By Empire of Storms, the Throne of Glass series has become something that defies the label it started with. This is no longer YA in any marketing-category sense — it is epic fantasy with a female protagonist at the centre, operating at the scale of Wheel of Time or Stormlight Archive in terms of its ambitions, and Maas is largely delivering on those ambitions.

Aelin is playing a game none of the people around her fully understand. She has been making deals and sacrificing pieces for three books, and Empire of Storms is the volume where several of those moves begin to resolve — and where it becomes clear that the cost of what she is doing is considerably higher than even she is letting on.

The Scale

The series began in a relatively contained world — one kingdom, one court, one main conflict. By Empire of Storms the canvas encompasses multiple continents, ancient histories, divine politics, and a conflict that has been building for millennia. Maas manages this expansion better than many epic fantasy authors do: the larger world feels continuous with the smaller one that preceded it rather than retconned into existence.

The Ensemble

The Queen of Shadows found family is fully assembled and at its best here. Aelin and Rowan, Aedion and Lysandra, Elide and Lorcan — the emotional dynamics between all of them are developed with genuine care. Maas writes group loyalty in a way that makes the threats to it feel genuinely high-stakes.

The Ending

I will say only that Empire of Storms ends in a way that requires the immediate acquisition of Tower of Dawn. The final chapters are structurally audacious and the kind of move that only works if the reader is sufficiently invested — which, by this point in the series, they will be.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who have been here since Throne of Glass: this is the book where all of it coheres. The series’ scope has been building to this, and Empire of Storms delivers the epic scale with enough emotional specificity that it never loses the characters in the worldbuilding.

For readers drawn to heroes whose apparent recklessness turns out to be strategy: Aelin is the queen of this particular trope, and Empire of Storms is its fullest expression.

Published: September 2016 · Genre: YA/adult high fantasy · Series: Throne of Glass, Book 5

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Empire of Storms expand the Throne of Glass series’ scope? By Empire of Storms the series has become ’epic fantasy with a female protagonist at the centre, operating at the scale of Wheel of Time or Stormlight Archive in terms of its ambitions.’ The canvas has expanded from one kingdom and one court to ‘multiple continents, ancient histories, divine politics, and a conflict that has been building for millennia.’ The review credits Maas with managing this expansion better than many epic fantasy authors: ’the larger world feels continuous with the smaller one that preceded it rather than retconned into existence.’

What is Aelin’s strategy in Empire of Storms? Aelin ‘is playing a game none of the people around her fully understand — she has been making deals and sacrificing pieces for three books.’ Empire of Storms is the volume where ‘several of those moves begin to resolve — and where it becomes clear that the cost of what she is doing is considerably higher than even she is letting on.’ The review describes her as ’the queen of the particular trope’ of apparent recklessness concealing strategy.

How is the ensemble handled in Empire of Storms? The Queen of Shadows found family is described as ‘fully assembled and at its best here — Aelin and Rowan, Aedion and Lysandra, Elide and Lorcan.’ The emotional dynamics between them are ‘developed with genuine care,’ and Maas ‘writes group loyalty in a way that makes the threats to it feel genuinely high-stakes.’

What happens at the end of Empire of Storms? The review declines to spoil it but says the ending ‘requires the immediate acquisition of Tower of Dawn.’ The final chapters are described as ‘structurally audacious and the kind of move that only works if the reader is sufficiently invested — which, by this point in the series, they will be.’ It is positioned as the moment where all of the series’ building coheres.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Empire of Storms — Wikipedia’s Empire of Storms article provides publication details and series context that helps readers understand the novel’s place in the Throne of Glass sequence and the structural shift Maas makes in this volume.
  • Sarah J. Maas — Wikipedia’s Sarah J.