Photo Credits: Valmir Dzivielevski Junior
Edited by Vaishali
Title: ‘Kingdom of Ash'
Author: Sarah J. Maas Series: (Throne of Glass #7) Genre: Fantasy Fiction, New Adult, Romance Publisher: Bloomsbury Year of Publication: 2018 Format: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4088-5198-2
Themes: Romance, love, oppression, slavery, faeries, friendship, hope, freedom, redemption, loss, revenge, war, grief, strength R E V I E W
The Prince
“I will find you” The Princess “But she still told herself the story, still sometimes imagined that the river sang it to her. That the darkness living within the sealed coffin sang it to her as well…Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom….”
Aelin Galathynius has been a woman of numerous names, burning through them as fast as her own gift of fire. But becoming the one name that will change everything, the one title that matters most to her people, the one not only her kingdom but the world desires is the one that seems the most unreachable and may never come about: Queen of Terrasen.
“I know you are tired, Fireheart. I know that the burden on your shoulders is more than anyone should endure.” He took their joined hands and laid them on his heart. “But we’ll face this together. Erawan, the lock, all of it. We’ll face it together. And when we are done, when you Settle, we will have a thousand years together. Longer.”
When I first received my copy of 'Kingdom of Ash', I remember thinking if I was religious enough to own a bible, this beautiful thing would be it, the gold as bright as a beacon and I acknowledged it with such reverence because this is the last book of one of my favourite series.
Maas’s writing style is as electric and heart-wrenching as I remember it. The beginning of the narrative is stunning and almost reads like a fairy-tale in itself, though darker and more twisted indeed. The ending was just as striking, though I did have some issues with the pacing and plot. Concluding the series, 'Kingdom of Ash' is very much about tying up the many loose ends and stories of each individual character, which isn’t simple to do considering the vast reaches of the book itself, and how many aspects needed attention for closure. The scope and span of this tale is immense, almost like the positioning of various stars in a constellation, with the many characters sprawled across the continent. Considering the breadth and how many characters were telling their stories, there was a strong sense of each individual character, the trajectory of their journeys and the tying up of them was concise and well done. No character was lacking, and all made some contribution to this story. “Let’s make this a fight worthy of a song.”
Thank you Sarah J. Maas, for making this ending worthy of a song.
'Kingdom of Ash' has a dark, intense atmosphere what with the darker themes it explores such as torture, abuse, death and war. There is much to overcome, so much darkness devouring every corner of the world and every corner of the minds that dwell in that world. It filled me with dread to no end, I cried through 50% of the book, from joy and pain, I felt the anticipation, the devastation, I buckled under the stakes and wondered what was going to become of the characters I love so much with barriers of every kind and material in their way. This is the book which all of its predecessors led to and although it isn’t my favourite in the series It was just as sustaining and enjoyable in a bitter sweet way. "I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “You fight,” he said simply. “We fight. Until we can’t anymore. We fight. …Rowan laid a hand on her chest, right over that burning heart. “Fireheart.” A challenge and a summons. She placed her hand atop his, warm despite the frigid night. As if that fire had not yet gone out entirely. But she only gazed up at the stars. To the Lord of the North, standing watch. “We fight,” she breathed.
It always manages to shock me to no end when it hits me just how young some of these characters are, the decisions they have to make and the stellar fight and fire they have amidst adversity and ruin. Not just this installment, but this series is an examination of human spirit. What it can do in a losing battle to turn it into a triumphant one. Everybody has a fight in this fantasy, something that spurs them, and I’m not just talking about the salvation, nurturing and the preservation of the world but the personal feats and internal struggles of each character. They fight for love and family and friendship and loss - for the prevention of it, for peace more so than vengeance and spite because at the end of it, isn’t that what it always comes down to – love for whoever and whatever always becomes preliminary, it's what people cling onto and cherish the most, not malevolence or prejudice.
