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silkiemae · 2 years

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Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

My Rating: 3.75/5

So I know I’m supposed to be all rooting for Aelin to get to her throne and rule over Terrasen, but I was cackling like an evil witch when Darrow was rejecting the shit out of her claims. While he said some things that should’ve earned him a swift kick in the ‘nads, he also made some super-valid points. As far as all of Terrasen knows, when EoS begins, Aelin has been MIA for the last ten years. She shows up out of nowhere with a surprise assassin background; she has been living in luxury right under the king of Adarlan’s nose, boning the crown prince and the captain of his guard, who were at the time both considered enemies of her country. After killing the king of Adarlan and claiming the credit for destroying Rifthold, she threatens to kill all of the people in Rifthold if they step out of line. I’m sorry, but that would not win you any points anywhere. I don’t know why she’s so shocked that they don’t acknowledge her as queen. I don’t understand why she’s so surprised she has to earn her throne.

I like that people are calling out Aelin for the almost tyrannical way she’s been behaving. She has no advisors teaching her how to act as a queen. All she has are warriors at her back who do not have the proper ability to counsel her. She needs people who know what the fuck they’re doing to teach her how to behave. Sure, Aedion and Rowan can teach her about war. Aelin knows how to fight. But she has absolutely no idea how to rule and can’t just expect to walk in the door and have the throne handed to her. A year ago, she was blowing all of her money on gowns and books when she should’ve been saving it for that dream house. A year ago, she was blabbing all her secrets to Nehemia, a spy who betrayed her. A year ago, she was making out with Dorian, the son of the man who murdered her family. I’m sorry, but Aelin is not fit to be queen.

And yes, even though Rowan and his cadre are hundreds of years old and have far more experience in warfare than any of Aelin’s court combined, they never once advise Aelin, nor does she allow anyone to advise her. This is one of the things I find most infuriating about Aelin. Every time someone rightfully calls her out for being a show-off, rude, or manipulative, she turns around and somehow makes that person feel like an idiot for ever calling her out. If you talked to your companions and informed them about just one thing, this might not happen. If you can’t trust the people willing to fight and die for you, then why should they trust you?

Also, Aelin got much more powerful in this book than in the previous ones. She exhaled a breath of air, and then a man crumbled into ash. Since when has she been able to transport her fire like that magically? It’s always had to come directly from her. She seems to be able to do all sorts of things with her fire now that never was before a possibility. I don’t like that Aelin is so powerful that it’s almost as though she cannot be defeated and that Maeve had to construct this elaborate plan to get her into a weak spot. And with every battle, Aelin beats everyone with barely a scratch on her or anyone else.

The battle at Skull’s Bay was far too easy, and sure Deanna took control and made things go awry, but everyone still made it out completely fine. Lysandra should’ve died tbh. Not that I want her to die, I like Lysandra, and I want her to survive, but if SJM wasn’t so afraid of killing off characters she liked, then Lysandra would not have survived her fight with the sea wyverns. When the 500 ilken show up, Aelin takes out every single one of them in a single blast(with a little help from her friends), and it’s just like…really? 500 liken? That makes for literally zero challenge except to deplete her magic so that there can be barely a fight at the end when Aelin is taken.

SJM did basically the same thing she did with ACOWAR in this book. Every time they think they’re about to lose, a new army shows up to save the day. First, Ansel shows up with her Melisande army. Maeve’s armada turns against each other because Rowan told his cousins about how he got a new girlfriend. Manon’s Thirteen show up because Abraxos went to find them, Ganon and his armada, and Silent Assassins from the Red Desert. Like, yes, it’s much more thought out and planned, and we know that all these people owe a debt to Aelin somehow, so I did like that bit. Still, the fact that she was so unwilling to share any of this information and by the end when she’s taken Aedion is so guilt-ridden for ever questioning her and thinking her this amazing self-sacrificing goddess and like…no! Aedion, you should be mad at her!

Not only did she not trust you enough to tell her a single one of her plans, but she also took your blood oath and gave it to her new boyfriend without considering you once; she made your new girlfriend lie to you behind your back for months and then set up a plan without your consent that you would have to be breeding stud for her while she posed as YOUR COUSIN. Aedion has every reason to be mad at Aelin, and I hate that because SJM is so in love with Aelin that every other character is also in love with her and won’t ever dare stay mad at her for longer than a chapter or two.

Even Lorcan, who I liked because of his hatred for Aelin, CRIES OVER HER because of her self-sacrificing bullshit. It’s hard to take that prophecy seriously when SJM removes the gravitas behind anyone’s sacrifice. She did it with Rhysand and Amren. She did it with Feyre. Chaol should’ve died two books ago, but SJM couldn’t do it. It will not surprise me when Aelin survives forging the Lock and lives happily ever after.

