Though it was heralded with a lot of hype and its score is still good,Onyx Stormis now officially thelowest-ratedEmpyrean Seriesbookon Goodreads and there are a few reasons for that.Onyx Stormpicks up basically right whereIron Flame’s endingleft off, and, likeIron Flame, ends on a very similar cliffhanger. Upon its release,Onyx Stormshattered sales records in its first week of release, becoming the fastest-selling adult novel in the past 20 years, hitting 2.7 million copies sold in under two weeks (viaNew York Times).
That is a wildly impressive number, a publishing stratosphere few writers have ever or could ever hope to hit. Clearly,The Empyrean Seriesdoes not need any help endearing itself to readers. And yet, there are other numbers associated withOnyx Stormthat paint a slightly less-flattering picture and hint that there may be some bumps in the road ahead for the series. While the third book has been a success from a sales standpoint by any metric, the success of its actual reception is a little less certain.
Onyx Storm’s Goodreads Score Is Officially The Lowest (& Likely To Drop Further)
It’s A Troubling Trend For The Empyrean Series
Currently,Onyx Stormsits at a 4.34 rating onGoodreads, and while that’s still quite a solid score,it’s the lowest of the three books released in theEmpyrean Seriesso far.For a while, it was neck-and-neck withIron Flame, but that actually wasn’t a positive thing, and a sure sign it was going to drop further. The thing is,Iron Flamehas had a Goodreads score of 4.37 for over a year now, and it took a while for it to drop to its current stable rating.Onyx Storm’s opening week Goodreads ratingof 4.56 has already dropped to 4.34 three weeks later.
4.58
2,611,450
4.37
1,834,747
4.34 (currently)
588,619 (currently)
That’s the pattern that any aggregate score follows, whether movies on Rotten Tomatoes or books on Goodreads: hardcore fans will always offer the first wave of ratings, and their ratings will always skew disproportionately positive. More casual, unbiased readers take longer to finish and thus, their reviews are added over the next few weeks. Once their reviews and ratings, which tend to be more fairly critical and balanced, are factored in, the score drops.It happens every time.
10 Theories & Predictions For The Next Fourth Wing Book After Reading Onyx Storm
After Onyx Storm’s cliffhanger ending, readers have begun to put together many convincing theories as to what will happen next in the Empyrean Series.
A more worrying sign is how few ratings and reviewsOnyx Stormhas needed to get to the lowest score already compared to the number forIron FlameandFourth Wing. Currently,it only has a third ofIron Flame’s ratings and only a fifth ofFourth Wing’s.While it’s entirely possible that the score could go up, that’s historically not happened with latecomers as their ratings are added. And whether diehard fans like it or not, casual readers' ratings count for exactly as much as theirs.Onyx Stormcould find itself continuing to trend in the wrong direction.
Onyx Storm Has Left Readers Feeling Confused & Underwhelmed
There Are Too Many Filler Side Stories
That said, it’s hard to argue thatOnyx Stormdoesn’t deserve to be the lowest-rated of the series so far.Onyx Stormhas a lot of problems, and, again, while its Goodreads current rating score is just fine, its reviews tell the actual story. The most common criticism ofOnyx Stormis just how messy it is. The series was initially intended to be a trilogy, but the publisher requested Rebecca Yarros extend it to five books, and the result is thatthe third book is stuffed full of unnecessary side plots, a carousel of side characters, and too many meaningless charactersin the service of stretching the story.
Readers have pointed out thatOnyx Stormfeels like a filler book instead of one that is absolutely vital to the series.
Thanks to this, readers have pointed out thatOnyx Stormfeels like a filler book instead of one that is absolutely vital to the series. Bythe ending ofOnyx Storm, the story hasn’t evolved much, withthe main plot and the characters being more or less exactly where they were at the start of the book.A common criticism is that the main story merely seemed to repeatIron Flame’s narrative, and it’s hard to argue against that. While it was clearly entertaining for many, the reality is there were significant narrative issues withOnyx Storm, and the next book simply has to be better.
How The Empyrean Series Book 4 Can Fix It
Rebecca Yarros Can Course Correct By Streamlining & Evolving The Romance
Each book in the series has been rated lower than the previous one on Goodreads, and that’s not a promising trend. Considering that,The Empyrean Seriesbook 4can and must fix the problems ofOnyx Storm, and the series as a whole. Rebecca Yarros can do that by taking more time with the next book and figuring out what plotlines and characters are actually vital to moving the story forward and cutting the rest. Granted, the amount of time they have to write isn’t always in an author’s control, but if it’s possible to get an extension, she should take it.
Onyx Storm Repeats A Frustrating Iron Flame Story That Violet Failed To Learn From
Onyx Storm repeats a frustrating Violet story from Iron Flame, and she needs to show that she’s learned from it in the next Empyrean book.
Streamlining the story and getting rid of the abundance of pointless elements will go a long way toward fixing the issues withOnyx Storm, but the next book can also help itself by actually evolvingViolet and Xaden’s relationship, which is becomingTheEmpyrean Series' biggest weaknessthanks to how stagnant and arguably problematic it’s gotten. Showing Violet and Xaden growing in significant ways in the next book, both as individuals and as a couple,is necessary for the series to reach its full potential.Otherwise, we can expect the Goodreads score for the next book to drop even further, faster.
