Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang

At a Glance: Love Conquers Duty in a Tale of Dragons and Identity

The main character in Neon Yang’s Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame, Yeva, is the legendary masked guildknight of Mithrandon. She has never taken off her armor in public since being sent away for dragon-slaying training at the age of thirteen. She is sent to the mysterious kingdom of Quanbao to investigate rumors of a dragon. The legendary guildknight Yeva faces a conflict between her imperial obligations and her developing feelings toward Lady Sookhee, the mysterious ruler of the kingdom. Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is a sapphic fantasy novella that discusses themes of cultural identity, belonging, and the ability to choose love over duty.

Yang constructs a mythical narrative that flows through time using beautiful writing techniques while focusing on the search for individual identity. The novella format limits the potential for a richer narrative with deeper character exploration and expansive world-building.

World Building: Beautiful But Underdeveloped

Yang creates a fantasy world that’s heavily inspired by Asian culture, with dragons being the central dividing line of culture: there are people who worship them as gods and those who see them as monsters to be killed. The kingdom of Quanbao stands apart with its dragon-worshiping women’s council leadership that displays hints of an advanced society beyond what exists in the Sun Empire.

The foundational magical ability in this world is “the gift,” which is an inherited power enabling certain people to battle dragons. Yeva’s gift is shown to be a blue flame that erupts from her skin and sets her apart. The fantasy world includes guildknights who utilize gryphons and dragons who wield distinct elemental powers.

While these elements are interesting and have potential, they’re unfortunately very underdeveloped in this novella. With the novella format, there’s not enough room to develop the magic system or the cultural divide that’s central to the story. We’re left with a world that seems rich and deep but doesn’t get to realize its potential.

Characters: Compelling Concepts, Limited Execution

Yeva has inherited her mother’s golden skin and black hair alongside magical abilities from her father’s imperial bloodline. She represents how cultural displacement leads to the destruction of personal identity. She undergoes a personal journey that transforms her from a hunter of dragons into their defender. The author depicts her character as a woman whose cultural identity has been stripped away yet forced into becoming a weapon.

The love interest and the character that spurs Yeva’s personal growth is Lady Sookhee. Sookhee leads Quanbao with strength and provides softness and comfort while she avoids behaving like a tyrant. Her mysterious illness and the secret it conceals creates much of the tension in the novella.

The characters in the novella are at the mercy of the brevity. Yeva faces her most important character development which involves reconnecting with her mother’s culture and learning vulnerability away from the reader’s view or through brief summaries. The romance between Yeva and Sookhee, though they build up a relationship with cultural exchanges and language lessons, still seems to happen quickly, even though the pacing is slow burn.

Plot: Predictable Yet Meaningful

The story follows a familiar arc: The dragon slayer enters new territory where he develops romantic feelings for a ruler while uncovering the ruler’s hidden secret which creates a conflict between his responsibilities and desires. Though readers can identify the plot twist quickly Yeva’s internal journey prevents predictability from becoming an issue.

The pacing suffers from slow spots in the middle where there’s a lot of summary rather than scene work. The climactic underground fight delivers epic entertainment yet feels prematurely concluded after the extended buildup.

Yang defies expectations with an optimistic resolution that marries love and duty through new forms of harmony.

Prose: Lyrical Beauty with Structural Issues

The author demonstrates excellent ability to build atmosphere while creating gorgeous imagery in their writing. The lyrical nature of the prose lends the story an air of a fairy tale being told. The description of Quanbao’s food, culture, and traditions bring the setting to life.

Unfortunately, the storytelling distance from the reader as a result of the campfire storytelling format does not lend itself well to a full novella. Much of the character development is told rather than shown, which robs the more emotional moments of their potential impact.

Even so, Yang’s prose is the best aspect of the novella. The author creates some genuine beauty in the work that could have been the foundation of a much better story.

Between the Sheets: Emotional Intimacy Over Physical

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame has a spice level of 🌶️ (1.0) and the romance revolves around emotional intimacy and cultural connection. They fall for each other through learning each other’s languages, meals together, and building trust. This works well with the story’s themes of identity and sense of belonging, but the romance could have used more time.

Bro Reading Comfort: Accessible Fantasy

This text is relatively easy to read 😳 (1.0) and contains moments of violence but never to a point of becoming offensive. It also covers themes of cultural erasure and identity suppression in a respectful manner, always in an optimistic light.

Darkness Factor: Measured Themes

The cultural trauma and identity repression explored in the novel sustain its tone at a darkness level of 💀💀 (2.0). Yeva was separated from her culture and trained as a weapon as part of the story, while the rest of the world seems to have imperialist tendencies. However, Yang balances the darkness with hope and healing and a sense of belonging.

Book Battlefield: Ambitious Scope, Limited Execution

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame attempted to be a sapphic romance with dragons, cultural identity, and beautiful prose. However, the novella format limited the development of all three.

The novella mimicked The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon in its dragon mythology worldbuilding but lacked its complexity and depth.

If you are looking for a well-developed fantasy world and characters, the novella is going to be disappointing. However, if you like the idea of beautiful prose and a message, it might still be enjoyable.

Should You Bother?

For the Sapphic Fans: The f/f romance and dragon elements are enticingly represented, but the characters could use more depth.

For the Novella Fans: Fans of short fantasy will find this concentrated tale enjoyable, but this one is hindered by the novella format.

For the Prose Fans: Yang’s poetic style creates genuinely moving scenes, but this could have been better realized in other ways.

For the World-Builders: The Asian-influenced fantasy and dragon mythology are interesting, but not as fleshed out as they could be.

Final BroMantasy Verdict

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame isn’t only a testament to the limits of shorter form fantasy, but to the ways in which it can still deliver a powerful story. Yang’s beautiful writing, meaningful themes, and distinctive approach to dragon lore provide a solid base for a wonderful narrative about finding one’s identity, a place to belong, and what is more important to each of us: to be true to ourselves or to be who we think we should be.

But the execution doesn’t meet the promise of the premise. Poor character work and pacing make it difficult to truly connect with Yeva’s journey, and the campfire-style telling creates distance when it should bring the characters together. The magic system is underwhelming and underutilized, and several key pieces of the story are rushed or summarized rather than properly developed.

There are beautiful moments and meaningful themes, however, that transcend the shortcomings. Yang has a strong writing voice that will hopefully be better suited to the longer work their future novels will allow.

If you’re willing to overlook the underdevelopment for the beautiful writing and meaningful themes, Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame is a worthwhile read. If you’re looking for a fully realized fantasy world and characters, look to Yang’s novels instead.