Though it was heralded with a band of hype and its scotch is still effective , Onyx Stormis now officially thelowest - ratedEmpyrean Seriesbookon Goodreads and there are a few reason for that . Onyx Stormpicks up basically correct whereIron Flame ’s endingleft off , and , likeIron Flame , ends on a very similar cliffhanger . Upon its acquittance , Onyx Stormshattered sales track record in its first workweek of outlet , becoming the quickest - selling adult novel in the past 20 years , hit 2.7 million copy sell in under two weeks ( viaNew York Times ) .

That is a wildly impressive routine , a publishing stratosphere few writers have ever or could ever desire to murder . distinctly , The Empyrean Seriesdoes not demand any assistant endear itself to readers . And yet , there are other numbers link withOnyx Stormthat paint a slightly less - flattering picture and speck that there may be some bumps in the route before for the serial . While the third book has been a winner from a sales standpoint by any metric , the success of its literal receipt is a footling less sealed .

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 self-colored mark , it ’s the lowest of the three books released in theEmpyrean Seriesso far . For a while , it was neck - and - neck opening withIron Flame , but that actually was n’t a positive thing , and a trusted sign it was go to overlook further . The thing is , Iron Flamehas had a Goodreads grudge of 4.37 for over a yr now , and it necessitate a while for it to drop to its current unchanging rating . Onyx Storm ’s opening week Goodreads ratingof 4.56 has already devolve to 4.34 three week later .

Empyrean Series Book

Goodreads military rating

The Empyrean Series book covers on sparking fire background

Number of Reviews

Fourth offstage

4.58

Iron Flame and Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros with a purple background

2,611,450

Iron Flame

4.37

Fourth Wing and Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros book covers

1,834,747

Onyx Storm

4.34 ( currently )

The cover of Onyx Storm in the foreground and covers of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame blurred in the background

Custom image by Yailin Chacon

588,619 ( currently )

That ’s the pattern that any aggregate score watch over , whether movies on Rotten Tomatoes or books on Goodreads : hardcore fans will always volunteer the first waving of rating , and their ratings will always skew disproportionately positive . More casual , unbiassed referee take longer to finish and thus , their recap are added over the next few week . Once their reviews and military rank , which lean to be more fairly critical and balanced , are factored in , the score fell . It befall every time .

After Onyx Storm ’s cliffhanger ending , readers have begun to put together many convincing theories as to what will bechance next in the Empyrean Series .

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

Custom Image by Ana Nieves

A more perturbing star sign is how few ratings and reviewsOnyx Stormhas needed to get to the scummy scotch already compared to the bit forIron FlameandFourth Wing . Currently , it only has a third ofIron Flame ’s ratings and only a fifth ofFourth Wing’s . While it ’s entirely potential that the score could go up , that ’s historically not happened with latecomer as their military rank are added . And whether diehard fan like it or not , cursory readers ' ratings calculate for exactly as much as theirs . Onyx Stormcould find itself continuing to trend in the ill-timed guidance .

Onyx Storm Has Left Readers Feeling Confused & Underwhelmed

There Are Too Many Filler Side Stories

That said , it ’s severe to argue thatOnyx Stormdoesn’t deserve to be the lowest - order of the series so far . Onyx Stormhas a lot of trouble , and , again , while its Goodreads current rating score is just fine , its reviews tell the actual news report . The most coarse criticism ofOnyx Stormis just how mussy it is . The series was initially intended to be a trilogy , but the publishing firm requested Rebecca Yarros extend it to five books , and the resultant role is thatthe third book is stuffed full of unneeded side plot of land , a luggage carousel of side characters , and too many meaningless charactersin the Robert William Service of stretch the story .

reader have manoeuvre out thatOnyx Stormfeels like a filler book or else of one that is perfectly life-sustaining to the series .

Thanks to this , readers have pointed out thatOnyx Stormfeels like a makeweight book of account instead of one that is perfectly critical to the series . Bythe terminate ofOnyx Storm , the write up has n’t evolved much , withthe independent game and the characters being more or less exactly where they were at the start of the book . A common criticism is that the master history simply seemed to repeatIron Flame ’s narrative , and it ’s concentrated to debate against that . While it was clearly entertaining for many , the realism is there were important narration issues withOnyx violent storm , and the next leger simply has to be better .

Fourth Wing, Onyx Storm, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Custom Image by Yailin Chacon

How The Empyrean Series Book 4 Can Fix It

Rebecca Yarros Can Course Correct By Streamlining & Evolving The Romance

Each Word of God in the series has been rated downcast than the former one on Goodreads , and that ’s not a promising trend . study 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 Scripture and figuring out what plotlines and eccentric are actually life-sustaining to impress the floor forward and cutting the rest . cede , the amount of time they have to spell is n’t always in an author ’s ascendance , but if it ’s possible to get an extension , she should take it .

Onyx Storm replicate a frustrating Violet account from Iron Flame , and she postulate to show that she ’s learned from it in the next Empyrean Holy Scripture .

Streamlining the story and getting rid of the teemingness of pointless element will go a farseeing path toward fixing the way out withOnyx violent storm , but the next Koran can also help itself by in reality evolvingViolet and Xaden ’s relationship , which is becomingTheEmpyrean Series ' big weaknessthanks to how stagnant and arguably problematic it ’s gotten . Showing Violet and Xaden originate in significant ways in the next book , both as individuals and as a twosome , is necessary for the serial publication to reach its full potential . Otherwise , we can expect the Goodreads scotch for the next book to drop even further , quicker .

Onyx Storm Book Cover

Source : New York Times , Goodreads

Onyx Storm