#the worm reads: koa | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

goforwardgreenwriter-blog · 6 years

Text

The Worm Reads: Kingdom of Ash, Excerpt

I’m sick of The Assassin’s Blade and I just saw the news that SJM released some Kingdom of Ass content, so I’m gonna review the new excerpt just for you guys. Let’s fucking do this, SJM.

The Prince

This is the title to the... prologue of K0A, I assume? It’s sad that I had to pause and think of who this was referring to considering almost every main character in T0G is royalty.

He had been hunting for her since the moment she was taken from him. His mate.

Yay, if it isn’t our beloved Rowboat! /s

Also love how ~his mate~ is supposed to be all dramatic and omg so epic11 but like, it’s such a dumb fucking word to use for romantic partners. “His wife” would work so much better and wouldn’t sound as stupid as his mate.

He barely remembered his own name. And only recalled it because his three companions spoke it while they searched for her across violent and dark seas, through ancient and slumbering forests, over storm-swept mountains already buried in snow.

1. Why can’t he remember his own name? Is he suffering short term memory loss?

2. Who the fuck are his three companions? I assume it’ll be explained in the novel, but if you’re releasing an excerpt for people to read and get hyped to buy the full novel, you can’t leave us confused and unclear. At least just namedrop them or give us some indication as to who they are.

3. Holy dramatic prose, Batman! Yeah yeah I know SJM is trying to show us what lengths Rowboat is going to in an attempt to find his wife fuck you I’m not saying mate but this is so melodramatic and reeks of shitty prose.

He stopped long enough to feed his body and allow his companions a few hours of sleep. Were it not for them, he would have flown off, soared far and wide.

Please do. In fact, soar so far away you never fucking come back.

But he would need the strength of their blades and magic, would need their cunning and wisdom before this was through. Before he faced the dark queen who had torn into his innermost self, stealing his mate long before she had been locked in an iron coffin.

This writing is sooo bad holy fuck, it’s just confusing and choppy. Also, the dark queen is Maeve... how did she supposedly steal Alien before she locked her into the iron coffin? I guess it’s just ~2deep4u~ symbolism or some garbage.

So he stayed with his companions, even as the days passed. Then the weeks. Then months. Still he searched. Still he hunted for her on every dusty and forgotten road.

I hope to god this doesn’t imply a huge time skip between E0S and K0A. The world is trapped in a war rn, you can’t be cutting away from this shit, SJM! A lot can happen in war in a few months especially if a major player such as Alien has vanished from the main roster!

And sometimes, he spoke along the bond between them, sending his soul on the wind to wherever she was held captive, entombed. I will find you.

Remember how in E0S, that “nameless is my price” quote was repeated literally hundreds of times because SJM thinks shoehorning in a quote again and again makes it meaningful? I can already tell it’s gonna be like that for “I will find you” in K0A.

The Princess

Second part of the prologue (???) I find it odd that Alien is The Princess now considering all her ass kissers made it very clear in E0S that they considered her a queen.

The iron smothered her. It had snuffed out the fire in her veins, as surely as if the flames had been doused.

This sentence is redundant, as surely as redundant as a sentence could be.

She could hear the water, even in the iron box, even with the iron mask and chains adorning her like ribbons of silk.

This imagery is very odd. I think SJM wants us to picture how painful and tight her chains are, but ribbons of silk makes me think of very soft and comforting textures. If she’s tied up with silk, her torture surely can’t be that bad!

So in case it isn’t obvious, Alien is still trapped in the iron coffin. Nothing happens in this scene per say, it’s just Alien vomiting up exposition and 2deep4u feelings, so let’s examine what we have.

A sliver of island in the heart of a mist-veiled river, little more than a smooth slab of rock amid the rapids and falls. That’s where they’d put her. Stored her. In a stone temple built for some forgotten god.

So like... what was Maeve’s goal? She just wants Alien to suffer? She’s not trying to torture her for information, use her as hostage or bait for anyone? Is Maeve just going to be a 1 dimensional baddie so we can splooge over how tortured and pained Alien is?

