Skip to chapter 47 and 48

There are a few tie in pieces of info in this book that relate to the larger story arc but if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing it’s possible to get the jist of the whole story and new characters by listening to the beginning and end few minutes of each chapter, which is what I did so that I can now get the 7th book in the series and find out what has happened to AAG! Chapter 47 and 48 probably deserve listening to in full as do the last maybe 6 or so chapters.

7 people found this helpful

Amazing performance makes up for it

Elizabeth Evans is one of my favourite audio narrators, and she really brings this whole series alive- and I think without these audio books I would've stopped reading this series by now.

I was worried to pick up this book as it focuses on Chaol (my personal least favourite character) and a bunch of new and side characters. I enjoyed it better than expected, but can't say I've grown fond of any of these characters despite spending 600+ pages / 20+ hours with them. The plot felt streamlined, a few important details and twists but otherwise a rather by the numbers Sarah J Maas book. All the character relations and developments were predictable, and she has so many characters that a lot of their personalities are starting to overlap and show troupes within her own books. With audio, and all the brothers and sisters with unusual fantasy names, it took a long time to learn characters names, or to even recognise who was who- I got through that mostly via context until near the end of the novel.

The best part of this book was Choals recovery process. I was worried how that would be handled, and I've heard mixed things about the representation (but mostly good things from own voices reviews that I saw browsing goodreads before I picked this up). I had one or two issues with it, but overall thought it was done well and was satisfied with how he ended up.

Overall, amazing narrator, entertaining, but nothing outstanding compared so some of Maas's other novels.

5 people found this helpful

Boring

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Less romance and more action.

What could Sarah J. Maas have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The original character had depth and colour to his personality, which was lost in this book. Unfortunately this was below par.

What didn’t you like about Elizabeth Evans’s performance?

Her delivery which is becoming very drawn out.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Tower of Dawn?

Probably about half the book. Not much happened but it took forever to come to a conclusion

Any additional comments?

I think this was more of a romance than science fantasy. Which is not to my taste. However, others might prefer it that way.

16 people found this helpful

not a whole lot of plot for such a long book

This series is becoming so samey and repetitive. every relationship takes the exact same path. This book felt like filler, it took a whole book for a few revelations to come out and two relationships to develop between characters who are not even central to the main plot of the story?! The narrator does a pretty good job but mispronounced quite a few words that it becomes jarring. Also everything is delivered with the same 'wry' or 'cheeky' tone so after a while everything just sounds sarcastic?

2 people found this helpful

Loved it.

A bit slow at the beggining but gery intresting once it reaches the middle and very crucial before the final gook in these series.

2 people found this helpful

When will it end?

Both this book and Empire of Storms could easily have been one book, told in half the time! To be honest, as hugely entertaining and well written the Throne of Glass series is, to me it seems as though the author has got carried away with her talent for descriptive writing and ended up with a series that seems to go on for far longer than it needs to. If I hadn't already got this far I might've given up sooner. Its a fantastic story with exceptionally well written characters but it does have a tendency to become tedious when certain characters (Kaol) continue to revert to irritating temper tantrums and sulking behaviours. We get it, he's brooding, did we really need nearly an entire book about it?

2 people found this helpful

Unfortunately Required

This story was sooooooo booooring.
SJM did not waste one original idea for this book. Mild and unremarkable new characters. Repeatable romance plot. Old characters got some grew, but not enough for me to like them or even care.
But unfortunately by the end we learn some information essential for main plot. But if I could go back in time I would just read summary and go straight to next book.

1 person found this helpful

So slow…

I am struggling with this series. I am over 7 hours into the book and I have only heard about Chaol and the goings on in the palace where he was sent, at the end of book 4?, to get help for his injury. I do not mind learning about what is going on with Chaol, but 7hours of it? If I hadn’t made it so far I’d possibly give up.

The series is well written but at times it is over descriptive and has a tendency to drag on about the mundane. This is the third book in the series that I have struggled with large parts of. Pity, I like Sarah J Maas and some parts of the series have been amazing, but at this point I’d sadly have to give the series 3 stars overall.

Edit… I now only have 3 hours left of the book and I can’t wait for it to finish! The book is still only about Chaol and other sub characters. I haven’t heard any continuation from the cliffhanger we were left on in the last book and I am not sure I care anymore. I don’t think I have ever claimed to “hate” a book, but I am making an exception for this! It’s awful, dull and far far too long!!! I don’t understand why people have said it’s so good? 😕

1 person found this helpful

Struggled

I read the first five books but this one seemed unnecessary. Took me forever to get through. Same harsh tone and repeating "ever so beautiful" characters as the first books but 10% of the action. Could have worked as a chapter instead of a book.

1 person found this helpful

takes a long time to get going but it's worth it

So I definitely struggled to get into this book. A lot of the first half of the book is about Yrene healing Chaol, which was fine but should have been shorter. Nesryn and Sartaq's part of the book was what kept me going because I found them more interesting until I got to about chapter 20 I think where Chaol and Yrene's story picked up the pace.
I would recommend listening to this at a fast speed if you can to get through most of Part 1. I found that the story got going a few chapters before Part 2 began. Not that it wasn't interesting it was just slow. The audiobook was really well preformed and I really enjoyed listening to it between reading the paperback.
I really ended up enjoying this book so much more than I thought.
I would say that you need to read this book before reading Kingdom of Ash. I know that Chaol isn't a lot of people's favourite character, he isn't mine and I dreading reading a book about him but I ended up really loving this book.

1 person found this helpful