I spent the two weeks leading up to the release of Onyx Storm reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame for a second time, because I could not remember the bulk of the story. The big thing I did remember was what happened to Xaden at the end of the last book, which was a cliffhanger. If you don’t want to read any spoilers, I am going to encourage you to leave and come back in the future after you have read all three books.
I remember a few months ago when there were previews of the audiobook for Onyx Storm on Spotify, and people were freaking out because the length was much shorter than it was for Iron Flame. I think people got entirely too worried over that, because the book is shorter by less than one hundred pages. And you don’t even miss those few pages because the book is full of an incredibly fulfilling plot. After all the mentions about the distant and numerous isles which surround the continent, Violet and several other riders, Xaden included, take the enormous risk of going to visit them in pursuit of finding allies in the war against the Venin. Only a small number of people know that Xaden himself is now Venin, the unfortunate consequence of having channeled his power from the Earth towards the end of the battle of Basgiath. While visiting all the isles that Navarre has been out of contact with for centuries, Violet is determined to find a cure, probably even more so than she is in finding an army willing to fight on the continent alongside the dragons and griffins and their human counterparts.
There are several stages of Venin, and Xaden is only at the very beginning of the change. He has a long way to go before he could even become close to becoming a Maven, but the more he gives into the power that he has accessed, and whenever he loses control of his anger, he takes one step closer to leaving the Initiate phase and becoming an Asim. In order to protect those around him and keep his secret he has Garrick and Imogen keeping a close eye on him. Xaden has also made the decision to touch Violet as little as possible, after he almost channeled power from her when they were being intimate a short time after he made the change. I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to read that and come to the conclusion that spicy scenes would be few and far between in this book. I will tell you that there ends up being a way around it, and it has everything to do with the main plot. I was extremely relieved that we didn’t end up with a book that was all plot and no spice.
The only thing I am a little disappointed in was how fast the mission through the isles went. It felt like every isle the drift traveled to was summarized in a few pages. I would have loved to learn more about life on the isles, what their society is like, and why they have not kept in contact with any of the territories of Navarre. I guess the real battle and all the conflict exists on the continent, so we don’t need to spend too much time anywhere else. But I feel like there is a reason that there is no magic on most of the isles, and that something is going to happen in the future which will result in the return of magic to these places. I feel like if this happens, the isles that shunned or refused help to the representatives of Navarre will be begging for their aid if and when the war reaches them. I hope that in the next book we can get an expanded map. I am interested in getting a visual displaying how far away all the isles are from the continent and the size of them. I believe it took the dragons twelve hours to fly from the city of Cordyn in Poromiel to the shores of Deverelli, which is about the same amount of time it takes to fly from Aretia in the Tyrrendor province to Cordyn. And Deverelli is apparently the southernmost isle of the isles, so to me that says the other larger isles must be even closer to the continent. I would love to know more about everything that happened during the rebellion and how it played in all the isles and the continent severing contact.
One thing I was not disappointed in was our runaway prince, Aaric. I really love his character, I have since he was introduced in the last book. I love that he was able to see through all the unjust decisions his father has made as a ruler, and decided to disobey him in order to try to change Navarre in a way that will benefit the nation as a whole but will also help Poromiel. I also love how he stands up to his brother, who seems to be as unfit to rule as their father. Halden may be next in line, but Aaric is more suited to the role. That always seems to be the case, those who don’t want the power or responsibility are the ones most deserving of it. Besides being more than capable in common sense and compassion, he is apparently an accomplished polyglot. He seems to be able to fluently speak the language of every nation they visit. It makes me wonder what other secret skills he is hiding. I had been waiting since the last book for Aaric’s signet to be revealed, and the author really had me stressing over how long it took to finally confirm it. You can guess what it is, because she not so subtly gives a hint, but I am never satisfied until I can confirm for sure. I knew that he was going to be able to do something amazing, and I was not disappointed at all. I guess you can see how much I hope that we get more of Aaric in the future.
And now, we wait. We were left on a cliffhanger even bigger than the one we were left with at the end of Iron Flame. I can’t wait to see how Violet tries to figure out what memories she had Imogen erase, and if Imogen knows the details of the memories and the time leading up to those events. I’m assuming that because Imogen can erase memories she has to be able to see them in order to remove them. So potentially the only people that know all the details of what happened are Imogen, Xaden and perhaps one other person, unless that person’s memories were erased too. I’m also questioning if all their dragons know as well and were sworn to secrecy. I think it’s going to be a long time before that next book comes out, and I think it will be an even longer time before we get to see Xaden again amongst those pages.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 