Review – Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, Book 3) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 576 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: September 2nd, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1619630659
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Throne of Glass series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars

Originally I picked this book up thinking it was the final book in the Throne of Glass series. However, it looks like there will be six books in this series (I am actually thrilled to find that out…I love this series). This was a wonderful, wonderful book.

Celaena is broken from the events in Crown of Midnight and has gone to the only place she can hope to to find answers about the King of Adarlan’s dark magic, Wendlyn. There she will meet the Queen of the Fae, Mab, and finally train to get her wild magic under control.

Meanwhile in Adarlan we hear from Chaol, who is trying to figure out what one of the King’s generals, Aedion Ashryver, is up to. Prince Dorian is also still in Adarlan and fighting to control his newly discovered magic. We also meet a new set of characters led by the Ironteeth witch Manon, who is going to be part of King Adarlan’s evil army.

The book switches between a lot of characters in typical epic fantasy fashion, and this series definitely has grown into an epic fantasy of vast proportions. Mostly we hear from Celaena, Dorian, Chaol, Aedion, and Manon.

I still enjoy Celaena as a character. We learn an absolute ton about her past and I enjoyed watching her learn to use her magic. She is pretty darn whiny and self-pitying in this book, so that was a bit annoying. But she does grow some as the story continues.

More interesting than Celaena are some of the other characters we meet. Aedion Ashryver is truly fascinating, talk about a complicated history…he has a lot of backstory involving Celaena and is very interesting to read about. Then there is the Ironteeth witch Manon, at first I didn’t like her sections of the book…however her determination and fierceness really made her grow on me and ended up truly enjoying her as a character.

Of course there is Rowan the fae whose job it is to train Celaena. Finally we have a lead male who doesn’t take Celaena’s whining or her crap. I loved him to pieces. He is a complex, fierce, and absolutely intriguing character. Seriously let’s get rid of Chaol and Dorian and just keep Aedion and Rowan around…they are both way more intriguing characters.

There is a lot going on in this book. However the main plot revolves around Celaena trying to figure out how to break the King of Adarlan’s hold on magic and on King Adarlan trying to build an army to conquer the world.

The book ends at a good spot and given all the complicated developments and new characters introduced in this book I am incredibly relieved to hear that this wasn’t the last one in the series.

Overall a fantastic continuation of this series. The plot takes some amazing turns, the world building is fantastic, and we meet some truly fascinating new characters. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series when it releases. This whole series is highly recommended to fans of fantasy/epic fantasy.