Throne of Glass #3: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Genre: YA, high fantasy, romance
Released: September 2014
Read: 2015, September 2019
READ IT BECAUSE...
Stop asking.. You should know by now that I love this series.
THE REVIEW
Rereading this was very interesting, if you look at the spoilers, you’ll see why. This review part will not be completely spoiler free if you haven’t read Books 1 and 2 first.
In the third installment of Throne of Glass, Celaena finds herself in a new land: Wendlyn, a place where magic still exists and the fae still roam where they will. I think in the second book review, I described Celaena as a reluctant heroine. In this book, she’s sort of that, and sort of just struggling. One after another, horrible things keep happening to the people she loves, she’s having a hard time embracing who she is… And I honestly do not blame her a single bit. If I were her (which wouldn’t be possible…) I wouldn’t have even survived on the riverbank that night. So you know, I think you gotta give her credit.
She needs to train with this fae guy, Rowan, and all she wants are answers to help her defeat the king of Adarlan. She doesn’t want to be who she is, she just wants to keep her promise to Nehemia. Through her struggles and trials, she slowly starts to accept who she is.
SPOILERS
(highlight below to read)
“SO THE ANSWER TO WHY I FELT NERVOUS ABOUT READING THIS BOOK… Is it weird that I don’t actually know what book I read up to?! If I check my goodreads, apparently I finished book 4 (which.. Did I say this before?.. is exciting because that means there are still THREE MORE BOOKS that I haven’t read and they’re really thick so that means still so much more story so I won’t run out-YAY!). But since I never reviewed anything or whatever, I just remember gulping down the books, reading on the subway and even reading while walking—from the corner of 96th street, over an ave and down to 93rd street, being a Belle of my own… So I can’t remember what happens with Rowan. I remember they bonded… But did they become lovers? I feel like they do. Sorry if this ends up being a spoiler. But nothing romantic happens between them in this book. But I can’t remember if something WILL happen or not, if I’m mixing it up with another book or what… But as you can tell from my previous reviews.. I feel so weird about it now, because instead of going with her flow, I fully ship Celaena with Chaol. So will my heart be broken?! I FEEL LIKE IT CANT BE, BECAUSE CHAOL STILL HAS HIS OWN PARTS THROUGHOUT THE BOOK (hahaha, this is exactly me trying to analyze Ma Wang Joon in My Absolute Boyfriend. Ugh) I want them to end up together—and partially because Chaol is just a normal guy (albeit Captain of The Guard) but he deserves good things. As does Celaena.
So what happens in this book is that she obviously isn’t planning on killing the royalty of Wendlyn. I’m honestly confused about the relation with the fae queens, but they’re distantly related. I think also very distantly related are Celaena/Aelin and Rowan. But like so so distant. But. I don’t know. Anyway, Celaena aka Aelin but also “Elentiya” (so many names, I know. Since I whipped through the books so fast the first time, I honestly was getting so confused with names, but this time that I’m trying to stay steady, it’s not confusing at all) wants to meet Maeve to get answers, but in order to do so, she must prove herself worthy—meaning training with Rowan. Rowan, pure fae, whose other form is a hawk (Celaena’s is a human hahaha) forces Celaena to shift. That’s her first piece of training. Through different adventures and conflicts, she eventually learns. But next is controlling her power: fire. It turns out that even as a child, she had trouble controlling it. It turns out, we learn, that the king and Dorian visited long ago—and the king had powers then—and caused Celaena’s powers to go crazy. This made her parents move her to a cottage away from the castle temporarily—and then her parents were slaughtered. Her mother’s lady-in-waiting consoled her but then the king came back for her—so the lady-in-waiting sacrificed herself to allow Celaena (Aelin) to run away. When she was about to cross a bridge, the king cut the bridge and she fell into the river. The story from there, as we know it, is that Arobynn discovered her on the river bank and took her into his lair.
WELL. Turns out, she knows where the third Wyrdkey is. It was in the necklace that her mother gave her, passed down through all the past rulers. It protected her that night so she didn’t die, but she lost the amulet. (I think we don’t know if it was lost in the river or if Arobynn has it… Probably the latter.) And she won’t tell Maeve.
Maeve wanted to take Celaena but her parents never wanted to share her, because Maeve would exploit her power. And now she’s walking straight into Maeve’s territory. Celaena, with full control of her power, threatens Maeve—and makes her free Rowan from his blood bond. And in turn, he right away bonds to her.
