Photo Credits: Sam Mouat
Edited by Vaishali
Title: ‘Tower of Dawn'
Author: Sarah J. Maas Series: (Throne of Glass #6) Genre: Fantasy Fiction, New Adult, Romance Publisher: Bloomsbury Year of Publication: 2017 Format: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4088-8797-4
Themes: Romance, love, war, friendship, hope, freedom, redemption, loss, adventure, grief, mental health/physical health, rehabilitation
R E V I E W...
“It was agony and despair and fear. It was joy and laughter and rest. It was life, all of it, and as that darkness lunged for Chaol and Yrene, he did not fear it. He only looked toward the darkness and smiled.”
I delayed reading 'Tower of Dawn' for months, sitting on my shelf as it was collecting dust because I wasn’t sure I could put my stubborn pride aside and risk the state of my fragile sanity had I burdened myself to read 664 pages of Chaol Westfall - in regard to my considerable hostility towards him (I didn’t mean for that to sound so harsh)... BUT I forced myself to pick up this book to sate my need for completion and order as I make the agonising wait for ‘Kingdom of Ash’ and I am SO glad I did. Once I started reading I could not stop, so eager to find out what happened next. I can honestly say that I now know why Sarah J. Maas was invested in this book enough to weave it into a complete novel.
I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was not that at all! I must admit that i was thinking about Aelin and Rowan the whole time, and I felt their presence throughout this book seeing as it was hinged on references to them. The detraction of those characters however, made allowance for this story to have a foundation of its own – for Chaol and Nesryn to be key players. Chaol was much more bearable and I had so much admiration for his journey as well as Nesryn's in 'Tower of Dawn'. I was happy with Chaol’s achievements and over-comings in this book as he needed a dose of significant personal growth. I loved how his tale played out. I was also happy for Nesryn and her own journey of finding home and safety in her homeland considering I didn’t quite care for Chaol's treatment of her.
“He supposed he'd learned that strength could be hidden beneath the most unlikely faces.”
The southern continent is new territory but gorgeously described. The multicultural empire of the Khaganate was interesting to learn of, the setting is rich, the relationships are well executed, I liked meeting the new characters and look forward to meeting them again! I like that 'Tower of Dawn' focuses on a completely different culture and way of life, and that the Khaganate is a kingdom founded on mixed races and all races. The Khaganate prize knowledge and education and healing, which is another cultural idiom i loved. I felt joy, and hope, and incredulity, and despair, and intrigue whilst reading 'Tower of Dawn' but then I’m a person of inevitable sentimentality. I cried, and I smiled, and I felt myself soaring on those ruks with Sartaq and Nesryn while galloping into the desert with Chaol and Yrene.
“Fight. Fight for your useless, wasted life.
Chaol did frustrate me from time to time when he finds reasons to doubts Aelin and places blame on her. Aelin is fiery yes, and will go beyond borders to defend her loved ones but Chaol just paints her as unreasonable and unpredictable. I think the truth is that Chaol doesn’t understand Aelin and the kind of woman that she is. Rowan has committed centuries worth of sin and yet Chaol calls him a ‘good male’ and is unsure of whether Aelin will listen to his reason. He is accepting of Rowan but as soon as there is contrary evidence stacked against Aelin he is the first to hesitate and submit to reservations. He also said that 'Aelin could cost them this war' even though she is the leading figure in this endeavour to win this war.
'Chaol snorted, and the prince straightened. “Good luck to anyone who tries to go after Rowan Whitethorn.”
“Because Aelin will burn them to ash?” Hasar asked with poisoned sweetness. But it was Kashin who answered softly, “Because Rowan Whitethorn will always be the person who walks away from that encounter. Not the assailant.”
