Below is the complete list of Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of The Empyrean Books
About The Empyrean
Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean series is a romantasy saga centered on dragon riders, military training, political deception, war, and a dangerous love story at the heart of a collapsing kingdom. The series begins with Fourth Wing, continues with Iron Flame, and moves forward with Onyx Storm. It is planned as a five-book series, with the published books so far following Violet Sorrengail’s transformation from an underestimated cadet into one of the most important figures in Navarre’s fight for survival.
Fourth Wing introduces Violet Sorrengail, the daughter of a powerful general, who expected to enter the Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath War College. Instead, she is forced into the Riders Quadrant, where candidates train to bond with dragons and many do not survive. Violet is physically smaller and more fragile than the other cadets, but she is observant, strategic, and more resilient than nearly everyone expects. Her struggle to survive Basgiath gives the first book its immediate tension, while her bond with dragons Tairn and Andarna changes the scale of her future.
The first book also introduces Xaden Riorson, a powerful and dangerous rider whose history makes him one of the last people Violet should trust. Xaden is the son of a rebel leader, and Violet’s mother helped shape the world that punished the children of that rebellion. Their relationship begins with suspicion, threat, and attraction, but it grows into one of the series’ central emotional forces. Yarros uses their romance not simply as a love story, but as a test of loyalty, truth, and survival inside a system built on secrets.
Iron Flame expands the world beyond Violet’s first-year survival. The book deepens Basgiath’s politics, the rebellion, the danger of venin, and the lies Navarre has told its people. Violet is no longer just trying to live through training; she is trying to understand who has been controlling history, what has been hidden, and how much she is willing to risk for the truth. Her bond with Xaden is also tested more intensely, especially as love becomes inseparable from war, command, and secrecy.
Onyx Storm, the third book, pushes the conflict further beyond Basgiath and Aretia. Violet must look for allies outside familiar borders while protecting the people and dragons she loves. The book raises the stakes around Navarre, the wards, venin, dragon politics, and the consequences of power that cannot be easily controlled. It also leaves the series in a more dangerous position, making clear that Violet’s story is far from finished.
One of the reasons The Empyrean became such a phenomenon is the way it blends familiar fantasy elements with fast romantic suspense. There are dragons, war colleges, magic systems, rebellions, brutal trials, and political betrayals, but the emotional center remains Violet’s point of view. Her intelligence, chronic pain, vulnerability, stubbornness, and refusal to be dismissed give the series a heroine whose strength is not based on being untouched by weakness.
The Empyrean series works because it keeps widening the world while tightening the emotional pressure. Each book forces Violet to question another layer of what she has been taught: about her family, her country, her enemies, her dragons, and Xaden. At its core, the series is about power and trust—who holds it, who abuses it, who hides it, and who is willing to burn down a false history to survive the truth.