So I think this is where I’m getting confused. But I guess I’ll just go be confused in Book 4, for fear of giving spoilers of that book away in this book.
Anyhow. I’m telling this out of order, but that’s fine. Celaena, now with Rowan by her side and control of her power, is recognizing who she is. ALSO IN THIS BOOK: Adarlan tried to invade with these creatures (Narrok) like the one she saw in the passages behind the tapestry of the castle. They were trying to recruit the demifae in their forces. But Celaena won. Bas was the one who betrayed them.
AND DUH. I’m forgetting two huge parts of this book.
So the witches. These were the parts that I constantly speed read through since I didn’t care about them as much. Maybe spoiler: by wherever I left off.. Book 4? I understood the role of the witches and Manon and appreciated their part more… But anyway, this time I read it more carefully. The deal with the witches: Cochoran (sp?) witches ruled for a while and they were like good witches. The Ironteeth witches were like the creepy evil versions (they ate women and children and only left bones behind) and they overthrew them. There are three clans: Blackbeaks (our main with Manon’s clan), Yellowlegs (the clan where Baba Yellowlegs from the festival came from—who btw Celaena learned from Ansel in the desert how to kill), and the Bluebloods. Basically the Yellowlegs are junk. The Yellowlegs heir, Iskra, is a butt. Manon basically is the closest to having a heart/soul. She develops a bond with Abraxos, who was a small wyvern that was being used a bait, but ends up being the fastest, strongest. Manon ends up being the Wing Leader of the witches. Their goal is to help the King of Adarlan with his army, and in return, they’ll get the Wastelands back. Okay.
The other big part is CHAOL, DUH. Back in Rifthold, Chaol is still loving Celaena, and dealing with this weirdness between him and Dorian, knowing about his magic. He needs to leave to go back to his homeland, but there’s too much left undone here. He stalks this general, Aedion, who is from Terrasen but apparently has wreaked havoc in Terrasen. And then he finds out that Aedion was recruited by the king for whatever powers he may have—he has black ring too.. But Aedion figured out there was something weird about the ring and the one he had on was fake. And so Aedion HASN’T been killing anyone from Terrasen this whole time, he’s been putting on an act. He’s actually working with the rebels. The same group as Archer Finn, and two new characters: Ren and his grandfather, M_. So then understanding who Aedion is, he ends up telling him—Celaena—Aelin—is alive. Aedion is her beloved cousin, sworn to protect her. And so goes the story: they figure out that the king set up these evil black towers in two other cities, along with the one that our main characters have been crawling through unknowingly. And these three towers make a triangle, throughout the continent, which are the cause of the magic blackout. So they want to see what would happen if they destroy one of these towers, what could happen?
And then our beloved prince Dorian is struggling with his magic, his ice. And he meets and SEES Sorscha, a healer. And they fall in love and she helps him contain his magic. They love each other and Sorscha just wants to stay hidden and then Chaol is nervous and wants to get them both out of the castle. And when they come up with a plan, they are all summoned by the king. And then what’s going on. And then Aedion sacrifices his freedom and tries to take the blame in whatever is happening. Aedion is a traitor and he is brought to the dungeons. And then right in front of everyone, the king orders these guards that Chaol has never seen… to behead Sorscha. Right in front of Dorian’s eyes. And then the king is about to order the guards to kill Chaol and Dorian loses it and freezes everything. And the king was like, “I knew you had it in you, boy” and collars him with the evil black stuff. And then Dorian runs runs runs and finds Ren and now they’re official allies. And Aedion is in the dungeon. Sorscha is dead. Dorian is a prison of his father. Chaol is running. And Celaena and Rowan are heading back to Adarlan. Omg. So much is happening.
Do you like how this is where I chose to stop and go back to read Assassin’s Blade? But I think it was good, a pause from all the action-packed drama. (Although the prequel is a different load of drama all on its own… ;_;.)
And the book ends up Celaena embracing that she was Aelin. And she would not be afraid. I must say, I do appreciate this line a lot more now that I’ve read Assassin’s Blade. That was Sam’s line that he taught her…. And she kept it as her mantra. T_T!!!! (I skimmed back for this line after reading the prequel.)
Sigh. What’s going to happen next…”
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OVERALL
- Did I cry? No.. I think it’s just TOO MUCH so I’m always frenzied and worried so I DON’T cry ahaha. But that doesn’t mean it’s not awesome.
- Should you read it? Of course.
-huay