Tower of Dawn (TOG #6) Book Review

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

2017

YA Fantasy

Unspecific spoilers

Tower of Dawn is the sixth novel in the Throne of Glass series and follows Aelin’s friends Chaol and Nesryn as they travel to the distant land of the Southern continent to heal Chaol’s injury and win allies for Aelin’s campaign.

I was skeptical going into Tower of Dawn, as Nesryn and Chaol had only been minor characters in the previous TOG books and Empire of Storms had a strong ending. Despite my initial hesitations, I believe that the book does work well for what it set out to accomplish, even if it feels like it could have been the beginning of an entirely new series.

The pacing of Tower of Dawn followed the structure of other TOG books where the beginning is slow going, but eventually picks up for an action filled conclusion. For the last two hundred pages, I found that time just flew by and I was genuinely excited to read the ending.

Learning about the Khagan and other people that exist within the TOG world was interesting, but I find it a bit problematic that the only book about a diverse world doesn’t include the main characters. Furthermore, half the characters in Tower of Dawn don’t get a satisfying ending in Kingdom of Ash. Nesryn, who is a main character in this book, is later given an ending so vague and unimportant I truly wonder what the point of this novel was. I just find it an odd choice to write an entire book where the characters don’t matter by the next book.

One of the best parts of Tower of Dawn is Yrene, a magical healer. I loved the healers and the way they worked with their community. Yrene is a compelling character that brought a breath of fresh air to the series. The prince Sartaq, Nesryn's love interest was equally compelling, though he could have used more time to get to know him. I think the fact he was introduced as a love interest for a character who already is a secondary character is why this unfortunately happened.

Rating 3.5/5: While I had a good time reading this book, I find that as time goes on, Tower of Dawn is a largely forgettable book.