As most fans know, Onyx Storm was released Tuesday, January 21st as the third book in the series, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Fans have been waiting over a year for it after the jaw-dropping cliffhanger in Iron Flame and it’s safe to say readers are more than happy to finally know what’s happening within the world of the Empyrean. But let’s talk about the release of this book.
Onyx Storm has been hyped up for months, and even I’m excited for it, but this release is lacking, heavily. For a book as popular as Onyx Storm on “Book-tok” and “Book-stagram”, I’m disappointed with how this book was released. There were many things that went wrong, and some things are still out of order.
Firstly, the Target special edition release books were mostly bent. I personally didn’t get the Target special editions, nor the regular special additions. But there are thousands of posts about these things happening, and I’ve seen it all. Target did a horrible job with the flood of people that came in, even though it should have been expected that many people are going to come in for the book from all the “talk” that’s been going around. The special editions at Target were not available for pre-order, pickup, same-day delivery, or delivery. This book was only available in the store and was a first-come, first-serve type of sale. People were lined up outside the door before Target opened to purchase this book, and not everyone got them. On top of this, resellers came in and bought multiple copies of the book, making it impossible for everyone to get one, and proceeded to resell them for hundreds of dollars, as a forty-dollar book. Not only is this morally wrong and disgusting to do, it’s also wrong on Target. Target should’ve handled this better by either limiting the amount a person can get or handling it in a nicer way, so people aren’t literally running across the store to get one. If you planned on getting it through the app, not only did the app crash, but Target also didn’t hold the books for those who ordered it. When the delivery person would get to Target, it’d be sold out and you wouldn’t receive it.
To talk a bit more about these target special editions, the artwork isn’t original. For such a big release, I would’ve expected more from Rebbeca Yarros’ publishing team. There are hundreds of artists who would love the book series and would love to have their work displayed in the book for readers to enjoy. Using D&D stock images and slightly altering them to fit the Empyrean World was not what I was expecting, and I’m heavily disappointed with how the publishers handled that. All over, people are disappointed and angry that this million-dollar book series couldn’t hire an artist, or multiple, to make original art for this release. As disappointing as the Target release was, I’m still dissatisfied with the regular special editions.
In the regular special editions, the only thing that sets it apart is the fact that it has spread edges. There are no alternate covers, ribbon bookmark, or anything else that’s special. Except for the fact that the pages are bent. Recently, I went to a Barnes and Noble looking for Onyx Storm which they had behind the counters. As I was purchasing one, I noticed one big thing from the sprayed edges; all the pages were bent. They weren’t straight and normal. The hardcover ends were fine, but then the pages themselves tended to bend a little to the right. It’d be one thing if it was just a bad batch in one bookstore, but it’s not. It’s been happening all over social media, and at different bookstores. People are spending extra money for these editions just for there to be multiple things going out of order.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the series and can’t wait to start reading Onyx Storm. I’ve been lucky as to not get any spoilers on this book, but I’m seriously disappointed with how the book was released, and the readers. People have been going crazy about this book and have been talking about it since the end of Iron Flame. Seeing and hearing about people who binge read it within a day or so and immediately go and spoil it for others, is such a sad thing to see. Iron Flame came out in November of 2023, and people have been begging for the third book, and now it’s finally out. Yarros has been teasing this book heavily for months and has been freaking people out.
After Onyx Storm was announced, pre-orders flew in sales, and Yarros made quick work of dropping little teasers to the third book. This book has quickly become a New York Times Best-Seller after selling 2.7 million copies within the first week of it being released, and people have been loving it. Rebecca has been posting teasers and funny little snippets since May 15th of last year and announced book three soon after Iron Flame. One snippet that Yarros posted on her Instagram was a picture of her laptop with a word document that wrote “They all die. No, not really. But maybe. Stop zooming in” in small, blurry font so the user would have to zoom in and see the words. It’s very funny, I admit, but back when I saw the post I was worrying about how Onyx Storm was going to go. Now that I have it in my hands, I’m less worried.
Onyx Storm was a disappointing release that I expected more from given it’s a multi-million-dollar book series, but still, readers are excited to read the third book after Iron Flames’ cliffhanger following a little over year break between book two and three. So, if you haven’t gotten it, go get it because it is selling out fast, and if you also haven’t, finish Iron Flame.
