A New Review from Racheal Reads: Onyx Storm by Rebeca Yarros

Onyx Storm is the third instalment in the wildly popular Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros.

I like to read a range of genres, but Fourth Wing (the first book in this series), was my foray into the world of romantasy. I’ll admit, I definitely jumped on the bandwagon to see what all the fuss was about when Fourth Wing was released. But in doing so, I discovered a new series that provided more of an escape than some of my usual genres.

I loved Fourth Wing. It reminded me of The Hunger Games, meets Game of Thrones, meets How to Train Your Dragon. Fourth Wing was very entertaining, and I definitely understood the hype. Expectations were high heading into Iron Flame, and I’ll admit I was left a little disappointed. It only came out about seven months after Fourth Wing which is an unusually short turnaround. To me, it did feel rushed, and I didn’t find the story as engaging as the first book had been.

That brings us to Onyx Storm. Firstly, there was a much bigger release gap between books two and three so already I felt more optimistic heading into it. The story picks up two weeks after the events of Iron Flame so a re-read beforehand (or at least reading a summary) is super helpful. In this book Violet and a select group of her faithful friends must journey beyond the Aretian wards and visit other lands in search of both allies for Navarre and other irids, Andarna’s mysterious seventh dragon breed. Meanwhile the venin army continues to encroach, and Violet is desperate to find a cure for Xaden's own venin transformation. There’s a lot going on!

I enjoyed going beyond the wards in this book and getting to explore new lands for the first time. It was interesting seeing what happened when their magical abilities weakened beyond the wards and the strain that put on the rider’s bonds with their dragons. I do enjoy the back-and-forth conversations we get between dragons and riders, and how each relationship is unique. So that was missed beyond the wards! I did think we got some good character development in this book too, but a good chunk of the story really felt like it was setting us up for future books, rather than it driving the plot forward on its own.   

One thing I find confusing in this series is the number of different characters. There’s a list at the front of the book with main characters which I found myself referring to often. However, a lot of characters referenced aren’t listed up front, and when they’re mentioned it’s like the expectation is there that we know who they are. A lot of the time I didn’t! This also goes for the map at the front of the book. Again, I kept referring to it when our main characters travelled beyond the wards and the world expanded, but alas, none of the new isles are on the map which does make it hard to visualise based on descriptions alone. Fingers crossed for a fuller map in the next book!

While I did enjoy this book more than Iron Flame I still don’t think it was as good as Fourth Wing. But I will say that Yarros does know how to keep her readers wanting more – end on a cliffhanger! I’ve heard that the series will be five books in total, which means we have two more books to go. Here’s hoping our unanswered questions are addressed! Regardless, I look forward to my next escape into the Empyrean series.

Posted by Rachel Reads

Back to Blog Archive