I came late to the Empyrean saga by Rebecca Yarros. I just read the first two installments, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, about a month ago when I found them on Kindle Unlimited. Of course I’d seen them all over BookTok for the last couple of years, but I’d just never gotten around to reading them. The more people raved about them, the more resistant I became. (Honestly, I still haven’t read ACOTAR for much the same reason.)
I thoroughly enjoyed Fourth Wing. I raced through that thing in less than a day. I loved the world building and the characters were well-developed and interesting, with a very real sense of urgency from the jump. Iron Flame was decent, I knew exactly where it was going from the minute I opened it on my Kindle, but I thought it was decent second installment in a trilogy. I was still heavily invested in the characters and since I’d literally just finished the first one, I strongly suspect that a lot of my goodwill from that book carried into the second.
This review isn’t really about those books, though. It’s about the brand new and third installment, Onyx Storm. I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a trilogy and that Onyx Storm would tie everything up. Imagine my dismay when I got to 95% and realized that it was not, in fact, going to be a trilogy or come to any sort of conclusion, satisfying or otherwise. I was already frustrated by the lack of character growth and additional world development. I literally had to remind myself why I was supposed to care about characters on that particular page when I haven’t seen or heard from them since the first book. Or it felt like that, at least.
Is it terrible? No, of course not. But it’s not great either. This has obviously become a money grab series, with the author not really having enough story to support the five book saga it is now morphed into, but not wanting to give up on that sweet, sweet cash cow either. It’s fine, but save your $15 and wait for it to become available on KU. It is not worth the price of admission. Why won’t authors learn from the examples we have painfully experienced from George RR Martin and Diana Gabaldon? Nobody wants to spend 750 pages at a rainy day picnic.
2.5 of 5 stars.