The Ember quartet is one of the first series that got me into the genre of fantasy. With a few other books/series. An Ember in the Ashes is the first book, that got me enthralled in the world of fantasy. Sabaa Tahir’s world-building is exceptional, I remember the first time reading it absolutely captured me as I was picturing Blackcliff’s oppressive building, the hustle and bustle of the Serran markets and the characters who felt so familiar and in ways, I could relate to. This takes me to my first point. Representation! Picking up this book knowing an American/Pakistani wrote this made me so proud. This was a time of firsts because not only was this my entrance to the fantasy genre but also it was my first time seeing a person with a similar background to me writing in the fantasy genre. When I was growing up and of course reflecting back it is depressing to see the books I read were not diverse and certainly not written by BIPOC authors and growing up this slowly changed. I learned this was not just ‘my’ case, but it was a major issue and thankfully we are slowly starting to acknowledge this and are beginning to make much-needed changes.
I read books 1 to 3 and then re-started the series but doing it as a buddy read with an amazing friend just deepened my love for the series. I finished the fourth and final book in the series ‘A Sky Beyond the Storm’ a few days ago and uni assignments and me not being able to get over it has allowed me to process it. It is the conclusion to the quartet *spoilers ahead* and I am conflicted. On the one hand, I do really like the ending, on the other it felt rushed, so it was a bit of a let-down. With the starting, I thought it was a lot more fast-paced than book 3 and it started with a lot of twists and turns. My jaw dropped when Cain visited Elias in the waiting place because I didn’t expect Cain to make an appearance in this book, but he did, and he didn’t go without saying a prophecy and making Elias kill him. I have always loved Cain and the augur’s character just because of the mysticism surrounding them and the prophecies they give, my favourite being them telling Helene she is the Torch against the Night.
I really liked Helene and Laia’s friendship and them having that bond fighting together to bring down the Nightbringer, but I wished we saw that gradually rather than having ‘in 3 months this happened’ because it doesn’t flow with book 3 saying they are enemies and suddenly they are best friends. I think Laia delivering Livia’s baby does make it that more special and also Helene healing Laia back at the start of the series, no matter how fraught their relationship they always had some connection to each other.
I loved Elias’s character development from books 1-4 and I felt he gave up the ultimate sacrifice because of him being in the Waiting Place he gave up who he was, his love, his freedom, his memories. Basically everything, and I really loved throughout this book Laia bringing him back and allowing him to remember who he once was and still is and of course the relationship between him and Laia. One of my favourite literary couples for sure.
With Laia, I had my moments. Book 1 I absolutely loved her, what she stood for, who she became and her loyalty and her sincerity in fighting for the greater good. In books 2 and 3 she just embodied the tropes of a YA main character, and I just really couldn’t take to her but book 4 changed all that. Her character development from book 1 is just magnificent because she hasn’t lost who she was back in book 1 but she has learnt and grew into a strong, fiercely beautiful woman who becomes a Kahani (what, Sabaa where did that come from, I wasn’t expecting that is something that Laia would become). I loved Rehmat’s character and her relation to the Nightbringer but thought her being a part of Laia was something that I really liked and knowing the backstory was interesting. She like Helene has been through so much and seeing her development throughout the novel it has been quite a journey.
