Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass)

“She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.”

Heir of Fire written by Sarah J. Maas is book three in the “Throne of Glass” series.

This series must be read in order. This review will have spoilers for book one and two. I recommend reading my reviews of Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight.

Story in a Sentence: Celaena must confront her heritage and the consequences that come with it to take on the ultimate challenge of protecting her world from a devastating fate.

The main problem with all of Maas’ books is that the bar is always so high. After Crown of Midnight, I was expecting to be blown away. I wasn’t. Maas is known for her original, fast-paced, engaging, and addictive literary masterpieces. Heir of Fire completely missed the mark on all four of those aspects.

Celaena is the main character, but ironically it didn’t feel that way. My focus was just not drawn to her. While all of these new revelations did change her character, it didn’t cause growth. I feel like that will happen later on, especially with how the book ended. In my opinion, this book was not about showcasing her, but furthering the plot.

“Because I am lost,” she whispered onto the earth. “And I do not know the way.” 

In this, we are introduced to Rowan, the prince of Doranelle and blood-sworn to Maeve. His main role is to play teacher to Celaena and get her comfortable with her fae form and power. He actually has a really interesting backstory. Over 300+ years old, he lost his first wife and their unborn baby. The tattoo on the left side of his face for them so all could know his failure. He is truly a tortured soul. His relationship with Celaena, on the other hand, is very predictable. Their training sessions are boring and repetitive. The amount of angst between them was exasperating. I will say though at the end of the book when more came to light about Rowan’s past and his true relationship with Celaena, I truly became a Rowan fan. I am still deducting a half star due to the large amount of monotonous training.

“Gods, he was brilliant. Cunning and wicked and brilliant. Even when he beat the hell out of her. Every. Damn. Day.” 

I am about to go against the grain here, but please don’t kill me. The TOG community has come to absolutely adore Manon Blackbeak and I totally get it. Badass, independent, cut-throat, and clever. Can’t get much better than that right? My problem with her is that I hate her narration. I hate the way she is written. This was a total shock for me because there has never been a Maas character that I didn’t like writing/narration wise. Whenever the novel shifted over to her POV, I wanted to skip it. It became frustrating and boring. There were only a couple parts that actually grabbed and kept my attention. I was also not a giant fan of the witch community as well. I didn’t find it to be very original. Different clans of witches thrown together that hate and try to sabotage one another? I felt like I was reading a more intense fantasy version of high school clicks. I am taking away a whole star for both of those issues.

“Witches didn’t need blood to survive, but humans didn’t need wine, either.” 

To make things even worse, I didn’t enjoy the other new characters. Aedion was boring. Sorscha was okay but boring. I would have enjoyed reading more about Chaol and Dorian. Whenever they came up, I was like “YES! MORE!”, but on the other hand, I felt so bad for Chaol. This entire book for him was just heartbreaking, but ironically his plot line was dull. Half a star lost for the boring characters and lack of storytime for the characters I cared about.

“He would see that world reborn, even if it took his last breath. Even if he had no name now, no position or title save Oath-Breaker, Traitor, Liar.” 

Overall, this is definitely not Maas’ best work. I feel like this book acts as a bridge. It introduces new characters and key aspects into the story. Without this book, the overall story could not move forward, but since this review is about the book, I will be rating it by itself. With a mediocre plot and boring characters, I am awarding this 3 stars. This book was saved by Maas’ growth as a writer. Her writing has greatly improved since Throne of Glass and I am extremely excited to review Queen of Shadows. Even though this particular book was a disappointment, I strongly believe that with all of the new aspects she introduced her next book will be incredible.

To purchase Throne of Glass, click here.

To purchase Crown of Midnight, click here.

To purchase Heir of Fire, click here.