hey everyone, I'm so excited to write my first official review here!
I am currently finishing the Throne of Glass series and I thought that reviewing the sixth book might be a good idea, since (almost) everything is still clear in my mind. Spoilers for the first four ToG books ahead!
Tower of Dawn is a sequel to Empire of Storms. Unfortunately for all of us, it is set in the exact same time frame as Empire of Storms, but in Chaol's and Nesryn's POV.
Chaol and Nesryn arrive on the southern continent to accomplish two goals: get Chaol to walk again and convince the Khagan, the ruler of the southern continent, to give aid to Aelin.
The plot was well crafted, I haven't caught any plotholes. The pace seemed too slow in some places, but in the afterthought - it wouldn't be so believable otherwise.
I sometimes still can't believe how much Sarah was able to improve her writing since 2012. I suffered greatly through the first two books, oh goodness.
We got some new characters as well! The Khagan's children, Yrene - a healer assigned to Chaol, and some minor characters irrelevant to the story, really. There were definitely some more characters worth mentioning, but I'd get spoilery to do that, unfortunately.
One of the things I greatly admired was the world building. The southern continent is so different from the northern one and Sarah did a great job in portraying it. The colours, the heat, the spices and so much more, it was a delight!
Now, the things I didn't really like that much - first of all, after reading Kingdom of Ash, I know that the characters and other things were super important and all, but the very ending of EoS kept me from enjoying this book and appreciating it - that's why I gave it four stars on Goodreads with no other consideration needed whatsoever. I didn't want to get to know Nesryn, or Yrene, or Hasar, or Sartaq, or Borte better. What I wanted to know, through the entire book, was what's happening after it. I don't know if that was avoidable. I really don't. Maybe SJM should've written this as the 5th part... I honestly do not know. What I know is that this was - for me - a drawback, a nuisance, no matter how well written, what character development or worldbuilding I got. So yeah, there's that.
The second thing I really hated was Chaol's behaviour. I never really liked him, but now he was just insufferable. And I agreed with every damn thing he said about himself. I'd say I was sorry for what he had to go through, but he deserved it all - maybe except for his father's behaviour towards him.
Overally, I'd say this book is very well written, the characters are okay (but that's just my personal opinion and I'm sure there are plenty of people who love them), but I couldn't enjoy it for the reasons listed.
I also cannot say why you should read this book, as it is a part of a series and I suspect it's up to you to decide whether to pick up Throne of Glass if you haven't already.
See you soon,
Miriam
