Read my review of Empire of Storms here!
Series: Throne of Glass, # 6
Publication: September 5th 2017 by Bloomsbury
Goodreads Description:
In the next installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his sweeping journey to a distant empire.
Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.
His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent's mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.
But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.
My thoughts:
While it wasn't my favourite Sarah J Maas book, I did really like Tower of Dawn.
To start off I should address what everyone was worried about when Tower of Dawn was announced- the disability representation. As we know from Queen of Shadows Chaol lost the ability to use his legs due to the events of the end of the book and as a result uses a wheelchair to move around. I was very weary going into Tower of Dawn because I was worried the issue might no be handled in a sensitive authentic manner. So the big question is: do I think Tower of Dawn is ablesit? I don't think so. I do not have a disability so I can't speak on the authenticity of the rep but I think Chaol's physical and emotional journey were both written in a respectful way. If you want to read thoughts from someone who uses a wheelchair I'd recommend this post: http://her bookishthings.com/towerofdawn/ it is also stated in this post that Sarah said she went though sensitivity readers in regards to Chaol a situation which I appreciated as it showed she was really trying. There is also a review on goodreads which addressed the disability rep if you want to check it out, this reader was very happy with the rep- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2114999039
Now that the disability rep is out of the way let's talk about Chaol in general in this book. I really liked Chaol in Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight but then I grew to be indifferent about him in the later books. He annoyed me and I couldn't have cared less about his story to be honest so I was really only pick Tower of Dawn up for Nesryn and Yrene; but after reading the book I've actually grown to like him again. Chaol a character development in ToD is set at such a lovely pace o couldn't help but start to like him as I got a deeper understanding of him. In ToD we really explore his thoughts on what he's done in the past and how he feels about how he acted which I really liked.
I picked up this book to get to know Nesryn better; I loved the little glimpse we got of her in QoS and couldn't wait to see more from her character, and sadly I was a bit disappointed. I felt like she was missing the whole first half of Tower of Dawn, she was there but I felt like she wasn't getting equal page time to the other characters until the second half of the book where she really shines.
Our third main character is the healer Yrene. Yrene is the healer from the novellas The Assassin and the Healer which was released a few years ago and is part of The Assassins Blade. I'd recommend reading the novella before Tower f Dawn but it is not necessary, anything revealed about Yrene in the novellas is in ToD too. She's a different type of badass to what we are used to in the Throne of Glass world and I liked that. I liked reading about such a compassionate young woman who is smart and kind and so much more and can still be strong despite the fact that she isn't amazing at fighting physically.
We are introduced to loads more characters and while they were interesting I will say it was hard to keep them all straight in my head; they all have names that are spelt weirdly and impossible to pronounce in true Sarah J Maas fashion. We do get to meet the royal family of the southern continent and while I didn't care about most of them 1 in particular stood out and I really enjoyed his part in the story.
The romance was tame compared to ACOMAF and EoS which I was super grateful for. I will say it's still new adult content but boring as explicit as ACOMAF and EOS.
There is a lot of World building in Tower of Dawn but somehow Sarah J Maas never makes it info dumpy; we learn about the culture and the royals and healers and everything in snippets here and there when relevant. It was very interesting reading about this new place in the ToG world. It's important to note that because we are in a new place Mass used this as an opportunity to make the series more diverse in terms of race; the only white character is Chaol.
I felt like the plot was a bit lacking. There was not as much action as I expect with Sarah J Maas books but I suppose that's because there was a big focus on character journeys (Chaol in particular but also Yrene) and world building.
There is vital information in Tower of Dawn for the next instalment in the series, this was supposed to be a novella so I've heard people say they are going to skip it because it won't effect the final instalment but I am telling you now do not skip this book! There is some very important things revealed towards the end of the novel that will have a big impact on how the finale will play out.
This book should be read after EoS as the events in ToD run parallel to EoS so they are happening at the same time and things that are happening in the northern continent are mentioned in ToD to keep Chaol in the loop and so we know at what point the others are in the story. There is no Aelin, Dorian, Manon, Rowan, Lysandra, Aedion etc in Tower of Dawn so don't go in expecting them!
I enjoyed Tower of Dawn but it's not my favourite Sarah J Maas book; I felt like it was lacking the twisty plot, sass and fun I associate with this series. I can't wait for the finale next year though!
My rating: 4 stars
Thanks for reading,
A :)
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