Book Review: Tower Of Dawn by Sarah J Maas

Another book review this week, this time it is the sixth book in the Throne Of Glass series called Tower Of Dawn.

First thing to say is that this will contain spoilers, so if you have not read any of the books and plan to I suggest reading it first.

This book re-introduces Yrene Towers from the Assassin's Blade short story The Assassin and The Healer while also introducing several new characters, the main ones being The Great Khagan Urus, ruler of the Southern Continent, and his children, Arghun the oldest and most political, Sartaq second oldest and leader of the Rukhin (riders of Ruk's which are massive birds), Hasar third oldest and oldest daughter also head of naval fleet, Kashin youngest son and head of the cavalry forces and Duva youngest and heavily pregnant from her recent marriage with the first grandchild. There are also Hafiza the head healer of the Torre Cesme, Borte a member of a Rukhin clan who is close to Sartaq and Falken Ennar a shapeshifter who works with the Rukhin.
This book is told from only three points of view, making it the least in the whole series, the points of view are Chaol Westfall, Nesryn Faliq and Yrene Towers, split almost equally.

Tower Of Dawn begins three weeks after the end of Queen Of Shadows when Chaol and Nesryn arrive in Antica which is the capital of the Southern Continent, they meet with the Khagan and his children and after the Khagan refuses to help them in their war he permits Chaol to be healed by the healers in the Torre Cesme, it is also revealed that his youngest daughter Tumelin has recently died from a suspected suicide. Arghun informs Chaol and Nesryn of the attack on Rifthold and that Dorian is missing. Yrene goes to see Hafiza and is assigned to heal Chaol, much to her annoyance as, being a healer from Fenharrow, men from Adarlan murdered her mother. The first part of the book focuses on the healing of Chaol and the development of his relationship with Yrene as they begin to open up to each other until they realise they are falling in love while making good progress on Chaols healing. Alongside the healing several events happen, Nesryn re-connects with the family she has in Antica, Kashin confides in Chaol that he believes Tumelin was murdered and enlists him to investigate, Yrene is attacked by someone infested with a Valg demon while looking for books about Chaols injury causing Chaol to tell Yrene everything and Nesryn and Sartaq to start searching and investigating the situation, this draws them closer forming a friendship. Chaol helps Yrene in some self-defence classes that Yrene teaches other healers in the Torre Cesme, Hasar uses her friendship with Yrene to try and get information from Chaol about Aelin's whereabouts. Yrene finds some ancient scrolls and books about the Valg with Wyrdmarks on them, when she shows Chaol he tells her to hide them around his room, they then go to the library in the Torre Cesme to do more investigating. At the same time Nesryn discovers that Sartaq is leaving for a few weeks to go to the Rukhin, he asks her to join him and she accepts.
The second part of the book is split between Chaol and Nesryn in Antica continuing their investigation while also healing Chaol and growing close, meanwhile Nesryn is in the Tavan Mountains with Sartaq learning things she never expected to. While with the Rukhin Nesryn teaches Borte and some others some of her archery skills, they discover that Ruk nests have been raided and believe it is Stygian Spiders which is the reason Falkan is here (he is from Adarlan and wants to learn how to kill the spiders to get the 20 years back that he traded for some spidersilk), after several weeks of scouting Nesryn, Sartaq and Falkan head to the spiders lair to investigate further and hit  a trap. While fighting their way through Sartaq confesses his love for Nesryn as he believes he will die, they are captured and while buying time Nesryn asks the spider guarding them to tell her about their history, she reveals that the spiders are Valg and answer to a Valg Queen: Maeve. They fight their way out, Falkan attempts to buy time by going back into the nest, before he goes he asks Nesryn to find his niece who he has been searching for her, they are all rescued and Nesryn tells Falkan she believes his niece is Lysandra. There is a meeting of the three Rukhin clans where Nesryn tells them everything and they agree to fight with them. Meanwhile Yrene gets attacked again but gets to Chaol for safety and stays with him, soon after Chaol is able to walk with the help of a stick and they also start a relationship. They discover Fae healers were in the Southern continent thousands of years ago and started the healer rich bloodlines, there is evidence that the healers could be a weapon against the Valg. When they return to Chaol's room it has been ransacked and all but one scroll has been taken, Yrene has an idea about how to remove the last remnant of the Valg in Chaol and therefore heal him completely, she is successful and realises this could be used to remove the Valg from a person without killing them. They go to find Hafiza and discover she has been taken by the Valg, whom they discover is Duva, after a fight in which Chaol is almost killed Duva is knocked unconscious and put into a deep sleep by Hafiza, just as Nesryn and Sartaq arrive. Yrene tries to heal Chaol but he is too injured however all the healers in the Torre Cesme come and help, when this still isn't enough Yrene gets an offer from the goddess of healing and agrees to pay the price which is Yrene and Chaol sharing a life force so when the time comes if one dies they both do. Yrene then removes the Valg Princess from Duva in the presence of the Khagan and his other children, the Khagan then pledges his support in the war. The book ends with Chaol andYrene (now married) , Nesryn, Sartaq, Falkan, Borte, Hasar and Hafiza travelling home with half of the Southern continents army, Kashin will follow with the other half when ready.

