While YA books nowadays cover every premise conceivable — what we’ve come to refer to in the community as “checklist fiction” — the genre has entertained a host of great works back when it was just on the verge of becoming mainstream and commericalized.
One of these was Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series. One of the most popular and best-selling books in the scene and a great gateway into the genre, it is also a perfect primer for those who want to dip their toes into speculative fantasy.
The story of Throne of Glass follows a young assassin freed from a brutal labor camp by the crown prince of Adarlan to compete in a deadly tournament. The winner of the tournament gets to become the king’s champion, a personal assassin to do his bidding. Our fearless heroine, going by the name of Celaena Sardothien at the beginning of the story, has to navigate this deadly trial, deal with the intrigue of the king’s court, and uncover her part in the grand scheme.
As the Throne of Glass series picks up steam, the narrative gets more complex and the characters more layered—which, combined with the author’s intricate worldbuilding, turns this into one of the best fantasy books you could come across.
Of course, much like any other fantasy series with multiple installments, Throne of Glass also had its ups and downs. So whether you are a long-time fan of Sarah J. Moss or just starting to get into her work, here is a definitive ranking of every book in her first major series from worst to best, to give you a general idea of what each novel is about and how well it was received in the community.
8. Crown of Midnight (book 2)
One of the great things about Sarah J. Maas as an author is that she can always be relied upon to write better sequels. So while the first book, the titular Throne of Glass, was an amazing start to the series, many fans consider Crown of Midnight even better; it is perfectly paced, much darker, and with higher stakes, even though the tournament is over.
Our protagonist finds herself deeply entangled with the undercurrent of the king’s courts, fighting on one side to perform her job as his personal assassin and struggling to undermine his tyrannical rule on the other. There is intrigue, betrayal, and a ton of unexpected twists, with Sarah J. Maas really taking her time to further establish this fictional world, detail its magic system, and set up the larger threat that is about to be unleashed across the land.
On top of all of this, Crown of Midnight takes the series from its adventure roots and thrusts it into the world of epic fantasy. But all of that said, I can’t help but notice that despite its strengths, Crown of Midnight is one of the weaker entries in the series, if for nothing besides the fact that all the sequels succeeding it push the envelope in noticeable ways.
7. Tower of Dawn (book 6)
The sixth novel in the Throne of Glass series takes a detour by focusing on our favorite Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall. J. Maas originally intended to write his story as a novella, but she loved the project so much that she ultimately expanded it into a full-length novel and had it take place concurrently with the fifth book, Empire of Storms.
I would say the reason people hate Tower of Dawn so much is that they never cared for Westfall to begin with — and that’s true in its own right — but the biggest gripe was that you were dealing with the second-longest entry in the series, and it was only a spinoff.
What’s worse, despite Aelin and the main story having little to do with this penultimate entry, the events surrounding Chaol’s own adventures heavily tie into the final book, Kingdom of Ash, so skipping it is not an option. Unless, of course, you wish to read the final book completely oblivious to certain plot points and try to wrap your head around them as you push forward, even though there is little to no previous context explaining any of it.
6. The Assassin’s Blade (prequel)
Reading The Assassin’s Blade is an absolute joy. Consisting of a collection of five stories set before the events of the main books, The Assassin’s Blade centers around our main heroine and follows her adventures when she roamed Erilea with Sam for company. These five stories, preceding her arrest, include The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld, The Assassin and the Empire, and The Assassin and the Healer, all previously published in e-book format.
There is a lot of debate in the fandom about whether new readers should start by delving into The Assassin’s Blade first. I think reading about Aelin before she was forced into the tournament can make you sympathize with her in a way that wasn’t possible before The Assassin’s Blade, but that doesn’t mean Throne of Glass can’t stand on its own two feet as a narrative. Some even prefer to go in blind and suggest not going anywhere near The Assassin’s Blade until after reading the third or fourth books.
At any rate, you can’t skip this prequel, as it contains some of Aelin’s most badass scenes before she picked up the mantle of leader and became the savior of the world.
5. Throne of Glass (book 1)
I don’t know what it is with Sarah J. Maas and her insistence to include a deadly trial in her first books, where the protagonist has to fight for their lives in a series of increasingly difficult tests, but in that particular regard, both Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses eerily parallel each other.
And just as Feyre had to navigate a love triangle in A Court of Thorns and Roses with Tamlin and Rhysand, so does Celaena find herself being yanked between Prince Dorian, who saved her from the prison and got her into the competition, and Captain Chaol, who is a dear friend of Dorian’s and trains Celaena to face the tournament. Dorian is kind and playful, while Chaol is aloof and emotionally detached, and as Celaena finds herself fighting to stay alive and decide the fate of the realm, she learns that there must be more to love than a willing heart.