Now let’s talk about Helene! Helene is my favourite character in the novel. Sabaa really does female representation right in this series, she portrays strong female characters, who are strong-minded and also fight and not afraid to get their hands dirty. And this is basically Hel summed up. At the start of the series, we see Hel, as nothing more than Elias’s best friend and the only female at Blackcliff. She is a part of a powerful family and has gone through so many trials and tribulations to get to where she is. And I think that is where my love and respect comes from because she experiences un-requited love, she experiences a battle that she really is fighting for her best friend to win and make the world a better place. In the first book, I didn’t ‘love’ love her just because she had that classic Blackcliff student of being cold, distant, void of emotion but also that inferiority that she and her kind are better than Scholars, but her development throughout the series has to be the best and most exceptional! She is one of the characters that go through the most, her whole family dying but her witnessing their deaths by her ‘husband’ and being his Blood Shrike and following his command when she would rather be anything but. She is in battle like every day and her experience of death and killing is high but when her friends or people she knows die it's like another knock to her. She has a magic healing power which is again who Helene really is, even though she doesn’t like showing it she connects to people on a deep level, and this is emphasised in book 4 where she really fights for the people a trait that makes her become the best empress there ever is, but I am heavily biased. What killed me in book 4 is Livia’s death. Like Sabaa, hasn’t the girl been through enough already. And she allows herself to finally love and she finds it with Harper and again he is taken away from her. They are made for each other, and their love was cut short! Not fair but so powerful how Helene still stands and fights, and potentially allow herself to love again with Musa. (Which I don’t know how I feel like it is cute, and I do ship them… but a part of me is like I don’t know… but they are a good match and the ending with the two together by each other’s side, Helene being the best aunty shrike there is and an absolute queen taking the title of the empress, I loved the ending). Also, maybe talk about her battle skills because wow I would not want to get on the bad side of her (which the misogynistic men obviously didn’t get the memo) but also move over Laia I want to be Hel’s best friend. Overall, I loved Helene if you couldn’t tell. Absolutely stan her so much.
Let’s talk villains, Keris and the Nightbringer. Sabaa, I applaud your villains because they for sure fit the tropes if not more. Keris’ ending, I was so mad because I expected a massive death but like nothing. I really did like her backstory and what made ‘her’ become like this, the ghost of her mother and the story of ‘lovey’ broke me into tiny pieces and on top of that what happened to the man she loved, Elias and Harper’s father, like it all makes sense. After all, she is human, and I thought it was powerful. I loved in book 1 her coldness her ways of torture (like the cook’s face for instance) was written with such detail that you could hear that whip and feel the pain of the boy’s back). The Nightbringer really has all my heart because of the same reason as Keris. His backstory makes sense why he is the way he is, and I really loved Sabaa including Rehmat and her connection to the Nightbringer and I made peace with how he was defeated. The biggest twist that shook me was Keenen being the Nightbringer, I literally thought my jaw was dislocated. And that brings me nicely to Mirra the lioness, the woman who defied all and fought for change. The cat with nine lives. The intimidating cook who cares for Izzie with a passion and helps Hel so many times even when she was dying, she came to Hel’s rescue. (Also love how Hel sang to heal Mirra and found the same connection that was in Mirra in Laia). And then twist the cook turns out to be Laia’s mother. Her history with Keris and the horrifying torture she went through and witnessed with seeing her husbands and children die leave her haunted that she can’t even mention them without stuttering. I just wish she had more time with Laia and Darin (who I wished we got to see more of because book 1 was literally all about him yet we don’t get his point of view at ALL). I don’t really know how I feel about her taking Elias’ place at The Waiting Place because (cat with nine lives again) I kind of wanted her to ‘live’ live which I guess the vibe I got when reading she was content with, and she still gets to see Laia so there is that.
I just have one question though, I really didn’t get the setting because it is set in ancient Rome, but wouldn’t have it been better to set it in a Middle Eastern or South Asian country with all the references and the inclusion of the Jinn’s etc?
I just loved and devoured this series, and I can’t wait to read a contemporary YA ‘All the Rage’ by Sabaa Tahir which is coming out in March, and I know I will for sure be re-visiting Ember time and time again. The thing I loved most was the love and hope that was threaded between the lines of this series for page one in Ember there was hope and fierce love that ended as the series did. I highly recommend this series and I am actually sad that it's over but so happy that I read a series that I love, and I grew with, and this is something that will stay with me forever.
Favourite quotes-from A Sky Beyond the Storm
‘We are, all of us, just visitors in each other’s lives’ (isn’t this a Rumi quote too I am sure it is.)
‘Fear is your only enemy if you allow it to be’.
‘Love and Hate […] they are two sides of the same coin’.
‘You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the most sharpest. The deadliest. It is the broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.’ (My queen and her king.)
‘Love can be more powerful in a battle than planning or strategy. Love keeps us fighting. Love drives us to survive.’ (Musa and his wise words)
‘Where there is life, there is hope’ (a favourite of mine’)
‘I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times’ (another Rumi quote, right?!)
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