Scan barcode
A review by bluejayreads
Storm the Earth by Rebecca Kim Wells
Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.
I enjoyed the first book in this series. *Shatter the Sky* was creative and interesting, and I enjoyed the way the reader found out what was actually going on along with protagonist Maren. Plus, dragons and a unique take on dragon taming and riding. It's not one I would call fantastic or a must-read or anything, but it was good enough that I was willing to pick up the sequel.
Unfortunately, *Storm the Earth* didn't do it for me. Not all of it was the book's fault - some of it was the circumstances in which I read it, and some of it was my personal reading preferences. But one of the challenges with a sequel is that the situation and the characters have to change, and those changes also have to be compelling to the reader. The ending of *Shatter the Sky* brought a bunch of changes all at once. And moving those changes forward in this book just didn't do it for me.
Circumstantially, some of that is the fact that I finished the first book almost a year ago and this book picks up mere seconds after book one ended. I think that's always a big risk for authors, for exactly the reasons that happened with me - it's been such a long time since I read the first book that jumping immediately into the other half of the first book's climactic scene left me disoriented. I remembered the big picture of book one, but not the specifics, so I spent a good chunk of the beginning trying to reorient myself within the world and the story. And since the action was immediate, without a slower or lower-stakes section to orient myself before important things started happening, I just had a general feeling that not remembering the past details meant I was missing some important current details.
By the time I felt like I had remembered enough been reminded of enough about the previous book to engage with the story on its own terms, I wasn't interested enough to do so. Spending most of the beginning disoriented and disconnected didn't help. But neither did the fact that the changes in this book removed a large part of what I liked about book one and added several elements I don't really like in books. One of the things I liked most about *Shatter the Sky* was how the reader learned the truth about the dragons slowly as Maren learned it. Understandably, that didn't apply here. But my other favorite thing was the dragons. And beyond the very first scene, they didn't play a huge part. Sure, they were there and they did things, but it wouldn't have taken a whole lot of changes to replace them with horses, or dire wolves, or for the dragon traveling with Maren, a particularly intelligent housecat. The story was *about* dragons, but it didn't really *include* dragons.
Sev and Maren separated towards the end of the first book, so their alternating perspectives in this one showed different events. But Sev's side was mostly politics, which I tend not to enjoy in books overall. And though I enjoyed the accidentally-becoming-a-folk-hero elements of Maren's perspective, her parts were largely travel and her relationship with Kaia. And I'll be honest, I really was not invested in that relationship. I think some of it was that in book one, she was a goal and a memory and a motivation instead of a character - an idealized version of herself that Maren put on a pedestal but that didn't change or grow or act like a real person in any way. In this book, she's a real character with opinions and flaws, and also basically a stranger who the book wants me to believe is Maren's girlfriend. I get that their adventures in book one changed them. But despite how much Maren says she loves Kaia, they don't even seem to like each other very much. This is not actually a huge change from book one. The narrative told me they were in love, but their relationship didn't feel real. Since Kaia's role in that book was to be the reason Maren went on her adventure in the first place, I was willing to forgive that. Now that they have to actually be in a relationship again, it doesn't feel like either of them are actually interested in that. They don't read like characters who are in love, or even ones that were in love in the past. The romantic aspects that do show up feel forced; I can't really bring myself to believe that these two are anything more than casual acquaintances, no matter what Maren's internal monologue tries to tell me.
I've read enough YA fantasies featuring rebellions to predict roughly how this will go. Maren and Kaia will find some backup and Sev will do some stuff from the inside. There will probably be a moment where some miscommunication shenanigans will make Maren think that Sev has gone over to the evil emperor's side. There will be some sort of epic final battle with dragons. And then the rebellion will win, Maren will figure out her relationships, Sev probably becomes the new emperor, and everybody lives happily ever after. I don't want to deny that there's always a possibility that a book could surprise me. But nothing about this book really makes me want to give it a chance to do so. The only thing that's really holding my interest at this point is the dragons, and they're not even doing a whole lot (beyond existing and being pawns in this conflict between the emperor and the rebels). Which is really disappointing, because I enjoyed the first book. The series has some really interesting ideas, and even the weird relationship issues between Maren and Kaia could have been an interesting exploration of how relationships change when the people involved change. But it didn't do any of that. Instead, in spite of all the cool and interesting directions it could have gone, it just ended up bland and uninspired.