From those very first pages, Throne of Glass introduces readers to a compelling protagonist who can be witty and vulnerable as well as competent and deadly. The book is fast-paced, and the world-building is done with meticulous care, neither bombarding the reader with too many details and exposition nor completely forsaking the nuances of the larger world in favor of its action-packed plot. And sure, there are many clichés to be found, namely the generic love triangle and the tonal inconsistencies that plague every debut novel. But ultimately, Throne of Glass hits the ground running and serves as the perfect setup for the rest of the series.
4. Heir of Fire (book 3)
Everything comes to a head in this third book from the Throne of Glass series. Celaena is traveling to Wendlyn on a mission to kill the royal family there, but she has no intention of serving her own court any longer. Meanwhile, back in Rifthold, Westfall grapples with the truth about our heroine’s identity and struggles with himself over his loyalty to the crown and his feelings towards Celaena.
As Dorian comes to terms with his powers and responsibilities, Celaena meets Rowan, a powerful Fae warrior who helps her master her abilities and confront her past. The two slowly form a deep bond, one that transcends everything she had with either Dorian or Chaol. The novel ends with Celaena mastering her fire abilities and deciding to go back to Adarlan to overthrow its tyrant king.
While Heir of Fire is an important book in terms of character development for our main heroine, the book can feel convoluted at times, with multiple points of view all vying for the reader’s attention at the same time. The introduction of Rowan and his evolution from an antagonist to a beloved side character is the highlight of the book, and the final cliffhanger involving Dorian will have you lunging for the next entry just to see what happens to everyone’s favorite misunderstood princeling.
Now going by her true name, Aelin Galathynius, our protagonist returns to Adarlan to confront the king. Dorian is still imprisoned via the Wyrdstone collar, his powers dampened and insignificant, while Chaol leads a resistance against the king from the shadows.
3. Queen of Shadows (book 4)
Aelin wishes to free her cousin Aedion, but the resistance struggles to gain a foothold against the king. The book ultimately ends with Aelin freeing Aedion and then infiltrating the castle to rescue Dorian. She unleashes her full powers, but here, Sarah J. Maas does a classic rug-pulling turnabout by revealing that the person we thought was the story’s big bad is nothing but a puppet himself. Aelin reclaims her throne, knowing all too well that the fight for Terrasen and Erilea has only just begun.
Queen of Shadows will keep you at the edge of your seat throughout its almost 700-page narrative, and the biggest surprise is when you reach those last pages and realize this felt much, much shorter to read than all the other previous installments in the series despite its length.
2. Empire of Storms (book 5)
The fifth book in the Throne of Glass series picks up the story immediately after Queen of Shadows, with Aelin now racing through the continent looking for allies, having accepted her fate as the rightful queen of Terrasen.
If there’s one word with which I could perfectly capture the vibe of reading Empire of Storms, it would be “cathartic.” The Throne of Glass series may not be long by high fantasy standards, but when you reach this fourth book, you feel as though our characters have already been on one hell of a journey, and that it wouldn’t be such a terrible idea to shake things up a bit and take the plot down an uncertain path.
The author understood this perfectly and wrote Empire of Storms in a way that slowly builds up to an epic climax and then delivers on that promise with emotional payoff after emotional payoff. There is also a bit of overlap again with the Court of Thorns and Roses, by which I mean Aelin finally learns the truth about Rowan: the fact that they are Fae mates, a bond more powerful than anything in the Sarah J. Maas shared universe. (Wait, is that a thing?)
1. Kingdom of Ash (book 7)
The final battle for Erilea is taking place across the continent, but the queen is not there to lead the forces of light against Erawan’s demons. As Aelin’s friends launch a desperate rescue attempt to free her from the coffin prison, other characters go through their respective journeys and prepare for the last battle.
In a world-shaking clash, which will arguably feel like some of the best fantasy fight scenes you’ll ever read, Aelin and her court square off against Erawan to decide the fate of the world, bringing the series to a mostly satisfying conclusion in the seventh and final book, Kingdom of Ash.
When it comes to epic stories of any scale, the ideas are not as important as their execution. We have practically seen every story we could ever come up with retold over and over again, so what ultimately makes some of these stories stand out is the compelling execution. Sarah J. Maas, for all her pandering to clichés and tired tropes of the fantasy genre, knows how to execute an idea in a way that makes it work. And this is perhaps the highest praise I could give the series.