Before i begin discussing the issue of rehabiliatation and disability I want to say that I’m aware that every person’s experience and story of disability is diverse, and every opinion matters, no matter how small or big. I can only speak from my own experiences and if I make offence in any way it definitely isn't intentional. Disability is always a difficult subject to broach being that it’s not always represented accurately or there are tones of prejudice in regard to the character going through the struggle, but I think Sarah J. Maas does a good job in representing this kind of disability in Chaol’s constant struggle to come to terms with navigating the world from a wheelchair.
“He could still speak with dignity and command whether he stood on his feet or was laid flat on his back. The chair was no prison, nothing that made him lesser.”
With his body betraying him, his inability to walk and do and act as he used to, to do what his instincts call to him, Chaol has to place his pride and self-sufficiency aside to navigate the world from the perspective of his wheelchair and not being in his complete physical faculties. I agree that no ailment makes a person lesser, but the truth is that a person who has a disability can and does at times feel lesser, the loss makes them feel lesser because they knew what they could do before.
“He knew—Chaol realized the guard knew just how it felt to have the chair touched, moved, without being asked."
His being resentful, angry and feeling insubstantial with what his body won’t allow him to do is a very natural thing to feel especially when he had the full capacity of his body before. People with chronic illnesses and disabilities usually do fall into this bracket of thinking that they are insubstantial or useless because of the life-changing effects, and it is a life changing phenomenon. A physical injury is never just physical, its usually always accompanied by emotional trauma so the healing process must apply to both body and mind and the author reinstates this continuously.
Sarah J. Maas goes into detail about the struggle of physically moving for Chaol, things people take for granted. His physical healing is tied to his emotional too in that he has to learn his value and importance to accept himself in every way, in every condition; that his acceptance reaches past whether his limbs work or not, that it does not depend on the condition that he can walk, he has to appreciate himself without condition – a very difficult task for a person with such ailments or poor health. I liked the approach of physical health recovery in that the bulk of it relies upon emotional stability as much as the physical, that the recovery is just as much mental at it is physical as both natures of health are inextricably linked together, the mental even being the biggest hurdle. Control of mentality is foundational in the healing of the body and the breakdown of the mind is equally as crippling as the injury itself and needs just as much maintenance, something Sarah J. Maas explores very well.
“The trauma of any injury requires some internal reflection during the healing and aftermath.”
Chaol has a rough ride with his body in 'Tower of Dawn' but soon comes to truly understand that living in a chair doesn’t make him any less of a man, and that he is just as capable. I’m glad that Sarah J. Maas ends the book with Chaol not being entirely healed and would always need a support/aid in some capacity because it makes his story of acceptance even more valuable as he comes to realise that the healing of his physical body is almost irrelevant where his mind and happiness are concerned…. and I like the idea that we have a disabled front man in this war who will be fighting amongst everybody else able bodied or no.
If he were completely healed then it would have eradicated the notion of acceptance in an emotional sense. I think the whole idea of Chaol returning back to his continent as an able-bodied man would completely tarnish the idea of disability in this book, like 'okay I got through my struggle in the chair and now as a completely healed man I can go kick some ass'. It was a battle for him, and I don’t think I would have dealt with it nearly as well as Chaol or had such a strong will in such hard times like the characters in the 'Throne of Glass' series have. Chaol was brave in his internal conflict and I like him slightly better because of his trajectory and the light he is portrayed in.
“Don’t you waste one heartbeat being afraid of a coward who hunts women in the dark.”
Chaol's story highlights the power of will being an invaluable tool to keep moving and keep fighting irrespective of a person's condition. That if he really wants to get better he will - if only he stops believing that this pain is deserved and not giving heed to the part of himself that doesn't wish to revive. Because the truth is that at a person’s lowest pain often feels deserved.
“The darkness shoved itself down his throat, choking him, strangling him. He let it. Felt himself open his jaws wide to let it in farther. Take it, he told the darkness. Yes, it purred to him. Yes.”
