Onyx Storm: Chapter 9
Feb. 9th, 2025 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaTwenty-two hours after the end of the last chapter, Violet's exhausted squad arrives at Samara. Again, this is ridiculous, but I complained extensively about it in the last recap so let's just keep going. Samara is in bad shape, filled with the wounded and half-destroyed. The fighting is over for now, but beyond the wards the venin are still fighting. The commander at Samara is busy with his actual job; he tells the cadets to find a safe place to sleep, warns them that the Poromiel alliance is unpopular and to stay out of sight of the enemy, and fucks off. Can't blame him.
He seems like he isn't a fan of Aetos, which again begs the question of how Aetos got this promotion.
Scene change. Violet is having a nightmare, I assume, since we open with no context to her digging through her trunk looking for something while fire rages through the window. The thing she's looking for is a miniature portrait of her family. In her dream, Cat shows up, and they have this bewilderingly gay exchange before Violet wakes up.
I mean, I'd be in favor of Violet/Cat, but I cannot believe Yarros would have the mettle.
Violet wakes up in Xaden's old bedroom, where she and her squad are holed up because it's still got Xaden's wards on it. I will note that her squadmates are on the ground and Violet is in the bed. Because of course she is.
As they get ready, news is delivered. The nearby village, where one of their flier's family's fled, is being attacked by venin. The Samara riders are too worn out and stretched thin to go to their rescue, so Violet and co. decide to go.
And...chapter end.
Who divides these books into chapters? They're often so short that it feels like nothing is happening in each chapter. And frankly, this chapter didn't need to exist. We could have cut straight to the squad having to go to the village because no one in Samara could, and all we would have lost was Violet's dream. Presumably this dream is foreshadowing, but we've been getting those for all of Iron Flame and nothing came of them, so I think we could have been spared.
Which just adds to my theory that the infamous editor over at Entangled doesn't actually do any editing. I don't even know how much of each book Yarros herself wrote.
Books are expensive. These ones come out in flashy special editions. But the actual writing is just not what it should be, and I'm sad to see it.
See you next time. Bleh.
He seems like he isn't a fan of Aetos, which again begs the question of how Aetos got this promotion.
Scene change. Violet is having a nightmare, I assume, since we open with no context to her digging through her trunk looking for something while fire rages through the window. The thing she's looking for is a miniature portrait of her family. In her dream, Cat shows up, and they have this bewilderingly gay exchange before Violet wakes up.
“I can’t leave you!” She grabs me by the shoulders, soot covering half her face, and fear waters her dark-brown eyes. “Don’t make me try, because I can’t.”
“You have to live.” I rip away and dig back into the chest. “He’ll choose you. I know he will. You’re the future queen of Tyrrendor, and your people need you.” She hasn’t lost her crown. She’ll fight for what’s hers.
“I need you!” she yells, then gasps and throws herself over me as heat roars against our backs. Wood crackles and breaks, and then the heat changes, coming at us from every direction.
I mean, I'd be in favor of Violet/Cat, but I cannot believe Yarros would have the mettle.
Violet wakes up in Xaden's old bedroom, where she and her squad are holed up because it's still got Xaden's wards on it. I will note that her squadmates are on the ground and Violet is in the bed. Because of course she is.
As they get ready, news is delivered. The nearby village, where one of their flier's family's fled, is being attacked by venin. The Samara riders are too worn out and stretched thin to go to their rescue, so Violet and co. decide to go.
And...chapter end.
Who divides these books into chapters? They're often so short that it feels like nothing is happening in each chapter. And frankly, this chapter didn't need to exist. We could have cut straight to the squad having to go to the village because no one in Samara could, and all we would have lost was Violet's dream. Presumably this dream is foreshadowing, but we've been getting those for all of Iron Flame and nothing came of them, so I think we could have been spared.
Which just adds to my theory that the infamous editor over at Entangled doesn't actually do any editing. I don't even know how much of each book Yarros herself wrote.
Books are expensive. These ones come out in flashy special editions. But the actual writing is just not what it should be, and I'm sad to see it.
See you next time. Bleh.
