Onyx Storm: The Empyrean #3

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Onyx Storm is the much anticipated third book in the Empyrean series. Iron Flame left off on a thrilling cliffhanger and I hoped Onyx Storm would give us some answers. I’ll start with a zoomed-out, spoiler-free review and then include some spoilery tidbits at the end for those in the know.

Reading a book like this is fun because you’re part of the zeitgeist! It’s like when everyone raves about White Lotus and shits on Love is Blind. So, I like the communal aspect of a big book release. Since fantasy is not a genre I like very much, my bar is pretty low for these things. I think this has worked in my favor– I went into Onyx Storm with low expectations, understanding that this is a book about teens on dragons trying to save the world as they know it and falling in love in the process. Based on Goodreads, it seems like other Yarros-stans staked their entire well-being on the rollout of this book and then got their hearts broken as a result. And to that, I say– do less!

My general impression is that Yarros herself doesn’t really know where she should go with the series. The plot in Onyx Storm meanders– lots of irrelevant side missions and actions that read as clear filler. That being said, unlike many complaints I’ve heard, I actually liked the exploration of the world outside of the Continent. While it didn’t lead to anything substantial (and that was a missed opportunity by Yarros), it did change things up a bit and I enjoyed envisioning these outside worlds. Really, it made me want to go to the beach.

Yarros’ biggest issue is that she continues to give us too much of the same thing: Xaden and Violet being obsessed with each other ad nauseum, Violet’s one-track mind hyper-focusing on one thing and then being blindsided by a big reveal, side characters dying in dramatic ways that we don’t really care about (because seriously, who are you again?) but main characters finding a cheat code in times of trouble. The repetition is disappointing when there’s a lot on the table she can work with. For example, I like the venin moral dilemma: by stealing power to save others and do some short-term good, you give up part of yourself and create a snowball effect of long-term evil. That’s juicy! It becomes less juicy when the concept gets distilled to tons of characters becoming venin willy-nilly. It’s a lazy writing cop-out that makes the concept itself much less potent.  

This book also had a religious undercurrent that went pretty unexplored. We know next to nothing about their gods and belief systems– but we’re all of a sudden supposed to buy some random facts about Violet’s parent’s religious affiliations that change the trajectory of her powers? If you’re going to go there, go there. Give us a little more, even if you have to cut out the scenes where Violet talks about how hot her boyfriend is. You can keep the smut though lol.

Overall, like my experience with Fourth Wing, this book is average fantasy fodder to me. I’m still glad that I read the series and I enjoy it more than ACOTAR, but it’s not particularly impressive writing and I fear how Yarros will land the plane. Onyx Storm receives 3 out of 5 flames.

**SPOILERS BELOW** 

General thoughts I wrote down while reading:

-I could not read “Every possible path” without throwing up in my mouth

-The Gryphons continue to be mad lame. Why on earth did they even go on the trips outside the continent when they were such a liability and slowed them down so much?

-Kinda rude for Violet and Xaden to do so much PDA in front of Cat, have some manners

-I like the blurbs at the start of each chapter, those are underrated

-If Tairn dies, would Violet still be alive because she’s tied to Adarna? I’m gonna need Yarros to give me more dragon intel. I want to know what the dragons talk about in their little meetings