"She was a bright star in centuries of darkness. I would have followed that star to the ends of the earth, if she let me. But she didn’t, and I respected her wishes to stay away."
An excerpt; a chapter from a fantasy novel I fell in love with when I was sixteen. The Throne Of Glass series; love of my life before I even knew what love could be. It was first published in 2012 and will down in history as one of the greatest stories ever written.
Immaculate world building and morally questionable creatures of a multitude of species. Cross breeding. Wild, unpredictable fae. Duplicitous anti heroes. And love stories you would positively die to be a part of.
Do you know what I love the most though? The way all the characters are interconnected. How they can't survive without one another. How they need each other to defeat the hordes of evil coming for them. How easily they switched foes to allies. How loyalty shifted with each passing second.
I got literal chills the day they reminisced about perfectly poised Dorian, Crown Prince and now defunct King of Adarlan, in the middle of an ocean while on the run in Empire Of Storms.
You see Aelin, Aedion and Dorian all met when were children during the King of Adarlan's "diplomatic" visit to Terrasen and years later the golden-haired twins found it oh so amusing that he was still perfectly dressed, perfect stature, not a strand or coif of hair out of place.
And I like that: little nods to the people they were and ways they hadn't changed even though their lives a decade later were definitely worse off. Their bravery in accepting and working with the son of the man who stole and pilllaged their entire kingdom.
A thing to admire...😍
