Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas - A Review

And we have reached the end, Kingdom of Ash! The final installment of the Throne of Glass series. This series is one of my all-time favourites so it only felt right to review them on my blog. If you have not read the other books in this series or Kingdom of Ash, please be aware that there will be spoilers. I have also written reviews for the previous books in the series, so if you would like to read those you can find them listed here:

• The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas - Click Here
• Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas - Click Here

All the theories about how the story would conclude have finally been put to rest, even though we were still left with some questions at the end. In almost a thousand pages. there were so any things in motion and so much going into this last book. Only one thing was definite; a really big showdown - that had been years in the making - was about to begin. 

Photo Credit: @ABookPhenom

A Summary of this crazy plot (if it is even possible to summarise)...

In the east, Rowan, Lorcan, Fenrys and Elide hunt for Aelin, wringing news about Maeve from her Fae commanders. There is still tension between Elide and Lorcan, but he clears the air between them. At the end of Empire of Storms, he was not crawling for Maeve, he was crawling to Aelin. 

Meanwhile, in the north, Aedion fights losing battles on two fronts; against Morath's soldiers and against his feelings for Lysandra, who he's still punishing emotionally for having made plans with her queen that he did not know about.

Among the Khaganate's ships, Chaol gets word that Morath marches on Ainelle. He can't let his hoe get destroyed, as much as he does not want to face his father.

In the mountains. the witches hunt witches: Manon leads the thirteen in search of Crochan Witches. Among them is Dorian, who works on developing his magic skills and - once they encounter Cyrene, the spider Manon fooled, who also took years and magic from Falkan and the Shape-shifter - begins to practice shape-shifting. He wants to go to Morath in a different form. 

In Doranelle, Maeve tortures Aelin, all with the goal of getting her to take the blood oath. Fenrys is forced to watch. Aelin's torturer - Cairn - moves to burn her, but it is too much for both Aelin and Fenrys. He snaps his blood oath and attacks Cairn. Desperate - Aelin tries to talk Cairn into killing her as at this point she would rather die, when Rowan and company show up just in time to help. Traumatized by the experience, Ailen does no speak a word, communication by blinking in her silent language with Fenrys. The Little Folk come to help them all get out of Doranelle. 

Manon is lead to the skeptical Crochans; she quietly draws two Ironteeth covernts to the combined witch force, to fight them and prove herself to the Crochans. A tentive truce is struck between them.

Alien and company encounter ruk riders in Adarlan, and they make their way to Anielle to join the fight there. Alien has to save the day when Morath's legions try to drown the city by blowing a dam. She expends all the power she has been saving for Maeve's death blow, and streams the flood away. Everyone then heads north. 

Dorian sneaks into Morath, where he discovers Maeve has come to speak to Erawan. Dorian - after pretending to be on her side - turns off Maeve's portalling power and uses her own deceiving powers against her. There he brings down what is left of Morath. With all three keys in his possession, he shifts and flies north.

The fighting continues in Terrasen; on the road there Dorrian finds Aelin, Chaol and the Khaganete host. After a reunion, it is time to deal with the keys. In hopes that it won't kill either of them, Aelin and Dorrian agree to share the burden, but things go awry when Aelin tries to Bargain with the gods for Elena's existence. Deanna destroys Elena entirely. The old king of Adarlan apears and offers his powers; Aelin kicks out Dorian. The king uses up his magic and Mala gifts Aelin with a last nugget of Power. It keeps her alive after she opens a portal into the god world. Then, lead by the magical Wyrdmarck in her new tattoo, she falls through worlds back to her own, power mostly depleted.

Manon's witches arrive in Terrasen and the bluebloods join their side. Petrah uses Iskra's own wyvern murdering trick against her and Manon's entire covern sacrifice themselves for the witch tower.   

Aelin remembers one of the important lessons she learned when she arrives at Terrasen - symbols have power. When everything is dark - when Gavriel has sacrificed himself, when the spider-valg princesses are on the move - she makes a stand in front of the gate, her sword burning. Th tide turns when a series of portals open: Fae, the ones who fled the Southern Continent, and wolves and men, all coming down from the far north to aid the fight. 

And when it comes time to destroy Maeve and Erawan, Aelin does not do it alone; Dorian, Lysandra, Elide and Yrene combine forces to defeat Erawan. Before the final blow, Dorian learns his fathers name; it's his own. When Yrene crushes Erawan, she shows him her mother: a woman Erawan never knew, whos hope for her daughter had lead them to this moment. 

