Heir of Fire

Oct 23

Throne of Glass #3

By Sarah J. Maas

TheStory

Chaol and Dorian are still in Adarlan learning about the stifling of magic in Adarlan as well as the king’s mysterious powers. But both of these men also have their own agendas causing them to secrets of their own - both from others and from one another. The king cannot know what they do but Chaol also works on his own to help Dorian with his powers.

Celaena takes off to Wendlyn on an assassination task from the king. She ends up in Wendlyn with the demi-Fae, training her powers with Rowan. Rowan is tasked with training Celaena to master her powers in order to prove herself to Maeve. Maeve is the Queen of the Fae and let’s no one into Doranelle (the land of the Fae) without proof that they deserve it. Celaena agrees to the training in order to get answers from Maeve about the wyrdkeys the king is using in Adarlan.

A new MC enters our story now - Manon of the Ironteeth witches. Manon alongside her coven, the Thirteen, and all the Ironteeth witches have become a part of the king’s plan to take over the land. They arrive in Morath where they take wyverns as mounts to return to the skies. The deal here is that if they use the wyverns to assist the king in his war, he will then allow the witches to keep the mounts and return to their homeland, which they have been exiled from for over 500 years by the now endangered Crochan witches.

So now we have multiple timelines happening at once. Celaena in Wendlyn with the demi-Fae, Dorian and Chaol still in Adarlan, and Manon and the witches in Morath with the Valg and the wyverns.

TheReview

I have never really been a fan of multiple storylines (the books are rarely done well), but these storylines are not too many and each one is interesting in its own way. A few new MCs pop up that seem essential to the story and likely to continue on in the series - Manon, Rowan, Aedion (from Celaena’s past), Maeve, and a healer named Sorscha. This book continues on from the last one with good character development, both of the old characters as well as the new ones. You really have to pay attention to all the players here or you will end up confused by the end of the book (and therefore the rest of the series - and the series is long, so you don’t want that).

As a side note here, I have always found Chaol to be a juxtaposition (and on a moral high horse ALL THE TIME), but Celaena somehow seemed shocked when she discovered this? No. He has always been morally superior (at least in his own eyes), so that has been extremely clear from the beginning. Under no circumstances do I appreciate Chaol as a character nor his relationship with Celaena.

Alongside the character development, there is constant action and page-turners throughout the whole book. Constant strategizing across the storylines and planning among our MCs. Some mysteries get answered. New mysteries are uncovered. And the relationships are still a central focus and they are so juicy.

One point this book had that totally sold me on the series is the answering of questions. There are so many mysteries throughout the series so far, but they actually get answered. So many books pile on puzzle after puzzle after puzzle and half the time you forget what you even wanted the answer to before you just have more questions! But this series so far has addressed each conundrum at some point while simultaneously keeping you hooked with new intrigue.

And the ending! It is just an explosion of revealed secrets and plans coming together. Holy. Crap. I could not put it down once I reached the start of the big reveals. The best book in the series thus far. The ending is soooo satisfying but still… you will have to immediately pick up the next one to continue reading.