Empire of Storms
By: Sarah J. Maas
Book #5 in Throne of Glass Series
Content Warnings: Violence, blood, gore, death, torture, mention of abuse, language, sexual content
Book Review
We’re now on the fifth book of the Throne of Glass series, Empire of Storms, and the political climate of Erilea is not exactly favorable for a vacation. Oh well. I think the time invested in this series means I’m no longer a tourist anyway.
Empire of Storms starts with a poignant scene from the past: Gavin and Elena, the first king and queen of Adarlan, sacrifice it all for a mere chance at a future win against Erawan. That “future” would be our main cast’s present. Follow Aelin, Rowan, Dorian, and their allies as they travel the globe in search of allies against the conquering Valg king. They also have to remain weary of the terrifying Queen Maeve of the Fae’s machinations.
Maybe my head was still reeling from the previous book, but I couldn’t get into this one as much as I would have liked. It’s not that it was boring or the storylines were irrelevant to the overarching plot. I just think there’s some filler in this one. And there’s so many characters to follow that the story gets bogged down at times. That being said, I do appreciate what Maas was trying to do with all the converging paths. It was satisfying seeing all the characters come together for epic sea battles and more. I think Maas does a fine job depicting the immense stamina fighting for what you want to protect requires.
Except for that ending. That was not fun! Regardless of my apathy towards certain other events, Empire of Storm‘s finale ravaged my feelings in every way possible. A torrential downpour of tears came falling down to drown crumbs of cake on the table.
Ok, fine. I may be exaggerating, but you get the point. Empire of Storms ends in a way that makes it nearly impossible not to pick up the next book immediately.
More Musings & Magic
I think this installment is notable for all of the decisions Aelin makes behind the scenes. The reveal moments are definitely fun to read, but I don’t think they mark The Queen of Terrasen as a good leader. I can understand why her secrecy is necessary at times, but I don’t think she should be withholding so much information from her court! It will be interesting to see how these dynamics progress in the next installments.
Please keep the magic alive and share your comments below!
Wordgazing and Magic 
I should probably stop reading reviews for the later books when I still have yet to pick up the early ones, but it just inspires me to read them even more. Great review – this sounds like such a good series and sounds like this one has a bit of an explosive ending?
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Thank you so much!
And, yes! This installment has the ending that really shook people up. It’s a very powerful and emotional scene.
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I loved this book when I read it. That ending almost killed me off when I had to wait two years to read what happened next!! Great review!
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Thank you! I can’t even imagine what is was like reading this before the sequel was published! It would have been soooo hard for me to wait and see what happens next, haha. I applaud your strength! 😊
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I feel like I’ve heard of the throne of glass series before, but I can’t remember where haha. Your review was great, thanks for giving me the heads up that I should buy all of the books in advance so that I don’t die questioning what happens in the next book!!
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Great review! I loved this book, but that ending was most definitely not fun, especially since we had to wait two years for Kingdom of Ash. I agree, Aelin was holding back way too many things that seemed to serve no other purpose than to raise tension for the reveals. Thanks for sharing!
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