Hello, hi, we’ve made it to the third book in the Throne of Glass series – Heir of Fire. And you know what I thought this book was? A garbage fire. SORRY TO ALL THE FANS OUT THERE. But I was dead bored in the middle and almost gave up the series entirely. In fact, after this one, I put the series away for four months. I KNOW WHAT SJM WAS TRYING TO DO. It made sense once I got through Queen of Shadows. But the getting there? Dudes. This book just did not work for me.
So be prepared for that when you read this review.
Heir of Fire starts off a while after Crown of Midnight ends. Celaena has revealed to the readers who she is – the lost Princess Aelin, now Queen of Terrasen, because she’s the only descendant of Terrasen’s throne remaining. But she hasn’t told anyone except Chaol that fact, which she did at the very end of Crown of Midnight. And obviously, Nehemia knew, which is why she was pushing Celaena so hard in the first place. ANYWAY. She travels to Wendlyn on a supposed errand for the King of Adarlan, whom she still technically serves as the king’s assassin. (Trust me, these plots get even more complicated, so buckle up.) In Wendlyn, she is discovered and taken “hostage” by Rowan Whitethorn, a fae warrior who serves the vindictive Fae queen (I can’t remember her name and don’t feel like looking it up, sorry). Celaena/Aelin is taken to a fortress in the forests of Wendlyn to train, although she’s incredibly resistant at first. But Rowan knows that Celaena/Aelin is fae herself, and knows that all of her fiery power lies within her fae form. He just has to get her there… by bullying her constantly.
Meanwhile, in Adarlan, the king is going nutso, totally consumed by his dark power. Chaol is having trouble choosing sides in the brewing revolution, although he leans heavily toward Celaena/Aelin’s side and away from the king he has served since leaving his father’s house. And Dorian is discovering some magic within himself, powerful magic that can break through the giant clocktower containing the magic dampening stones. He’s also falling in love with an employee of the castle. All of which are against the king’s orders and wishes. That comes to a head in a bloody scene at the end of the book. Yeesh.
Meanwhile meanwhile, in some other place (again, I can’t remember exactly, but it’s some cursed mountain fortress thing), there are three clans of witches who are coming together to learn to tame and ride wyverns, who are creatures who really shouldn’t exist but are being bred in the darkness. Supposedly, they’re unable to be completely tamed, but after a prank by the lead witch of another clan lands Manon Blackbeak – our witchy narrator – in a pit with the most vicious wyvern and a tiny bait wyvern, the bait wyvern saves her life and kills the vicious one, and Manon claims him. She names his Abraxos and he likes to sniff flowers and he’s probably my favorite character in this entire book.
The witch plotline makes no sense and connects to nothing in this book, but it all comes together in the next one, thankfully.
Okay. Whew. Onward.
Um. Pretty much everything? I really disliked this book, y’all. I’ll hit the highlights.
Rowan is an asshole and I don’t understand why people like him
It became apparent pretty much as soon as we met Rowan that he was about to become Celaena/Aelin’s next love interest. Her third in the series, if you’re keeping track. But like. He’s THE WORST. And I LOVE a good grumpy love interest! But he’s not grumpy – he’s territorial and he starts treating Celaena/Aelin like property when he starts “liking” her and he struts around like a hormonal teenager. I just hate him. Ugh.
Quit gendering everything, SJM
Because the fae characters are first getting introduced in this book, this is the book where the gendering issues begin. This is something I’d never really noticed until it was pointed out to me, but you know, gender isn’t a binary. But this book? EVERYTHING IS GENDERED. Male this, male that, female something or other. Ugh. I hated reading it. And also, for the record, I notice that language everywhere now, and it’s a lot more prevalent than I would have ever thought.
The witches aren’t really connected to anything in this book
I liked Manon, but I didn’t see the point of Manon, like, the entire time I was reading this book. You can’t just have this plan that you don’t tell anyone about, SJM. That would make you just like Celaena… oh, things are making sense now.
Basically everything about where this series is going
UGH.
Rating- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
Okay, hi. You probably know where this is going. But DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH. I thought Queen of Shadows redeemed the series a little bit, so I continued on! I’m giving Heir of Fire an ORANGE rating. But tomorrow I’ll be talking about Queen of Shadows, and that book was a lot more fun.
I know some people loved this book. Let me know if you were one of those people in the comments. I’m curious what some people saw in it that I… didn’t.
Happy reading!
-A.
Share this:
