- “Throne of Glass” is one of beloved fantasy author Sarah J. Maas’ series.
- You can read its eight installments in different sequences, which confuses some fans.
- Here’s my recommendation for the best reading order for the series.
Like many romantasy fans, I fell in love with Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series after discovering it on TikTok.
I devoured Maas’ books about faeries and then quickly turned my attention to her first series, “Throne of Glass,” hoping it would give me a similar feeling to the books I’d come to love.
To my delight, “Throne of Glass” was everything I hoped it would be, as it was full of the magic and romance I’d loved in “ACOTAR,” plus even more adventure and character depth.
This article contains minor spoilers for Maas’ works.
‘Throne of Glass’ is an 8-book fantasy series about a notorious assassin
In “Throne of Glass,” world-renowned assassin Celaena Sardothien has been stuck in a prison camp for over a year, wasting away at just 18 years old in Adarlan, a kingdom where magic disappeared years ago.
She gets a second chance at life when Prince Dorian offers her a deal: She can win her freedom by competing against 23 other killers to become the royal assassin for his father, the King of Adarlan. Celaena agrees despite her personal feelings toward the king, determined to earn her freedom.
As the competition progresses, contestants start dying mysteriously, and Celaena discovers she may have to confront her past to safeguard her future.
I was utterly captivated by “Throne of Glass,” and Celaena’s world only becomes more exciting in the other seven books in the series.
While I think the series is worth a read (or two or three if you love it as much as I do), it can be difficult to know where to start, as there are multiple reading orders for the books.
There’s a debate over the proper ‘Throne of Glass’ reading order
“Throne of Glass” was published by Bloomsbury in August 2012, but Maas had already published four novellas online about Celaena before it was released. The publisher later released the novellas, plus one more story, as one book, “The Assassin’s Blade,” in March 2013.
The events in “The Assassin’s Blade” take place chronologically before those in “Throne of Glass,” and its plot is crucial for the second half of the series.
Some fans choose to read the books in chronological order:
- “The Assassin’s Blade”
- “Throne of Glass”
- “Crown of Midnight”
- “Heir of Fire”
- “Queen of Shadows”
- “Empire of Storms” and “Tower of Dawn” in tandem
- “Kingdom of Ash”
I don’t think that order offers the best reading experience. Maas intentionally leaves the revelations from “The Assassin’s Blade” out of “Throne of Glass,” “Crown of Midnight,” and “Heir of Fire,” so if you read it before the first three novels in the series, you’ll be exposed to spoilers you wouldn’t be otherwise.
Instead, if you want a captivating, spoiler-free “Throne of Glass” experience, I recommend reading the series in its publication order rather than its chronological order:
- “Throne of Glass”
- “Crown of Midnight”
- “Heir of Fire”
- “The Assassin’s Blade”
- “Queen of Shadows”
- “Empire of Storms”
- “Tower of Dawn”
- “Kingdom of Ash”
I would have enjoyed the first half of Maas’ series no matter what order I read the books in. Still, the information revealed in “The Assasin’s Blade” definitely would have made “Throne of Glass,” “Crown of Midnight,” and “Heir of Fire” less suspenseful if I had read it first.
Don’t skip ‘Tower of Dawn’
“Throne of Glass” fans also have differing opinions on when to read “Empire of Storms” and “Tower of Dawn,” which came out in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Despite their different publication dates, the events of the sixth and seventh installments of the series happen concurrently in different parts of the “Throne of Glass” universe.
Most people read the two books in the order they were released, but “Empire of Storms” ends on a cliffhanger that is not resolved until the last novel in the series, “Kingdom of Ash.” When I first read the books, I found it somewhat difficult to focus on the events of “Tower of Dawn” because I was so concerned about what would occur in “Kingdom of Ash,” even though the plot was riveting.
Some people choose to tandem read the two novels, switching back and forth between them to read the events in “real-time.”
You may also see some BookTokers saying they skipped reading “Tower of Dawn” completely because it doesn’t center on the protagonist, which I think is a colossal mistake. The events of “Tower of Dawn” are critical to the series’ resolution, and you’d be missing vital information if you didn’t read them.
However, if you enjoy minor spoilers, I would read “Tower of Dawn” before “Empire of Storms” on your first pass through the series. You will know some snippets of what occurs in “Empire of Storms” before you read it, but you may save yourself from the anxiety-riddled experience of reading an entire 600-page book between the cliffhanger ending of “Empire of Storms” and its resolution in “Kingdom of Ash.”
And if you’re new to the Sarah J. Maas universe, I’d recommend reading the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series before you even touch “Throne of Glass.” You should also save her “Crescent City” series for last, as Maas created a multiverse with her different series that won’t make sense without the context “ACOTAR” and “Throne of Glass” provide.
You can read more about the best order to read all of Maas’ books here.
