The Fantasy Review‘s review of Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, book three in the Throne of Glass fantasy series.
After finishing the previous book in the series, Crown of Midnight, I was a little worried this series would end up going nowhere for me. Turns out, I didn’t need to worry at all!
Check out:
- Review of Throne of Glass (Book 1)
- Review of Crown of Midnight (Book 2)
Spoiler-Free Review
Within the first few chapters of Heir of Fire, you can immediately tell that this series is branching out to become something epic. We started with a small, exciting-but-contained plot in Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight seemed like it was trying to be something new but it fell flat at the end.
Heir of Fire, however, is by far the best book of the three! Everything is ramped up. There are more characters, more locations, higher stakes, and explorations of lore and histories – it’s everything a fantasy reader wants!
Celaena Sardothien is still our main character, and her journey in this book reminds me so much of Kaladin’s emotional journey in Way of Kings. At the start of the book she’s at her lowest point, after suffering so much loss and pain.
Her journey in Heir of Fire kept me burning through these pages. It kept me up at night, and that’s all you need to know to understand how addictive it was.
We have a few more POV characters in this third book, with the most exciting being a witch! I won’t go into any details because of spoilers, but I’m secretly hoping for some redemption-arc-type stuff here.
Other than the plot with the main protagonist, Celaena, it was the additional worldbuilding in Heir of Fire that fully engrossed me in this world. Until now, we’d only been in a city, and even then it wasn’t explored in great depth.
But as the story takes place over various locations in the world, we not only see more of the world but learn more about the history and lore of the place. Questions are finally being answered, which is so satisfying, but also more questions are being raised, making me want to pick up book four immediately!
I don’t want to burn out though – I’m pacing myself!
I can safely say there were moments in Heir of Fire that surprised me – some of which left my mouth hanging, unable to believe the author just did that! Another reason not to jump into the next book straight away is I’m still reeling from some of the plot points that hit Just. So. Damn. Hard!
I’ve kept this review of Heir of Fire all vague in the hopes others can pick up the series without spoilers, however there are notes being taken for a full series review once I’ve completed the seventh book, which will be full spoilers.