I like that Yrene only helps Chaol when necessary, and propels his independence by not stepping in to help because she knows he is perfectly proficient. But even she (being a healer) can inconsiderately overlook what he is going through whereas Nesryn is on the opposite side of the spectrum in that she can underestimate Chaol's adeptness whilst in the chair. Yrene can sometimes be the cause of the indignity Chaol feels in certain situations, and there are others who manhandle him and give themselves the right to move him just because they can, and that being physically ailed grants them the means to make up for the faculties that the person is missing.
I know that in life it can be difficult to navigate how to treat those with disability, sometimes people will overcompensate or undercompensate – this is why educating is important because when it comes down to it people will always have this inherent urge to want to help if a person is ailed, they want to do something alleviate another’s pain, and I think we can all understand that. Being mindful of impressions such as equality and egalitarianism is elemental becaue we don’t want to be perpetuating this idea of lessers and we don’t want to be ignorant in equal measure while still offering people who need more help than the avaergae to attain more help.
“Using the chair is not a punishment. It is not a prison. It never was. And I am as much of a man in that chair, or with that cane, as I am standing on my feet.”
Chaol has to rely on people for assistance and adjustments, but I would like announce emphatically that it isn't a weakness to need it, and a person shouldn’t be faulted for it when it is a requirement. It also doesn’t make a person any less independent because they need that dependency. Sarah J. Maas is incredible at writing stories of healing in an emotional sense and overcoming mental and invisible obstacles and did just that when writing 'Tower of Dawn'.
‘Shen smiled down at him – with no trace of pity. “It has taken me a long time to get to this place.” He said, a bit quietly. Chaol knew he didn’t mean the skilled use of his artificial arm. Shen added, “But know that I did not get here alone.” The unspoken offer shone in the guard's brown eyes. Unbroken, this man before him. No less of a man for his injury, for finding a new way to move through the world.”
Chaol learns that darkness will always be there and it will be a part of him but isn’t something to fear or hate, but for reflection and balance. To not fuel the dark with grief but with life....and he ultimately had to learn forgiveness for himself. Darkness is fundamental to and in life because it can be a sanctuary as much as it can be foe. Life is feeling the darkness, not feeding it, it’s the dark breaking you and remaking you. Though darkness and light are at opposite ends of a spectrum, they are both allies and partners in stabilising and neutralising. Darkness is neutral territory – it thrives off of whatever it is fed. Darkness is not inherently evil and lightness can be too blinding as well. But they both hold hands in shattering and making, breaking and creating. They are both fundamental in shaping. The acceptance of Chaol’s past grants him that mobility and life. Grants him the chance to go forth.
“Mountains. And seas,” she whispered
“So you never forget that you climbed them and crossed them. That you – only you – got yourself here.”
I would say that 'Tower of Dawn' is a required read even to Chaol haters because there is a lot of new history and hidden weapons that are revealed in relation to this war, and news that would change everything. Sarah J. Maas’s writing only gets better, and if you don’t want to read it for Chaol then I would suggest reading it for her stunning prose… so one may not follow the plot entirely if this book is skipped. I’m not sure if Sarah J. Maas realises it but she makes a difference to this world every time she writes a book. I’m devastated that this series is soon coming to an end because I don’t ever want It to… but as is there is always an end unfortunately, so in toast to that: bring on Kingdom of ash! (she says whilst hiding in a dark corner).
“You must enter where you fear to tread.”
“From that keep in the snow – blasted mountains where a man with a face as hard as the rock around them had thrown him into the cold; to that salt mine in Endovier, where an assassin with eyes of wildfire had smirked at him, unbroken despite a year in hell. An assassin who had found his wife, or they had found each other, two gods – blessed women wandering the shadowed ruins of the world. And who now held the fate of it between them.” I gave this book 4.5 stars -
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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: 'Queen of Shadows' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Empire of Storms' by Sarah J. Maas ● Book Review: 'Kingdom of Ash' by Sarah J. Maas _____________________________________________________
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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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