Spoiler-Free Book Review: 'Onyx Storm' By Rebecca Yarros
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Onyx Storm is the third installment in Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series. It’s likely to be the biggest-selling fantasy book of the year, with more than a thousand midnight release parties in the US alone. It has sold over 6.5 million copies in its first few days of release and went straight to the top of Amazon's best sellers list.
Is it worth the hype? Here’s our spoiler-free review.
Onyx Storm is a big improvement on the muddled narrative of Iron Flame. Many of the editing complaints from the second book have been addressed. However, the first half is slow, which continues to be a feature of Yarros’ writing. But Empyrean books always finish strong, and the ending will leave readers crying out “Rebecca!” on their socials.
The plot is less focused on the status of the romance between shadow wielder Xaden and ‘Does she have a second signet?’ Violet. Iron Squad is allowed to come to the forefront, giving us more details about different relationships, including the dragons. Violet is more mature and comes into her own, but because of her still Xaden-centric viewpoint, many of her emotional beats are skated over. Xaden and Dain’s story arcs in Onyx Storm are perfection. Yarros gives us motivation for their actions without giving everything away.
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But readers may need an encyclopaedic knowledge of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame to keep up with the side characters. A large number have only been mentioned once or twice in the previous books, without any recap. If you’ve not re-read Iron Flame, it might get confusing. A subject of many fan theories (let’s call them the basket case) appeared for the first time, and it was a little disappointing. The character was one note, and disappeared from the plot rather than being allowed to show any subtext concerning their relationships with the others in the story.
Fans will be happy with the number of burning questions Onyx Storm answers from previous books. There’s a large amount of additional lore, and we see more locations on the Continent. The journey Onyx Storm takes us on does feel whistlestop, and there are really only two stops on the quest that have any gravitas.
Onyx Storm is the first book in the series that has a sense of humor. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, more than just the occasional wisecracks. There are also lots of short misdirects, where Yarros is clearly teasing her fandom and their love of speculating, and she also brutally ruins chocolate cake forever. Tairn is still the star of the show (sorry Ridoc), although he gets briefly usurped by Broccoli (you’ll see). The dragon also has some big emotional moments in this book, which fans will be waiting for Michael Eok (voice of Tairn in the audiobook) to get his teeth into.
We are treated to some new POVs towards the end of Onyx Storm. Unfortunately, the narrative voice isn’t hugely different; Yarros gets away with it because the action makes it clear who is speaking.
Onyx Storm, like the rest of the series, does contain adult themes, and scenes of a sexual nature, so please do check if you are buying this book for someone else. It will not be appropriate for younger readers.
To summarize, the Empyrean series started as romantasy (Fourth Wing and Iron Flame), but Onyx Storm is an evolution. Yes, there are still tropes, but Rebecca Yarros’ writing is developing is more complex story, rather than spending all the word count on Violet and Xaden angst. But don’t pick up Onyx Storm without a re-read of Iron Flame or it could get very confusing.
Rating: 8/10
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Source(s): Amazon Best Sellers, Shelf Awareness
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