Throne of Glass is an eight-book high fantasy series following Celaena Sardothien, an assassin pulled from slavery to compete at the royal court of Adarlan. What begins as a competition story expands across the continent and beyond, growing into a war epic involving ancient magic, demonic forces, and the fate of multiple kingdoms. The series was one of the defining BookTok reads of its era and remains a gateway series for readers new to high fantasy.
Sarah J. Maas started writing Throne of Glass at sixteen and posted it on FictionPress, where it built a following before she pulled it to pursue publication. It was picked up by Bloomsbury in 2010.
Reading the books is only half the experience. Depending on how deep you are looking into it before you pick it up, there’s a bunch of discussion before you start and after you put down the last book in the series. Bloomsbury publishes explicit reading-order guidance for this series, which is unusual and so very telling.
What is Throne of Glass?
An assassin named Celaena Sardothien is pulled from a brutal labour camp to compete in a contest at the castle of the king who enslaved her. Win, and she earns the chance of freedom. It’s a series that starts as a contained castle-and-competition story and expands, across seven novels and a prequel collection, into a continent-spanning war epic.
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Is Throne of Glass YA or adult? What’s the age rating?
It started as a YA series and is shelved and sold as YA. Common Sense Media rates Book One at 14+, with violence and moral complexity as the primary factors. BookTrust lists it at 13+ and flags romance, thriller, and adventure elements alongside fantasy.
Later books escalate significantly in darkness and violence.
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How spicy is Throne of Glass?
It is lower than A Court of Thorns and Roses Series and substantially lower than later Maas titles. Throne of Glass is more accurately described as an epic fantasy with romance than a romance-first series.
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Is there a Throne of Glass TV or film adaptation?
In 2016, Hulu acquired the rights, which have since returned to SJM in 2020. There have been no official updates on a new adaptation.
How many books are there? Is the series finished?
The series is complete (for now). There are eight volumes in total: seven novels and one prequel short story collection.
In recommended reading order:
- Throne of Glass
- Crown of Midnight
- The Assassin’s Blade
- Heir of Fire
- Queen of Shadows
- Empire of Storms
- Tower of Dawn
- Kingdom of Ash
There are bonus chapters that were released online or in certain books. With it being nigh impossible to buy every version, the bonus chapters are digitally transcribed and available to read on our blog.
What order should I read the Throne of Glass books in?
The official recommendation:
Read is in publication order, with The Assassin’s Blade read after Crown of Midnight. Bloomsbury publishes this guidance directly, framing it as the order that minimises the risk of spoiling yourself. Sarah J. Maas has said so herself.
The chronological alternative:
Read The Assassin’s Blade first. It won’t spoil anything. The argument for it is that you meet Celaena through her backstory first, which changes how you read her in the main series.
Why do people keep arguing about it?
The two options produce different emotional experiences. Reading The Assassin’s Blade after Crown of Midnight first means the main series is coloured by what you already know. Neither is wrong, but “which is better” depends on what you want from the reading experience.
If you’re new and undecided, follow publication order.
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So, when should I read The Assassin’s Blade?
If you want to read it first, Bloomsbury confirms it won’t spoil the main plot. A lot of readers who followed publication order report wishing they’d had it earlier. Personally, I enjoyed reading it after Crown of Midnight (publication order).
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Does Throne of Glass get better after book one?
The general consensus — Yes.
Throne of Glass is the most YA-coded instalment. It’s comparatively contained and lighter in tone than the rest of the books. If you didn’t connect with book one for that reason, the series does change substantially: it expands in scope and gets darker.
If the writing style or premise wasn’t working for you, later books won’t fix that. But the readers who describe the series “getting good” at book two or book four are typically people who wanted a larger-scale epic and found book one slow as a starting point. (It was book four: Heir of Fire, for me)
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Do I need to read Tower of Dawn? Can I skip it?
Tower of Dawn pivots away from the cast and setting most readers are most invested in, right after an Empire of Storms cliffhanger.
It runs in parallel with Empire of Storms, covers the Southern Continent and Antica in depth, and its central arc has direct consequences in Kingdom of Ash.
I enjoyed the break (similar to why I liked reading The Assassin’s Blade after the second book), but if you don’t want to entirely pivot away from Aelin for a book then Tandem reading is your answer.
What is the tandem read?
Because Tower of Dawn and Empire of Storms cover the same period from different perspectives, some readers choose to read both simultaneously, alternating chapters in a set order. Tandem reading gives you both storylines unfolding in real time.
Find out the tandem reading guide here.