Sarah J. Maas does a fine job to balance this. People can seem so infinitesimal in war, so many of them and so many forgotten stories buried under rubble, but they are remembered by the living in this book, a memory maybe, but a prompting, fuelling memory so that the living know what they are fighting for, who they are fighting for and to never let those deaths be in vain. Loss can either strengthen will or break a person and these characters never allow themselves to break completely, and they never let losses allow themselves to be lost for very long. "Of course I’m afraid. Anyone in their right mind would be. But my task is more important than fear, I think.”
There are conversations about the realities of war, the urgencies and desperations it provokes in people, the love it brings out in them and the ties it severs too. The capabilities of people who fight in lieu of the likelihood of their demise, who don’t forget their fear, but override it for the vision of ‘a better world’. It questions the weight of honour, its intentions and maintaining it in war when such concepts are easily forgotten and placed on a back pedal. How precious an oath is when other currencies are so little. Every moment counts in this story because the future that isn’t promised to them can very well be eradicated at any moment, such things can’t risk to be compromised, not when time, the will of a heart and strength of the mind become such precious resources.
“Beauty. There was still beauty in this world. Stars could still glow, still burn bright, even buried under the earth...beauty remained-and she would fight for it. Needed to fight.”
These characters value joy and peace and happiness because they are hard-won, they suffer through the bad, suffer through despair and it only enriches and intensifies the experiences of good for them. The grievances of loss or potential loss only make love more invaluable to them, can make life thrum with earnestness and the harassment to experience it copiously. Overriding everything though, when nothing is promised, these characters are just filled with an overwhelming sense of gratefulness to both destruction and creation, to pain and peace. They teach that there is always will in even a broken spirit, a broken world, namely Aelin. Invisible forces (beyond tangibility) provoke their challenge and bravery.
“It had been an honour. From the very beginning, It had been his honour, the greatest moment of his immortal life. An immortal life they would share together- somehow. He’d allow no other alternative. Rowan silently swore it to the stars”
Odds serve to balance the facts and statistics, to determine probability and the likely outcome, but 'Kingdom of Ash' also queries whether it is really necessary to heed the odds, to fall before them when there is still the chance and prospect of a different destiny, a different future, and above all do those odds (however insoluble) matter when there is so much to gain?
“You damn it all to hell! You say to hell with their plans, their prophecies and fates, and you make your own! You do anything but accept this!”
I did have my issues with where the story was going at times, with some of the characters, the relevance and necessity of some events and for whatever reason my reading experience was slightly dimmer than the books that came before it, 'Kingdom of Ash' was well-intentioned and culminated into a rewarding crescendo. For me, the bigger the book the better as I get more content, more story and more of the characters that inspire me, and Maas never lets down in regard to the volume of her books as well as their quality. In addition, I need to emphasise the promotion of positive female strength and power in Sarah J. Maas's books which i always root for and there are many strong leading females in this book !
“You have been very brave. You have been very brave, for so very long. But you must be brave a little while longer, my Fireheart.”
Usually I feel somewhay fractured and empty when approaching resolution in any sense, mostly in book form, and I always want more, crave more, need more, but I didn’t feel that way with 'Kingdom of Ash', I felt like the ending was the end and needed nothing more at all. I am so sad to say goodbye to this beloved, companionable series, and i look more than forward to more gems from this talented author, but for now i hope one of my most prized couples in fictional history, Rowan and Aelin, live a content and wholehearted thousand years together. Longer.
I gave this book 4 stars -
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M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read ---------------------------------------
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R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● Book Review: 'The Assassin's Blade' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Throne of Glass' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Crown of Midnight' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Heir of Fire' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Empire of Storms' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Tower of Dawn' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Queen of Shadows' by Sarah J. Maas _____________________________________________________
THE CONTENT BELOW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!
