Okay Rad Readers,
This may well contain very many spoilers so if you are not caught up in the Throne of Glass series up to Tower of Dawn (Book 7)... beware!!
I have just finished Tower of Dawn and 300+ pages after my last reading update (check out my first reading update), unfortunately a lot of my qualms still hold true. However, there were parts that I was pleasantly surprised with. Nonetheless, this is by far my least favorite book in the Throne of Glass series. Ultimately, I could only justly give it 3/5 stars, no matter how great the previous books were and how much I love SJM. I just did no think that this book was that great.
To use the words of my previous post, this is how things crumbled... "cookie wise."
My main problem with this book, as I said in my first reading update, was that it centered entirely around a side character when our main character was going through something far more intense and enticing. Empire of Storms ended in such an insane way, so for this book to diverge completely from the main plot was, in my opinion, a really poor decision. That isn't to say that I only care about the main character either. In fact, I would dare say that I wouldn't have this complaint if we had to read 600 pages of side plot on Elide or Locran.
I digress. Mainly the problem is that I wanted to read about Aelin... NOT Chaol. He is my least favorite character in the series by about a country mile. I didn't even like him in the first two books when I was supposed to like him. I certainly didn't like him when I wasn't supposed to like him. And I don't like him now, when I was being force fed his story line of redemption. Curse you Sarah J. Mass for not making this a novella when it most certainly should have been.
I have just begun reading Kingdom of Ash, and thus far I would say you do not have to read Tower of Dawn to understand what is happening. UGH! How unfair. I can only imagine the struggles that some readers were going through as these books were released in real time. I can only imagine the angst and strife of having to wait an entire year to find out what happens after Empire of Storms just to get absolutely PRANKED by being presented with Tower of Dawn and then having to wait YET ANOTHER entire year to get Kingdom of Ash. (By the way, as I said I just started reading Kingdom of Ash and OMG! Incredible already!! Don't let this less than stellar addition to the series deter you from finishing it!)
Let's talk about Chaol's character development. I will say this... It was kind of there. He is still the poster of toxic masculinity, ridiculous pride, absurd loyalty, and pretentiousness. However, the degree at which he is that is... well... a bit less? I will give him that. In the first books he is just boring. Then he was made to be this horrible stuck-in-his-ways dude, TOTAL jerk. THEN he is just boring again. Just straight up totally boring. THEN we have to read 650+ pages about him with SJM working in OVERTIME to try to undo the damage she made him do before. All of this before we are allowed to find out what happens to Aelin? NOT COOL! He is just so bland and... frankly sucks. I didn't care about the healing process of his legs. He was a total piece of trash to the healer and then it was romanticized!?!? NO WAY JOSÉ! I certainly didn't appreciate that.
So, Chaol and Nesryn go to Antica to try to get them to fight along side Aelin. In the process Chaol works with a healer to try to recover from his injuries in the previous books that end him up in a wheelechair. In the end he magically recovers and can move his legs again "but at a cost." BLEGH! This just in, they changes the spelling of 'predictable' to 'The-Ending-of-Tower-of-Dawn.' The whole 'link' mojo was cheesy at best. Cringey beyond belief. I also kind of had a problem with the fact that they kept on emphasizing how Chaol felt like a lesser man because of his disability. That is rather troubling and outdated thinking. Perhaps SJM wrote it that way on purpose so we get more examples of Chaol's 'stuck-in-his-ways' thinking, but honestly that was probably super offensive to some readers. It really just came off as insensitive and problematic because it was never really addressed that he was wrong in saying that "being in a wheelchair makes him lesser." He just recovers. That is kind of messed up.
Also! Half way through the book I forgot that Chaol and Nesryn were in Antica for more than just idle chit chat, hanging around, and trying to redeem Chaol. They were also there to appeal to the rulers there to get them to fight alongside Aelin and the gang while they are at war. That part was really glossed over and as a consequence we had just so little action. It honestly felt like the author felt bad for Chaol becuase we all hate him and was like... Let me just try my hand at a comeback story for this homie. Basically what I am trying to say is that this was 100% character driven and there was basically a negative percent of actual plot going on.
I will say though, I was pleasantly surprised by how I grew to like Nesryn and Sartaq. If we heard about them the same amount we heard about Chaol and Yrene I would have liked this book FAR more. Though, one mustn't dwell...
So yes, you get the idea. Wasn't my favorite read, but I realized I just had to get through it that way we could get to the real juice in Kingdom of Ash!
Read on!
- C8 ;)