Heir of Fire

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Throne of Glass, but came away disappointed after the second, Crown of Midnight. A lot of my disappointment had to do with the main character, Celaena. I put up with her arrogance in the first book because it was balanced by many other elements, including her self-loathing. The second book delved into a cloying romance between herself and Chaol Westfall, the captain of the king's guard. By the end of the book, Adarlan's Assassin finally reveals in assassin-y skills in a scene to rival a Batman: Arkham game. Now, Celaena has become the Avatar, and, on top of more self-loathing, as heaped on by the tragedies she's just lived through, and her returning memories, she gets to learn how to wield her firebending powers.

Throughout this series, Celaena has not been a likable character, though Maas is trying very, very hard to ensure that she is and offers all sorts of supporting characters who do like her. I don't mind characters who are brash and arrogant and unlikable. I don't like it when everything about them feels forced. In this case, Celaena just feels like too much of a Mary Sue for me, even, or perhaps especially, with the piles and piles of suffering and trauma Maas heaps onto her. I'm supposed to see a survivor, a woman who has lost so much and hurts deeply and struggles with guilt and with the responsibilities others place on her shoulders because they see in her their saviour.

All that is fine, but I get tired of hearing about it from Celaena, over and over and over and over again.

Thankfully, Maas has always allowed the other characters in this series to speak their mind, with many scenes written from their points of view. Prince Dorian, Chaol, and now, several new characters are introduced. They all have a stake in Celaena's life and it is through their views of Celaena and her purpose, as well as their own, that I appreciate this story.

As I mentioned, Celaena is now a firebender and the titular heir of fire. She is on a mission as the King of Adarlan's assassin, but Chaol's true motives in sending her away was to bring her closer to the fae-her people. She is not actively seeking them out, but her nihilistic behaviour makes it easy for them to find her. Enter: Rowan, the brooding fae warrior, blood bound to a fae queen, who's suffered much loss of his own. He is tasked with training Celaena in the use of her powers. Cue flaming "Eye of the Tiger" montage. A lot of time is spent with these two characters, and I know from the Goodreads and Tumblr posts, that the teasing regarding their potential romantic relationship has worked well. I admit, I kinda got caught up in that too, but appreciate that, after the lovey-dovey-fest that was book two, Maas allows for a little more maturity in the relationship between Rowan and Celaena, and I'm really pleased with where things end up by the end of this book.

Like I said, there are a lot more characters now and many of them get to tell the story through their point of view. Most notable among them are Aedion, the King's general whom Prince Dorian and Captain Chaol have hated for some time, with what they thought was good reason. Now, Chaol's sleuthing reveals some surprising depth to Aedion and his motivations.

There is also Manon Blackbeak, an heir to one of the many witch clans we learned about in book two. Manon is the only character that does not relate directly to Celaena in some way (for now, though the future connection seems fairly obvious), so her part plays out almost as a separate book altogether as she deals with the trials and pressures of her people as they prepare to serve the King of Adarlan as his soldiers.

Magic is also a thing unto itself, as Celaena learns to use hers, Dorian tries to hide his, and corruption stalks the fae.

While I am not getting as much out of this series as I initially did, I am still curious enough to find out what comes next. Not for Celaena, but for everyone else.