After a hectic month of personal-life turmoil and this general vibe of this book taking forever to get through, we have finally reached the end of Heir of Fire. And boy howdy what a trip that was.
I’m going to start with what I liked about this book. And just the nice parts for right now.
I really got a kick out of all of the new faces, especially Rowan (finally) and Manon is definitely a raging bitch after my own heart. Even Aedion, who was introduced as a traitor, grew on me (it probably helped that he beat up Chaol, ha ha.) It’s nice to have a few more major players that are on Team Aelin even without knowing Celaena. Despite the pacing, I liked getting to know the real Aelin more as well. Hearing about her childhood and her trauma – that honestly reads very well in terms of her PTSD – was fascinating and help flesh her out a lot more. She’s felt really flat as a character but this book did help round her out in a more relatable and interesting way.
But let’s get to the issues I had with this book. Heir of Fire is an intermission in the story. It’s a learning point where the characters need to buck up and learn what it is that they’re really up against. Typically these intermission books are not 500 pages. Heir of Fire is 562 pages.
The pacing of this instalment is awful. There are so many POVs in it that the changing back and forth becomes dull and the changes don’t even seem to be in strategic points. I was bored with Chaol (ignoring the fact that I don’t like him anyway), Dorian and Sorscha’s plot line started out really cute but got dull quickly, Celaena’s training took waaaaay too long… The issues go on. Even Manon’s final chapters were boring because stuff had finally started happening to everyone else and made her seem boring by comparison. I was honestly ready to call it quits on this book several times over. But I’m glad I didn’t.
It’s time to talk about those last twenty pages that can be summed up in three, all-caps, foul-mouthed words
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
[MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]
Aedion, Chaol, Dorian and Sorscha are all brought into the King’s throne room and the whole vibe gave me chills even though I knew what was coming. I cheated out of boredom and knew who was going to die but a quick peak at “…killed by the King” on a wiki page didn’t prepare me for the bone-chillingly horrifying moment that was Dorian screaming as he held Sorscha’s severed head “as if he could put it back. As if he could piece her together.”
As a huge fan of intense drama brought on by horrific violence, this moment was utterly flawless. It was take notes worthy flawless.
As a huge fan of Dorian Havillard I am horrified, heartbroken, and irrationally angry for his loss.
I don’t know where things are going to go from here. I’m terrified for Dorian and just want Aelin to be able to swoop in and save him. He needs a mom friend. Aelin needs to be that mom friend for him because let’s be real, his safety matters so much more than Chaol’s.
That’s really all I have to say about this book. It dragged on and on for 500 pages and yet it still managed to impress me in the end. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5.
(There will be no read-a-long for Throne of Glass in May as I am doing a binge read of the X-Wing Series for Star Wars Month. However this read-along will continue come June with Assassin’s Blade. Stay tuned for more details.)