Leta’s Book Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (SPOILERS)

SPOILER WARNING for THRONE OF GLASS, CROWN OF MIDNIGHT, HEIR OF FIRE

Next to Kingdom of Ash, Heir of Fire was my favourite book last time I read this series. I don’t know if that will be the case this time around, but I do know that this is the novel where the story actually gets started. Everything up to the climax of Heir of Fire feels like the setup of the story itself. That’s one of the easy problems with long, multi-book series. It’s really easy for things to take longer than they should.

I have a hard time thinking of negative things to say about this one. I know Rowan as a character is a problem that a lot of people have, so I’ll talk a bit about him first.

The main concern about Rowan is that he’s abusive to Celaena throughout their training. I can see why people think this, especially without knowing everything about Rowan that you find out in the rest of the novels. He is quite mean to her, but I think that it’s important to note that Celaena is also quite mean to him in return. And, not to mention, she’s extremely lost when she winds up at Mistward, a fortress up in the mountains of Wendlyn. I believe Rowan gave her a lot of time to figure out her shifting on her own before resorting to other methods. When they both realized that Celaena’s shifting was triggered by anger, he began provoking her and being mean to her in order to get her to shift. I believe that this was probably the only way to get through to Celaena. Rowan figured out how she operates and used it in the quickest way he could to get her to shift.

This is the first novel where perspectives begin multiplying as well so that the reader is aware of the full story from multiple angles. Chaol and Dorian both have points of view, but most importantly, we’re introduced to Manon and her Thirteen. I didn’t understand a lot about them the first time I read Heir of Fire, but I love that they were included this early in the series. Manon and her Thirteen are Ironteeth witches from the Blackbeak coven and in this novel, they’re training to ride the King of Adarlan’s wyverns into battle alongside the rest of the Ironteeth witches. I love everything about the witches in this world. They’re unique and Manon provides us with a perspective of intelligence behind enemy lines, someone who doesn’t believe in what the king is doing but has been promised their dream: to use their wyverns to take back their own kingdom. She’s self-serving but slowly begins to understand just how sick and twisted the King of Adarlan truly is.

I almost forgot about the other important character introduction. Aedion Ashryver, Celaena/Aelin’s cousin. He’s given point-of-view chapters as well, to show that even though he’s been the lapdog of the king for a long time, he has never once felt loyalty to Adarlan. Every single thing he’s done with his army known as the Bane has been to help the people of Terrasen and hopefully one day, Aelin as well.

I can’t wait to read Queen of Shadows and meet another layer of the character cast as Celaena heads back to Adarlan as Aelin. Dorian is in danger since the King placed a Wyrdstone collar around his neck, Chaol is running for his life, and Aedion has been caught and given an execution date. There’s a lot for Aelin to do once she reached Rifthold.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5