Many of the fans of this genre, including the ones Fairfield encountered at the launch party, are women in their 20s and 30s who grew up with fantasy series like Harry Potter, Twilight and Lord of the Rings. These newer series offer the same world-building and action-packed plots, but are geared toward adults and give fans something fresh to explore.
“Many of us have the memories of going to book release parties growing up,” Fairfield says. “To have an adult-level book for us to all gather around and celebrate, whether it’s in person or online, is bringing that inner child joy back into things. … A lot of us have been looking for new worlds to be invested in and you can only watch ‘Twilight’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ so many times before you want something new.”
Additionally, these newer series offer more diversity and perspectives when it comes to race, gender and disabilities.
Fairfield says Violet, the protagonist of Yarros’ books, isn’t “just a really tough woman taking on the men” that readers saw in a lot of earlier fantasies, Fairfield added. She is an underdog who proves herself to be strong and capable while also making concessions for her disability and using her differences to her advantage, especially when it comes to bonding with dragons.
“A strength of the fantasy genre in general right now is a move towards a diversity of representations and so many different types of characters at the centers of those books,” Fairfield says. “With Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, we see that and also other authors too. People don’t want to just read about the same types of people with the same set of circumstances. You go to fantasy to see something different, so bringing in differences of identity makes sense at the core.”