As she would likely be forgotten. It was better than the alternative: to be remembered for her utter failure. If there would be anyone left to remember her. If there would be anyone left at all.

The choppiness of the paragraphs makes me cringe. Doing this once or twice for emphasize is a-okay, it’s one of my favorite writing tools to use, but holy shit not every paragraph!!! Was this book edited?

She would not allow it. That failure. She would not tell them what they wished to know.

So, is them referring to Maeve and her goonies? What is Maeve trying to get out of her? The Wyrdkeys are not brought up at all in this section, so idk what else Maeve would want from Alien?

“But Liv!” I hear you cry. “This is just an excerpt! Surely the final book will hold all the answers!”

Well, my friend my pal my home slice bread slice dawg, for one you have waaaaay too much confidence in SJM. For another, this excerpt was deliberately chosen to serve as a preview for the novel to get readers invested. We should be intrigued by what secrets the books have to offer, not blatantly given shit out of context that makes literally no sense and hurts to read.

She had tried to keep track of the days. But she did not know how long they had kept her in that iron box. How long they had forced her to sleep, lulled into oblivion by the sweet smoke they’d poured in while they traveled here.

I’m side eyeing SJM super hard here. I s2g if K0A starts with a huge ass time skip...

Days, months, years - they bled together, as her own blood often slithered over the stone floor and into the river itself

Also also, if she’s bleeding that much, how the fuck is she not dead? Immortal Fae queen yeah yeah whatever, but the Fae still bleed and can die from blood loss, as Rowboat clearly showed when he was shot in Q0S. Unless Maeve is regularly taking Alien out of her iron coffin to heal her wounds, Alien should be dead by now. This is such bullshit.

A princess who was to live for a thousand years. Longer. That had been her gift. It was now her curse.

That last bit is about us. We’re the ones who have to suffer the no doubt countless sequels that will be written to milk this franchise dry.

She wondered if that goddess of light and flame even cared that she now lay trapped within the iron box - or if the immortal had transferred her attentions to another. To the king who might offer himself in her stead and in yielding his life, spare their world.

Who is this king guy she’s thinking of? Dorito? Can’t be Rowboat, he’s a prince and even if Alien pulled some last minute bullshit by marrying him, that doesn’t make Rowboat a king. He’d still be a prince since Alien is the ruling head of the kingdom.

The gods did not care who paid the debt. So she knew they would not come for her, save her. So she did not bother praying to them.

It’s me. I’m the gods. It’s a metaphor, you see, because I wouldn’t give Alien the dirt off the bottom of my shoe.

Down she would drift, deep into that darkness, into the sea of flame. Down so deep that when the whip cracked, when bone sundered, she sometimes did not feel it. Most times she did.

Ask me if I give a fuck. Also if iron resists magic, how come Alien can reach into her well of magic in the coffin, hmmm? Why doesn’t she shit out a firestorm to escape?

It was during those infinite hours that she would fix her stare on her companion. Not the queen’s hunter, who could draw out pain like a musician coaxing a melody from an instrument. But the massive white wolf, chained by invisible bonds. Forced to witness this.

Massive white wolf? Who is this referring to? Is it... Fenrys? Tbh I forget what happened to him so it may very well be.

A prince of ice and wind. A prince who had been hers, and she his. Long before the bond between their souls became known to them.

Weeks ago I might have been beyond pissed because Dorito was the prince of ice, but now they’re both fuckbois who I would gleefully watch die slow and painful deaths.

The dark queen with a spider’s smile tried to wield it against her.

SJM actually doesn’t know how words work. I cannot call her a writer anymore; she just bashes her forehead against the keyboard and publishes it, claiming it to be fantasy.

Spiders. Don’t. Smile. First fish teeth, and now fucking this???? A snake’s smile or something would’ve been better or anything but fucking “”a spider’s smile”” I’m hsdfaskhfjka

So she told herself the story. The darkness and the flame deep within her whispered it, too, and she sang it back to them. Locked in that coffin hidden on an island within the heart of a river, the princess recited the story, over and over, and let them unleash an eternity of pain upon her body.

I don’t care bye.

