The most anticipated finale to the Ember Quartet is now available! Having read the first three books in the series earlier this year, I was excited (and a little impatient) to know what happens finally. Even though I am yet to review the first three books on my blog, I will start off with my review of Book 4!

Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts or links to your reviews on this post! I would love to discuss the book with all Sabaa Tahir fans out there!

About the Book:

Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir’s beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm?

Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off…

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

My Thoughts:

A Sky Beyond the Storm is the conclusion to the epic Ember Quartet, a tale that began with an introduction to characters who have become beloved to us! We have gone on long journeys with them through this series and Sabaa Tahir does a brilliant job bringing everything together in this epic conclusion.

We have Laia of Serra, our fighter, survivor and Scholar. The Soul Catcher, formerly known as Elias Venturia, a former Mask who spends his time passing on the ghosts of the dead and trying to forget his former life. The Blood Shrike is a formidable character and even though she has many rough edges, it is easy to see how honor and duty as well as family are important to her. Keris Venturia, Elias’s mother, but now the self-declared Empress, wrecks havoc and leaves a string of bodies wherever she goes. Strong as she is, she is an enigma until her story is finally explained in this book. Finally, the Nightbringer, aligned with Keris for his own reasons, he helps to bring about death and destruction. His end game? Well that is something we find out in this final book!

The story brings all the characters together slowly as they allign, formulate plans to work together and try to win. Each has their own agenda and feelings or non-feelings as we have seen in the previous books, but one common thread holding all of them is love. The ability to care and love can make anyone do things beyond their expectation or imagination. We also have our favourite characters, Harper, Darin, Musa and some very unexpected characters make appearances and help carry the story along. Of course, not everyone can reach the finish line and some of the character deaths are devastating.  There are moments of joy that make us smile and as the war progresses, a lot of the parallel story lines become clear and come to their own conclusions. There are no loose ends in my opinion.

This is a story of loss, yes a lot of it, sadness, hatred, but also understanding and forgiveness. Knowing a person’s Kehanni will help to understand who they are and why they are the way they are. The author weaves a magical and spell-binding tale keeping the reader enthralled until the very end. This is a fitting conclusion and culmination of the events that happen across all the books in the series!