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A review by wokeupbricked
A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir
4.0
I'm sorry, Leigh Bardugo. I really am. But you will have to share the throne with Sabaa Tahir now, and she is not stepping down anytime soon.
This is it folks. With this we finally stand together at the end of The Ember Quartet. And Sabaa Tahir, *pumps fist to my heart* Always Victorious.
In this review, I won't limit my thoughts to A Sky Beyond The Storm, but to the entire Ember Quartet as a whole. There is something here in the heart of this series that has molded, shaped, and altered my insides. That has unlocked my view of life, that has made me better understand humans, life, love, good, and evil.
Everything about this book, from its name, to its words, to its characters will disturb you. It will hold you so tight you won't remember what loneliness felt like. "This book will disturb the comfortable, and it will comfort the disturbed." It will demand you to shut up and take the pain like a woman, like Helene, or Laia, or Afya, or Livvy, or Mamie Rila, or Mirra, or as any woman in this series would. This book showed not an ounce of mercy, not an ounce of regret. And in a way, I'm glad.
Sometimes life is not always kind, and sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we forget that not everyone is full and bursting to the brim with happiness. Sometimes people ache for it. Sometimes people search their whole lives for it, chasing it, and never obtain it. Sometimes their whole lives pass and they have never tasted it. And we have to be grateful for those fleeting times, those brief moments of joy.
If there is anything I have learned since the day that wretched Mask killed my grandparents and arrested Darin, it is that you must love while you can. For tomorrow, all that you love might be ash.
~Laia of Serra.
“You are lucky enough to love someone who loves you back. He is alive and breathing and in the same vicinity as you. By the skies, do something about it. For however long you have. For whatever time you get. Because if you don’t, I swear that you’ll regret it. You’ll regret it for all your years.”
~Musa, The Beekeeper.
"Power is a strange thing. It can twist loneliness into despair if there is not someone nearby to keep an eye out.”
~Musa to Helene.
We have to remember the people that fought and died in these wars, the people who fought for a dream they would never get to see. I think that is what Sabaa Tahir's message is. That we must fight for those moments of happiness because we never know how long they will last. We never know when our time will be up.
I swear this book is powerful enough to spark a revolution. There are truths and there are lies. And then there is this book, which contains both, but that teaches us enough lessons that it barely feels like fiction anymore. It feels more like a memory.
With The Ember Quartet, Sabaa Tahir shows the ugly unfiltered sides of a war, of prejudices, of slavery, of how hatred and lust of power and greed drives a man insane, enough to cause a lifetime destruction.
"There is a price for greed and violence. We do not always know who will pay it. But for good or ill, it will be paid."~ A Reaper At The Gates.
Remember, you will always have to bear the fruit of your actions. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then a decade after. But the fruit, bitter or sweet, will have to be harvested by you or your loved ones. And there is no greater pain than seeing your loved ones suffer for what you did decades ago.
All of my thoughts, summed up in Yumiko's review. Thankyou for writing such a beautiful review, as for I can always revisit this series through it.
Helene Aquilla: My Queen. My Empress. My Imperator Invictus! My Blood Shrike. My torch against the night. My Auntie Shrike. My Hel. My Helly. My book girlfriend. The love of my life.
Oh dear Hel, I can never trust people who leave this series with a favourite other than you. For your suffering, your mourning, your strength, your endurance and your unwavering loyalty to your people, it's unmatched. You are incomparable. And I claim it with a full chest, that there's no other character like you. Ever! In any of the books! Loyal to the end.
“You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is the broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.”
~Harper to Helene.
Laia of Serra: My Kehlanni. She is a flower that blooms amongst the mud, amongst the blood and war. She is the warmth of kindness, of love and humanity amongst the evil path of destruction and chaos. She is that one golden invisible string, that you must hold onto, if you don't wanna lose yourself amongst the darkness looming. The love that she has for the mankind, oof something I wish to see in each one of us.
Elias Venturia: My Soul Catcher. My Banu-al-Mauth. My Guardian of the Gate. My Ember in the Ashes. My Reaper. My knight in the shining armour. I have never seen a more selfless hero. This man literally sacrificed his entire life for his beloved. He chained himself forever to death, to a lonely eternal mourning place, The Waiting Place, with no-one but Mauth and some ghosts to torment him. But at the end, Always Victorious.
“It was never one. It was always three. The Blood Shrike is the first. Laia of Serra, the second. And the Soul Catcher is the last. The Mother watches over them all. If one fails, they all fail. If one dies, they all die. Go back to the beginning and there, find the truth. Strive even unto your own end, else all is lost.”
Keris Venturia: The Commandent. So many people hate her and wish her dead, and maybe I did, too, for a little while. But after Sky, I realized that she is a result. She got hurt so much, and her mother was taken from her, and Keris was forced to listen to her own being tortured to death. And from that flame, from that burning, rigid fire, Keris retaliated. She locked up her heart, sealed it with the strongest, toughest glue, hid it behind layers and layers of armor and pretended it didn't exist. Used it so rarely that sometimes she forgot it was there. That is a result. That is what happens when you have been hurt so badly and you are not strong enough to fight. For how powerful and tough Keris is, she was not strong enough. She gave in to her pain; she allowed it to rule over her. Thus, she lost every battle worth fighting. And at the end of Sky, when we finally realize why Keris is the way she is, understanding is gifted to us, is instilled inside us. Sabaa Tahir grants us an invaluable gift, one of empathy.
Keris—my mother—holds me, her sweet smile a revelation. My father takes me from her and swings me onto his shoulders. Avitas runs past us, green eyes sparkling as he pulls me down, and I chase him. My parents speak, and though I cannot hear their words, their language is that of love.
Avitas Harper: He is the love of my life. And I miss him so much, it hurts.
The Nightbringer: The Meherya. The King of No Name. The Lord of Jinns. The Beloved.
A very deep antagonist he is. Totally my beloved.
“Do not weep, love. This world was a cage. Thank you for setting me free.”
For the Beloved who woke with the dawning of the world is no more. And for a single, anguished moment, the earth itself mourns him.
HelenexHarper
They are my babies. My #1 Ship for the book. And my heart sunked along with Harper's death. And Helene and Musa..? Umm not bad. But it will always be Harper.
My mind snags on one word: Fearless. For I am not fearless. To be fearless means to have a heart of steel. But my heart betrayed itself. It is soft and hopeful.
And I know now that it belongs entirely to Avitas Harper. No matter how I wish to deny it, my reaction when I thought him dead tells me I am fully, foolishly in love with him. He is the weak spot in my armor, the flaw in my defense.
Damn my traitorous heart to the hells.
Emifal Firdaant. May death claim me first.
“You got there first, my love,” I whisper. “I envy you so. For how will I endure without you?”
“Tell Helene I got my wish, please. Tell her she must live.”
My heart is so heavy rn. I can't.
LaiaxElias
They were so cute in this book. They aren't my favourite ship but I adore them nevertheless. And I'm happy atleast they ended up together.
The fire turns her gold eyes molten, and she throws back her head and laughs. Watching her is like watching a waterfall thundering down a gorge. Like watching the Northern Dancers illuminate the sky. I cannot describe it. I only know that a tightness in my chest loosens, and I am different—lighter—for witnessing it.
“For me, Elias, desire is not simple. It is not shelter. It is not warmth. It is a fire that offers no light, only heat, ruinous and consuming. The longer you deny it, the hotter it burns. You forget shelter. You forget warmth. There is only that which you want and cannot have, and the desolation that follows.”
"I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times."
“I want a life with you. Adventures. Meals. Late nights in front of fires. A thousand rainy walks. You talking me out of my clothing in inappropriate places. I want my children with you."
What an epic journey it was. It's so difficult to bid these characters goodbye. But, I rest my case here.
“I awoke in the glow of a young world. When man knew of hunting but not tilling. Of stone but not steel. It smelled of rain and earth and life. It smelled of hope.”
“This tale is the gibbet in the square. The blood on the cobblestones. It is the K carved into a Scholar girl’s skin. The mother who waited thirty years for her child. The agony of a family destroyed. This tale is a warning. And it is a promise kept.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE EMBER QUARTET
rated and reviewed by me:-
An Ember in the Ashes
A Torch Against the Night
A Reaper at the Gates
A Sky Beyond the Storm
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE EMBER QUARTET
ranked from most to least favourite by me:-
1. A Reaper at the Gates (Love of my life)
2. An Ember in the Ashes
3. A Sky Beyond the Storm
4. A Torch Against the Night (Least favourite)
This is it folks. With this we finally stand together at the end of The Ember Quartet. And Sabaa Tahir, *pumps fist to my heart* Always Victorious.