This excerpt is shit and suddenly I’m beginning to appreciate TAB. We’ll return to your regularly scheduled programming next time.

#the worm talks #the worm reads: koa #someday ill be using that tag for the whole novel.... may god have mercy on us all #anti sjm #anti koa #anti tog

7 notes · View notes

afulltimenerd · 6 years

Photo

OMG! IT’S HERE AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL!

1 note · View note

signofwolf · 3 years

Text

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas – book review

Series: Throne of Glass #7 Genre: YA, Fantasy Theme: Fae, magic users, war Warnings: mentions of torture, imprisonment Star rating: 0,5/10

Why did I pick this up?: I wanted to end this horrible series once and for all.

[Heavy spoilers ahead]

To make myself clear, before this book I quite liked this series. It wouldn’t place in my top 100 books, not even close, but it was a pleasant pageturner to listen to in audiobooks when working.

Language

Let’s start slow. I lack the words to express how much I hate the words ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘mate’ after this series. Not even gonna try to express my trauma. But these 3 gems aside, Sarah J. Maas needs a dictionary. Or compress her work to a manageable size. Everything sang, Everyone melted, Every man roared, Every woman trembled, Everyone was unleashing themselves at least once a chapter (number of chapters: 122) ). And now I know definitely too much about Yrene’s ‘womb’. I know so much…

Dynamism

I thought that was a book about a war with heavy action content. Oh boy, I was wrong. This 984-pages monstrosity has maybe 5 pages of action. If you squint.

Every sequence, where by design action should take place was followed by one of two scripts:

Few sentences of action and then a few pages long internal monologue. Often repeated with the same character after the next few sentences of action, or with the next character and then the next (sometimes the first character made a second appearance and then everything would go all over again). And the word ‘character’ used in these sentences is not because I’m rambling. This book is written that way!

Few sentences of action and then action stops, and we are graced by a few pages long conversation. In the middle of a battle. Or spying. Or in Erawan’s chambers, when his castle is going down, and he is running up the stairs...

Time

Leaving alone the fact that apparently all series took less than a year (till this book I estimated the plot for about 3 years, Wiki told me it was 2, but Maas knows best), because that is a can of worms in itself. Time in this one? I honestly have no idea. There were many ‘few weeks of travel’ parts with two main groups of POVs. Personally my only time indicator was ‘Orynth won’t fall till Aelin gets here’. But nothing just fit. And I saw Lost Song when in the last episode we as the audience realized that our two POVs parallel storylines are in reality millennia apart. Lost Song made sense.

Emotional loading

… there wasn’t any. Really, it was like reading a milk label. Every time the scene was potentially emotionally impactful, Maas went ahead to overexplaining EVERY. GOD. DAMMED. THING. And it was abso-fucking-lutely everything. ‘Emotional dilemma? Let’s current POV explain it! 2 pages should be enough… Damn maybe it wasn’t enough. I know! I’ll switch POVs and explain it through the other character!’ <= My impression of Maas’ thought process. I’m fairly sure that the record was 7 POVs explaining the same thing in the row, but I was blacking out a little, so I cannot be sure.

And if that wasn’t enough, this book had a second way to defuse tension: random-plastic-repetitive-badly_written-smut. Really badly written and really repetitive. How could you not feel the spicy bits, when Manon (cruel, self assured 100+years old witch-queen) reacts the same in bed as Elide (20years old, virgin, ex-slave). And the rest of them were the same, there weren’t ANY distinctions.Just copy-paste.

The next point in current case: Someone died, it was impactful, I really liked the character, so I got sad. But then 2 of our characters came out of the room with a body, and after a paragraph of grieving they started making out, and then I was regaled with 2-pages-long description of melting cores. That was the place then this book stopped being badly written, and started being distasteful.

Characters

Remember when I was writing about switching POVs (which is 15(!!!) In the whole book. Oh and an omniscient narrator in places when our current POV was grieving too much to overthink something, but Maas still wanted to inform us about something)? They were all savagely murdered in the worst way: character mutilation. Somewhere between books our maybe-not-that-original but colorful and interesting characters became carbon copies of each other. I have no idea how many times I didn’t realise there was a POV switch. The only indicator was a change of pronoun, or when Maas was telling us the name of a current narrator. These were the only ways. And if you can't distinguish if you are in Dorian’s head or in Manon’s, that is the sign of a really BAD writing.

