Onyx Storm (Chapter 44)

STATS

Title: Onyx Storm

Series: The Empyrean (Book 3)

Author(s): Rebecca Yarros

Genre: Fantasy (Epic)

First Printing: January 2025

Publisher: Red Tower Books

Rating: 1.5 / 10

SPOILER WARNING

Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entirety of The Empyrean up through the end of the content covered in this part. Mild spoilers for elements later in Onyx Storm may be provided, but I will keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible. Heavy spoilers from later in Onyx Storm will be confined to clearly labelled sections.

STORY

Violet is debriefed about the rainbow dragon hunt and just … goes back … to class.

And Yarros … scrambles to reset the board and generate new stakes … because she exhausted the story from her premise.

…

Seriously, Ms. Yarros? Three books in, and you still can’t plot out a story that runs from the beginning of the book to the end? You can’t just end the book when the story runs out? You have to keep defaulting to filler and throwing stuff at the wall until it sticks?

…

Regardless, Violet and her squad attend a battle Brief and get caught up on the tactical situation, including an analysis of the battle at a place called Suniva. Afterwards, Violet goes to the Archives with her accessories so she can tell them and Jesinia about Xaden being a venin at the same time.

PLOT

“The whole series is plotted out and arced and all of that.”

There was a point to my theatrics in Story, that being to highlight just how farcical it is that Yarros not only keeps pulling this stunt but has to audacity to lie to our faces while doing so.

Just like Chapter 16 of Fourth Wing and Chapter 36 of Iron Flame, Chapter 43 marks the point where the story Yarros set up in her premise and all the opening chapters ended. Just like Chapter 17 of Fourth Wing and Chapter 37 of Iron Flame, Chapter 44 begins the scramble to find any sort of filler to stretch out the page count until the spectacle of the climax. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Yarros doesn't even plan out individual books from the beginning, let alone having this entire series “plotted”. At most, she has a handful of notes or a skimpy outline that she blows through quickly and then has to make things up from there to hit whatever page count her editor demanded of her.

Cleanup

Back in the Spotlight in Chapter 12, I discussed how Yarros lies about there being consequences to Violet and the squad not returning to Navarre between the islands. It is transparent that she told this lie to force a sense of tension. Now that we have arrived at the point of the plot where she needs to pay off that tension and have consequences for Violet, she needs to sweep the matter under the rug.

However, there is another angle to this: that having Violet suffer consequences for her decision could have preserved a sense of narrative momentum. It is the last gasp of the story we were promised and that is now ending. Yarros could have engaged with this.

Instead, she made sure to kill any narrative potential so that she could proceed with the reset.

Leadership separates us completely after we put our things in our rooms, then questions us for twelve hours each with scribes. When Aetos accidentally lets slip his annoyance that King Tauri is so grateful to have Aaric back that he’s forbidden any form of punishment, the emotional relief results in an immediate sense of overwhelming exhaustion, but I don’t ask for a reprieve from the endless debrief. I made the decisions, and if this prolonged interrogation is my only collegiate repercussion, I’ll take it without complaint, especially knowing the other members of the squad are safe, too.

Just … wow. Yarros couldn't even be bothered to make this a power fantasy moment where Violet triumphed over Aetos. She just went out of her way to sever a plot thread that she went out of her way to build up in the first place.

If Chapter 44 were the epilogue of Onyx Storm, this wouldn’t necessarily be an issue. Yarros would still have lied to us and would still be wasting all the effort to set this up, but at least it would make some sense in light of this story ending. It would end up being like Eragon’s promise to the Menoa Tree in the finale of Inheritance: completely pointless, but somewhat understandable, given that the book is over.

However, this book isn’t over. It desperately needs direction. Yarros is ripping out the one dangling element that might have justified her not ending the book here and now.

False Starts

With her established story now comeptlely dead, Yarros tries to stall for time by throwing a bunch of potential plot threads at the audience. It’s the same sort of thing we’ve seen twice already. It’s not that any if these ideas couldn’t make for good stories; they absolutely could. It’s just that we’ve seen this song and dance from her before. It is obvious right away that she’s not going to do anything with these.

Let’s do a quick roll call.

For having missed more than three weeks, I’m only completely lost in physics and mildly confused in history, since all my studying prior to the trip had nothing to do with Braevick absorbing Cygnisen under Porom the First. If not for Rhi’s notes, the three of us would drown academically, and I’m sure Aaric feels the same about Sloane.

