Empire of Storms & Tower of Dawn (Tandem Read)

Nov 7

Written By Ally Talley

Empire of Storms

Throne of Glass #5

By Sarah J. Maas

TheStory

Empire of Storms is the story of Aelin and her cadre scouring the continent for allies, with war looming on the horizon. At the same time of their travels, Elide, who was rescued from Morath, has been dropped into the wilderness by Manon and the Thirteen. While trudging through the woods, she catches the eye of Lorcan, one of Maeve’s bloodsworn, while he hunts for the wrydkeys. Meanwhile, after dropping Elide in the wilderness, Manon and the Thirteen have their own witchly affairs brewing.

I try so hard not to give spoilers but these books are nearly impossible to review without *mini* spoilers. But I will try my best. In addition, there are so many storylines woven throughout this entire book, so there is a lot of information to review.

Aelin and her cadre take off to find allies after being denied her rightful place in Terrasan by a bag of turds. Once denied by the “lords” (okay, they really are lords of the land, but they could really stand to be taken down a peg or two!), they must travel throughout the continent in search of their allies. But as usual, Aelin has her standard big reveals in place - enough to shock everyone nearly to death.

After stumbling upon Elide during his own hunt, Lorcan decides to follow her for a few days before killing her. What he discovers is that she has information that he needs. So instead of killing her, they strike up a bargain - Elide will tell Lorcan what he wants to know and in turn, Lorcan will protect Elide during her travels through the wilderness.

On the witchy side of things, Manon and the Thirteen are sent on a mission to sack Rifthold and kill Dorian. But does anything ever go according to plan? That’s right - no, it doesn’t.

So after the hoopla at Rifthold, a whole myriad of events goes down with the witches that changes the course of Manon and the Thirteen forever.

In a different area of Erilea, Aelin and her companions endure several battles throughout various areas. At various points throughout their portion of the story, the different groups start meeting up and eventually the key players are united into one group and then they face new evils and challenges. And once this turn of events happens, we get many of our questions answered by Elena (woof… that woman).

That was pretty good for no spoilers, right?

Now for the ending (again, no spoilers)... A major battle comes to the head that we’ve all been expecting. And that’s it… with no spoilers. Nooo, but seriously, it is a huge confrontation with an ending that will shock any reader. And you will want to go straight to the next book - but, wait! The next book is Tower of Dawn, and it actually follows along the same timeline as this one. So the beginning of Tower of Dawn starts back at the beginning of Empire of Storms. Confusing? I’ll explain later.

TheReview

This book had so much going on at once, I thought it would have been difficult to follow and/or highly irritating. But it really wasn’t. So long as you have been paying attention in previous books and consistently falling in love with our main players, it was a good read. Definitely a lot to follow, but I truly like all the main characters and enjoyed having the time to see each one’s storylines play out. It didn’t feel overly long nor rushed through.

Overall, a good read with depth and lots of character development. The world building from previous books definitely came into play a lot in this one. But as I have believed throughout this entire series, the writing did leave something to be desired.

TheRating

Storyline: 4/5 stars

Characters: 5/5 stars

World Building: 3/5 stars

Spice: 1/5 chili peppers

Writing: 4/5 stars

Overall: 4/5 stars

Tower of Dawn

Throne of Glass #6

By Sarah J. Maas

TheStory

Suffering his repercussions from Queen of Shadows, Chaol and Nesryn arrive in Antica to see if Chaol’s injury can be healed as well as attempt to gain an alliance with the Southern continent. For his injury, Chaol must work with Yrene, one of the best healers in the Torre Cesme and an avid hater of anyone hailing from Adarlan. Given that Chaol was the late king’s Captain of the Guard, she may hate him most of all. While working with Yrene, Chaol must also convince the khagan to send some of his armies to ally with Aelin and her court in the north. Unsurprisingly, neither task comes easily. Chaol must dig deep in order to heal - not just physically - as well as using court tactics to convince the khagan to provide assistance to his people.

Tensions are high when Yrene is tasked by the Healer on High with being the one to assist Chaol in overcoming his injuries. Chaol is a grumpy, angry, and bitter man since his injury. And Yrene hates him. What a recipe for success. But after agreeing to work with Chaol, a dark presence emerges in the Torre Cesme - and it is after Yrene.

While initially accompanying Chaol to Antica as “more-than-a-friend,” Nesryn actually takes off with Sartaq, an heir of the khagan, to his armies in the mountains to see if an alliance can be struck there. Nesryn and Chaol don’t actually spend much time together after this separation. Nesryn bonds with the riders in the mountains and starts to find herself a little more.

Oh, and the Stygian Spiders are baaaaaack. But on this continent, they are called the kharankui and they are so. much. worse. Blech.

Chaol and Nesryn each work to ensure they obtain what they so desperately need in their respective areas of the continent. Ultimately, their futures are decided and the help needed for their homeland is more dire than ever.

TheReview

This book is definitely the most political of the series. Lots of politics. And court scheming. And royals being generally horrible. That’s the biggest point to make in this book review. However, even during all the court hullabaloo, I fell in love with Yrene. Her ability to work with Chaol even though he represents everything she hates, made her a very strong character for me.

I still don’t care for Chaol at all but… whatever… I guess I’m happy he’s happy. He just is way too strict in his morals and it’s the wrong morals to be strict about in a WAR with ENEMIES everywhere and people DYING. But I digress.

After Nesryn really being treated like garbage by so many people and never really being appreciated, she finally finds her people and is valued as she should be.

Mostly, this book was politics with two main relationships developing throughout (and a bunch of people being just plain awful). I’m not a huge fan of the political game but I enjoyed the relationships that unfolded and the mystery that sprung up throughout the book. It was a good book but certainly not my favorite in the series by any means.