Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4)
By: Sarah J. Maas
“Ever since Sam died and she smashed the clock on her mantle it was as if her clock stopped too, she had stopped living and had just survived and raged. But now it was time for the clock to start again. A fresh start to do what needed to be done.”
Yes!! I have been waiting for these things for sooo long and they finally happened!!
We are 4 books in (technically 5), and I needed some satisfaction after how drawn out some of this stuff is and Maas delivered. I mean, we still have a ways to go for ultimate victory, but Aelin is back, her court is established, and we tied up some very loose and terrible ends.
I’m still wondering what’s left in the story when there are three large books left; there must be some surprises yet to come because I would have thought the next book could just be the last battle. There must be some significant battles and reveals as Aelin prepares to fight the Valg king.
What I loved most about this book was the actions Aelin is finally taking to take her place as Queen of Terrasen and to push back against the darkness threatening her continent. She is not back and forth between self-loathing and despairing and hoping, no, she is resolute. Her face is set on hope and victory and she is ready to lead the charge.
(I decided to pretend she’s not just 18 years old because that ruins a lot of things in this book for me— namely, her ability to lead a country into battle and her relationship with a man who is hundreds of years old)
Plot Points
Per my usual format for reviewing this series, we must remember where we are at when this book begins.
Heir of Fire ends with Celaena defeating the Valg in Wendlyn with the help of Rowan who is now blood-bonded to her. You would think that means they are automatically mates, but it actually means they are automatically mates but they’re going to pretend they don’t know that yet so we can have sexual tension.
Aelin returns to get her revenge on Arobynn and retrieve the Wyrdkey he has had since he took her from the river. She is also going to be rescuing her cousin Aedion and probably Dorian once she finds out he’s got one of the black collars.
But THEN I read The Assassin’s Blade next, which was the prequel to the whole series. I would definitely read that one before Queen of Shadows because Aelin references each of the stories contained in the prequel and the significance of those references will not make sense without the context.
It was hard to pause between books four and five, but totally the right move.
And then we get to Queen of Shadows which is divided into two parts.
Part One is titled Lady of Shadows. This is the part where Aelin gets her revenge on Arobynn, the master manipulator and evil man that has controlled and ruined her life and killed people she loved. I was sooo worried that something was going to go wrong and we would have to wait ANOTHER book for this. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but she does get revenge and I’m glad for it. If somehow he’s not really dead I will be devastated.
I will add that the revenge was not quite what I was expecting; it was a little anti-climactic. But then again, I almost like that because he doesn’t deserve to have that many pages devoted to his death or to make him more formidable. Let him be the dirt we kick off our shoes.
Part Two is titled Queen of Light. This is the part where Aelin assembles her team and makes her plan to rescue Aedion, Dorian, and magic in general.
This is the future she is aware that she’s up against:
“Just to make sure I have it right: we are now facing three thousand bloodthirsty Ironteeth witches on wyverns. And a host of deadly soldiers gathering in the south of Adarlan, likely to cut off any alliance between Terrasen and the southern kingdoms.”
And that’s not considering the showdown she faces against the evil King of Adarlan and whatever Dorian is.
But here’s one of my favorite quotes of the book. As they face this seemingly impossible to win battle, someone asks Aelin a very good question and she gives a very good answer:
“‘What if we go on only to more pain and despair? What if we go on, only to find a horrible end waiting for us?’ Aelin looked northward as if she could see all the way to Terrasen. ‘Then it is not the end.’”
When I reviewed Heir of Fire I commented on the biblical parallels I saw. This quote here is one that I love to see as well. Of course many books and movies use heroic tropes that save the world from evil.
But that overstory is not one derived from man. It’s straight from the authorship of God who reveals his ultimate plan for the redemption of his people in the Bible.
Throughout Scripture we see terrible things happen. Battles seemingly lost. But we know how the story ends! Jesus won victory over evil when he died on the cross and rose again. Death is defeated. But we live in the now and the not yet. While we experience some of that redemption now, there is a time yet to come when Jesus will return and make all things right. He will completely restore his creation.
Until then, we may experience more pain and despair. But that is not the end. I love books and movies where evil is vanquished and goodness is restored because my heart longs for the day when that becomes our reality as well. That kind of story resonates in our hearts because that was what our hearts were created for. I look forward to ‘the end’ of this Throne of Glass series, because I yearn for their redemption.
Cast of Characters
Some of the plot points are best covered by going through our main characters and what they’re doing.
Rowan— He and Aelin are bonded. They’re in love, even if they won’t admit it to each other. It didn’t seem inevitable at the end of Heir of Fire, but surprise! It’s decided. He wasn’t supposed to come to her yet, but he had to protect Aelin because Lorcan (one of Maeve’s Fae) left Wendlyn and is hunting her. Aelin is his sole purpose now.
Lorcan— He is supposedly hunting the Wyrdkeys to destroy them so Maeve can’t get them. He is not disloyal to Maeve because he believes if she gets the keys she will destroy herself in the process so he’s protecting her from herself. We don’t know to what degree we can trust Lorcan, but he does have honor for some Fae (including Gavriel’s son, gasp!).
Lysandra— Aelin always thought she was an enemy, but it turns out she is an ally and a great ally at that. I’ll include some of these details in the spoiler section, but I’ll just say here that I love that Aelin has a close female friend again. She is still feeling feelings about Nehemia and I was glad to see this close companionship. And that Lysandra is not as bad as we thought she was.
Aedion— I don’t entirely get what Aedion is to Aelin. He’s mad that Rowan took the blood oath that belonged to Aedion, but he’s her cousin so what did that blood oath really mean? It was never romantic right? This didn’t feel as clear as I want it to be. He and Rowan face off multiple times as they navigate what each of their role is in relation to Aelin and her protection.
