A gripping sci-fi thriller with political intrigue, high-stakes action, and a richly built universe. The Ellyrian Code blends espionage and futuristic tech with complex characters and moral ambiguity. B. F. Peterson keeps the pace tight and the tension high, making this a must-read for fans of space operas with a cerebral edge.

I'll be honest i've tried twice to read and get into this book and I've just haven't been able to get into it. I think if I read it at another point I will like it but as of right now I just can't. I am defiantly going to go back at some point and try to read it again.

There is a lot of world building done through lectures which, given that this book takes place at an magical university ,feels both natural and … I’m sorry, but a little boring. While I enjoyed watching the characters develop and overcome various obstacles, traps, disadvantages and difficulties — especially Christina and Jadon — I got tired of the philosophy lessons. That’s not to say they’re bad, or poorly done, it just didn’t work for me. I felt like a lot of what was being said, especially in later chapters, was just going over ground already established in previous chapters.

For all of that, the world comes together in an interesting way. Dragons aren’t pets, aren’t sexy aphrodisiacs or mounts, they’re giant and powerful beasts with their own thoughts and their own magic. Honestly, I wanted to see more of them, but I’ll probably have to wait for further books once the characters are old enough and advanced enough in their training.

While some of the group, such as Jadon and Diar form a tenuous friendship, others have little to do with one another. It kept the plot interesting as different people were learning different facets of history, politics, secrets, lies, and social entanglements, and it was fun to wonder when they’d finally be drawn to one another — or what situation they’d find themselves in — that would allow them to put the pieces together. And there are a lot of pieces.

With mysterious mages, a lot of drinking, teenagers being teenagers, murders, secrets, plots and paranoia, there’s a lot of plotting going on in this book. And then there’s the magic, which feels reminiscent of Valdemar with it’s foresight, farsight, and so forth — especially with the academy turning students out as neutral forces of good and justice — but the book and the magic has its own flavour. This book is very much its own thing, and while I wasn’t entranced by every lecture and lesson, I still had a good time with this book and with these characters and I will be eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.

It’s full of friendships, people being people — flawed, foolish, assholes and hopeful dreamers — trying to make a better future. A magic system, complicated politics, threats of upcoming dangers, a few dragons and hints of a romance or two. It’s well worth the read if you’re in the mood for a magical school (though I think the pace could be a bit tighter, and some of the exposition trimmed. But that’s just me.)

I hope you give it a try.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this, I found the writing style appealing as there was lots of world building and descriptive writing that help me to visualise what was happening. It was also clever in incorporating politics and social and economic issues, for example surrounding equality and food shortages and so forth.
In this book we follow our main characters who enrol at Eshtem University in the hopes of joining the elite order of the Edrei, who are dragon riders and wield magic. I liked that we had different character perspectives as it meant we could follow the different storylines and then when they come together I was able to understand each character and have feelings towards them and how they acted. I also liked that it showcased the different classes of people and even though they were at the same university and expected to treat each other as equals we saw this wasn’t the case.
My only criticism would be that I would have liked to have seen more of the magic wielding or the dragons, as we did not really see a lot of this as it was all mainly the academic side.
Overall I did enjoy this book and would recommend to anyone who is into more high fantasy, world building and academia.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goodness me, this was such a good book. Highly entertaining. Would definitely recommend to others, that's for sure!

Hmm dragons, female leads, action and adventure. I thought I would love it a little more. The world building wasn’t as intricate and complex as I normally like. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This is high fantasy - sort of. It clearly wants to be high fantasy, this is a world of magic, dragons, of politics and different factions, Houses, all clamouring against each other. It is rich and detailed in so many ways, and yet the things that feel the most important are somehow left vague. I read the whole book and I still don't really understand the magic system in this world. More importantly, the characters within it, don't seem to understand the magic system. Magic is hidden, it is ignored? Unless you're in this school, in which case you might have it and that could be good? but there is different types and its not really explained what? There are dragons but also the dragons have to stay away?

I struggled to understand the point of the school as well, although it could just be because we are following first years. But it seemed to just be talking about ethics and morality, in great detail, and nothing about magic or really fighting. There's a fight halfway through but nobody has really been taught how to fight, its all on what they knew before.

What I really didn't like was the gender treatment - girls can't do this, girls can't do that. It's a magical system and in theory they are all treated the same but they really aren't. I also didn't enjoy the hypocrisy, the stating over and over again that titles and houses didn't matter when they did. I understand that was partly the point being made, but it was beaten over our heads far too much. I didn't need a monologue every chapter or so about it.

Now onto what I did;

The mystery. The secrets, the layers, the way the author isn't afraid to let the story seep. There is so much going on behind the scenes, and once the characters started to work through things it just got better and better.

