Onyx Storm Just Broke An Empyrean Series Record (But You Won't Like It)

Though it was heralded with a lot of hype and its score is still good, Onyx Storm is now officially the lowest-rated Empyrean Series book on Goodreads and there are a few reasons for that. Onyx Storm picks up basically right where Iron Flame's ending left off, and, like Iron Flame, ends on a very similar cliffhanger. Upon its release, Onyx Storm shattered 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 (via New York Times).

That is a wildly impressive number, a publishing stratosphere few writers have ever or could ever hope to hit. Clearly, The Empyrean Series does not need any help endearing itself to readers. And yet, there are other numbers associated with Onyx Storm that 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

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros angled to the side and a black background with smoke and orange question marks

Currently, Onyx Storm sits at a 4.34 rating on Goodreads, and while that's still quite a solid score, it's the lowest of the three books released in the Empyrean Series so far. For a while, it was neck-and-neck with Iron Flame, but that actually wasn't a positive thing, and a sure sign it was going to drop further. The thing is, Iron Flame has 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 rating of 4.56 has already dropped to 4.34 three weeks later.

Empyrean Series Book	Goodreads Rating	Number of Reviews
Fourth Wing	4.58	2,611,450
Iron Flame	4.37	1,834,747
Onyx Storm	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.

A more worrying sign is how few ratings and reviews Onyx Storm has needed to get to the lowest score already compared to the number for Iron Flame and Fourth Wing. Currently, it only has a third of Iron Flame's ratings and only a fifth of Fourth 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 Storm could 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 that Onyx Storm doesn't deserve to be the lowest-rated of the series so far. Onyx Storm has 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 of Onyx Storm is 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 that the third book is stuffed full of unnecessary side plots, a carousel of side characters, and too many meaningless characters in the service of stretching the story.

Readers have pointed out that Onyx Storm feels like a filler book instead of one that is absolutely vital to the series.

Thanks to this, readers have pointed out that Onyx Storm feels like a filler book instead of one that is absolutely vital to the series. By the ending of Onyx Storm, the story hasn't evolved much, with the 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 repeat Iron 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 with Onyx 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

Fourth Wing, Onyx Storm, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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 Series book 4 can and must fix the problems of Onyx 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.

Streamlining the story and getting rid of the abundance of pointless elements will go a long way toward fixing the issues with Onyx Storm, but the next book can also help itself by actually evolving Violet and Xaden's relationship, which is becoming TheEmpyrean Series' biggest weakness thanks 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.

Source: New York Times, Goodreads