Academics have never been a barrier in this series. Yarros only ever invokes them as set dressing and to Tell us that Violet is facing a challenge without ever Showing us Violet at a disadvantage. We all know that this will either be forgotten or else be resolved without any struggle in Violet’s part.

But it’s Battle Brief on our first day back that shows just how much damage can be done in three weeks. Suniva is far from the only city to have fallen. In fact, geographically speaking, it’s an outlier.

“That’s not possible,” I whisper, staring at the map from my seat. How many dark wielders would it take to cover that much territory this quickly? Rhi and I spent the early morning hours debriefing, but this hadn’t come up.

“It’s happening fast.” Rhiannon takes out her pen and paper.

“If by fast, you mean that half of Krovla has been painted red while we were away, then yes, I’d say fast is a good term,” Ridoc notes from Rhi’s right.

Oh, no! You mean that the existential threat that was already a very immediate danger is an immediate danger?

At first brush, this might sound like a thread to continue the story, but we’ve seen how Yarros handles any battle where Violet is all present. No amount of throwing place names at us and insisting that things are getting worse can override the fact that it’s mere background noise. We don’t know these places. We don’t have any reason to be invested in the people who live there. Yarros might as well be conjuring up brand new territories to stall the venin so that Violet has time to focus on school and relationship drama.

“Civilian casualties?”

Rhi’s mouth tightens. “Unknown, and the borders are a mess. People are fleeing in every direction. Draithus is facing major supply shortages. Too many people too fast.”

My stomach knots. Mira and Garrick were both sent to Draithus.

“Because your king won’t let anyone in.” Cat seethes.

A few heads turn in her direction before quickly looking away. It’s been like that all day, cadets whispering and staring at us.

“What?” I lean forward to look past Maren as the stragglers take their seats. “We’re still not taking civilians?”

This is an idea with so much potential. I previously praised how Yarros was using this to translate an existential threat into something more relatable and understandable. However, that was before it became clear that Yarros has no interest in actually exploring the struggles of these refugees or the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by those who might take them in. She just wants to engage in moral grandstanding. Even that rings hollow once you consider how many people Violet went out of her way to endanger in just this book.

“Welcome back to our travelers,” Professor Devera says as she takes her position a tthe front, alongside Professor Kiandra. “From my understanding, they have secured us an army of forty thousand soldiers from an alliance with Zehyllna.” She gives me a subtle nod, and I force a smile. “Which may help turn the tide of this war.”

But we failed to secure our primary objective. And lost a squadmate. I’m going toneed to get back into the gym with Imogen to carry all this fucking guilt.

This is just a retread of the Mary Sue insecurity conflict.

Theophanie

While we’re on the subject, we should consider how Theophanie fits into this narrative reset.

As of this point in the narrative, despite being hyped up as Violet’s nemesis, Theophanie hasn’t actually had an impact. Her only two scenes have been:

• The failed attempt to rescue Jack. She abandoned and fled as soon as Violet arrived on the scene.

• Appearing to monologue and show off her power in Chapters 10 and 11.

Everything else has been her leaving notes for Violet, despite having the motivations and means to attack in person and capture Violet both times, or being fixated on by Violet so Yarros can remind us that she exists. The end result is that, at this stage, Theophanie feels about as significant to this plot as the ongoing advance of the venin forces. Yes, we know she exists and that she is a threat, but she’s not really relevant to anything that’s going on.

My working theory at this point is that Yarros didn’t conceive of Theophanie until she was working through her first draft of Chapter 52 (at the earliest). This scene of Theophanie re-entering the narrative was originally her introduction. Yarros then went back weld on enough foreshadowing to enable Theophanie to serve as Violet’s nemesis. Much like the second Krovalan uprisng, it is crudely done, but enough effort has been made that it can’t be dismissed as aftshadowing. Yarros wanted us to remember Theophanie. She just couldn’t be bothered to do the necessary rewrites for Theophanie to be narratively relevant.

All this is the say that, no, Theophanie herself is not enough to justify keeping this book going. At best, she’s the main antagonist for another book, a book that Onyx Storm is now devouring to avoid having to end when it really should.

The Romance Subplot

The only hanging thread here is Violet wanting sex. There’s no actual drama here to carry the story forward.

Takeaway

There is nothing inherently wrong with a story evolving throughout its length. Sometimes elements are revealed gradually that change the nature of the story. A good twist or a defining character moment can also radically change the direction s story is going in.

The problem that exists in every book of The Empyrean thus far is that Yarros runs out of story. She sets audience expectations about specific goals or milestones being the focus of the book, and then she exhausts them well before the climax. She creates a scenario where she should really end the book and start and new one that resets the board, only to resort to pumping in filler as a means to delay her intended climax.