I enjoyed the various povs. Seeing these four main characters reflected in each other, finding out how they saw their own actions vs how other people saw them was great. They are a compelling, great cast and these characters are the highlight by far. I want to know more about them, I want to know why things have happened and I really want to know what happens next. At first I thought, like many fantasy books, the characters will all end up friends in the end but now I'm not so sure. They all have their own agenda, their own beliefs and they all want to do what they think is right - it just might not all line up the same and I am excited to read more.

Thank you to B.F. Peterson, Angry Robot, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of The Ellyrian Code in exchange for my honest review.

The Ellyrian Code is the first book in a new fantasy series. It follows four POVs: Jadon, Jenne, Diar, and Christina. All four come from different backgrounds and give readers a good perspective of the different class system that takes place at Eshtem University and in the society as a whole. All four are competing to become Edrei, magic-wielding, dragon-riding, peacekeepers. This book takes a character-centered approach, rather than focusing too heavily on the plot. Throughout this book, I really got a feel for the different characters, their motives, and their dreams if they are to succeed. As it is heavily character-focused, this book is a slower read, though as someone who loves to read about characters and what makes them tick, I did not mind it as much. I will say, this is not a romance book, and there really are no romantic undertones. Now, there is room for romantic undertones and exploration in future books, but this book really focuses on establishing who the characters are and why they behave the way that they do. This book is not going to be for everyone, just like a fast-paced epic fantasy book that is plot-heavy is not going to be for everyone. I do think that the lovers of character development and watching characters grow throughout a series will love this book. You have to be patient when reading it because it is slow to start, and while it does not necessarily pick up per se, it does reach a point where you are invested, and then it does not matter that it felt slow or ever felt slow.

The Ellyrian Code by B.F. Peterson follows four students as they navigate their first year at the prestigious Eshtem University in an attempt to become members of the Order of the Edrei, the peacekeepers and guardians of dragons and magic.

Despite only giving The Ellyrian Code 3 stars, I did enjoy reading it, and I plan to continue the series. I thought the world was interesting, and I am intrigued by the mystery surrounding Hezred. I also thought the characters were well done. There are 4 POV characters, and I never forgot which POV I was reading.

There are a few things I didn’t like. First, the ending felt abrupt and unsatisfying. The book ended after the first year at Eshtem, even though very little was resolved. It honestly felt to me like this was only the first half of a book. Second, I feel like I was promised dragons, but we only get a few glimpses of them throughout the book. Last, the romance between Diar and Jenne was very childish and immature.

This series has potential, and I will continue with book 2 when it is released. If you are interested in fantasy romance, this is not the book for you.

Thank you, Angry Robot Publishing and NetGalley, for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Ellyrian Code was a surprise read. I picked it up because of the "university" setting and the comparison with Fourth Wing (Which I read when it was released). Honestly, I'm not sure the comparison does this book any justice because for me it's very different.

This is more fantasy than anything else. There is a subplot romance but light. There may be more in the next book (maybe?). It's not an easy read, it's dense, filled with details, morals, ethics, code (that's the book name, so that was expected). If you think it's a light dark academia read, don't read; you will be disappointed.

It takes a few chapters to grasp who's who, what are the characters' dynamics but then it flows and it works very well. I really liked most of the characters. I do like a good naive hero (Driar), and an overly confident prince (Jadon). I disliked Jenne from the first to the last page. I will leave you to make your mind if you read the book, I'm neutral to Christina, but I think I might love her in book 2.

It's a good book. Pick it up if you like
- More fantasy than romance (as I said, subplot)
- To think about what you read
- Try to discover conspiracies
- Complex characters and varied cast
- Different magic system
- It has dragons!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and AngryRobot for this ARC of The Ellyrian Code.
The Ellyrian Code held a lot of promises for me from the description; Dragons, light romance, tension between classes and political groups. The problem was that felt like I was reading 2/3 different stories rather than one book, with some of the characters barely interacting until the last 5% of the book. I do think this book is a great prequel for a larger series, I just hope that the next books answer several questions and see these main characters develop and interact more.
With that said, I enjoyed the world building and the politics as well as the issues the characters faced. I think that some aspects of the story could have been improved and many questions were left unanswered (why does Jenne not have a memory?) but I imagine these will be elaborated on in future series. I only think more could’ve been elaborated on with this backstory as it felt sort of like an add-on and not a main character point for her. Why is she not more concerned/ trying to figure stuff out about her past except her name and the fact she’s not a royal?
Overall I do think this series has a lot of potential and I will be picking up the next book in the series.

This was a spell binding story that will have you hooked start to finish!! It pulled me in just the way fourth wing did and I haven’t had a book that did that in a long while!