Romance

…there wasn't any. In all this book there wasn't any naturally progressing romantic scene. There were Maas’ endgame pairings which were sexing or pinning. As the author Maas loves to write about soulmates. And it’s not a bad thing itself. When I want some fluffy story I often tag ‘soulmates’ in AO3 and voila, +10 to good mood. But God above, it is not cute when every pair you write about are ‘true mates’ just BECAUSE. It is the only way Maas sees a relationship, as a fated pairing, written in the wake of the universe by the God himself. There is no choice, nor the work to put in it. They are the author's OTP and that means that they are perfect and they should have children right now. Point in case:

Guy was treating a girl like a shit on his sole, including throwing her naked out of tent, on a snow, with their friends present, all the while abusing her verbally in a worst way. But it’s okay, because when she almost died he realised his mistakes and apologised. Two scenes later, he was forgiven, because... fated mates?

The pathos

I know that many people don't like this type of scenes, but it's not my case. I’m reading by picturing images and not repeating words. I like sequences that I can imagine to be grand and glorious, even if they are a little corny. That said, the pathos scenes were the most disappointing ones for me. Maas likes to write parts that are more picturesquely exalted than logically possible [point in case: meeting of 5 armies/forces in the random patch of sand in Empire of Storms, and it being painted as ‘an Aelin’s great plan’. I laughed myself silly at that. But not taking logic and all the plot holes into consideration that was a nicely looking scene. In Kingdom of Ash that wasn’t the case. I would say that the author wanted to paint us a renaissance painting every 20 pages or so. In my opinion, every time she failed miserably. Each and every of those scenes was or to farfetched to be even remotely realistic, and evidently written only for a sake of the picture, or just plainly stupid.

Example, and it’s so priceless a scene, that I just need to share it: Battle of Orynth, 25th day or so (time in this book doesn’t exist), the 13. sacrificed themselves (like thousands before them but hush). And then, time stops: grieving Manon is going through the city, they open the gates for her (yes, the siege is still on), she goes to the place where they died, after her come out all of our main heroes, and half the city itself with ‘flowers, rocks and precious possessions’ and they lay it there in a tribute to these brave (evil till 2 months ago) witches. I honestly can’t remember when was the last time I saw such an abstract scene. It’s a material for an essay in itself. No, I could not take it seriously.

Additionally, it's hard to make an impact as every damn sentence is grand and lofty. In the end it became truly pathetic, Aelin vs Maeve was unreadable.

Character deaths:

Let's make a quick count: main characters in a series at the start of KoA: 12 secondary characters in a series at the start of KoA: 20ish minor and total background: a lot more

Death count: main: 0 secondary: 3 minor: 2 (11 if we try very hard)

Resurrections: 1 (possibly 3, but not gonna analyze it)

Did you feel emotions of this impossible war against this all-encompassing, all-powerful, invincible, immortal, cunning Evil with armies from 3 continents and 2 worlds? No? Me neither.

Oh well, but there were a lot of deaths of ordinary soldiers. I’m quite certain that all of Terrasen’s army was at least twice brought back to life for them to die in these numbers.

Logic or lack thereof

Oh, and let’s not forget about the Deus ex machina army of unbeatable, magical elves on wolves, from legends, living for the past thousands of years in the unreachable lands of the north, because they managed to run from the surprise attack 10 years earlier. Did I mention that they came from portals, which the whole book was telling us were impossible to make in this scenario? After the previous saviour army was already fighting there for a day? And that Aelin didn’t know they would come for sure (how did she contact them again?)? Even though they were waiting in the full armours for these portals? Ah, and also: that army didn’t do anything. They just came and fought for maybe 4 minutes. And there were just so many things like that!

And if we’re on the topic of armies I present you: ‘My favourite absurd-list in the series: allied armies’.

