i feel like skyborn and fireborn are both imperfect book series, but their highs and lows are such that if they fused, they'd make the perfect series
like as for pacing i think skyborn has that nailed. there's honestly probably some logistical inconsistency to the way they're able to travel around the world in the time they do but by god khoury is so good at writing important and gripping scenes that i don't even process it. everything leads into the next and i never feel like the characters are wasting time -- in fact they seem to be constantly splitting away from places the moment it fulfills their story beat, which might get a bit tiring, but i think that only starts showing around book 3, and only slightly. book 2 has two insane story beats and it fits both of them in there so masterfully, i cannot express this enough, how the hell.
fireborn on the other hand....book 1 and 2 were good but only because there's only 1 conflict to contend with. i will forever clown on book 3 for not only the Trapdoor Scenes but also their foray into the cave clan. like Bro....they were just on a boat....and nothing happened....and the whole time i was reading it like okay are we wasting time as if we do not have a battle that seems like it warrants more than 3 chapters. seven's thing with the goblin place too. like i don't think this is some knock on fowler's writing i think this all had to happen, none of what the characters did was pointless, but i feel like if whoever publishing just let her split it into two books it would have been so much less disappointing.
okay in terms of rereadability though, fireborn does win there for better and for worse. man. starling and the cavern of light still is such a banger book. i keep rereading that scene of phoenix, thorn, and zenith eavesdropping on that meeting, and thorn and phoenix introducing Zenith to some of the elders. it's so charming and i would have killed to have some of that in skyborn. for lack of a better word the characters in fireborn actually like eachother. even though thorn is canonically the most annoying person alive the characters still have these precious moments where they bond and banter and just,,,i care them. when i read about them i really root for their friendships and that's also why phoenix's last regression in the last book was so upsetting, there was something to be upset about.
in both series, it feels like the main cast are extremely loyal to one another, but in skyborn i don't think enough time is put into justifying why they stick around with ellie. we have that brief scene of gussie saying something along the lines of "we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think it was important too," but i feel like that's such a teenager thing to say. like. they're babies in skyborn. they are So Little. and maybe we can chalk it up to bird people maturing faster or whatever excuse we can make, but i feel like at that age, i was more focused on ride-or-die personal relationships than the fate of the world as i knew it. (or maybe ellie's just built different. i do recall some sort of abstract wanting to do large good in the world, manifesting when i felt lonely and as if i didn't have friends to ride or die for, and hey, maybe that's the point of ellie)
regarding rereadability though, one of the reasons skyborn is less rereadable is because it's legitimately hard to digest ellie and nox's downward spiral. like, there's this prominent dread in the book of how it's up to literal children to stop everything bad in the world and also of how it has to be them because no one else is listening. i will say it kind of cuts into the realism a little bit though because in fireborn at least it's facilitated...like there are these adults training these child soldiers. where else would they be coming from.
i will say, skyborn is probably also a lot better at the antagonists, because the croke and the master are boring and all powerful and they get defeated because of a Magic Axe. In skyborn, there's a corrupt monarchy in place that is literally Sapping Everyone's Souls (and sense of flight) out and the characters have to consistently fight against the crushing weight of propaganda and revisionist history and knights' gross misuse of their power and survival without support of adutls and yeah, this is one of the reason's why it's so hard to reread, but it's crafted so well. you understand why it's gotten this bad and why there's so much violence in the change. however...at the very end...the whole system is just restated again because ellie wanted to be a knight. what. like i would have been beyond happy if there was just one sentence about how "oh the knight system has been completely uprooted into a less violence-based and more reconstruction-focused group" but no. there's just. New System But It's On Tirelas. What.
Fireborn managed to be the complete opposite, where there's not much focus on the inherent wrongness of these child soldiers, vulnerable because they're all either being rejected from a clan or because they are in some other way alone. they're just being groomed to be a body count and it's so uncomfortable to see someone like elder hoarfrost, who if i remember correctly is supposed to be a strict but endearing guiding figure, be so complacent in the using of these children. i understand that fireborn is structured in a way that in its nature, it has to sort of justify the existence of the hunters, and that while skyborn was ambitious in its theming, fireborn doesn't have to be, but man. just thinking about it. no doubt elder hoarfrost and silver and the others were hunters themselves and feel indebted to what they feel like was a home to them when nothing else was, and no doubt the war would have been lost if these child soldiers were not as proficient as they were, but it still feels wrong.
however, there is a turning point at the end. for some reason or another (possibly because a war has just been won) people are reconsidering the existence of the hunters, and that's a very good thing. thorn, phoenix, and seven, products of the hunters and arguably people who did not benefit from the previous system (thorn only got less spiky and unbearable after spending time away from the hunters, who did next to nothing to help his attitude/issues; likewise, phoenix had no sense of community in the hunters -- the only thing stopping her from killing thorn was the rules lmao. seven was even worse under the hunters, not being able to talk to her brother, being ostracized for being weak, etc) finally escaping it and being assured that people like them won't have to go into that system. one could even argue that dog could be a metaphor for this throughout -- he grows less invulnerable, true, but warmer and more alive. he is softer but it is his one wish, as stone, to be able to feel. dog makes me so emotional i need to talk about this more but ive already wasted too much time on it
final point about rereadability -- though if asked outright, i'd say that fireborn's characters are more likable, boy oh boy, they're also more forgettable. six is someone who's very necessary but i don't remember anything about him...sorry....i just remember that he's nice. and he likes seven. and thorn. and phoenix. he likes his friends. what do you want from me. i was not sad that he died, and honestly, had anyone except zenith or dog died, i would have been sad but not regretful? like, thorn or phoenix or hoarfrost died, it would have been devastating but it would also have been interesting. for some i felt like it defeated the purpose of their existence (mainly zenith, being one of the last powerful witches, and dog learning how to be alive) and for seven. eh. it just would have been sad in a shadowsight sort of way.
ellie, gussie nox, and twig are on the opposite side of the spectrum where it's uncomfortable to read parts such as ellie's insistence that nox is the answer to everyone's problems, putting an incredible amount of pressure on him, or gussie's betrayal and ellie's subsequent hatred, or twig's constant insistence that his life is worthless. but by god they're interesting. i would have been destroyed had any of them died, just because there's so much potential for things to get Worse
i must acknowledge one of fireborn's main rereadability points going exclusively to thorn (or, more specifically, five) because fireborn is so much better at comedy. maybe i'm just forgetting all the funny skyborn moments by five is so good at just. lifting the mood in such a dire setting. he's muttering something incomprehensible, eyes shining with hate. eveyone is watching in horror as he consistently antagonizes zenith for No Goddamn Reason. he's a treasure. ellie is also like this, and i do love her for it, but there's the old undercurrent of Dread because we know she's being annoying because she's Actively Mentally Unravelling. Five's just like that for fun.
lastly i think fireborn has better dialogue, but the people sound less distinct. skyborn's dialogue makes me cringe at times, but i sure can tell the difference between ellie or gussie talking.
guhhh long post. sorry