Review: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm lowering my initial rating of 4.5-4.75 down to a solid 4. This means that I still loved Heir of Fire but not in a blew-me-away-amazing-new-favourite kind of way.

Like many, Crown of Midnight had me on the edge of my seat from page one. I dove straight into Heir of Fire after finishing COM with the expectation that this fast-paced, action-packed fantasy would only get better. And in some ways it does. In others, I found it lacking.

Sarah J. Maas truly outdoes herself with the quality of her writing in this third book. Compared to Throne of Glass and even COM, she has certainly come into her own style and has definitely honed her craft to feature her strongest abilities, ie. a beautiful descriptive prose throughout coupled with authentic, strong voices for her most fleshed-out characters. That being said, with the addition of multiple POV's and the introduction of a number of new characters, at times it feels that some previous characters suffer at the hands of the newer ones.

For example Dorian, with whom I've never really connected (sorry ladies), could have benefited from a better story-line considering he has his own POV. Sure he gets to run around with Sorscha and we see him struggle a little here and there with his power (both literally and figuratively), yet there is a decided lack of a character-arc or growth. He's still the same Dorian, kind of lazy, kind of wishy-washy, cannot stand up for himself or to his father, refuses to accept who he is, seeks comfort in others and ignores taking action--you get the picture. Yes he's always been flawed and that's okay if it adds to the story or if he eventually has some kind of character growth, but I feel that Dorian's POV almost feels non-essential to the plot - as if Chaol or someone else could have shown us what was happening with Dorian through their eyes and it would have had the same effect on the story overall. I expected more from Dorian and so I am left disappointed.
[[I felt the same with Sorscha, whose character and POV does not add to or aid the plot except to play as an anchor or crutch for more of Dorian's suffering]].

Another character who suffers in my mind is Chaol. I've liked him from book one and have always felt that his loyalty and objective way of viewing the world has played well against Celaena's own wild and blood-rimmed, often brash, way of viewing the same. As a team, they're great--he helps her keep her head on straight and her feet solidly on the ground, while she in turn instills a sense of urgency and stirs the much-needed rebellious spirit in him to take action. Yet when they are apart, these two sort of fall...apart. I'm not sure if it was Maas' intention to have so fundamentally changed Chaol from who he is in the previous two books to now. I feel that Chaol really loses his balance in this book and becomes totally flat as character...perhaps because of Celaena's absence or perhaps not. When he is finally the most helpful it takes up all of a few pages throughout the whole book and always comes too late and when the stakes are already too high. His POV bothers me to no end and again, maybe that is intentional, but if it is I want to know for what purpose.

Where Maas' writing does shine is with Celaena. She goes through an amazing transformation that leaves me feeling so proud and so hopeful for the future of Erilea. Without giving too much away, Celaena falls and falls into the depths of despair, self-hate and guilt only to build herself back up again as the woman she truly is meant to be, with all of the power and bad-ass reputation that has always been a part of her. She is an inspirational character, to say the least, and with the help of new character Rowan (a fierce and unrelentingly stoic warrior fae-prince), she goes through the much needed and much appreciated character-arc to end all character-arcs. I loved, loved, loved her chapters the most of any in this book. Maas has done an incredible job of creating this beautiful, strong, deeply sympathetic character who is so redeemable and full of life. I'm happy to say that I have completely changed my mind from book one as far as Celaena is concerned.

Watching Celaena and Rowan's unlikely friendship grow from rocky to rock-solid filled my heart. He is exactly the kind of man Celaena needs in her life when she can no longer rely on Chaol, Dorian, or even herself. He's a jerk, for sure, but then again so is she at times, and the two play off of each other like fire and ice, forcing one another to come to terms with their disturbing, dark pasts before then encouraging each other to look to their futures straight on. He is by far the best 'love-interest' for her to date and I look forward to getting to know him better. He doesn't try to stifle Celaena, to change her or cage her, and he isn't afraid of her. He is the only one capable and willing to force her into the darkest corners of herself and push her enough so that she is faced with every terrible deed she has ever done, and in turn he is the only one who teaches her to forgive herself. He helps her grow immensely and I seriously love these two.

I will quickly add that Manon's POV was interesting and I actually did enjoy having another completely unrelated view of the game plan - especially the POV of one of the 'baddies' so to speak. Despite her evil witchiness I still like her and I'm pretty sure I'll continue to like her into the next books.

For some people the length of Heir of Fire is bothersome and I have to say that I agree. In general I never shy away from thick books, but considering what I've said above about the non-essential POV's and the fact that there is a lot of descriptive prose and it is much, much slower paced overall...I do think that this book could have been shaved down by at least a hundred pages or more. Like I've said before, if there is a real point to all the writing and it's not just for show or filler or for the author's desire to exercise their own creative license to the detriment of the plot etc. than there's probably no real need for such length. It does feel like a 'middle' book, a stepping stone to the next and the next, and that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Just looking at the size of book four I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that from here on out we should probably expect fairly dense books to finish off the series.

Overall though, a wonderful story and I do plan on reading the next!


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