(As a comparison, in A Song of Ice and Fire by J.R.R Martin, in 7 kingdoms of Westeros, at the peak of war there were 7 forces present, but not all were even engaged in a war.)

First the ones that made sense:

Armies of Terrasen’s Lords (counted as one, not gonna nitpick)

The Khaganate army (also counted as one)

Galan Ashryver’s armada

Whitethorn fraction

Rebel Ironteeth witches

…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’?

And there were some that did not:

Ansel of Briarcliff’s army

The Silent Assassins

Mycenians

Wild Men of the Fangs

Army of magical elves on wolves

And the ‘I don’t even know’ category:

Crochan witches

Overpowering and overreaching

Section title tells it all. The stakes were too high. I was honestly waiting for Aelin to become Super Saiyan and start to throw planets at Maeve and Erawan. I won’t spoil if this happened.

In my opinion it could be a really great series, if our list of villains ended with Arobynn and King of Adarlan, and the list of Aelin titles with an assassin and a princess. We could have had two main fight plots: one emotional with Arobynn, when Aelin would have to face a damage he had done to her, and overcome it. And the second one, with freeing Terrasen from Adarlan’s rule. That’s it. There was an asshole, power hungry king, who feared magic and wanted to rule the East part of a continent. A lot of plot, but not so much that we stopped to care, or didn’t have time to cover everything. We could really get to know what Terrasen and his people were like and not JUST GET TOLD that it was ‘the greatest place in the world’ every damn 20 pages.

Plus…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’? It's a REALLY valid question.

Climaxes

IIf I have to write a list of things that disappointed me in this book, this review would be thrice its current size, but one of the worst grievances I have is the complete lack of acknowledging the plotlines that had been started. This book series has overall 4 372 pages (not counting novellas) and 12 main characters (still not gonna address this). All of them had their storylines and arcs but if they weren't tied up in the previous instalments they wouldn’t be in this one. I get it, Maeve and Erawan got beaten (in an extremely unsatisfactory way) but they were only a background in this series' plots.

Aelin Well, Aelin was one of 3 people (+2 paragraf-long insertion from Nesryn and Chaol) who got their own POV’s after the battle (second was technically Rowan, who was ‘Aelin’s POV outside of Aelin’.The third Dorian, who got almost a full two pages). And from this we got that: she got crowned, Aedion got his bond and that Maas have no idea how the city looks after weeks of siege. In her case what angered me the most was ‘Terrasen is my home’ subplot. Only in this tome we read at least 3 times that Aelin will be okay with dying, if only she gets to see Terrasen one last time, or if she get to die on Terrassen soil. But you know what? Maas forgot to write the scene where Aelin actually ‘comes in’.

Mannon Didn't get her own POV after the battle, but here’s what we’ve got: She is going to the Wastes with Croachans and Ironteeth. Whait. What? Yes, that was the ending of this 500+ years of feud. They fought together and they decided to unite their two species, completely forgetting more than half a millenia of slaughter. I can only hope that there were at least some talks behind the scenes… NO! F*** NO! This isn’t how it works!

Rowan, Dorian, Chaol, Yrene, Lysandra, Aedion, Lorcan, Elide, Nesryn, Sartaq Lived happily ever after

Secondary minor and total background characters Survived (I acknowledge that they would be ignored in most books’ epilogues, but this abomination is almost 1000 pages of nothing!!).

Good Scenes

That saying, this book actually had 4 good scenes:

Crochan witches go to war - gathering-forces-to-fight trope, which is my *love-always trope* so I’m not even sure if it was relatively good, or if I’m just a slut for this trope. It was still only a paragraph long though.

[recurring] The children’s tale Aelin repeated to herself to remember who she is.

‘Lorcan Lochan’ - the only marginally funny scene in the whole book

I actually found Darrel making Evangeline his heir charming. Even if circumstances were far-fetched at least.

But the words crime of this book? It was agonisingly, mind-numbingly boring. If the overexplaining and repetitions were to be taken out I highly doubt that there would be 300 pages left.

For these 33 hours of audiobook I suffered through I give it half a star. Because Abraxos exist.