And in front of the gate, Aelin, Rowan, Fenrys and Lorcan fight Maeve, who tries, one last time, to turn their minds. But Aelin has seen enough of Maeve’s lies, and slips Athril’s ring onto the Valg queen’s finger. It’s not a pretty death.

When Erawan falls, his armies stop. And it’s actually over. Everyone has made peace—Lysandra and Aedion, Lorcan and Elide, Darrow and Aedion—and their losses aren’t nearly as terrible as they could’ve been, apart from the Thirteen. Gavriel went down in front of the gates, protecting his son and his son’s people. A lot of nameless, faceless soldiers died, but everyone else we know lives. Rolfe and his Mycenians. Ansel, though not many of her men. Ilias. Hasar and Sartaq and Nesryn, Dorian and Chaol and Yrene. Lorcan and Fenrys. Darrow, Evangeline, probably even Nox, wherever he got to.

Aelin is crowned queen, and offers the blood oath to Aedion in front of everyone. There’s a party, and everyone goes home. A witch brings Manon proof that she’s broken the curse: a flower bloomed in the Wastes. And in the end, on a sunny morning, the kingsflame blooms across Terrasen.

It is impossible for me to be able to covere everything that happened in this book; already this is becoming one of the longes reviews that I have written and I have only done a plot summary! I am going to speak about a few key things that stood out to me, please do not be offended if I neglet to talk about something that may be your favourite part of the book. Something that is fantastic about these stories is that there is so much going on that one thing I missed somebody else may have picked up, and we can all learn something new about this world we all love dearly!

In this particular series, I have found that I liked the secondary characters more than the leads in this story. Aelin has always been central to the plot of these books - there is no doubt about that - but she is not who I read this story for. There were so many pages of torture in this book, and it was difficult to get though some of the earlier chapters in the book, but Aelin's resolve is carefully laid into these hard to read chapters. Her resolve and her bond to Fenrys, which is a reminder that people get through things when they are not alone. Maeve underestimates this, being Valg, she does not realise that she is pushing them closer together by torturing them both, and they give each other the strength they need to get through this tough situation. 

Maas does not shy away from showing us the after affects of Aelin's time in Maeve's clutches. She is not herself for the longest time, even at the end of the book - though she has shown some recovery. She has changes so much but her choices are consistent - she fights, then she tries to sacrifice herself thinking that it is the best solution for her people. She did it in Heir of Fire, and se did it in Empire of Storms. She would have done it here, but Mala intervenes. It is the truest way in which Aelin is the Queen - her people are her first priority. That is all she asks from those who have taken the Blood oath, that they protect Terrasen and her people. 

Although we do not spend much time with Chaol in this book, it is important time. We see him facing his father with hi wife at his side, finding that he can stand up to the old lord. So much of his strife in the earlier books comes from hi expecting people to be a certain way, and that includes himself. We see him overcome this in Tower of Dawn and adjusting his expectations. He has grown to be more flexible; more accepting. 

Throughout this whole series, I have found Dorian one of the most fascinating characters. He has taken the longest to figure himself out, which makes sense - he was a prince, an heir and had his life set out for him; he then became a slave to one of the Wyrdstone Collars. There are some thing that he has always known about himself - his loyalty, the way he values friendships - but there's so much else he has had to reconsider as his story shifted and changed. We see him struggle with PTSD almost as much as Aelin is, and he has had to come to terms with the raw magic he never expected to have. 

His response to all of this is to grow curious - which is what I love about him. He studies Cyrene's nugget of shape-shifting magic; he tries on other bodies; he tests Damaris's truth capabilities, summons Gavin, learns to fly. He's consistently moving and looking and watching, and trying to understand. He doesn't just want to understand what he's capable of; he wants to understand how other people move through the world. He uses Damaris to detect lies, but also to understand truths, and to see what matters. 

When he stands in that chamber of Morath and debates who he is and what king of action defines him, the choice, again is taken from him . But really, he has already chosen: he chose when he weakened Morath, but not the pathways humans used. He chose when he tried to fight the Valg prince in his collar.

Now that the story is done, I want to follow Dorian - Dorian and Manon, who both have kingdoms to rebuild. 

Manon became my favourite character in Queen of Shadows, so you can probably guess how I reacted when the Thirteen flew off to their deaths - their light filled, important, heart wrenching deaths. Part of me really hates this decision, hates that Manon has to go off and lead the Witch Kingdom without the very witches who taught her to care, to love, to change, to look beyond the bad ways she had been taught. It was a massive character loss. 

