![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
This review contains spoilers for “Onyx Storm.”
“Onyx Storm” is a page-turner — in the wrong direction.
With new characters dropping in at random with no introduction, lore and worldbuilding that serve no purpose and a plot that is less of a plot, and more of an amalgamation of poor ideas, “Onyx Storm” is 527 pages of pure confusion. Readers are left to flip through the chapters and maps constantly, looking for answers to what author Rebecca Yarros must have been thinking.
“Onyx Storm,” released on Jan. 21, is the third installment in the popular “Empryean” series, focusing on dragon rider Violet Sorrengail, her dragons Tairn and Andarna and her love interest Xaden Riorson. Violet is intelligent, headstrong and relatable. Or, at least, in the first two books of the series. Tairn and Andarna have distinct personalities, voices and thoughts, until a reader opens “Onyx Storm.” And Tiktok’s favorite bad boy, Xaden, is romantic, brooding and wild — until “Onyx Storm,” where he is just brooding, to an extreme degree.
The first book in the “Empyrean” series, “Fourth Wing,” has sold over two million copies globally. Bookstores nationwide held midnight release parties for the second book, “Iron Flame,” and again for “Onyx Storm.” Fans lined up outside of Target locations at 3 a.m. for a chance to snag a special edition of the series’ latest installment.
The disappointment is palpable.
Perhaps the disappointment is more powerful than either of Violet’s signets, the second of which is finally revealed in “Onyx Storm.” Anticlimactically, of course.
Spoilers below
“Iron Flame” ends with one of the most shocking, exciting plot points imaginable. Xaden has become venin, the monstrous enemy that he and Violet have worked for two books to destroy. Violet has also discovered that the only way to protect her friends, family and the continent would be to find the seventh breed of dragons, which her own dragon, Andarna, belongs to.
“Onyx Storm” attempts to deliver on both of these premises, but falls short.
Xaden spends the book brooding. That seems to be the only word that Yarros can use to describe him. He never fully ‘turns’ venin, and his character does not change from the previous two books. Xaden becomes a tool for Yarros to spew unimportant and forgettable lore from via his dialogue and nothing more. His romance with Violet remains unchanged from the previous books in the series, spare that, this time around, their interactions are incredibly bland.
Xaden also becomes a professor at Violet’s college for a handful of chapters. They receive one warning against fraternization and it is never mentioned again.
Gone is the mysterious, sultry shadow-master from “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame.” Xaden’s best traits are replaced with sulking, and his character does not advance the plot.
Neither does Violet.
Violet Sorrengail, lightning wielder, and, now, dreamwalker, sets out to find the seventh breed of dragons, or, Irids. There is almost no conflict during Violet’s search, though, which leaves this plot feeling hollow and unnecessary.
It wouldn’t be an “Empyrean” novel without a fake-out death. When Violet’s sister, Mira, is mortally wounded, Brennan, Violet’s brother, heals Mira on the battlefield. This moment is not mentioned again.
The previous novels in the “Empyrean” series both ended with cliffhangers — in “Fourth Wing,” Violet finds out her brother is alive, after years of presuming that he was dead. In “Iron Flame,” Xaden becomes venin. “Onyx Storm” is no exception to the trend of cliffhangers in the series, however, its shock ending does not build upon the plot. The final page of “Onyx Storm” reveals that Violet and Xaden got married, but that their mutual friend, Imogen, erased Violet’s memory of the moment.
It is difficult to imagine where the “Fourth Wing” series can go from here. Violet and Xaden’s marriage felt inevitable, especially as Violet has been referred to as the duchess of Xaden’s territory multiple times, and as Xaden has referred to Violet as his wife before. The ending is abrupt, but with the poor worldbuilding of “Onyx Storm,” there’s not much of a cliff to hang onto.
This story was originally published on MTSU Sidelines on January 27, 2025.
