Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
Hello Books Lovers,
here we are already at review number 2 this week. Talking about this book will be very difficult for me as the last of its saga, my second favorite after Shadowhunters, but I have to do it. I wanted to postpone this reading for as long as possible. I own the previous books in English and I never purposely wanted to buy the ending, I was too afraid of suffering, I waited a couple of years for it to be translated, mostly procrastinating until today. Kingdom of Ash, by Sarah J. Maas, is now out in Italy.
It is the seventh book in the saga of Throne of Glass, and it is also a saga that is very close to my heart because the first book I ever read in English was Throne of Glass. I will never forget that Christmas when I received the first two volumes. And now here we are, much suffering later, talking about the last, epic volume of this epic series.
The saga began as a young adult, and over time the characters have grown, over the course of a narrative year, they have discovered many things and the story has slowly grown to become a new adult. My favorite book will always remain the third in the saga, Heir of Fire, but they are all spectacular, including Kingdom of Ash.
The beauty of Maas’s books, in my opinion, is that, aside from being able to make huge books very smooth, she introduces new characters at the right moments. There are books that introduce 10 of them in the first pages, and this in my opinion is a big disadvantage for the story, Maas instead knows perfectly well where she wants to go with the story and introduces them gradually, there have been books in which she introduced one, two, books in which he has introduced a few more, but always all at a safe distance so as not to cause confusion to the reader, also given the fact that some names are quite similar (Example: Aelin, Elide Locan, Lorcan: three totally different characters) .
That said, we have arrived at the seventh volume in which everyone knows their role in the story. And despite this, there are still many things to do, including saving Aelin from the clutches of Maeve and Cairn, healing old grudges, meeting lost family members, meeting old friends again, I’m talking about Chaol of course, who will arrive on the continent together with Yrene and the Ruk – with Nesryn and Sartaq. But more importantly, they will have to save the world from Erawan, Prince Vald, who is as great a threat as Maeve is.
This book has 1000 pages in Italian, but I will reveal a secret noticed after reading. In the story there are many, but many repetitions, for example in one scene Aelin is crying, and after a few lines repeats she feels the tears, she is crying. And this thing, clarifying a situation and then repeating it shortly after, occurs in many other parts of the book. This explains how the 1000 pages arrived, if Maas would have disposed of these repetitions a little, the book would have had the same story but shorter, but that’s okay because we readers, if we love the story, we also love long books, especially if they are finales, am I right?
This is the thing that saddens me the most. At the end of ACOWAR we thought it would be the last and instead here it turns out that the author will write other books in that saga, instead Kingdom of Ash is absolutely the last book in which we will see Aelin, Rowan, Dorian, Chaol, Manon , Lysandra, Aedion, Yrene, Elide, and all the other characters who over time have made their way into our hearts. Is it wrong to want to reread the whole series from the first book?
One thing to note is that every Maas book is getting bigger and bigger. Crescent City 1 was huge, I can’t imagine what its sequel will be. Yet in Kingdom of Ash, the scenes between Maeve, Cairn and Aelin, the ones where she was being tortured, that kept me glued to the pages, were quite brief in comparison to all the others. Dorian and Manon had entire chapters, as did Aedion. Instead the most interesting ones, in which we see our protagonist resisting, fighting, always a bad-ass, ended in a heartbeat.
Then we want to talk about the beats my heart skipped every time something was said that wasn’t true? Because as you also know from the previous books, each scene, each character, has its place in the plot, and if they are far from each other they don’t know what their companions are doing, and then every time Aelin thought that thing there, when he did nothing else all the time, my heart broke repeatedly.
Precisely for this reason I was afraid to read this book until today, because over the years I have become too fond of the characters, my heart is with them, and if they suffer I suffer too.
Oh lord, this review never seems to end, I usually don’t write so much so as not to get bored and not to spoil, and instead today I wrote 900 words, without even a spoiler, I’m proud of myself. I would say to start getting to the end though. Kingdom of Ash, as I told you before, is an epic ending. An agglomeration of action and suspense, from the first to the last page. The pages are many, but they will flow quickly because you will not be able to detach yourself without first knowing what will happen next, and not even time to turn the page that there will already be another scene that will leave you with bated breath. There are many battles to be won, it won’t be easy. The new alliances will be many, but the enemies will be as well. A perfect conclusion for those who have followed the saga from its beginnings. And as if 1000 words, on the subject of the 1000 pages of the book, of review weren’t enough, I also leave you the official plot. Enjoy the reading!
Aelin has risked everything to save her people-but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day.
With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation-and a better world.
And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen-before she is lost to him forever.
As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.