This book has so much world building that you will feel like you are right there with the characters! These individuals are a tad reckless, but that does not mean everyone loves or hates our main character!

The story is not like anything that I have read before, which was really cool to see as often fantasy takes parts of other worlds to build their world up. This one felt like a whole new world, it had a culture, a religion, a whole language and more!

Overall, this read is absolutely perfect for anyone who enjoys a lower and world building, heavy fantasy novel!

This book was quite hard to get into, the plot seemed rushed and there was too little world building for my taste. The characters felt unfinished and I did not have any emotional connection to them. I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately I was left dissapointed.

The writing style wasn't for me - it made it quite difficult to enjoy.
This one was hard for me to get into from the first chapter - there were too few details, Hazaar wasn't a compelling character, and I didn't care if the dragon took him away or he was caught. I was mostly confused.
This continued on, where I simply couldn't find it in myself to care about the characters and what happened to them. They felt very one dimensional to me.

I feel like this book was a good one that just wasn't for me and the comps didn't do it any favors. While The Ellyrian Code definitely shares aspects with Fourth Wing and The Atlas Six such as dragons and university, the tone and worldbuilding of The Ellyrian Code is very different from its comps which led me to believe it would be different than what it was. The style of writing is more on the high fantasy side and the worldbuilding was, for me, a bit hard to follow. The magic system seemed complex and I was left with a lot of questions about it. For someone who reads high fantasy often, I'm sure these wouldn't be issues, I just didn't get a good sense of that beforehand.

Character wise, I did like how diverse the cast was in terms of their backgrounds, opinions, and morals. It was fun getting to experience each of their POVs, especially once all of the characters began to interact with one another.

My favorite aspect of the book was the complex politics and class system and I think that was the most interesting part as it influenced all of the characters' actions and motivations. I do think that if this book was marketed as more of a dark academia with high stakes politics instead of a Fourth Wingesque romantasy, it would actually have been a much more enjoyable read as the focus would be less on the somewhat secondary romance.

It generally felt as though the book was trying to pack a lot of plot and background into a relatively short book, and I feel as though the reading experience would have been better if the story was slowed down in a way that let things develop more naturally. The story itself did feel very original though, which was nice to see as sometimes the magical school trope can feel overdone.

I personally didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected, but for someone who enjoys epic/high fantasy and wants to read a fantasy book with dark academia vibes and dragons, I would recommend this, as the reading experience may be much better!

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

"The Ellyrian Code" is not your typical easy-read romantasy, but rather a complex high fantasy that rewards patient readers. Initially skeptical, I found myself completely drawn in as the narrative unfolded around four distinct characters—privileged prince Jadon, idealistic princess Christina, ambitious commoner Jenne, and conflicted Diar—whose intersecting stories create compelling tension.

What makes this book stand out is its deep exploration of ethics, morals, and socioeconomics set against corrupt politics and an intriguing magic system. Peterson crafts a world where dragon-riding elements enhance rather than overshadow thoughtful examinations of institutional corruption and personal conviction. Though the dragon content left me wanting more, the rich character development and the mystery of the world kept me fully invested. By the end, I couldn't put it down and found myself eager for a sequel to continue Christina and Jadon's story and discover what challenges year two at Eshtem University might bring.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book and was really excited to receive this ARC.
I think the high fantasy elements were done well and I enjoyed the school setting, and I think this was done in an original way.
I was a little confused throughout the book, the houses and multiple povs at the start of the book can be a little overwhelming and I would have like more background or setting the scene, as I found I was a bit lost in the first 15%.
There was plenty of mystery, adventure and political drama to keep me turning the pages and some bits I was confused on did become clear towards the end. I think this gave more game of thrones vibes than atlas six but also a mature fourth wing-type story too.
It was well written and I am looking forward to a physical copy so I can reread and annotate this time. I think book two will be a good read as the premise is well set.

Book started off feeling like I should know all these characters/world/setting which set the tone for me for the rest of the story. Very confusing. Had a hard time connecting with the characters.

To be honest when I first started the Ellyrian Code, I was a bit unsure if I would like it.
I kept going and fell deep into the world and characters.

If you are looking for an easy-to-read Romantasy this is not that.

It is, however, an intriguing world, with interesting characters, an unexplained magic system, corrupt politics, and deep dive into ethics, morals, and socioeconomics. This is definitely more for the High-Fantasy lovers.

As I kept reading and got deeper into the world and characters, I could not put it down. The mystery of the world and the need for understanding kept me engaged and fully invested. The main Characters are all so different and their story lines had me enthralled. The touch of dragons, of course, wasn't enough, and I cannot wait for more.

I do hope there is more to come. I am not done with Christina and Jadon's story and I really want to see how year two goes.