Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

Title: Empire of Storms
Author: Sarah J Maas
Genre: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Source: Bloomsbury Australia
Goodreads
RRP: $17.99

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those don't.

As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

Aelin's journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?
Review by Nara

**Contains minor spoilers for other books in the series**

As always with books late in the series, in this review, I'm not going to talk too much about the plot, because by this point I feel like plot is something you should experience for yourselves and not have someone spoil for you. I'm actually not even going to talk about the romance at all, because I feel like any mention of it with probably turn into some sort of spoiler (although I will say that I'm still on the Rowaelin ship- have been since book 3 when he was first introduced, and probably will be for the rest of the series).

I find it quite amazing how Sarah is able to keep the momentum going in this series, and despite it being book 5, and despite the books now getting longer and longer, there certainly aren't any pages wasted, with each chapter contributing something awesome to the story. EoS brings together a lot of players that we've previously seen, and I feel like the last book is going to be quite the epic conclusion.

Dorian definitely remains my favourite character, especially when I think back to Throne of Glass and how much he's grown. Many terrible things have happened to him, and will probably continue to happen to him (knowing Sarah), but it's definitely great seeing how he evolves and I'm certainly glad about the fact that he gets a love interest. Will be interesting to see how that pans out in the final book.

Many of the supporting characters are fan favourites, and it's easy to see why. They're so well developed and have their own subplots and romances that are incredibly compelling. I definitely find that I'm reading the books not only to find out how Aelin deals with destroying all evil, but also to see the small developments in the minor characters. One of the subplots that particularly stands out in EoS is Aedion's. Won't say too much about that because spoilers, but you can definitely look forward to his storyline.

Sarah must have thought she was letting us off too easy with the ending of Queen of Shadows, because HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THE ENDING. Things were escalating so quickly in those last hundred pages or so, and I was up reading the book until 1:30 am despite having an 8am start the next morning because I couldn't put the damn thing down! And then to not have everything nicely wrapped up! The bad thing about reading a book too near the release date is that you have to wait so damn long for the next one #firstworldproblems

So yeah, I'll just be in the foetal position in the corner of my room until the final book is released if anyone needs me.

Favourite
Ratings
Overall: 10/10
Plot: 5/5
Romance: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
World Building: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5