This book is honkin’ huge. Which makes sense because there is a lot of ground to cover. The team is scattered across the map, each group with a different task to accomplish and all facing incredible odds against success. Doing their respective stories justice is bound to take a lot of pages.
Another character reappears from an earlier book – Nox from the original Throne of Glass competition. First Falkan and now Nox! I am starting to think I should write down the name of every single person Aelin every so much as shares a coffee with, because they are going to show up in a pivotal role later.
The passages about what Aelin goes through as Maeve’s captive – I’m not going to lie, those were hard to read. I’m as bloodthirsty as the next fantasy fan about killing people but I have a pretty strong squick about torture and what Cairn did to her was really extreme. Her trauma after she was rescued felt genuine – she was terrified she was in another one of Maeve’s glamours.
Elide continues to be one of my favourite characters just because she is so clever. Pretending to be Cairn’s abandoned dalliance was a brilliant move on her part.
One of the things I noticed about this series is how often self-hatred is presented as the source of a problem. In Tower of Dawn it was hinted that the reason the Valg poison stayed with Chaol for so long was because of his self-hatred, and here it was the block that originally prevented Dorian from getting the hang of shifting. Kaltain says she is able to kill the Valg that possessed her specifically because she believed she did not deserve to be collared.
As soon as the dam above Anielle was mentioned I knew it was going to figure in the battle. I assumed it would be a last-ditch defense of the city against the Valg army, but instead it was the other way around.
The reunion between Aelin and Yrene legit gave me the sniffles. And that’s all I’m saying about that.
There was a common thread of fated relationships not going smoothly with Lorcan and Elide, and Aedion and Lysandra. Both were resolved pretty much by the women going you know what, fuckit, we’re all going to die and I do not want that to be the how we part. Not totally unexpected, I mean it is a romance book.
Also I just have to say that describing Lorcan as being the most dead-ass, terrifying, and deadly of all the fae warriors makes it absolutely hysterical when Elide keeps focusing on how long his eyelashes are.
I was absolutely riveted to the chapters where Dorian was in Morath with Maeve. I knew he was plotting something but I wasn’t sure how he was going to get out of there once the Wyrdkey was retrieved. The man is ruthless. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t get the power of creating portals from Maeve while he was there – I assumed that his stealing some of the spider’s shifting ability meant that he could do the same to other magical beings.
Speaking of portals I feel like there was a missed opportunity there as well, Aelin has a trunk full of instructions on how to make wyrdmarks and she even mentions one is not what she is looking for because it only shows how to portal within the same universe. Why would you not use that to get to Terrasen faster? It does appear that she use it to bring in the wolfriders (and wow, who else immediately thought of Elfquest here?) but doesn’t think about it when they are worried about how long it will take her forces to arrive.
However, that did lead to Aelin arriving on stag-back. I am now curious about the Lord of the North. Is he the animal kingdom version of a fae? A High Fae of the Little People? I kind of like the idea that he’s a God, but a God who is indigenous to this universe and not just some being from another dimension.
The last stand of The Thirteen was both awesome and heartbreaking. I feel the same way about it as I do about the last 15 minutes of the second season of Good Omens. (Terrible. I feel terrible.) Alternatively the death of Gavriel felt like a real waste. I don’t understand why he would sacrifice himself like that when he could have come inside the keep. Not even just to potentially live through battle but so as not to waste a perfectly good soldier.
The one thing I will say I don’t like in Maas’s books; I’ve already mentioned that I don’t like the idea of mates. I much prefer when people choose each other intentionally, not when they are fated to be together. And I feel the same way about the blood oath. It makes sense when Maeve demands it because she’s a tyrant, but Aelin commands loyalty without it and always has.
I also think there is a contradiction in how Aelin says she wants to allow the populace a say in how they are governed, but then the book closes on the fact that the kingsflame is blooming, which is specifically a sign that the one who was born to rule is in charge. So like, let’s give them a little bit of democracy, but really the ones who inherit the throne will be the ones calling the shots.
I can’t believe I am finally done this series! The biggest struggle is that I read all my books in order, and getting them out of the library in order was impossible, so I ended reserving them all multiple times.
Now on to Crescent City!