F A V O U R I T E M O M E N T S: 1) ACOTAR & TOG crossover! Aelin is one of those spirits finding her way home on Starfall and Rhy helps her! Feyre is pregnant! 2) The story Aelin tells herself to endure torture. 3) Aelin’s despair, losing her fight and will to live. Wanting death. 4) Fenrys and Aelin’s secret code. 5) Fenrys having to watch Aelin’s torture. 6) When Lorcan tells Elide that it wasn’t Maeve he was crawling toward on that beach in Ellywe, but Aelin. 7) Rowan’s determination. 8) Chaol’s not allowing any disability to halt his endeavours and fighting/commanding on the front lines despite it. Positive disability representation. 9) Aelin believed Rowan wasn’t coming for her and losing hope altogether. Her claiming mark disappearing because of it. 10) Maeve making Connall kill himself. Fenrys’s grief. 11) Love Fenrys with everything that I am – by far one of my favourite characters. 12) Nox’s reappearance! Nox’s loyalty to Terassen. I was disappointed that he and Aelin didn’t reunite though. 13) “You do not yield” 14) Aelin denting the iron coffin. 15) Lysandra’s fearless and valiant fighting in battle – her faithfulness and sacrifice to Aelin. 16) Abraxos and Narene being mated. Abraxos losing his mate. 17) Aelin’s final stand against Cairn. 18) Fenrys sacrificing himself and severing the blood oath to save Aelin. 19) Fenrys’s devotion and commitment to Aelin. 20) Aelin’s rescue. Lorcan running to her. 21) Rowan’s rage and heartbreak when he sees what has become of his mate. 22) Rowan skinning Cairn alive – I realise it makes me anything but benevolent but I desperately wanted to see that scene in detail, to see Cairn suffer. 23) Aelin screaming “Take it off”. 24) Aelin and Fenrys’s relationship – what their shared horror allows them to become. 25) Aelin offering Fenrys the blood oath to save his life. 26) “Welcome to the court, pup.” 29) When Aelin and Rowan exchange stolen wedding rings from the dead – how romantic. 30) Lorcan taking the blood oath to Aelin. 31) Manon speaking of hope and a better world with a lifetime without believing such a thing. 32) Rowan always wanting Aelin to be his mate. 33) Aelin telling Rowan she wouldn’t change their history for the world. That she fell in love with him because of their shared pain. 34) Rowan promising to sacrifice his life with Aelin to forge the lock. 35) Aelin’s reunion with Chaol, Yrene and Falkan. Her meeting with the Khagan royals. 36) Fenrys Moonbeam? 37) Every time Aelin tells Rowan she is so, so tired. 38) Aelin rallying her swagger through her desolation. 39) Darrow stripping the Sword of Orynth from Aedion. 40) Aelin’s meeting with the Lord of Anielle. 41) Manon duelling the three matrons. 42) Manon becoming Crochan Queen. 43) When Aelin and her court pillage the Lord of Anielle’s armour in true Aelin style. 44) Aelin unleashing months of supressed rage and fire against the dam. 45) Elide riding with Farasha into hell itself to save Lorcan from sure death. 46) Rolfe’s Mycenian fleet arriving. 47) Manon lighting the Flame of War. 48) Lorcan and Elide’s relationship. Lorcan breaking down self-imposed barriers to be wholly open and give himself to Elide. 49) Aelin teasing Rowan about his old age like Feyre did with Rhys. 50) Chaol realising his mother never forgot him. 51) Aelin’s eternal burning love and loyalty to her friends. 52) Dorian braving Morath, Maeve and Erawan. Dorian’s outmanoeuvring and outsmarting Maeve. 53) Aelin dethroning Maeve and turning her army against her. 54) As depraved as he may be, I admire Erawan’s loyalty to his brothers. 55) Did I just witness true fondness from Maeve? Strange and unsettling to see the open, soft side to Maeve she reveals to Dorian. 56) Vernon’s deserved fate. 57) Every time someone says “A better world.” 58) The uplifting speech Aedion gives to Evangeline. 59) The love Manon and the Thirteen have for each other. 60) Rowan recreating Aelin’s tattoo and marking their own story on her back. Sneaky Rowan hiding wyrdmarks in that tattoo. 61) Riding past Endovier. 62) Manon begging Iskra to spare Abraxos’s life. 63) Petrah defeating Iskra. 64) All of the Thirteen making the Yielding. 65) Dorian’s father replacing him to forge the lock. The message his father gives Aelin from her parents. 