Please see my garishly accurate cover on my instagram! You can also like it there :D

instagram | goodreads

#book #book review #bookworm #review #signofwolf-book_review #opinion #throne of glass #throne of glass series #throne of glass spoilers #sarah j maas #kingdom of ash #aelin galythinius #mary sunderland #tog #fantasy #fandom

4 notes · View notes

cassianandfenrysaremyboyos · 5 years

Text

Some things from the Sarah J Maas Kingdom of Ash event

Sarah confirmed she basically writes fan fiction of her characters and spent a lot of time, especially in collage writing Rowealin smut, including bathroom sex and she’s written angsty Rowan chopping wood.

She also talked a little bit about World of Throne of glass which will be set after Kingdom of Ash, she hasn’t decided how far in the future it will be yet, maybe a couple of years, maybe ten? And the premise is that after the war Aelin asks a scholar to write about the history of the war, who will interview the characters and get their first hand accounts and compile it in a book with letters, travel logue’s, maps ect and it will include updates of where everyone is at “who’s doing what” and “who’s doing who” lol. And it’s going to be writen like it’s a book that exists in the ToG world and would be shelved in the library of Ornyth.

She described Crescent City as “sexy, bantery and fun” and is like 800 pages of banter. She also mentioned how much she’s enjoyed working on it and it’s a real passion project.

She also said that she’ll never truely leave behind the universe of ToG, she just needs a rest from the series for a while. But has characters she wants to write more about and has stories she’s daydreamed about. So you never know in a couple of years when she has more time she might return to ToG.

At a party for the Tog and Acotar characters she said Aedion and Cassian would be the party hosts, Dorian and Amren would be the one’s eating all the snacks. Aelin and Azriel would be the one’s cutting up the dance floor. She said Aelin probably wouldn’t be very good at it, but she’d commit and would totally do the worm. Azriel would get really drunk and everyone would just be like “WTF” because it turns out he’s an amazing dancer and is probably part of a secret dance group. Elide and Nesta would be the one’s in the corner reading a book. Nesta reading her smutty romance novels and Elide with Lorcan just standing next to her scowling, making sure all the men stay away from her while Manon would be sitting next to her also making sure no one came near Elide.

She also said out of all her books Kingdom of Ash means the most to her because it reminds her of her 11 year old self and her dreams of becoming a writer one day. And that KoA is a culmination of the journey she’s taken since then to get to where she is today. And she’s really proud of herself for what she’s achieved.

#sarah j maas #sjmaas #koa #kingdom of ash #sarah j maas tour #kingdom of ash tour #i should have taken notes lol #i've already forgotten half the stuff she said #but this is some of what i remember #and she was really funny and seemed pretty cool #kingdomofashtour #sjm #sjm tour #cassfenposts

656 notes · View notes

aelinskingdom-insta · 6 years

Text

KoA NYC event, part 2

- Am I going to die reading kingdom of ash? Yes. I mean, maybe yeaaaah. She died a million times writing her books.

- If you were stuck in a deserted island which one of your characters would you like to be stuck with? We’re ruling out any magical powers. Rowan is so intense that I would just be so scared of him, I would bring no skills to the table. He’d be fine with that but I know that he’d be just ugh you’re pathetic and you’re definitely an indoor cat. Aelin would yell at me and then I’d cry and she’d feel bad and then we’d probably be like Jack Sparrow burning all of the rum. Chaol would just spend the whole time obsessively building a raft because he’d be like “I just need to get off this island with this crazy woman”. He’d just like swim out to sea, like sea take me, Jesus take the wheel! I can’t be on this island with her. Being on an island with Manon would be like getting into one of those shark cages. Cause you know when the coconuts run out she’s going to start looking at you... like she’s not a cannibal, but like there are few lines she wouldn’t cross. She would start looking at me like a steak, like a walking steak. So I think if we’re like stuck on an island, I’d be cool with being on the island with Dorian. He’s so nice, and he’s good to look at. And like he tans nicely, he’s not like me I turn into a lobster in the sun, Dorian gets that like bronzed skin, and I’d be like “oh I’m getting sunburned give me your shirt” and we’ll make sure that you get all oiled up with coconut oil so your tan gets even better and those abs... and with Dorian we can talk about everything so we’d talk about the movies and books - I mean Dorian has obviously seen zero movies but in my fantasy he’s seen all of the movies that I love, and I think he’d be so like pleasant and he would find a way off the island or he would sacrifice himself for me to get off the island but like I’d never let go.”