Unfortunately, *Storm the Earth* didn't do it for me. Not all of it was the book's fault - some of it was the circumstances in which I read it, and some of it was my personal reading preferences. But one of the challenges with a sequel is that the situation and the characters have to change, and those changes also have to be compelling to the reader. The ending of *Shatter the Sky* brought a bunch of changes all at once. And moving those changes forward in this book just didn't do it for me.
Circumstantially, some of that is the fact that I finished the first book almost a year ago and this book picks up mere seconds after book one ended. I think that's always a big risk for authors, for exactly the reasons that happened with me - it's been such a long time since I read the first book that jumping immediately into the other half of the first book's climactic scene left me disoriented. I remembered the big picture of book one, but not the specifics, so I spent a good chunk of the beginning trying to reorient myself within the world and the story. And since the action was immediate, without a slower or lower-stakes section to orient myself before important things started happening, I just had a general feeling that not remembering the past details meant I was missing some important current details.
By the time I felt like I had remembered enough been reminded of enough about the previous book to engage with the story on its own terms, I wasn't interested enough to do so. Spending most of the beginning disoriented and disconnected didn't help. But neither did the fact that the changes in this book removed a large part of what I liked about book one and added several elements I don't really like in books. One of the things I liked most about *Shatter the Sky* was how the reader learned the truth about the dragons slowly as Maren learned it. Understandably, that didn't apply here. But my other favorite thing was the dragons. And beyond the very first scene, they didn't play a huge part. Sure, they were there and they did things, but it wouldn't have taken a whole lot of changes to replace them with horses, or dire wolves, or for the dragon traveling with Maren, a particularly intelligent housecat. The story was *about* dragons, but it didn't really *include* dragons.
Sev and Maren separated towards the end of the first book, so their alternating perspectives in this one showed different events. But Sev's side was mostly politics, which I tend not to enjoy in books overall. And though I enjoyed the accidentally-becoming-a-folk-hero elements of Maren's perspective, her parts were largely travel and her relationship with Kaia. And I'll be honest, I really was not invested in that relationship. I think some of it was that in book one, she was a goal and a memory and a motivation instead of a character - an idealized version of herself that Maren put on a pedestal but that didn't change or grow or act like a real person in any way. In this book, she's a real character with opinions and flaws, and also basically a stranger who the book wants me to believe is Maren's girlfriend. I get that their adventures in book one changed them. But despite how much Maren says she loves Kaia, they don't even seem to like each other very much. This is not actually a huge change from book one. The narrative told me they were in love, but their relationship didn't feel real. Since Kaia's role in that book was to be the reason Maren went on her adventure in the first place, I was willing to forgive that. Now that they have to actually be in a relationship again, it doesn't feel like either of them are actually interested in that. They don't read like characters who are in love, or even ones that were in love in the past. The romantic aspects that do show up feel forced; I can't really bring myself to believe that these two are anything more than casual acquaintances, no matter what Maren's internal monologue tries to tell me.
I've read enough YA fantasies featuring rebellions to predict roughly how this will go. Maren and Kaia will find some backup and Sev will do some stuff from the inside. There will probably be a moment where some miscommunication shenanigans will make Maren think that Sev has gone over to the evil emperor's side. There will be some sort of epic final battle with dragons. And then the rebellion will win, Maren will figure out her relationships, Sev probably becomes the new emperor, and everybody lives happily ever after. I don't want to deny that there's always a possibility that a book could surprise me. But nothing about this book really makes me want to give it a chance to do so. The only thing that's really holding my interest at this point is the dragons, and they're not even doing a whole lot (beyond existing and being pawns in this conflict between the emperor and the rebels). Which is really disappointing, because I enjoyed the first book. The series has some really interesting ideas, and even the weird relationship issues between Maren and Kaia could have been an interesting exploration of how relationships change when the people involved change. But it didn't do any of that. Instead, in spite of all the cool and interesting directions it could have gone, it just ended up bland and uninspired.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Mind control (of dragons)