In this review, I won't limit my thoughts to A Sky Beyond The Storm, but to the entire Ember Quartet as a whole. There is something here in the heart of this series that has molded, shaped, and altered my insides. That has unlocked my view of life, that has made me better understand humans, life, love, good, and evil.
Everything about this book, from its name, to its words, to its characters will disturb you. It will hold you so tight you won't remember what loneliness felt like. "This book will disturb the comfortable, and it will comfort the disturbed." It will demand you to shut up and take the pain like a woman, like Helene, or Laia, or Afya, or Livvy, or Mamie Rila, or Mirra, or as any woman in this series would. This book showed not an ounce of mercy, not an ounce of regret. And in a way, I'm glad.
Sometimes life is not always kind, and sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we forget that not everyone is full and bursting to the brim with happiness. Sometimes people ache for it. Sometimes people search their whole lives for it, chasing it, and never obtain it. Sometimes their whole lives pass and they have never tasted it. And we have to be grateful for those fleeting times, those brief moments of joy.
If there is anything I have learned since the day that wretched Mask killed my grandparents and arrested Darin, it is that you must love while you can. For tomorrow, all that you love might be ash.
~Laia of Serra.
“You are lucky enough to love someone who loves you back. He is alive and breathing and in the same vicinity as you. By the skies, do something about it. For however long you have. For whatever time you get. Because if you don’t, I swear that you’ll regret it. You’ll regret it for all your years.”
~Musa, The Beekeeper.
"Power is a strange thing. It can twist loneliness into despair if there is not someone nearby to keep an eye out.”
~Musa to Helene.
We have to remember the people that fought and died in these wars, the people who fought for a dream they would never get to see. I think that is what Sabaa Tahir's message is. That we must fight for those moments of happiness because we never know how long they will last. We never know when our time will be up.
I swear this book is powerful enough to spark a revolution. There are truths and there are lies. And then there is this book, which contains both, but that teaches us enough lessons that it barely feels like fiction anymore. It feels more like a memory.
With The Ember Quartet, Sabaa Tahir shows the ugly unfiltered sides of a war, of prejudices, of slavery, of how hatred and lust of power and greed drives a man insane, enough to cause a lifetime destruction.
"There is a price for greed and violence. We do not always know who will pay it. But for good or ill, it will be paid."~ A Reaper At The Gates.
Remember, you will always have to bear the fruit of your actions. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then a decade after. But the fruit, bitter or sweet, will have to be harvested by you or your loved ones. And there is no greater pain than seeing your loved ones suffer for what you did decades ago.
All of my thoughts, summed up in Yumiko's review. Thankyou for writing such a beautiful review, as for I can always revisit this series through it.
Helene Aquilla: My Queen. My Empress. My Imperator Invictus! My Blood Shrike. My torch against the night. My Auntie Shrike. My Hel. My Helly. My book girlfriend. The love of my life.
Oh dear Hel, I can never trust people who leave this series with a favourite other than you. For your suffering, your mourning, your strength, your endurance and your unwavering loyalty to your people, it's unmatched. You are incomparable. And I claim it with a full chest, that there's no other character like you. Ever! In any of the books! Loyal to the end.
“You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is the broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.”
~Harper to Helene.
Laia of Serra: My Kehlanni. She is a flower that blooms amongst the mud, amongst the blood and war. She is the warmth of kindness, of love and humanity amongst the evil path of destruction and chaos. She is that one golden invisible string, that you must hold onto, if you don't wanna lose yourself amongst the darkness looming. The love that she has for the mankind, oof something I wish to see in each one of us.
Elias Venturia: My Soul Catcher. My Banu-al-Mauth. My Guardian of the Gate. My Ember in the Ashes. My Reaper. My knight in the shining armour. I have never seen a more selfless hero. This man literally sacrificed his entire life for his beloved. He chained himself forever to death, to a lonely eternal mourning place, The Waiting Place, with no-one but Mauth and some ghosts to torment him. But at the end, Always Victorious.