The Witches story line is the story of overcoming a history of infighting and self hatred, and in some ways I wish that the book was more upfront about this, about how the Ironteeth fight with the cliched weapons of the catfight, nails and teeth, turned viciously deadly. There's something about the female friendships in this series. I appreciate them, but they tend to be between women with differing levels of power, whether Manon and her second or Aelin and the women who will be ladies of Terrasen - but still subjects of their queen - when this is al over. It is still a story about royalty, so it could be argued that this is inevitable but there is something about the connections between men and women. 

In the end, there are three queens on the continent, and three witches leading the way back to the Witch Kingdom. There's far more power in the hands of non-evil women than there was at the outset of the story.  I wish the Thirteen had gotten to keep demonstrating the biggest lesson they helped Manon learn: how people can change and surprise you. But war is war, and people die. The Thirteen's sacrifice was a blow to the heart. 

Even without them, Manon will still be a great queen, so it was not in vain. She has learned to make harder and harder choices, to inspire, to see feelings as strengths, not just weaknesses. She and Aelin come to queendom from opposite ends - Aelin from a place o trying to do everything herself; Manon from a place of destructive teamwork for a horrid cause - but they both grew up, at least part of the time, being lied to and controlled. In a way, you could say they are two sides of the same coin.

One thing that I have  brought up about the series before still remains in this final book, the majority of the main characters are white. Especially when you refer to the main cast. You could argue that we have Nehemia, but she was murdered in one of the most explicit ways a character could die, just for Aelin to have character development and to advance the plot. You could also argue about Nesryn, but she was initially written in as an alternative love interest for Chaol and she was quickly pushed aside in a spin-off book. Then there's the Southern Continent, which is a mish-mash of cultures. However, they were kept so far apart from the main series that when they were introduced, Maas had to write an entire novel to explain who they all were. 

Then there was the time when an exclusive book cover was released and Manon was depicted as East Asian. There is nothing wrong if Manon was East Asian, except that this was a last minuet pathetic attempt at racial representation. Bloomsbury has previously endorsed art of Manon as a white woman, and there was no mention in the book of her being Asian. Like I said, there would be nothing wrong with Manon being Asian, but if you are going to do this right you shouldn't write your characters as blank canvases, you need to write it down with ink and paper. Show some integrity. 

Following on from the subject of representation, there are so many straight people in these stories. Maas' obsession with the mating bond between females and males span across all of her book series. Its quite laughable at this point, and I struggle sometimes to tell Rhys and Rowan apart. Even the Wyverns are roped into this!

Everyone in these books are refered to as "Male" or "Female", meaning that there is no non-binary or transgender representation in this world. The one instance where the book could have talked about gender identity, it is played off for laughs. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. 

There is the scene where Dorian flirts with Manon in a woman's body, which leads to Manon snapping at him to switch back, because homosexuality is so uncomfortable. Keeping in mind so much of the Trone of Glass fan-base viewed Manon as a lesbian since the first day that she appeared. Maas used the relationship between Manon and Dorian to sink these theories. 

And I almost forgot about Aedion - our token bisexual - since the representation came from a single throw away line in Empire of Storms. 

This is not the most important thing, but it was fascinating to finish this series and to think about the different between what had been prioritized in a story and what teh reader feels is vital to the tale. There are a lot of unanswered questions left in the story, not in a spell out everything for me type of way, but when it comes to the world building. Authors have to make choices about what they focus on, and Maas built such a huge world that it is impossible to flesh it all out. 

I thought that there would be a lot more to the Wyrd and to the whole story of the Gods; what they were, how they got there, how they set themselves up as gods, how they relate to the other gods worshipped in the Southern Continent. With the Gods gone, is there an empty chair in the underworld?

Some of the questions that were lingering were answered, like where the Fae from the Southern Continent went - but the answer was just, North. We were not introduced to any of them, or hear their stories. What was their leadership like? The whole history is still full of mysteries that fascinate me: what caused the witch wars? What actually happened to Mab and Mora? Who were Brannon's other children? What about the dragon in the southeast? What am I missing about the relationship between Rhiannon Crochan anf the last go around in this game: why does Maeve know her face, and why does Manon have to step in the mirror with Aelin, when no witch is necessary for the forging of the Lock? What about the twin mirror, iin the other chest that was supposedly under Morath?

If there is one thing that I could change about Kingdom of Ash, it would be to add more to the ending, so we can what happens to everyone after Aelin's Coronation. I half expected something like the end of Return of the King - where we see our battered tired heroes return home to try and resume their lives before the war happened. I wanted to see Dorian in Rifthold, figuring where to start with his sacked city, coming to terms with the guilt and trauma he has dealt with, and making the world a better place with Chaol and Yrene at his side. I wanted to see Manon flying over the Wastes-no-longer, seeing the place she can now call home. I wanted so see Aelin met Nehemia's parents and to finally give their country a moment in the spotlight that does not include death.

