Empire of Storms - Book Review

Wow so I obviously read that book a lot faster than I did Tower of Dawn. I have a lot to say. (Spoilers). 

First I would like to say that the ending was very intense and brutal. I now have a very definite least favourite character in the Throne of Glass series — Maeve. 

I would like to think what other people thought of Lorcan. My opinion of him throughout the book was a bit like 📈📉 because he was actually like a decent person in the middle of the book. I mean, there’s still Kingdom of Ash but I bet that, when EoS had just been published and there was no KoA, the fandom would have been very very divided over those who did and didn’t like Lorcan. 

I feel very bad for the people who had to experience that cliffhanger without another book to go onto. This is why I only read books when the whole series is out. It’s painful to wait, but not as painful as waiting after a cliffhanger. 

So, um, that book was very intense. Honestly I don’t think it was as gory as earlier books in the series, but… yep. That. 

I understand that the romance and sex in Sarah J Maas’ books is one of the main reasons she’s so popular — and it’s probably what she’s most well-known for. I think that’s kinda sad because she has created a pretty unique fantasy world with memorable characters and a pretty cool plot. And also because I thought most of it was kinda out of place. I mean sure, I might be a bit biased (don’t project your sexuality onto others, isn’t that right, straight people?) but I think the book could have been just as good without all the… interesting scenes. And some of the romance. Is it wrong to think that having nearly everyone end up romantically involved with someone in the small group that they were in, is a bit unrealistic? And, you know, I think they had slightly more important things to do at times. 

BUT. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the romance at times. Manon and Dorian is a good ship (but doesn’t beat Chaol and Dorian (I don’t even know if I’m joking about that anymore)), as is Aedion and Lysandra. And Rowan and Aelin. The part at the end where Rowan was like “where is Aelin.” was very sad. Then he was like “where is my wife.” and that was like WOW WHAT WHY SARAH?

My favourite character was still Abraxos. Always Abraxos. The “nurse-maid of a wyvern” or whatever Aelin called him. I also like Manon (damn I should have known this would happen, a random person on the internet said that Manon was better than Aelin) and Lysandra. 

It was cool to see, like, all the different points of view at the start and they slowly all came together. I think a similar-ish thing happened in Queen of Shadows? 

You know what’s annoying me? There’s little red lines under so many people’s names, and to be honest I probably am spelling them wrong. Fantasy books, I really like you, but your characters’ names are impossible to spell. 

(This paragraph here contains spoilers for The Assassin’s Blade, not really but they could potentially be big spoilers.)

It was so cool to see so many characters from The Assassin’s Blade in this!! Can we see Sam next please Sarah 😭😭 

(Ok no more Assassin’s Blade spoilers.)

I enjoyed the writing style more in this book than Tower of Dawn. Speaking of which (Tower of Dawn spoiler ahead), I’m excited to see Chaol and Yrene return… even if they’re returning to utter chaos. 

Yeah so. I very much enjoyed this book. Somehow I got through all 700 pages in about a week? Compared to my approximate month-and-a-half for Tower of Dawn, I think that’s pretty good. But Kingdom of Ash though… oh no. 

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas, 15+* ★★★★

*This age recommendation is only my opinion. Some younger people might feel comfortable reading this book, and some older people might not. That's fine, either way. Warning for potentially upsetting themes, weird kissing stuff and worse, violence, gore, fantasy-type disturbing stuff, sexual references/themes/scenes, torture and swearing.