“It was never one. It was always three. The Blood Shrike is the first. Laia of Serra, the second. And the Soul Catcher is the last. The Mother watches over them all. If one fails, they all fail. If one dies, they all die. Go back to the beginning and there, find the truth. Strive even unto your own end, else all is lost.”
Keris Venturia: The Commandent. So many people hate her and wish her dead, and maybe I did, too, for a little while. But after Sky, I realized that she is a result. She got hurt so much, and her mother was taken from her, and Keris was forced to listen to her own being tortured to death. And from that flame, from that burning, rigid fire, Keris retaliated. She locked up her heart, sealed it with the strongest, toughest glue, hid it behind layers and layers of armor and pretended it didn't exist. Used it so rarely that sometimes she forgot it was there. That is a result. That is what happens when you have been hurt so badly and you are not strong enough to fight. For how powerful and tough Keris is, she was not strong enough. She gave in to her pain; she allowed it to rule over her. Thus, she lost every battle worth fighting. And at the end of Sky, when we finally realize why Keris is the way she is, understanding is gifted to us, is instilled inside us. Sabaa Tahir grants us an invaluable gift, one of empathy.
Keris—my mother—holds me, her sweet smile a revelation. My father takes me from her and swings me onto his shoulders. Avitas runs past us, green eyes sparkling as he pulls me down, and I chase him. My parents speak, and though I cannot hear their words, their language is that of love.
Avitas Harper: He is the love of my life. And I miss him so much, it hurts.
The Nightbringer: The Meherya. The King of No Name. The Lord of Jinns. The Beloved.
A very deep antagonist he is. Totally my beloved.
“Do not weep, love. This world was a cage. Thank you for setting me free.”
For the Beloved who woke with the dawning of the world is no more. And for a single, anguished moment, the earth itself mourns him.
HelenexHarper
They are my babies. My #1 Ship for the book. And my heart sunked along with Harper's death. And Helene and Musa..? Umm not bad. But it will always be Harper.
My mind snags on one word: Fearless. For I am not fearless. To be fearless means to have a heart of steel. But my heart betrayed itself. It is soft and hopeful.
And I know now that it belongs entirely to Avitas Harper. No matter how I wish to deny it, my reaction when I thought him dead tells me I am fully, foolishly in love with him. He is the weak spot in my armor, the flaw in my defense.
Damn my traitorous heart to the hells.
Emifal Firdaant. May death claim me first.
“You got there first, my love,” I whisper. “I envy you so. For how will I endure without you?”
“Tell Helene I got my wish, please. Tell her she must live.”
My heart is so heavy rn. I can't.
LaiaxElias
They were so cute in this book. They aren't my favourite ship but I adore them nevertheless. And I'm happy atleast they ended up together.
The fire turns her gold eyes molten, and she throws back her head and laughs. Watching her is like watching a waterfall thundering down a gorge. Like watching the Northern Dancers illuminate the sky. I cannot describe it. I only know that a tightness in my chest loosens, and I am different—lighter—for witnessing it.
“For me, Elias, desire is not simple. It is not shelter. It is not warmth. It is a fire that offers no light, only heat, ruinous and consuming. The longer you deny it, the hotter it burns. You forget shelter. You forget warmth. There is only that which you want and cannot have, and the desolation that follows.”
"I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times."
“I want a life with you. Adventures. Meals. Late nights in front of fires. A thousand rainy walks. You talking me out of my clothing in inappropriate places. I want my children with you."
What an epic journey it was. It's so difficult to bid these characters goodbye. But, I rest my case here.
“I awoke in the glow of a young world. When man knew of hunting but not tilling. Of stone but not steel. It smelled of rain and earth and life. It smelled of hope.”
“This tale is the gibbet in the square. The blood on the cobblestones. It is the K carved into a Scholar girl’s skin. The mother who waited thirty years for her child. The agony of a family destroyed. This tale is a warning. And it is a promise kept.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE EMBER QUARTET
rated and reviewed by me:-
An Ember in the Ashes
A Torch Against the Night
A Reaper at the Gates
A Sky Beyond the Storm
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE EMBER QUARTET
ranked from most to least favourite by me:-
1. A Reaper at the Gates (Love of my life)
2. An Ember in the Ashes
3. A Sky Beyond the Storm
4. A Torch Against the Night (Least favourite)