There is a whole story after the battle is done, and it is not one that is explored in this story. But this is a celebration and I can respect what Maas has done here. After everything, Aelin and company deserve a ball, a coronation and a quiet farewell. 

In some ways, the end of the series reflects the ending of Empire of Storms. Ad ever, Aelin has plans that she does not tell anyone about, from not explaining why she doesn't use her power until that desperate moment in Anielle, to not telling everyone that she's asked the Fae and the Wolf Tribe in the north to come to Terresen's aid. The latter I can understand, she never wants to give anyone false home because she knows exactly what it feels like to lose hope. But the former was very frustrating, because while Aelin was not using her power, PEOPLE DIED. Nameless people, nameless soilders, all falling to Morath's hosts. 

What matters at the end of this book - and what has mattered throughout this story - is that individuals do not win battles. Aelin saves Anielle, but that's once the battle is done' there are only people to save because everyone fought. From the very start, Aelin never wins her battles alone. Assassinations, yes: Archer Finn's death is an assassin's kill, although it is the last time this happens in the series. 

Fighting beside her are Nehemia and Chaol when she became the King's Champion. Roan lent her his magic when she faced the Valg. Destroying Arobynn was a group plot, the last blow left to Lysandra. The same goes for the battle at the end of Empire of Storms, which took every alliance Aelin could call upon in a short space of time. 

So when it finally becomes the time to end the two main antagonists in the series, it is fitting and beautiful. All of these characters we have come to know and love across the seven previous books have come together and combine their skills to play a part in the destruction of Maeve. It is personal, like Asterin being the one to destroy the Blackbeak Matron, but it is so much more than that: it is fitting. And it is really satisfying too.

So much of the narrative in this story comes from fighting, but there is something about the climatic battle that is so breathtaking. Maas has firm control over the narrative, and there is never any confusion about where the characters are, how they relate to eachother ect, and she manages to check in with just about everyone as everything comes to a glorious but violent close.

Another thing I noticed with Kingdom of Ash is that it comes across that Maas has used previous plot points form her other stories. The ending of Kingdom of Ash is identical to the ending of her other series, A Court of Wings and Ruin in many ways:
The main character sacrifices their life for humanity, to be called back by sheer force of the mating bond.
The main characters are not allowed to come into harm's way, and will survive a number of scenarios that would have killed any normal person. They don't actually suffer any actual loss or sacrifice of anything significant. Aelin's biggest sacrifice was giving up her human mortality and human form to seal the gods away.
A lot of Rhys/Aelin posturing about how they are fair rulers who will do things by democratic votes, except they always get to make the call on the most important decision, such as dying and leaving the kingdom without the ruler because noble plot twist.
A saccharine sweet ending where no real loss or sacrifice has taken place, where traumas are wiped clean, and everyone is just thinking about building libraries and theatres and making babies.
These are only a few of the similarities in the endings of both series' that she has written. Maas does not let her characters confront morality, old age of long lasting trauma.

The only people who sacrificed themselves in this book were the Thirteen - as mentioned before. The sisterhood of powerful women who I felt where pushed into the background for more Manon and Dorian sex scenes - and although I like this pairing, I would have preferred to see more of the Thirteen. 

The end of this book is the start of a new kind of life for them all, and two of our queens make choices, early in the book, that outline what that life will be, and what this stroy is all about. When she faces the Matrons, Manon spares Cresseida for a simple reason: She has seen that the Bluebood Matron is capable of love. And when Maeve tries to tempt Aelin with an imaginary version of Rowan that’s perfect, that never suffered, Aelin rejects the dream, because the reality is what matters—the reality where they got their shit together in Mistward, where they saw each other’s flaws and pain, and found hope in all of it. It’s all hope, like it’s always been. It’s hope, and friendship, and connection. But it’s a wonderfully imperfect kind of hope, not the kind that wants the world to just be magically better, but the kind that understands that mistakes can be learned from, that people can be better, and that failures make us who we are, for better or worse. Sometimes they’re not even failures, like when a witch loves her daughter. Sometimes they’re just things we haven’t really figured out how to see yet.

After seven long years, the series has finally come to a conclusion. Despite the issues that I have with the book, I really enjoyed Kingdom of Ash, after all, no story is perfect. What did you think of Kingdom of Ash, and what is your overall opinion on the Throne of Glass series? Let me know, and thank you for following this series of book reviews! What series should I review next! Let me know!