- You once said that you had a last line planned for kingdom of ash, is that what ended up being the last line of the book? (That was my question kfksojdkaoajsoa) It is. So I had a bunch of different endings in mind over the years and when I was in Costa Rica in 2013 on vacation and we took this little tour up to this place called the Monteverde cloud forest and it’s one of the most unique incredible places in the world. It was on top of a mountain range and this cloud forest exists in the clouds. And we were doing the drive up into the mountains and we got to this lookout point, and these beautiful mountains were spread around us and I was listening to music in the back of this van trying not to puke on all those tiny roads and we got to this point where the clouds just like opened up and all of this sunshine just came flooding down all around these mountains and the music was just swelling at this one point and I just heard the voice in my head, I heard the last line for the series, and I, surprise, burst into tears. I was with my husband’s family and they were like what’s happening with her? And I was like the view is so gorgeous I’m so moved by the mountains - and I was, but I was like holy shit I just heard the last line of my series! It was like an out of body experience and I loved this last line so so much that I was like Aelin please please don’t fuck this up for me, we gotta get to that last line girl we gotta make it to that and we did. She and I got there somehow, if she survives... *nervous laughing* yeah the last line is “aelin was rotting in her grave with the valg bunnies for ever. And then the bunnies hopped along and fed off of her corpse.“

- How does safe sex work between fae? *laughs and snorts* I was want you guys to know that my family is here today. Like my parents and my grandma. I’ll tell you a little story, my grandma is amazing she’s almost 88 years old, she just came back from 2 weeks in Argentina, she travels all over the world. She’s the most incredible lady. I think about 2 years ago, my grandma is in this book club with a bunch of ladies her age, and they picked acotar as their monthly read. And they wanted to know about the sex. So right before acomaf came out and I said “you know grandma you might not want to read acomaf because there’s a lot of graphic sex.” And grandma was like “well that sounds right up my alley“! So I feel like my grandma is probably cool with me talking about safe sex for the fae. But I like to imagine that they’ve got like tonics and potions that they take, like instead of popping birth control pills, where it’s all on the woman to have to be on birth control, like the man can *Sarah picks up her glass of water* drink their daily “not get a woman knocked up juice”. [...] Maybe we’ll have like a little novella where it’s like “the ladies talk about birth control, a nice Holliday special”.

- Which name came first, Celaena or Aelin? Celaena was the first name that popped into my head. When I began writing the books, I knew I wanted a cool name that meant something neat and I was a big fan of the Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, and there’s a harpie named Celaeno. Celaeno is a real character in Greek mythology and her name means Dark One and I was like oooh Dark One that’s a badass name for an assassin but Celaeno sounds like a burly Italian man *with an Italian accent* “it’s me Celaeno!”. No, so me being 16 years old I swaped the o for an a and that’s how Celaena was born. But what was really weird is that when I named Fleetfoot, like immediately I was like this dog is really fast what do I call her, fleetfoot, but then a couple of years later I was looking into Celaeno the harpie’s mythological origins to see if there was anything I could pull, any little nods that I could have in throne of glass, little references and Easter eggs for Celaena’s name source and I saw that one of Celaeno‘ other names was Fleetfoot, like one of her nicknames, and I was like what the hell... this is why I feel like all of this is happening on another planet and I’m just channeling it somehow. And I don’t even remember where Aelin came from as a name, sometimes I just hear the names in my head and like thank god for those moments cause I hate naming characters. Sometimes I just hear names in my head like I heard Aelin’s name, I heard Feyre’s name, I heard Bryce Quinlan’s name and that’s just how I know, when I hear a name, that’s the name and it’s a weird thing and it sticks and it makes a character come alive in a way. And actually when I first first first wrote throne of glass, Celaena was just an assassin and by chapter three I was like oh and you’re also a magical princess named Aelin, surprise! Cause obviously there has to be a princess involved because of Sailer Moon, the Moon princess. I think Aelin would have enjoyed Sailer Moon, by the way. Aelin would love living in this world, she would never get off her couch cause she would constantly be binge-watching tv shows. iTunes, Aelin would go crazy just like Spotify, all the music. I wish I could open a Wyrdgate and bring her into the world for the day (YEAH WE WISH WE COULD DO THAT TOO). I‘m going to write fan fiction about that. That wouldn’t be weird at all. “Aelin and I hanging out around New York.” Dorkiest fan fiction of all times.

