Heir of Fire

Heir of Fire.

This is a shame. I have wanted to get into a fantasy series that was more magic driven than Game of Thrones for awhile now. Sadly, that isn't happening for me with Heir of Fire. This book is part of the promising Throne of Glass series. It features a female assassin, a rugged Captain of the Guard, and a Prince who is hiding illegal magic. All of this should make for a very fun book, especially since the 2nd one left me on such a high note. . Crown of Midnight was so good, I could not help but put it onto my Top Ten books of 2016 list, but then I read the 3rd book.

Perhaps tried to read the third book would be more accurate. This is my 3rd or 4th attempt to read it but I just can't do it. Why? Well, I think it is because of the world building. There is just too much of it. We get introduced to so many different elements that were not there before that this book feels like a different one entirely from the first two books. I heard from the booktube grapevine that Maas had to stretch this series into six books, and with this one, it shows. We get long tides of text telling us about this world that we should be seeing, but, all the while, I just kept wondering why I should care. These elements do not feel as well integrated into the universe that Maas supposedly built. This leads us from one boring exposition dump about X element in Y land, but I just...did not...care.

This boring exposition bleeds into the character POVs as well. We switch between many alternative POVs that should be exciting, with political betrayals, enemies gathering on the horizon, and characters going through personal inner struggles. Sadly, the exposition gets in the way. We go to one POV that begins very dry, explaining some exposition about the world, then, as soon as things get exciting, we switch to another POV, and the dull exposition starts up again. This excitement roller coaster did not help me find these characters endearing and I just can't help but put the book down.

I have to give this book a two out of five. I am one of those people who wonder why I should keep reading a series I hate when I could be reading something better that is by a not as famous author? Since the next book in the series, according to the reviews on Goodreads, is similar in the relationship between the excitement and the boredom, I think I'll leave the series here.