66) Aelin serving justice to the gods. 67) Borte and Aelin. 68) Aelin riding on the Lord of the North into battle. 69) Gavriel’s death. 70) When youth teaches age – Evangeline and Darrow. 71) I love how Sam is still a part of this story, in Aelin’s courage, every time she utters the phrase “I will not be afraid.” 72) Most of the cadre finally having a home. 73) Dorian finding out his father’s name. 74) The lost Fae of Terassen and the mythical Wolf Tribe. 75) I think it was fitting that Aelin and the cadre dealt Maeve’s death blow. 76) Lysandra and Falkan’s reunion. 77) Darrow welcoming Aelin back into Orynth’s castle after 10 years. 78) Aelin making the blood oath to Gavriel. 79) Lord Lorcan Lochan. 80) Aelin’s coronation. 81) Aedion swearing the blood oath. 82) When Chaol receives the letter from his mother. 83) When Manon finally goes to her homeland. 84) Rowan conserving his exquisite dancing for special occasions. 85) FLEETFOOT. 86) When the Kingsflame blooms.
F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S:
“He had killed his way across the world; he had gone to war and back more times than he cared to remember. And despite it all, despite the rage and despair and ice he’d wrapped around his heart, he’d still found Aelin. Every horizon he gazed toward, unable and unwilling to rest during those centuries, every mountain and ocean he’d seen and wondered what lay beyond…it had been her. It had been Aelin, the silent call of the mating bond driving him, even when he could not feel it. They’d walked this dark path together to the light. He would not let the road end here.” “Aelin paused her looting.” “On that lovely parting note. We’re going to finish up our dinners. Enjoy your evening, we’ll see you on the battlements tomorrow, and please do rot in hell.” “Death had been her curse and her gift and her friend for these long, long years. She was happy to greet it again under the golden morning sun.” “I don’t make bargains with bastards. I’m certainly not going to start with you.” “The loss and pain- they had not broken him wholly. Without them, would the moments of happiness be as bright? Without them, would he fight so hard to ensure it did not happen again?” “Her name was Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius. And she would not be afraid.” “The odds were slim; the odds were insurmountable. She had not been destined to escape this- to reach this point and still be breathing.” “No longer The Queen Who Was Promised. But the Queen Who Walked Between Worlds. She would not go quietly. She was not afraid.” “Rowan held her to his chest and wept in the light of the rising sun.” “I will find you again,” he promised her. “In whatever life comes after this.” Lysandra nodded. “In every lifetime.” “For Terassen. All of it, for Terassen.” “World-walker no longer…I suggest you invest in a good pair of shoes.” “Never underestimate the power of breaking a few bones.” “I am, if anything, the consummate portrait of royal grace.” “An odd day, when one has to compliment their enemy’s good taste in ale.” “I am thinking about how very grateful I am. That we made it. That I found you. And how, even with all that work to be done, I will not mind a moment of it because you are with me.” “Still Aelin lifted her sword. Flames ran down the blade. One flame against the darkness gathered. One flame to light the night. Aelin raised her shield, and flames encircled it, too. Burning bright, burning undaunted. A vision of old, reborn once more.” “Aelin only looked at her people, smiling broadly and freely, as she entered Orynth, and they began to cheer, welcoming her home at long last.” “The entire world seemed to pause with her, lingering on that threshold. Shining brighter than the snow outside, Aelin lifted her chin and began her final walk home.” “The only time in her reign that she would ever bow. The only thing she would ever kneel before. Her crown. Her throne. Her kingdom.” “Do you offer you life, your body, your soul to the service of Terassen?” “I offer all that I am and all that I have to Terassen.” “I, Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius, swear upon my immortal soul to guard, to nurture, and to honour Terassen from this day until my very last.”
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