Book review: Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

Finished reading: 24 April 2024
Rating out of five: 4.5/5

The sixth book in the Throne of Glass series, Tower of Dawn follows Chaol and Nesryn as they travel to the southern continent with two missions: to find a remedy for Chaol’s paralysis, and to get the southern continent on their side for the final battle.

While a 4.5/5 (like Empire of Storms), this book took me a little while to get into—so much so it took me well over a month to read it. While this is the case, I definitely wasn’t disappointed and really enjoyed where the story took me.

Ultimately, having a book as long as this one completely separate to Aelin’s storyline took a while for me to get used to. However, by the end of it, I was happy we got it.

As per the usual: there are spoilers here. You’ve been warned!

I had heard about midway through the series that readers can read Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn at the same time as they’re set on the exact same timeline. There’s a whole timeline of which chapters you should read from each book. Rosebud’s Realm has resources for the tandem read including a PDF and Google Doc checklist, so go check it out if you’re interested.

With that in mind, I did not do the tandem read but can completely understand why people do. I decided not to only because I do a lot of reading either on public transport, at cafes, or at work as well as at home, and it’s not easy carrying two brick-sized books everywhere!

Following the absolutely mindblowing ending in Empire of Storms, it was a bit challenging getting into this book. But, one thing I did enjoy right off the bat was the lack of perspective shifts compared to Empire of Storms. Again, I love an omniscient narrator, but sometimes you can have too many voices.

Entering a new location, it was interesting to learn about the city of Antica and the southern continent. The shift of not having the usual voices e.g. Aelin, Dorian, etc as well as entering a new location breathed new life into the series. It made this book really stand out, which is also noticeable with the change in front cover. With no Aelin on it, it’s made pretty clear that this book is very separate, although integral to the whole storyline.

We’ve known since Queen of Shadows that Chaol and Nesryn had some attraction going on. However, landing in Antica and meeting all the new characters in this location, it became apparent pretty quickly that they weren’t meant to be together. The moment Chaol meets Yrene and Nesryn and Sartaq begin interacting with each other, it’s pretty clear where the romance is going to go (or at least it was for me).

I haven’t really even touched on the story yet, so let me right that wrong. Tower of Dawn focuses on the politics on building alliance with the southern continent, and how Chaol and Nesryn navigate the different formalities and expectations in Antica while overlaying a touch of murder mystery.
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Chaol’s storyline brings him to Yrene. Just like a bunch of new characters in Empire of Storms, Yrene has come out of the woodwork from The Assassin’s Blade. If you don’t remember, she’s the worker at the White Pig Inn that Aelin (Celaena at the time) saves from mercenaries and then later provides enough money for Yrene to travel to the southern continent to study to become a healer.

Anyway, that’s exactly what happened, and Yrene has been assigned to help Chaol with his paralysis. At the end of Queen of Shadows, the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow but left his body completely broken and poisoned with a dark magic that has caused this paralysis.

This healing journey also brings about conspiracy. You see, when Chaol and Nesryn arrive in Antica, they find white cloth hanging from windows, which indicates someone important has died. This ‘someone important’ is one of the daughters of the Khagan (the ruler of the southern continent), and so we have a ‘who dunnit’ mystery weaving away in the background of this story.

Chaol’s healing journey also brings with it a lot of reflection and inner healing for both himself and Yrene, which results in some very sweet moments together, and a very beautiful ending as we head into the finale in Kingdom of Ash.

On the other side we have Nesryn’s storyline, which links her to Sartaq and his people and the army they could acquire to support in the final battle with Aelin. This is a really interesting storyline as we learn a whole lot more about Nesryn, her background, her family, and how she’s become the person she is.

We also learn a lot about the rukhin and the ruks. Ruks are like really big eagles that can be flown around, and rukhin are who ride them. It’s very interesting to compare these people and their ways of lives compared to the Ironteeth Witches and the wyverns they fly. Where Ironteeth Witches are tough, strict and quite barbaric in nature, the rukhin contrast this. Aka, Ironteeth Witches are the ‘evil flying people’ and the rukhin are the ‘good flying people’.

It's through this storyline we meet Falkan Ennar. Or, at least, we learn more about him, because we have met him before. Again, another character from The Assassin’s Blade coming out of the woodwork, we meet Falkan in The Assassin and the Desert when Aelin (Celaena at the time) sees the Spidersilk he has on display. We learn about how he has lost 20 years of his life in his bargain to receive 100 yards of this material, and he gives Celaena a piece of this in The Assassin and the Desert.

I think it’s both crazy and cool that these characters a part of The Assassin’s Blade seemed pretty innocuous and just there to play a part in the ‘making’ of Celaena/Aelin, and end up coming back into the series and having a pretty significant part to play.
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Ultimately, Tower of Dawn is a nice break from the craziness that is Aelin and the troubles and drama that follow her. It includes mystery, murder, deadly sibling rivalries, and really awesome integration of a new culture to learn and experience in this big, big world that Maas has created. And, the ending is a whole lot less heartbreaking compared to Empire of Storms, so there’s also that!

So, what did I like? As mentioned earlier, it’s quite refreshing to come back to a storyline where we have less perspectives compared to Empire of Storms. It made me connect more deeply with the characters. I also didn’t find myself unhappy with any of the perspectives. I’ve read plenty of books with omniscient narrators where I’ll reach a character and go “ugh not this guy again”, and I never felt that way during this book, which is a huge green tick.

Having this separate story focused primarily on Chaol and Nesryn also allowed us to learn a whole lot more about these characters. We learn quite a bit about Chaol, his family growing up, and how he thinks and feels in the previous stories. Through his healing journey with the dark magic, we learn even more, and you really see his character develop throughout this story into a man that isn’t a self-righteous pain in the ass.

Nesryn has always been a badass woman in my eyes, and this story really gives her the ‘badass’ stamp of approval. However, she’s not quite at Manon level to me just yet (although it’s not lost on me that Nesryn ends up a part of the ‘good flying people’ group, so maybe I just like badass women who fly on cool animals).

Yrene being brought back into this storyline is also really nice. What I also like about her character is that while she’s not a ‘fighter’ like Manon or Nesryn, she has her own badass-ery through her ability to heal. While a healer and kind to many people, she also has the right balance in her attitude in getting things done and fighting for what’s right. I’m glad she didn’t end up as a generic, stereotypical damsel in distress type character being a healer—it was quite refreshing to read.

However, what didn’t I like? It was a slow start. Leaving Empire of Storms on such a tragic, crazy note and then having to slip into this story was very difficult. Knowing that Tower of Dawn happens along the same timeline as Empire of Storms also makes it difficult to read through on its own because you know what’s about to happen with Aelin and you still can’t stop it.

I feel this slow start may have been the reason I just couldn’t get myself into the book, and therefore it took me as long as it did to read it. However, once the story started to pick up in its intensity and we started to get a bit more action, I found myself hooked back in.

And, I’ll be honest, I found myself more hooked in with Nesryn’s storyline than Chaol’s. I found there was a whole lot more action, and I found learning about the rukhin so interesting. It reminded me a bit about the Avvar in the Dragon Age series, and that may be part of the reason why I enjoyed it so much!

That was my only real dislike. So, that’s where I’ll leave my review, because I just can’t wait to get into my thoughts and feelings about the finale: Kingdom of Ash.
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What did you think about this book? Did you like the separation of storylines? Did you read this on its own or in tandem with Empire of Storms? Let me know in the comments!