I was excited to read Tower of Dawn, as Chaol had always been one of my favourite Throne of Glass characters. I started to like the book series less after Aelin left Adarlan in book 4, so I haven't read Empire of Storms (yet). Perhaps a bit dumb, as this book runs parallel to it, but I didn't feel as if I was missing a lot. Same went for the fact that I read the last ToG before that a very long time ago - the basic plot lines were enough to understand this book. A good thing as I hate books that expect you to remember all details from a previous book published two years ago...

But now onto a review of Tower of Dawn!

Plot

This book is definitely a slow burner. It's a whopping 664 pages long, of which the first half is mostly a long introduction to the new country and characters. If I think about it, not a lot happens even in the second half. Only towards the very end when several plot twists pop up, some action occurs. I was never bored, but I think (based on Goodreads reviews) many will agree that it would have been better some few hundred pages fewer. It really is a book based on characters and world-building, which is not a bad thing, but you must like the lack of adventure. As someone on Goodreads summarised, it's a story of healing and hope, which is a nice change. The rest of the Throne of Glass series is more action-packed to my knowledge.

World Building

As always, Sarah J Maas has been able to create a vibrant storyworld. I get a kind of 'Game of Thrones' vibe: siblings fighting over the throne, tribes with long haired warriors who ride in the desert, demon invaders. I read Maas got her inspiration from Genghis Khan, although I know too little of his history to confirm this. I like the different settings in book, namely the palace, Torre and warrior-homes, although the latter remained a bit vague to me (what exactly is a Ruk? what is a hearth-mother? how do all these tribes function?).

The rest of the review can be found on my blog Eveline's Books.
https://evelinesbooks.blogspot.nl/2018/01/tower-of-dawn-throne-of-glass-6-sarah-j.html