A good author would revise her setups to extend all the way to the climax, reposition narrative beats so that the elements she already set up fill the enter space until the climax, and/or end the book once the setups are paid off. For a very easy example, Yarros could have made Theophanie actually matter to the plot.

• She could have made the mystery of Theophanie’s identity (which will be answered when Theophanie finally reappears) into something Violet actively engaged with and tried to solve throughout the book. This would firmly establish Theophanie as a character who drives the narrative, thereby setting the expectation that the story won’t end until some sort of final showdown occurs.

• She could have replaced each of Theophanie’s taunting notes with an action scene where Theophanie attempts to capture Violet. This would not only would this assert Theophanie as a credible threat but also preserve narrative momentum as Chapter 43 closes. Violet thought her quest was over, yet her nemesis went out of the way to threaten her and her loved ones.

Battle Brief

The most important information from this scene will be analyzed tomorrow as part of the Spotlight, yet there are a few odds and ends to consider.

Most of the problems here aren’t new ones. They’re plot holes that have existed for a while. What’s changed is that Yarros is not spotlighting these plot holes without resolving them and without any real interest to write a story that could resolve them.

Deployment

“On to battle strategy,” Devera announces. “Where should we put our forty thousand troops?” she asks the room, then calls on a first-year from Second Wing.

“They should be stationed here to protect the wardstone,” the curly-haired guy replies.

“Yes, because that is where venin seem to be headed,” Imogen quips from above us.

“Next,” Devera orders.

Did the characters (and Yarros) forget that a venin strike team infiltrated Basgiath just to attempt to extract Jack? Why wouldn’t they assume another attempt will be made to destroy the wardstone? There’s no reason to think a venin rider is necessary, just dragon blood. It would cost the venin very little to attempt this, so why not fortify Basgiath and the wardstone further? (Obviously, Navarre would not trust foreign troops for this, but they could rotate back their own people while moving the foreign troops to the front lines.)

What makes this all even more ridiculous is that Yarros continues to have characters act as if venin can’t operate in the wards. When Devera prospoes posting some of the soldiers at Navarre’s border outposts, this is Violet’s reaction, which her accessories agree with.

My brow furrows. Why would the outposts need more troops within the wards? “If we start losing wards, there will be no safe harbor on the Continent.”

“Safe for who, exactly?” Maren mutters.

“Hard for outposts to fall or lose wards when they’re already protected,” Sawyer muses.

Unless they think the arsenals are at risk. All it takes is a disruption in the power supply and the wards will fail.

This is a plot hole no matter how one looks at it. Yarros is trying to jack up the tension by acting like it’s strange people want to be ready to fight the venin inside the wards. She is also highlighting an example of why the venin should have been able to walk in and overthrow Navarre with relative ease at any point in the past six centuries.

Also, it’s worth noting that this conversation is the most significant contribution these 40 thousand soldiers have on the story. A big deal was made about recruiting them midway through the rainbow dragon hunt, and now that they're actually here, Yarros doesn't actually have a narratively relevant problem for them to solve. The story is exactly the same as if they were never recruited.

Buffer State

“You would deploy all the troops within Poromiel?” [Devera] questions, sitting back on her favorite spot on the table.

“It’s where they’re needed,” [Dain] answers with a certainty I envy. “And before the riders in here get defensive, remember that protecting Krovla’s western line keeps the dark wielders off Tyrrendor and Elsum, and we’re bound by our alliance to defend King Tecarus.”

What Dain just spelled out here was something we’ve covered in the past: that Navarre should be able to recognize the benefits of keeping Poromiel alive as a buffer state. If this third-year student recognizes this, the rider leadership and the scribes should have as well. Yarros has gone out of her way to spell out why the centuries of isolationism didn’t actually make sense as a decision for the rider leadership to make.

Destruction of Suniva

The scene then shifts to discussing the battle that killed the Queen of Poromiel. While I want to like what Yarros did here, it is yet another example of how the venin should have conquered Navarre a long time ago.

The short version is that a team of twelve venin used wyverns to drop onto Suniva. They then started a fire and coordinated the use of their Signets to cause it to rapidly spread across the city.

What's great about this is that Yarros is thinking of practical and creative applications for worldbuilding she has already established. She didn't make up new elements to force this. All the pieces already existed: wyvern flight and fire breath, venin Signets and that blue fire thing (assuming that wasn't Berwyn’s Signet, at least).

