Onyx Storm

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

528 pages

What’s it about?

This is the third book in a five part series following the adventures of Violet Sorrengail and her great love, Xaden Riordan, as they fight the evil in their midst. They are both bonded to powerful dragons, and in this fantasy series we seem them struggling against evil and the power it has over them.

What did it make me think about?

Why did this series go from a trilogy to a five-part series?

Should I read it?

This was a big disappointment to me as a reader.  It just felt like one long filler piece to get to the next book. Unlike the first two novels, there just was not enough plot in the book to warrant over 500 pages- especially true in the first 150 pages. It seemed to me like the author filled in details to try to fill the pages. She adds tons of minor characters (with multiple names for each character) to make it seem like this novel is complicated and intelligent. For me it just added confusion and frustration.  To what purpose is this excerpt, “Ridoc spins toward Neve, and the third-year flier looks at him like he’s grown another set of eyeballs as she dodges his embrace and bumps into Bragen. He whirls toward Imogen, who puts up her hand as she walks by Quinn.” All these names and details that don’t even seem to matter….  I am torn on how to recommend this one- as the first two books were worth the time and I have hopes the author will redeem the series.  For me these books have all been about the plot- but this book just isn’t that plot-driven, which left me unsatisfied.  Your call?

A passage I marked

“Theophanie is very real, and if she can get to me here at Basgiath, she can get to my friends, too…the ones who are justifiably disappointed that I kept yet another secret from them. Thank gods they understand that Xaden’s not the enemy, that he’s still fighting on our side.” **** This is an unusual addendum to my original review.  After finishing the book, I did a little digging and realized quite a few readers are genuinely angry about this book. They feel it was a money grab to make the trilogy into a five-part series at this stage.  That the book does not hold up like anything but filler material to make more money could be true- or not...  Maybe the publisher and author just started to believe their own hype. Maybe they thought the readers would relish all this minutia.  We will never know....