A review by rinku
Elias & Laia - Das Leuchten hinter dem Sturm by Sabaa Tahir

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 A Sky Beyond the Storm is the finale of the An Ember in the Ashes series and honestly disappointed me. Reading the first three-fourth, I was sure I would give this book four stars and maybe five if the ending was great. Sadly, I didn’t like the last fourth at all and it almost ruined the series for me. 

Laia and Helene are now working together in their fight against Keris who became the new imperatrix. While Helene uses all her energy to protect her nephew, Laia becomes better at controlling her magic and tries to find out more about the Nightbringer to defeat him. Elias meanwhile fully became the soul catcher, leading him to forget almost everything that was before. Still, he has an important role in the fight against Keris and the Nightbringer that he doesn’t know of yet. 

In general, I liked the plot of the first three-fourth and like always, all characters have hard decisions to make and have to deal with dramatic things. Though again, the book felt a bit aimlessly at some points and some problems could’ve been solved more quickly, leading to a feeling that the story went in circles from time to time. Adding to this is the passing of weeks in sentences which leads to a slower pacing compared to the previous books. 

At this point, I thought about giving this novel a four-star rating. But then we get the last fourth aka the final battle. I have so much to say about this one and like I’ve said at the beginning, it just disappointed me:
Our heroes decide that they want to fight Keris and the Nightbringer in the land of the jinns. Laia is able to kill the reaper, but he becomes part of the evil river (idk how it’s called in English lmao) that threatens to destroy the whole world. Laia then just talks to the Nightbringer and is able to stop him in this way which was just so unsatisfying. 

Also, Harper’s death was completely unnecessary and only leads to more suffering for Helene, but I honestly expected it. In the end, she has literally no one left who’s important to her besides maybe Elias; I don’t know why Tahir is letting her suffer so much. Darin’s death as well was so predictable and all those deaths just for the sake of killing off characters and nothing more became tiring – at least Quin, Spiro and Afya are alive at the end. 

But we also need to talk about Keris’ death. I was so read for a final fight between Helene or maybe Elias and her, but then Laia’s mom appears out of nowhere and kills her without any resistance by her. Laia’s mom honestly felt like a dea ex machina at this moment and this was unsatisfying as well. Furthermore, the impact of the moment where Laia leaves her mom behind for Helene is just gone by this. Keris gets a random backstory as well that’s maybe supposed to explain or even justify her behaviour which it absolutely doesn’t. 

I furthermore don’t know what to think about Helene becoming the new imperatrix; she’s probably the best fit for this position but she’s again bound to the empire. The hinted at romance between Musa and her in the last chapter made me kinda mad since only some weeks have passed since Harper’s death, if I remember correctly. 

Despite my critiques, I still like the cast as a whole. It was nice to meet characters again which we haven’t seen after a while. Helene is still my favorite character of the series; strong angry female characters always get me. I love how Laia and her became friends and it’s so great to see but sadly, we as readers never get to know how their friendship formed and only see the result. Her emotions are again depicted so well, especially those towards Harper with which she still struggles to deal with. Because of this, I always get emotional when she shows her emotions. 

All in all, the whole An Ember in the Ashes series was a rollercoaster ride for me. The first book had a bit too many clichés for me, but I was intrigued enough of the world that I wanted to read more of it. The second and third book were my highlights of the series; the story was just so great, and I loved many of the characters, especially Helene. I appreciate furthermore that the romance was not the focus, but the dramatic and fascinating story. Talking about the drama though, especially towards the end, there was just a bit too much of it, and the finale itself was deeply unsatisfying. Still, I’m happy that I could experience this journey. 
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