- The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
- Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
- Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
- Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
Here are my thoughts on Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas.
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| Photo Credit: @WeeReader |
The Long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Friends have been lost and gained, loyalties have been broken and bought and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who do not.
Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves, with her hears sworn warrior prince at her side and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and the dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.
Aelin Galathynius will have to chose what - and who - to sacrifice if she is to keep the world of Erila from breaking apart.
Empire of Storms, as previously mentioned, is the Sixth installment into the Throne of Glass series, and like the books that have come before it, it has many strengths and many weaknesses. It was a rave to the end, and kept me riveted, even though there are parts that I definitely think are distasteful. I did enjoy some parts of this book, but I did have difficulty getting though Empire of Storms. It had a completely different tone, mood and overall story from the first few books in this series.
The side characters really stood out in this story, even outshining the main characters in this story.
I have a specific love for Manon and her 13, the political infighting and conflict, and pretty much anything else that happened with the witches. I would love to read a whole book about them! Additionally, I really liked the Elide/Lorcan chapters of the book. The main characters grew stale, and the introduction of the new characters manage to keep things fresh and me reading.
Manon Blackbeak went from being my most hated character in the series to my most loved character in the series. My opinion of her has really changed since first meeting her in Heir of Fire. She is a blood thirsty, conniving and kickass witch, and I love that despite her saying "I have no heart that cares" she truly cares deep down. She can show compassion without coming across as gooey. I also love it when she tells Aelin to get over herself and to stop being such a sap, it is such an iconic moment!
Lysandra is another character that I loved in this book, I absolutely adored her in Empire of Storms. She is strong, intelligent and able! She is not just a pretty thing on the side, she is upfront and ready to bear her teeth if it deems necessary.
Dorian got no respect from the other characters, which made me feel really bad for him. He has come a long way and has grown from the Dorian we met in the first Throne of Glass book.
Something that really makes this book series special are the female friendships embedded in the story. They are going strong and not just limited to one! There are several and I really appreciate that. The ladies in this story work so strongly together; they help each other through thick and thin. It is so admirable, and is something I would love to see in more Young Adult books.
Aelin has slowly become one of my least favourite characters in the series - and this is her story. We are supposed to care about her the most! She has become such an arrogant character and it makes her really dis-likable. Its almost as if she expects the world to fall at her feet! She's not really redeemable in my eyes, and is not really fit to become queen. The anything that she seems to have going for her in this story is her drop dead gorgeous looks, which we have now been told about for six books straight.
Being perfectly honest, I have never really seen the appeal to Rowan. He gets territorial and jealous even if another guy looks at his queen, and that is something I am not on board with. Bringing me to another point:
The fated lovers/soulmate thing going on with Rowan and len felt like a sloppy afterthought to me. It seemed 100% unneccesary and a little self indulgent. I found the relationship problematic since it seems to invalidate all the things they have been through to end up together in that way. It takes all of the character development and growth that brought them together in Heir of Fire and says "oh yea all this doesnt matter". The relationship really does not sit right with me.
Rowan's late wife is thrown in the trash as a result of this ship. She was just a trick that Maeve played...why? What gave her the motivation to do this? To not trick him into falling in love with Aelin 200+ years later? It seems to me like this si an absurd game on Maeve's part.
Following this, this book series randomly evolved from a Young Adult Series to a New Adult Series with the amount of sexual content in this book. It is great that more people are open to discussing having sex in YA. But the way this was conveyed in this book was atrocious.
First of all, I don't even ship Rowaelin, it is the worst pairing I have ever come across if I am perfectly honest. The sex scenes were just really cringey. They were so ridiculous it came across as funny, which isn't how I think Maas intended the scene to come across.
Some of the fans of these stories are 12 or 13 and even attended the book signing with Sarah J Maas. Fair enough if they were 16 or 17, but 12 to 13 is a little young to be reading about this type of content.
And the hanky pankying is not limited to Rowan and Aelin, although their scenes are much more descriptive. Out of nowhere, Manon and Dorian suddenly become sex crazy too, and also Lorcan and Elide.
It's just not what I signed up for when I first started this series, and it felt really out of place in this story. Sorry I want to get on with saving the kingdom, not reading about what these two characters get up to when they are alone.
It felt like not much happened in this story - they fought a few battles and experienced some betrayals, but it took forever to feel like actual plot was happening. Although I did like the twist in the end *SPOILER* when it was revealed that either Aelin or Dorian would have to die, and it will be interesting to see this play out in the next book *END OF SPOILER*.
Maas' world is predominantly white, Perhaps Nesryn is a POC or tan, not the sunkissed gorgeous tan of the Fae or the haunting porcelain white of the witches. She will just be tan. Also every character has to be flawlessly beautiful! To sum it up Maas' world has been lacking in divers characters.
That is until she tried to sprinkle LGBT+ chacacters here and there. One character's bisexuality is mentioned but not developed. They literally say "oh hey, I like guys and girls, lets move on!". It was so subtle that I completely missed it on my first read through. A minour gay character and there we have it. Representation.
Would it have made a bigger impact to have characters of colour and different sexual orientations up front. Yes. But were they there? Nope.
There was even a point where I thought that Aelin herself would be gay or bisexual, and I thought of how fantastic that would be. It is rare to see a gay character in these stories anyway, but to have a lesbian protagonist who it the queen to a lost kingdom. That would have been fantastic! But alas, it was not meant to be!
I am unsure if it was just me who disliked this, but I really hated how territorial the Fae were in this story. I know that some people find these controlling relationships really sexy and so romantic, but to me it just screamed unhealthy. Why would you want to be claimed, or bitten or marked? I really don't see the appeal. Given Maas' young audience for these books too, it seems to set up bad expectations for what their relationships may be like in life, and if they are in an unhealthy controlling relationship, they may think it to be normal.
Despite this, I really loved the ending of this book. I had to applaud Aelin, even Rowan, for their actions. Some things were too much and ruined the story, but some things were really good. I think the issue with this book is that a lot of it is filler and is setting up for the last two books, which is why some story elements fell flat. Like Heir of Fire, it is essential to the series, but it felt like a chore to get through.
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