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A review by cbuck13
A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir
2.0
This whole series was good. Was it great? Nah. But I did like it, especially books 1 and 2.
That said, partway through this book I found myself wondering if I really needed to know how it ended. There’s just so much to it and so many layers that I feel like each book kept adding unnecessary complexity. It felt impossible to know where any character was in the physical world of the Empire at any time. I liked the characters, especially in the first and second book. But by this book they all became kind of muddy and I sometimes didn’t know whose perspective I was reading. I wish the story wasn’t so vast and convoluted. The end in particular was just annoying because it was all like “oh here’s a convenient way to solve everyone’s problems”. I don’t know, maybe I’m too cynical, but the deus-ex-machina aspect to fantasy books is kind of killing me. Like, can no struggle be solved just by the characters alone? There always has to be some outside force or some random savior that’ll solve the problems?
As a series, it was fine. If the three main characters were portrayed as they are in this book from book 1 though, I never would have picked up book 2. It’s like they all forgot who they were and while I get that war changes you and fighting epic fantasy beings is going to alter you, it’s like they all became either mopey, or unfeeling, or just totally disconnected from who they were at the start.
I’d say read it if you’re looking for a fantasy series and don’t have any other ones on your TBR list. Otherwise, probably not worth the effort in my opinion.
I think I need a break from epic fantasies for a bit after this one.
That said, partway through this book I found myself wondering if I really needed to know how it ended. There’s just so much to it and so many layers that I feel like each book kept adding unnecessary complexity. It felt impossible to know where any character was in the physical world of the Empire at any time. I liked the characters, especially in the first and second book. But by this book they all became kind of muddy and I sometimes didn’t know whose perspective I was reading. I wish the story wasn’t so vast and convoluted. The end in particular was just annoying because it was all like “oh here’s a convenient way to solve everyone’s problems”. I don’t know, maybe I’m too cynical, but the deus-ex-machina aspect to fantasy books is kind of killing me. Like, can no struggle be solved just by the characters alone? There always has to be some outside force or some random savior that’ll solve the problems?
As a series, it was fine. If the three main characters were portrayed as they are in this book from book 1 though, I never would have picked up book 2. It’s like they all forgot who they were and while I get that war changes you and fighting epic fantasy beings is going to alter you, it’s like they all became either mopey, or unfeeling, or just totally disconnected from who they were at the start.
I’d say read it if you’re looking for a fantasy series and don’t have any other ones on your TBR list. Otherwise, probably not worth the effort in my opinion.
I think I need a break from epic fantasies for a bit after this one.