Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

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

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Released: September 2, 2014

Description: Celaena Sardothien has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak—but at an unspeakable cost. Now she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth...a truth about her heritage that could change her life—and her future—forever.

Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. To defeat them, Celaena must find the strength to not only fight her inner demons but to battle the evil that is about to be unleashed.

Let me start this review by saying that THIS BOOK WAS SERIOUSLY AWESOME. Heir of Fire is the third and most recent release in the Throne of Glass series, and so far, I’ve found it to be the best one. It featured tremendous character development, increasingly intricate world building, and a few new characters that are probably in the running for my favorites in the series. However, there were a few small aspects of the book that were a little tedious, but the rest of the book certainly makes up for them. If you enjoy high fantasy with strong protagonists and a highly detailed plot, why haven’t you picked this up yet?

At this point, there will be plenty of spoilers from the whole series, so if you haven’t read it yet, be warned!

One of my favorite parts of Heir of Fire was watching the more established characters grow into strong and assertive individuals. While Celaena finally learned the true potential of her powers and let go of her past, Dorian learned to unabashedly stand up for what he believes in and made a good bit of progress with his magic as well. Even Chaol decided to take a stand against the king, and his friendship and devotion to Dorian strengthened into a pretty heartwarming bromance.

The new characters introduced in this book definitely seem promising. If I had to rank them from favorite to least favorite based on their points of view, it would look something like this:

Rowan. Who doesn’t love warrior faerie with a mysterious past?
Aedion. His constant devotion to Aelin makes him so much more than a sassy side character.
Manon. Let’s just say that I would not want to be on her bad side.
Sorscha. Ugh. This brings me to my next point…

The only parts I didn’t like were the ones with Sorscha in them. I understand her role (and subsequent murder) was to give Dorian an extra push to rebel against his father, but there was nothing remarkable about her; when it comes down to it, she was just a pretty healer who could keep secrets. Come to think of it, Dorian was probably drawn to her because of her normalcy, but as a reader, I didn’t find her at all interesting compared to the faeries and witches and power hungry monarchs that make the series so fantastic.

As a whole, this book had me hooked from beginning to end. Queen of Shadows, the forth book of the series, will be released on September 1 (as of now), and I can’t wait to see how the rest of this series will unfold.

Feel free to discuss what you thought about Heir of Fire in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Annie

Indoor Sojourner