Well what a book, as I said about Empire Of Storms being strange without Chaol as was Tower Of Dawn without Aelin, Dorian and the others, that did not detract from how good this book was though. I can see why these two books were released separately as this being one book would be mammoth and difficult to take everything in. Like with Empire Of Storms so much happens and is revealed in this book, a lot of which I was not expecting, the biggest bombshell by far was that Queen Maeve of the Fae is a Valg Queen! That piece of information hit me almost as hard as it hit Nesryn when it was revealed and definitely changes the playing field a fair bit making a very interesting situation for the final book. I was less surprised that the Stygian spiders are Valg as they have always seemed like demonic creatures from nightmares, equalling the Ilken, Wyrdhounds and Valg infested soldiers.

I really enjoyed the character development in this book, of which there is loads which is made more possible with only three perspectives. I'll start with Chaol as we have already seen a lot of him over the other books however in this one we see every side of him and how he changes, he develops from a man who feeling like he has failed everyone has fallen into self loathing and anger at himself primarily into a man who is open and honest, feels comfortable with his injury and above all feeling like he has succeeded as he has found the love of his life and got a massive army to help his friends. I really felt sorry for Chaol at the beginning as he had always tried to do the best he could and yet he felt like he had failed to do anything good, seeing the way he comes up from this pit and how Yrene helps him with this really made for an interesting love story and re-making of the hero I believed him to be based on previous events. This leads nicely into Yrene, we got a lot of background about her in the Assassin's Blade novella The Assassin And The Healer which got briefly covered again here but we also get to see the power that she has, I found it incredible how powerful she is as a healer and how beneficial she can be in the war. The softening of her attitude towards Chaol, realising not all men from Adarlan are bad made for a lot of development for her as a character, she became someone who wanted to just heal people to someone who wants to help win the war because she believes in the cause. I also like that Yrene kept the note from Aelin (as Celaena) about needing more healers, considering she did not know the person it was motivational and continued to be, the fact that Chaol urges her to keep it when he finally sees it is another thing that has been set up for the next book when Aelin and Yrene properly meet. Then there is Nesryn, having been more of a secondary yet important character in Queen of Shadows, it was really nice to have to opportunity to see her as a main character, in doing so we learn a lot about her which was great. I really liked how she developed such a love for the country her father is from that she wants to return there if she survives the war, that is even before she realises how she feels about Sartaq which he reciprocates. We get a look into the mind of the quiet, thoughtful, stony faced warrior who has an incredible skill set and she is so much more, even becoming happy as a result of her growing closeness with Sartaq, not to mention she gets her very own Ruk making her a Rukhin and a fully fledged member of the Southern continent. Added to all this, after spending a large chunk of the book worrying about her family they arrive in Antica towards the end rounding out a very emotional journey throughout this book for her. It is also clear how much she cares for Chaol and he her, even if only as friends, and also how much trust they have as throughout the book they worry about how each other is getting on and how they want to share the discoveries they make with the other, it just added another element to the personalities of the characters.

In addition there were so many new characters and I actually like them all, the Khagan and his children varied in personalities a lot and each added something different which was great and refreshing, obviously Sartaq was the biggest character out of them being with Nesryn a lot. I found Sartaq a very interesting character as, although he is a Prince he is the only one of the five siblings who seems happier not being referred to as such, he is very down to earth and honest. Hasar featured most after Sartaq being friends with Yrene, it was interesting to see the two sides that she displays the cunning and sly side for gathering information and tricking people, always used to protect someone she loves none more so than her wife, then we see the soft caring side of her most fully when expressing her gratitude for saving Duva and other showings of fondness. As the Khagan is chosen not necessarily the oldest it is clear early on that it is a bit of a two horse race between Sartaq and Hasar which made several of their actions and comments even more interesting, when it is eventually revealed that Sartaq is the heir I genuinely wasn't 100% sure whether it would have been him even if he is the better choice. Kashin is the most loyal by far, showing no desire to lead but caring for and supporting his father in everything. Arghun is by far the most calculating and will do anything to have the upper hand, although he is the least likeable he shines through with his love for his family in particular Duva. Speaking of Duva, what a character she is, mild and meek throughout until the revelation that she has become host to a Valg Princess and everything changes but after she is free and back to her normal self we discover something that all the other siblings share beyond anything. Despite the competition for the throne they all love Duva and have the motto 'never Duva' as if to say they would never harm her no matter what, this elevates all four to a new level of respect that they truly deserve, I am glad I will be seeing Sartaq, Hasar and Kashin again at the very least. I love that Borte is very similar to Aelin, with the strong personality, fiery temper and conviction to do whatever she needs to for her people and the potential meeting between the two is a very exciting prospect indeed. Hafiza is brilliant, she may be old but her personality and power make her incredible and apparently quite durable as she is instrumental in the fight with Valg Duva. Finally Falkan is great, especially as he risks his life to save Nesryn and Sartaq twice without question, he is the sort of character you don't see very often but is a true gem when they turn up.

Overall this book was brilliant with the story line being gripping throughout and delivering several surprises while offering a deeper look into the characters and the opportunities and answers offered by the Southern continent. I really enjoyed reading this and seeing what Chaol and Nesryn were able to achieve from the mission they were sent on, this combined with how Empire Of Storms ended has set the stage for a very interesting and tumultuous final book with loads to happen. That would definitely explain why Kingdom Of Ash is over 900 pages long.

To finish then my rating for Tower Of Dawn is 9/10