Now that I’m done complaining about Aelin.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. This is SJM’s best series in terms of being well thought out regarding the plot. I like the build-up to most of the relationships, but once they get together, it falls flat. I mainly think it’s due to SJM’s penchant for unbelievably cringy dialogue and poorly written sex scenes.

Aelin and Rowan getting secretly married did nothing for me. Their relationship does nothing for me tbh. I don’t care about them and want Aelin to die or get an entirely new personality in the next book. But if Endovier didn’t make her lose her entitlement, I doubt her time with Maeve will.

Lysandra is my favorite character. I think she’s a bad bitch; I love shapeshifters who can turn into literally whatever they want. I liked the relationship between Aedion and Lysandra up until the end, and now I hope they never get together. If I were Aedion, I would not be so willing to forgive Aelin or Lysandra.

Elide and Lorcan’s journey was fun, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I really wanted to like them together, but there was such an emphasis on their age gap and the fact that Elide was ‘barely a woman’ made it feel creepy to me. It comes off as pedophilic when a 500-year-old man thirsts after ‘barely a woman’ and constantly talks about how young and dainty she is. Talking about how her cycles are regular and shit, like…come on. Still, when they finally kissed, it was sweet, but then Lorcan showed just how pathetic and male he was when he crawled to Maeve and cried over Aelin.

So, I know it’s not going to happen, but I’m going to dream that now that Elide wants nothing to do with Lorcan, she’ll realize that she is in love with Manon, and they’ll run away together on Abraxos’ back. Seriously, I don’t see why Manon likes Dorian at all. I get it as a distraction while she’s stuck on that boat, but he is so bland and not good enough for Manon, sorry. Manon and Elide are my OTP in this book, goddammit.

Two more things to mention, and I think that’s it.

I wish SJM would go a different route than making her villains sexual offenders. Erawan and Maeve are rapists, and it just feels so unneeded. They can be evil without also having to rape your characters. The fact that Maeve uses her blood oath to force the men in her service into her bed is so fucked up. And then Erawan uses and abuses Kaltain for so long that she also kills herself to be self-sacrificial. I think her death was a waste. That bitch ate a whole demon and took back control. She could’ve been so cool.

And my last question.

WHERE THE FUCK IS FLEETFOOT? WHY DOES NO ONE GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THIS POOR DOG? ( I know she’s with Evangeline, but Aelin doesn’t think about her dog once. I knew she didn’t deserve that dog when she started demanding that other people take care of her for her.)

#Sarah j maas #empire of storms #throne of glass #book review #aelin galathynius #celaena sordothien

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a-heavenlybooks-blog · 8 years

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Feminine Badassery

I know that it’s been mentioned before, but I really wanted to write about this.

I am so happy that Sarah J Maas (a.k.a our living Goddess) made Feyre and Aelin the type of female characters that still retained their love for feminine things.

We usually see a lot of “ I am a hard as fuck female character that hates dresses and make up or spending time on my hair bc I’m a. . .” (insert: hunter, warrior, assassin, general, soldier, etc.)

Aelin loves her weapons and assassin gear/suit just as much as she loves extravagant dresses, tasty chocolates, perfumes, and so on. We see this multiple times throughout TOG even when as Celaena Sordothien.

I’m sure we can all recall how in TOG1 she was always trying to one up all of the other women in the castle. She always wanted the most beautiful dresses and the best hair. We also know that while she was still working for her “master” as a young girl, she had a thing for unique dresses (aka THE dress in Qos).

Although she lived the majority of her life surrounded by males, she still kept her love of girly things.

Then there’s Feyre.

I know we all remember how in the beginning of ACOTAR, Feyre didn’t want to wear dresses while she was living with Tamlin. I’m pretty sure she mentioned that the reason she didn’t want to wear dresses was bc it restricted her mobility and she didn’t want to be more defenseless than she already was. But, as she begins to trust Tamlin and the Spring court, she begins to willingly wear dresses.

Then we see more of her choice in feminine wear in ACOWAR. I think we all agree that at first, she put so much effort into her look bc she was conditioned to look “dressed up” 24/7 at the Spring court. As she begins to loosen up and trust the Court of Dreams, she starts wearing things that SHE genuinely likes.

I feel like a good example is of her visit to the Summer Court. To be specific, when Traquin gives her the necklace. She (again) genuinely likes this piece of jewelry for herself.

I feel like so many authors that have YA Action/Adventure books with a main female protagonist try to strip the femininity out of their character and make them “one of the guys”.

Like, why do you think that a female who is a kickass character that wears shit kicking boots and wields weapons like a natural extension of their body can’t like high heals and dresses?

Now, I know that in real life there are cis women who aren’t fond of dresses or high heals and make up. You might be a t-shirt, jeans, and chucks type of girl, AND THAT IS TOTALLY OKAY.

I’m just saying that I think it’s nice that SJMAAS made Aelin and Feyre like this bc it teaches young girls that you don’t have to be wholly one thing or the other. You can be a mix of both and that’s really REALLY great.

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