I’ve just finished “Heir Of Fire” by Sarah J Maas, and I am in LOVE!!! I didn’t think I’d love it as much as “A Court Of Thorns And Roses” and “A Court Of Mist and Fury” also by Sarah J Maas, but I do! I started it in early September so it took me a while to read but I didn’t mind because I loved each page, each story arc, each character, well the good ones anyway.
In “Heir Of Fire” we’re still following Celaena, primarily, as she finds out about her past and life as it is now and how it’s all relative to the plot of the “Throne Of Glass” series. We see the most character development for Celaena so far in “Heir Of Fire” and I expect it will keep growing and growing as we keep going with each book. Whereas “Crown Of Midnight,” book 2 in the series was quite a closed in plot from my memory, “Heir Of Fire” really amps up and expands the plot and takes us to different places.
Celaena spends most of “Heir Of Fire” in a school like setting, Mistward, where she is trained by Rowan, a Fae prince in order to be able to go to Doranelle, where her Aunt Maeve resides. She’s to work in the kitchens when she’s not training, Maeve, Queen of the Fae tells her. She doesn’t like this to start with, but gets on with it. She soon learns that she’s just like everyone else. However, in the end there are revelations about Celaena that she’s surprised by herself!
There are parts of “Heir Of Fire” that follow Chaol, Dorian and new characters such as Aedion, and Sorscha, who try to find out more about the king and his motives for whatever he’s doing. What do they find out? What happens to them? Do they all survive? You’ll need to read to find out. There’s also a new character, and new plot with a character called Manon in “Heir Of Fire.” She’s a witch with iron teeth. She’s a part of the Blackbeak clan. Her parts of the book are basically a competition between three clans, the Blackbeaks, the Yellowlegs and the Bluebloods. Who wins? You’ll need to read to find out!
Readathons
Reading Rivalry - Book that contains a comedy character - I originally thought of Mort from “Crown of Midnight” for this, but he’s barely featured in “Heir Of Fire,” so instead I’m going with Rowan as being the comedy character, as I found most of what he said funny, if a little annoying too.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2021 - A book that has a heart, diamond, club or spade on the cover - On Celaena’s outfit on the hardcover there. are diamonds on the front of her outfit.
Spoilers Below
At the beginning of “Heir Of Fire” Celaena is in Varese, which while cleaner than Rifthold is still a city, “with slums and back alleys, whores and gamblers—and it hadn’t taken too long to find its underbelly.” Celaena has found the bad side of Varese. She’s there because the King of Adarlan ordered her to go there. She doesn’t have confidence at the beginning of “Heir Of Fire,” to go up against the king. Will she by the end of the book?
“Tall, broad-shouldered, every inch of him seemingly corded with muscle, he was a male blooded with power. He paused in a dusty shaft of sunlight, his silver hair gleaming.” We meet our main male character, Rowan within the first 20 pages of the book. I loved this as I love to see the main relationship develop throughout a book. Celaena is threatened at first by Rowan but learns to get to know him, and get along with him throughout the story. Celaena sees a “wicked-looking tattoo” down the side of Rowan’s face, when she first sees him, and he moved with “a lethal grace and surety, scanning the alley as if he were walking onto a killing field.” This makes Celaena question his motives to begin with. Is he evil? She’s not sure. He takes her to Mistward, a special place for Fae to train and live.
“In her bones, in her blood and breath and soul, she was so, so tired. Talking to anyone was too taxing. Which made Rowan the perfect companion: he didn’t say a single word to her.” This is before Celaena and Rowan get to Mistward. Celaena is so fatigued. She considers Rowan the perfect travel companion as he doesn’t talk to her. She doesn’t need to think, just follow. When Celaena and Rowan get to Mistward, she’s sent to see Maeve, her aunt, and the Queen of the Fae. Maeve tells her that Rowan will train her to be her strongest Fae self because Celaena is half Fae. Can she trust Maeve, though, as in “run. Every instinct roared the word,” she seems unsure of her aunts intentions. The rest of Celaena and Rowan’s part of the book up until the last 100 pages or so is all about training her to be her Fae self. I really enjoyed this. It didn’t just happen, either. It took time for her to learn how to be her Fae self, so it was very realistically done even though it’s very much a fantasy novel.
“We are going to have to run in a moment. What form you decide to take when we do will determine our fates. So breathe and shift.” This is the point at which Celaena needs to become Fae to save both herself and Rowan from getting captured by Skinwalkers, a horrible race of beings that capture Fae. Can she do it? Can she become Fae? What will it cost her? You’ll need to read to find out!
There are a few side characters at Mistward that play a significant part to the plot. They are Emrys, an old Fae, Luca, a young Fae and Malakai, a Fae we don’t learn too much about yet, at least. Emrys and Malakai are lovers. I’ve heard people say that Sarah J Maas doesn’t include LGBTQ characters in her stories, but Emrys and Malakai are gay so I don’t quite understand that criticism.
Celaena and Rowan have some funny moments too. I loved reading these, as it put some humour into the plot, which was nice. One of these is “Hurry up, Princess. I want to go to bed at some point before dawn.”
