Threshing Day (Title & Content Reveal) (Part 2 - Concerns)
Hello, all. Welcome back to my reaction to the title and content announcement for Threshing Day, Rebecca Yarros’s new anthology set in the world of The Empyrean.
On Sunday, I suggested reasons to be hopeful for this anthology. Now it’s time to point out the the issues that are far too likely to appear. I’d also like to offer my theory on why this anthology exists, outside of being fuel for the hype.
STATS
Title: Threshing Day
Series: The Empyrean (Bonus Content)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: September 29th, 2026
Publisher: Red Tower Books
IT’S JUST THRESHING DAY
The Infinite Gyre
We are getting an anthology of short stories … all covering the same event … all written by the same author. An author whose last novel in this setting recycled the power fantasy four times over as its main plot. Now, she’s advertising her intention to do the same thing 13 times in a row.
For that matter, this same author struggles to even deliver effective epigraphs for all of her chapters.
On top of that, there’s the matter of the Rhiannon and Imogen chapters of Onyx Storm. Yes, this author can write narrative voices other than her self-insert Mary Sue and her idealized Shadow Daddy boy toy, but those other voices aren’t significantly different from one another. She also writes POVs defined more by what the characters are than who they are (i.e. the difference between Rhiannon’s and Imogen's POVs is that one was fighting a battle in the sky while the other was fighting on the ground).
What I’m getting at here is that I don’t think Yarros actually has 13 different stories to tell. She can’t even tell more than one story when working with four (supposedly) radically different cultures. What’s more, because she is limiting this anthology to retreads of the same event, she will have only so many opportunities to fall back on what the characters are. The few stories that are different will like feel very interchangible.
I’m sure Yarros has a few ideas.
I’m guessing she put more effort think Xaden’s story than the others, so that will likely feel unique.
A Jack story and an Andarna story have clear Whats to define them.
There will likely be at least one rebel child and one non-rebel child.
We can always count on Yarros to shit on Dain, so a story that makes him look pathetic is almost guaranteed.
Beyond those six, though? I’m not holding my breath. I know I said above that I’m hopeful about the individual stories being focused and coherent, but on the scale of the whole anthology, I’m fully expecting entire stories to be lazily repeated with only superficial variations.
Plus, Yarros has a precedent for just giving up. We saw that in Iron Flame with Xaden becoming a venin. We saw it again, on a larger scale with both the worldbuilding of Deverelli and the climax of Onyx Storm. It would not shock me if some stories read like they were half-assed to pump up the length of the novella.
The Boring Option
There are times when one needs to make a trade-off between a story that is a safe and a story that is interesting. Then there are times where the trade-off isn’t or (shouldn't be) necessary, or isn’t being consciously made, so the story is just boring, and justifying that by saying it's safe is pure cope.
I think it's safe to assume the latter here.
Threshing Day, as an event, has a lot of potential, but 13 stories of it, back to back? This isn't the Hunger Games. There’s no diversity to the scenario. It’s a very simple event. Opportunities for spectacle to cover up weaknesses in the storytelling will be limited. Add to this that all these stories are written by one author whose already demonstrated issues with repetitive writing and similar narrative voices, and we can’t even count on there being much stylistic differences among these takes.
I think that an anthology with three or even four Threshing stories by Yarros could have been a lot of fun. This many, though? That’s just not interesting.
If Yarros wanted to tell a story that rehashed the same concept over and over, why not do stories of people’s Signets manifesting? At least then the different powers would add an element of spectacle. Sure, there would be an exponentially greater chance that Yarros would further damage (what’s left of) the foundations of her worldbuilding, but since when has that ever stopped her? Plus, it would actually let her explore that whole “Signets give riders what they need” angle that she only whips out when she wants her self-insert Mary Sue to be Sherlock Holmes.
ONE WOMAN SHOW
This last point isn’t actually a criticism of, or concern about, Threshing Day. This is just me thinking aloud about a missed opportunity. It’s something that’s not at all necessary, but could have been a fun route to go, not to mention helping Yarros maintain the hype while reducing her workload.
If this anthology is just variations of the same story … why not commission other authors to write them, while Yarros served as the editor?
Think about it. Yarros is limiting things to a singular established event, with consistent rules, within a limited location. For as messy as her worldbuilding is, the rules of Threshing Day and the mechanics of the bonding process aren't complicated. This is a fairly ideal scenario for a bunch of authors to write stories within a shared world without contradicting each other. Yarros could get her Xaden story, and then a single sheet of notes and a simple reference map should be plenty to ensure 12 other authors color inside her lines.
There would be a bunch of benefits to this.
Reducing Yarros’s workload
Tapping in other authors with more diverse ideas
Introducing stylistic diversity to make the repetitive scenario more interesting
Feeding the hype machine
Who would write these stories? Well, Red Tower could commission other established Romantasy authors, or even just Fantasy authors. They could prowl AO3 and other fanfiction sites to scoop up worthwhile talent. Better yet, if they real wanted to fuel the hype, they could announce an open call for submissions. Let the fans who are already inventing substance pick up a pen and write that substance into the canon. (Or make it a non-canon project, if Yarros doesn’t want to be beholden to it going forward). If there’s a concern of something messing with canon, the rules could bar contributors from using certain characters and limit their stories to a certain time period that will limit the impact on the present-day narrative.
By no means does an anthology NEED to have more than one author contributing to it. I also understand that Yarros may be protective of her IP and not want other people messing with it in any way Still, this seems like such an obvious route to go when the premise is so limiting.
WHY IS YARROS DOING THIS?
Ignoring the evidence that this is a cash grab to sustain hype by an author who is running out of ideas and only cares about this series insofar as it makes her famous … why is Yarros writing an anthology of repetitive stories?
My theory is simple: outsourced creativity (or, if you’d prefer an optimist spin, market research).
Red Tower will not want to stop this series with Book 5. They’re going to want Yarros to do with Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Claire did, pumping out spin-off and sequel series for as long as people will keep buying them. This is a problem, because as mentioned above, the available evidence indicates that Yarros has no substantive ideas and isn’t truly interested in continuing this series unless it keeps her famous.
An anthology of simple, repetitive stories allows Yarros to experiment with minimal effort or consequence. She can test out potential Main Characters who might get a spinoff and/or sequel. Fan response and fan theories can tell her what to write next, or at the very least, what story notes to jot down so that Red Tower can commission a ghost writer.
Could I be wrong about this? Absolutely. Still, given how my predictions about Yarros imploding her stated theme of the series and using Heaton as a transparent virtue signal came true, I’m feeling pretty secure about my theories.
CLIMBING THE GAUNTLET
At the end of the day, all of this is speculation. Speculation built upon an established and consistent track record, yet speculation all the same.
We still have two months to go until this anthology releases. A lot of new information could come to light. I have a feeling that Yarros will be baiting us with specific characters who will or won’t be in the story, with a full list not releasing until either right before or right after. I’m also guessing that we’ll get teased about whether or not this anthology is required reading to understand Book 4. It shouldn't be, but I will assume that it is.
I won’t start reading this book the day it releases. September 29th belongs to actual romance, not to bonus content for power fantasy slop. But I'll dive in on September 30th, and the first story’s review will be ready by October 11th.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out my reviews of Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm. (Those of you reading this on Substack can also follow allow with the re-release of the Fourth Wing review, starting this week.) I do my best to not have old reviews be required reading, yet following my journey with The Empyrean from the start will provide insight into why I am so negative towards this series and its author. Believe it or not, there was a time when I gave Yarros the benefit of every doubt.
Thank you all for stopping by. Please subscribe and share if you enjoy what you read. Take care, everyone, and enjoy the rest of your week.