Unfortunately, this is an acknowledgement that venin, who can use Signets inside the wards (as demonstrated by Jack, if Yarros really wants to claim his pain projection power is a venin Signet), have the means and the know-how to level Navarre’s cities.

Forget the wyverns for a moment. They don’t need flying mounts if the enemy isn't fortified against them. They could send twelve infiltrators to any city and use maorsite (remember maorsite?), Signets, or a “flintstrike” to start fires. Since venin can’t be killed by flames, they have zero reason to worry about self-preservation while they do this, so they can start countless fires and kill anyone who gets in their way. Imagine how much devastation a group of suicide bombers could cause if they could blow themselves up multiple times. They could lay waste to every city on Navarre without dragons or riders being able to stop them.

And … because Yarros wrote this … she has to double down on both how effective this is and how any settlement that isn’t prepared with countermeasures would be devasted by it.

“If we do not rip apart this tactic,” Kiandra lectures, “they will use it again, and the next town they come for will be yours.”

The Leak

During the discussion of the destruction of Suniva, it is explained that the venin deliberately targeted the city’s arsenal, which had received six crates of the venin-killing daggers “a few hours” before the attack and would have distributed said daggers cross the front “in the morning.”

Violet therefore jumps to a conclusion.

Shit. The venin knew about the shipment. That’s the only logical explanation.

No, Ms. Yarros. It’s not the only logical explanation. It’s a logical explanation, but there are three others that are perfectly viable within the established lore.

• It’s a coincidence. Sometimes bad timing just happens. Violet noticing that Xaden was doing things he shouldn’t in Chapters 7, 10, and 19 of Fourth Wing was not because she had foreknowledge of his rebel activities. Each of these was justified purely be convenient timing.

• The venin sensed this massive amount of alloy being moved. After all, per Iron Flame, we know that magic can be sensed at range: Violet sensed charged alloy in the bags she carried without even touching said alloy, and everyone on the Cliffs of Dralor sensing the first dragons hatching in Aretia. It could have been that the venin were waiting for alloy to be shipped over the border and struck when it was at its most vulnerable, or else it could be that they were already planning to attack Suniva and had to move up their timetable when they sensed the alloy.

• Since venin have been demonstrate the same Signets as riders, there could be one with Melgren’s Signet. This would allow the venin to at least react to the alloy the instant it was moved over the border, if not outright planning the attack well in advance to coincide with when the alloy would be there.

The issue here isn’t that Violet thinks there is a leak. It would honestly be disappointing if she never considered the possibility. The issue is that Yarros is asserting that something must be true when a “rational woman” should be able to realize that it’s not “the only logical explanation.” This is a repeat of what Yarros did when trying to assert that rainbow dragon twist made sense in Iron Flame. Rather than putting in the effort to earn this conclusion, she is turning to the audience and commanding us to bow before her logic.

Things only get worse from there.

“How many people knew the distribution schedule?” I ask.

“Right there.” Devera points at me. “The answer is too many. We have a traitor in our ranks.”

My pulse launches. How many Barlowes are out there, hiding among us? Just waiting for their opportunity? The cadet turning in the Signet Sparring pit proved some of us are wiling to turn under the right circumstances. Maybe even in this room.

Now Yarros is acknowledging that the venin could have packed the riders with their own people … for a flash of paranoia that will almost immediately be forgotten by this scene and then have zero role in the narrative until the traitor is revealed.

This possibility broke the setting long ago. However, by shining a light on it in this manner, Yarros also breaks her plot. Properly engaging with this idea could he a whole book in and of itself. Instead of exploring any of that potential, Yarros is squandering it for a quick injection of emotion. She is taking something that should have titanic implications on her story, holding it up to the light just long enough for it to damage her story, and then tossing it aside before she can reap anywhere close to enough benefit to justify this cost.

Deflect, Distract

Yarros chooses to bury the narrative potential of a Chaos uprising by spending multiple pages dwelling on how the wyverns got the venin close to Suniva. It’s unnecessarily drawn out just so she can conclude, “They flew through a thunderstorm, with Theophanie keeping them safe from lightning strikes, and now Violet is paranoid about not having the POWER to match Theophanie in a head-to-head encounter.” Then a big deal is made about Rhiannon suggesting that sending Violet to the front lines would be the best hope of holding out against Theophanie.

Which brings us to …

Violet Tells the Accessories About Xaden

This scene flows with minimal transition from Battle Brief, with Sawyer arguing about Rhiannon about treating Violet as a military asset. The group moves to the Archives so Violet can tell Jesinia about Xaden at the same time that she tells Rhiannon and Sawyer.

