The Wall of Storms

Better than the first book, much tighter narrative, much better characters (Zomi, Jia and Gin especially stand out - and yes they're all female characters Ken Liu really made up for the disaster of a first book in this aspect though I still have some issues I suppose at this point it comes down to personal preference) and just generally a more interesting plot. Although I preferred the first half focusing more on characters than the second half focusing on plot, where we sort of lost sight of some characters for a long while (Zomi is the best thing about the book and her name isn't mentioned for...far too long. She does play a huge role in the background but overall she has much less “screentime” in the latter half of the book....I'm possibly spoiled by the fact that she was basically the main character for the first quarter or so)

There is a bulk in the middle telling the story of a character, and in the middle of THAT is another bulk telling the story of another character which really could have been shorter, I did enjoy it but I would have enjoyed it even more if it wasn't such an interruption of the story. In the end it felt like a condensed version, like the events described might have been an entire 800 page novel in itself but we just rushed through it (which most of the first book felt like too thinking back).

I love the worldbuilding especially with regards the gods, in the first book they felt just tacked on and I didn't even bother to remember their names. The gods and their nature is much more deeply explored.

My biggest gripe is the ending, I don't think some decisions the characters have made made sense for them Thera accepts a political marriage after denying it for so long?? AFTER SHE GOT TO BE EMPRESS? Of course there was reasons given which makes some amount of sense but on a meta level god it feels like a cop out I was looking forward to the next book having an empress with a female lover? maybe even two empresses?? But no she runs off to some island with her new husband who literally appeared out of nowhere... How dare you Ken Liu..... Also I don't like how it went on for so long after the climax, most of it could have been part of the next book and explored in more detail. If it stopped after the jewelry bit it would have been perfect honestly

I'm giving this 4 stars but its more of a 4.5 whereas the prequel is more of a 3.5