“The two princes stared at each other. One gold and one silver, one her two and one her soul-bonded.”
Also, I sense that Aedion and Lysandra might become a thing.
Dorian— We get tiny little chapters about Dorian and his battle against the Valg prince that is using the black collar to try to take over his body/soul. Will he succomb to the evil or will he be able to push back and escape the torture and capture?
Chaol— The Chaol/Aelin ship has sailed. Aelin and Rowan are for sure a thing. And I’m a little sad about it. I don’t think they were given a real chance and I feel like Maas did Chaol’s character a little dirty, making it seem like he was weak or at fault for things when he was just a normal guy, loyal to his best friend, and to Celaena. (Also it feels weird that Rowan is so old and Aelin is only 18.) Chaol comes to grips with that door being shut in this book and at least he and Aelin are able to repair their friendship. Chaol’s main character struggle is what to do about Dorian. If Dorian is overcome by the Valg prince, he must be killed. If there is any chance he is still in there, Chaol will do whatever it takes to save him and make him King of Adarlan. He worries Aelin will be too trigger happy and kill Dorian without consideration.
Manon— As I had hoped, Manon, the Ironteeth witch, is inching ever closer to leaving the dark side. When the army-building process taking place in Morath turns to using witches to (torturously) breed some sort of Valg/witch hybrid, Manon is ready to go against the ‘obedience, discipline, brutality’ mantra that she was trained in to save other covens and her Thirteen from a similar fate. We see her repay a debt to Aelin and I believe that is a turning point for her character. It seems like she may become a love interest for Dorian, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Elide— She is the niece of Vernon who is in league with the evil Duke Perrington at Morath. She eventually becomes an ally to Manon and what we expect to be an ally to Aelin herself. They knew one another as children. Also she has witch blood in her so I’m not sure what that’ll be about.
What’s Next?
This section contains spoilers but I need to have this at least for myself so I can reorient myself by the time I get to the next book.
Scroll at your own risk, or skip down to the recommendation section.
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Okay, so, in short, they were able to save Dorian.
There is something about Manon’s gold eyes that kept the Valg at bay when she talked to Dorian. She delivered the message to Aelin that Dorian was still in there fighting so she set out to rescue him, not kill him. In this rescue process, Dorian was about to kill her when he found out that his father, the king, had killed Chaol (although we found out that he hadn’t actually); it was the trigger that caused Dorian’s magic to unleash and push back the Valg and tear off his collar.
Turns out Dorian’s magic is like infinite and super powerful. We don’t know yet what he can do with it, but it will be vital to the final battle. We do know that his magic partnered with Aelin’s magic (fire and ice) may very well be unstoppable.
We also found out that Dorian’s father had gone to Aelin’s house back when she was little to try to get Aelin to use her magic and kill him because of the Valg inside of him but her parents wouldn’t do it and that’s when they were ultimately killed and how Aelin escaped. The King built the towers to stop magic because he found out about Dorian’s magic and was trying to protect him. But now he’s dead and not many are broken up about it.
Dorian is king. And Aelin is on her way to Terrasen to see what kind of army she can build. She brings with her Rowan, Aedion (who will probably still take a blood oath because I guess she can have more than one), Lysandra (who is a shape-shifter!), and her charge Evangeline (I loved finding out what Lysandra did for her).
We will find out what rebel forces they have. And now that they have torn down the towers and magic is back, we will see who else has magical powers. I really thought Fleetfoot was actually a shapeshifter who was stuck as a dog just like Lysandra was stuck as a beautiful girl, but that has not been revealed yet. I am still holding out hope that Fleetfoot is actually her father or something crazy like that.
Kaltain was implanted with one of the Wyrdkeys by Duke Perrington who has actually been the Valg king this whole time. But the magic didn’t have a hold of her anymore and when everything was going down she cut out the wyrdkey and gave it to Elide to give to Aelin and then she sacrificed herself at Morath and used her shadowfire to disintegrate a third of the camp and many of the witch/valg hybrids. We assume she is dead but that has not been confirmed.
Chaol is going to be going to the southern continent because while he was able to survive the king’s death blow because of the Eye of Elena Aelin slipped into his pocket, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Nesryn (his new love interest we’re supposed to be happy about) will accompany him to find a healer in the south and also act as an ambassador to try to raise an ally force to help their war efforts. It will be interesting to learn more about another continent in this world.
I am curious about how Wendlyn will play into this. What is Maeve actually trying to do? Will the royal family in Wendlyn be an ally force since Aelin spared them? Will Gavriel betray Maeve and come fight alongside his son, Aedion, if he finds out about him? What will Lorcan do once he finds out Aelin gave him a fake wyrdkey? Where is the third wyrdkey? Will it be in the next book that Aedion gives his life for Celaena or will it be someone else we will be super sad to lose??
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Recommendation
As I said at the end of Heir of Fire: if you’re reading this book then you’ve already started the series and I can confirm that you should keep reading it. If for some reason you haven’t started it yet, I would say it’s worth starting.
The story continues to draw me in and I’m liking the character development across the board.
But I will advise that this book has more content than the others that may be cause to reconsider. The amount of swearing went up significantly in this book compared to others (though it was a 650 page book so it’s somewhat spread out). There is also quite a bit of violence and blood, descriptions of torture and some gruesome images of the evil at work.
If you are more sensitive to those kinds of things, I would hate for you to start a long series you end up not wanting to finish.
For me, I plan to continue to read. I’ve got the next books on my shelf waiting.
[Content Advisory: 58 s-words and a handful of other swear words, descriptions of prostitution; no sex scenes as of yet but there was definitely innuendo and sexual tension that I anticipate to come to fruition in the next book and I’m not sure how graphic that will be]
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