Prosthetic Token

When the group gets to the Archives, Rhiannon prods Sawyer about when he’s going to try flying his dragon with his prosthetic leg. Sawyer snaps at Rhiannon for suggesting that he ask his dragon to accept wearing a saddle for his sake, and Violet suggests a subject change.

Two problems here.

We are being told, yet again, that Tairn is apparently the only dragon who cares about his rider enough to consent to a saddle.

“Sliseag isn’t Tairn,” Sawyer hisses. “I’m not about to ask him to make exceptions for me - not when he risked bonding a repeat in the first place.”

Why would Sliseag not simply propose the saddle himself, given Tairn consented to the saddle without Violet’s knowledge?

Actually, how is Sawyer even alive to have this discussion at this point?

Really think about what Sawyer says here. He is refusing a saddle for the sake of not shaming Sliseag (because that’s the only thing that can be implied, between the “risked bonding a repeat” comment and how the entire culture of the dragons and the Riders Quadrant was built up in Fourth Wing). Is it not a greater shame for Sliseag to have to sit out of combat for the rest of Sawyer’s natural life because his rider is too much of a coward to even try flying again? How has the rider leadership not ordered Sawyer to mount Slisaeg and either, “Fly … or die”? How has he not be shanked by a desperate first-year or a zealous disciple of this culture of strength or a Navarrian rider looking to flex on the Aretian riders? The new rule to end the death school only affects killing during challenges, so by the rules of this legalistic culture, there should be plenty of Codex-compliant ways to dispose of him and plenty of people with the will to do so.

The second problem is what this actually amounts to … which is nothing. Yarros has no interest in telling the story of Sawyer’s struggle to be a rider after his leg was torn off. This scene exists to remind everyone that Sawyer is Token Amputee and to have Violet be the one who calms him down and offers to help him.

Background Noise

Back in Iron Flame, Sawyer and Jesinia’s relationship was forced, but it made a modicum of sense.

Now, it’s no different from any of the rest of the inane, irrelevant chatter Yarros uses to fluff up her filler.

Jesinia emerges from the back of the Archives, holding a small paper bundle tied with twine. She quickly makes her way toward us, immediately gifting Swayer with a smile as she sets the book-size package on the table and pushes it toward me.

“Hi,” he signs, and damn if his grin doesn’t tug at the corners of my mouth.

“Hi,” she signs, then towards towards me.

These two characters have not shared a scene since chapter …

Chapter 13?! Almost exactly 50% of the book?! That was the only other scene these two have had together thus far in this book! And it’s the one where Yarros made Jesinia incredibly unlikeable!

It’s not impossible to have character dynamics rolling in the background. However, Yarros is banking on our investment in this relationship to milk emotion, and that doesn’t work if the relationship is both neglected in general and undermined by what she chooses to show us.

Fade to Black

You may recall how, while discussing Ridoc’s condition for keeping the secret, I mentioned that it makes no sense for Ridoc to just take for granted that Rhiannon and Sawyer would be on board with keeping the secret.

Turns out, Yarros simply can’t conceive of any reaction except utter, unconditional, devoted support for Violet. Ridoc was the limit of what she can do. So she has Violet tell the accessories … and then immediately end the chapter so that she doesn’t need to write their reactions.

“Tell them,” Ridoc signs. “Or I will.”

I sigh. There’s no point in being nervous. Either I trust my friends, or I don’t.

“Xaden is slowing turning venin,” I say and sign.

Rhi’s eyes widen, and she leans forward. “Talk.”

That’s it. That’s all we get.

Also, thank you, Ms. Yarros, for explicitly reminding us that Violet can always trust her friends. I’m so glad you’re acknowledging that she never needed to keep this secret in the first place, meaning all the drama regarding it has been a hollow retreat of the venin secret from the previous book.

CHARACTER

Violet

Just want to highlight yet another instance of Violet wanting to suppress KNOWLEDGE for the sake of her own self-interest. When Violet first realizes that Theophanie helped in the attack on Suniva, we get:

My heart races, and I shift my weight in my seat.

“What’s wrong?” Rhiannon whispers.

“I know how they did it,” I reply just as quietly, my grip tightening on my pne.

“Then say something,” Rhi prods like it’s first year all over again.

“I don’t want to be right,” I reply just as quietly.

A “rational woman” chosen by the smartest of dragons for her “intelligence” would realize that whether she shares the answer or not have zero bearing it whether it’s the correct one. Either Theophanie did it, and her morality demands that she banish “misinformation” by sharing what she’s pieced together, or Theophanie didn’t do it, in which can she’s wrong and has nothing to worry about.

WORLDBUILDING

Outside of the scale issues that we’ll get to tomorrow in the Spotlight, all of the Worldbuilding flaws in this chapter were covered while discussing the Plot.

THEME

Immigration / Refugees

In Iron Flame, the plight of the refugees put the existential conflict into a relatable context. Now, though, it’s become clear that Violet (and Yarros) will happily flip her perspective on the value of human life when it suits her, while the venin threat is being contextualized by the open warfare.

So, when Yarros brings up Navarre’s refusal to let in the refugees, it really does just feel like a virtue signal.

Here’s the quote again:

“Civilian casualties?”

Rhi’s mouth tightens. “Unknown, and the borders are a mess. People are fleeing in every direction. Draithus is facing major supply shortages. Too many people too fast.”

My stomach knots. Mira and Garrick were both sent to Draithus.

“Because your king won’t let anyone in.” Cat seethes.

A few heads turn in her direction before quickly looking away. It’s been like that all day, cadets whispering and staring at us.

“What?” I lean forward to look past Maren as the stragglers take their seats. “We’re still not taking civilians?”

I want to come back to “supply shortages” later. There’s a better point for it. For now, I’ll just point out that, in this very chapter, Yarros explains why refugees should be kept out: venin infiltrators.

Those of you who are disconnected from US immigration drama (which is almost guaranteed to be what Yarros is virtue signaling about here, given how it is often tied to the identity politics that she also signals about) may not know that one of the arguments in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration are crime and terrorism. Gangsters, drug dealers, and terrorists all use the influx of people as cover, blending into the crowds as they walk (or float) into US territory.

Whether these individuals pose enough of a risk to shut out everyone else is a discussion that exceeds this blog. What this example does do it set a baseline. No matter how bad gangsters, drug dealers, and terrorists may be, they are still human. They are not demonic sorcerers who are an existential threat to all life.

One venin was enough to nearly doom Navarre. Crowds of refugees could potentially conceal venin, especially if they are lower-ranked and haven’t drained lately. King Tauri (or Senarium, the rider leadership, or whomever else Yarros is currently demonizing for making reasonable decisions for the information available to them) is choosing to let hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t his taxpayers risk death so to prevent the annihilation of presumedly millions of taxpayers (you know, the people he has an obligation to prioritize).

What we have here isn’t an anti-theme in and of itself, but it’s a scenario tailor-made to support to anti-theme. The existential threat posed by the venin is so much worse than even the more radical presentations of illegal immigration in the US. By the rules Yarros has established, Navarre really is just a tiny lifeboat where the passengers are beating away grasping hands to avoid being capsized. The continued effort to build a moral binary around the issue just comes across like Yarros is an activist in deep denial about the holes in her ideology.

SPOTLIGHT: SCALE

Originally, I was going to have the spotlight analysis on Yarros’s issues with scaling her world at this point. However, this made the post rather long. I’ve noticed that most of you ready this site from your cell phones, and I’m trying to be more considerate of that fact by reducing the sizes of posts where I can.

Therefore, the Spotlight analysis for scale will be releasing tomorrow. I hope that you’ll come back for it. We have some interesting numbers of discuss, such as how Yarros made her world as small as Mercury and has armies larger than the civilian populations of her urban centers.

NOTHING STICKS

Chapters 45 and 47 follow the now-honored tradition that all books of The Empyrean follow once their plots run out of gas: stalling for time with classes, virtue signalling, and inane nonsense.

If Onyx Storm had ended with Chapter 44 as a wrap-up chapter, I would have far less to criticize here. I wouldn’t hate these chapters if they were setting up a paradigm for a new people that was just starting. On fact, there are multiple scenes here that would be fantastic if folded into a story that was actually written to support them. However, Onyx Storm didn’t end at Chapter 44. This isn’t setup for a new paradigm. Nor was this book written to support the potentially fantastic moments. It’s all just noise and knee-year emotions to stall until the next action beat in Yarros’s outline (assuming she even has one at this point). The ideas brought forth here aren’t meant to be explored, only to distract us for a little longer.

The breakdown is coming your way on October 24th. I hope you’ll all join me then. Please remember to subscribe for the newsletter if you’d like weekly e-mails with the latest posts. Please also share this review with others if you enjoyed it. Until next time, please take care, and have a great week.