She used her free hand to make a particularly vulgar gesture, and he caught it with his own, teeth still out, “That is not very queenly.”
“Then it’s good I’m not a queen, isn’t it?” I thought that Celaena giving Rowan the finger, while not very queenly as Rowan notes, was very funny! I loved the back and forth of the arguments and disagreements that Celaena and Rowan have. It’s like they’re a real life couple! Also, another funny and cute part is where Rowan goes to buy Celaena chocolates for her birthday. He wants her to feel special.
Another plot point of “Heir Of Fire” is Manon, the witch. She’s a new character to the series. I found her really interesting. I’ve seen some say that her parts are boring and don’t add anything to the series. While I did miss not being with the characters we already knew, I enjoyed reading Manon’s parts. It broke the plot up and left me wanting more of the main plot, which I think was the point.
Manon is training to become Wing Leader, the head of all the clans, as her grandmother, the patriarch of the Blackbeak Clan says. She gets a Wyvern, which is a mythical beast. I imagined it like a dragon as they can fly. The Wyvern that chooses her is the bottom of the pecking order, so she needs to work extra hard to train him to be the best he can be. She names him, Abraxos. “You and that beast are an embarrassment,” her grandmother hissed, teeth snapping in her face “All I want is for you to win these Games, so we can take our rightful place as queens, not High Witches. Queens of the Waste, Manon. And you’re doing your best to ruin it.” Her grandmother doesn’t agree with her choice of Wyvern as she thinks he’s “an embarrassment” or a waste of space. She believes that Manon isn’t doing what’s right in choosing Abraxos. Luckily, Manon is very stubborn and doesn’t change her mind.
“How long to get him in the skies?”
The man rubbed his head. “Could be days or weeks or months. Could be never.”
“We begin training with our mounts this afternoon.”
“Not going to happen.” Manon raised her brows. “This one needs to be trained alone first. I’ll get the best trainers on it, and you can use another wyvern in the meantime to—”
“First of all, human,” Manon interrupted, “don’t give me orders.” Her iron teeth snapped out, and he flinched. “Second, I won’t be training with another Wyvern. I’ll train with him.”
This is Manon telling the human Wyvern trainer, that she’ll train Abraxos to be his best self. She’ll only train with him, and she’s quite vicious about wanting to train him herself. Abraxos was the Bate Beast, the Wyvern that fought all the other Wyverns to see if they were good enough to stay on as Wyverns for each witch. Manon at first wants the best Wyvern, or what looks to be the best one in terms of skill and honour. However, when he turns on her, and Abraxos, then known as “the Bate Beast” saves her, she’s happy to accept Abraxos as her own, however far behind the others he is, and however much her grandmother looks down on her for her choice. Can Manon train Abraxos up to be good enough in time for the War Games, where each Wyvern has to carry their witch through the skies to get them to an egg to collect and bring back to their nest? You’ll have to read to find out!
The other major storyline of “Heir Of Fire” is that of Dorian. In “Crown Of Midnight,” he learnt that he had magical abilities. In “Heir Of Fire” he falls in love with a maid of the castle, Sorscha. She helps him to see further that he doesn’t want a Kingdom built on lies and falsities, but on love, happiness and friendship. She also falls in love with him. I REALLY liked this element of the story!
“Had it been anyone other than the prince, she would have told them to go find another healer.
Sorscha returned to her work. She was certain he’d forgotten her name the moment he left. Dorian was the heir to the mightiest empire in the world, and Sorscha was the daughter of two dead immigrants from a village in Fenharrow that had been burned to ash—a village that no one would remember.
But that didn’t stop her from loving him, as she still did, invisible and secret, ever since she’d first laid eyes on him six years ago.”
This shows just how much Sorscha loves Dorian. It’s within the first fifty pages of the book too. It’s not instalove, as she fell in love with him six years ago, before the book starts. We just don’t see any of that, which I’m fine with. She, however, knows that she’s not good enough for him. Dorian has come to Sorscha to help him heal his scars from using his powers. Later on in the story she goes to his rooms, which she’s very eager to do. She doesn’t want to show her fears to him. She considers a future with him as his queen at one point in the story. Does this happen or is there something that stops it? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself!
There literally are so many elements that make up this story that I don’t want to spoil, like the character, Aedion that needs to get Celaena back to Rifthold, for a purpose pertaining to the crown, so I’m going to leave it there, I think. I’ve briefly put the major stories that make up “Heir Of Fire” above, without spoiling too much. If you started “Throne Of Glass” and like me, thought, this is okay, but it’s nothing special, PLEASE continue on with “Crown Of Midnight” and “Heir Of Fire” as they far out-surpass the first novel, at least to me! I’m REALLY EXCITED to read “Queen Of Shadows,” the fourth book in the “Throne Of Glass” series, to see how the plot continues!
I’m going to read a manga to go towards my “Magical Readathon” TBR, finish reading “Graceling” by Kristen Cashore in what’s left of the month of September, so I can start a fresh in October!
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