- What is your favorite scene of the series? One of the first that jumped to my mind is in HoF, when Aelin and the Valg are facing off and Aelin goes through all of her memories, and it’s like ripping her apart but then she learns to face them and she comes out of the darkness and puts her hand over the prince’s mouth and blasts them into ash. When I wrote that scene I just sobbed and sobbed, and I was so pumped up I didn’t know what to do with myself. I loved that. In ToD, the whole Nestaq scenes… like basically everything of them together, but when they go off into the mountains together like that I could have made that book a thousand pages long just because I loved them so much and Borte, and the whole thing with them and the spiders. Tower of Dawn was such a fun book for me to write, I loved that book. And in EoS when Aelin and Rolfe, oh my god when Aelin is like talking to Rowan and she’s like I haven’t met you, and he’s like oh I’m taken and she’s like your girlfriend must be so hot and then when Aelin puts one of Rolfe’s emeralds in her mouth and throws it out across the room. When I was writing it, I had my feet on my desk, channeling Aelin so hard. I mean the entire ending of empire of storms was just so horrible and brutal, and all of those ships show up and they realise that Aelin arranged for everything, I just like... lost it. And all of QoS. I mean when Lysandra shows up and saves Aedion and Rowan and destroys all of those soldiers as a leopard, Aelin and Dorian when Dorian shatters the Glass Castle, I loved that. I mean literally like any moment in the series I’ve loved. In the Assassin’s Blade, I loved writing about that riverfront party when they’re all dancing and having fun and Aelin going to the theatre... I mean every moment was my favorite. Aelin versus Manon. When Manon first encounters Abraxos and gets thrown into the pit, when she and Abraxos team up. Oh my god, I’m going to cry thinking about all of these moments. Like a whole montage went through my head, with a nice music playing. Here’s the time Manon ripped out that guy’s throat. Here’s when Aelin gutted a man. Nice family memories.

- What power would you want in throne of glass? I think I’d want to be a shapeshifter. I mean who doesn’t want to ability to turn into a sea wyvern and take on horrible sea creature. *whispering and pointing to herself* Not this person. I would love to be able to turn into a bird and fly, a worm... there’s like so much of the world to see, so many ways to experience it that I would want to try out so many different shapes and then the cool party trick like hey do you want to see me turn into a worm? I would like freeze in that moment and they would be like turn into something cool, turn into a wolf or a badger, and I’d be like I can do a worm... and then we would get home later and I’d be like damnit why didn’t I turn into a wolf I can do it! You know when you have that comeback that you remember two hours later that haunts you for years, like that would be me as a shapeshifter I would forget my cool forms and I would do all of the really sad ones. All the time. The worm and a pigeon... pizza rat, that’s what I’d turn into. Pizza rat is my patronus. *laughing* It’s true.

- If there is one message that you would want the readers to take away from the throne of glass series, what would it be? I think looking back at this crazy, amazing journey, at the end of the day I think I would want you guys to take away the message that, and this is going to sound really corny but you can literally do anything that you put your mind to. You can survive anything, and that you’re stronger than you realise. And that no matter how many times you get knocked down, you can get back up. And never stop getting back up. And even when the world tells you that you aren’t good enough, that your dream is stupid or that it’ll never happen, you keep your eyes on the prize and you never listen to those people. You can make it. You’ve got a dream. You can achieve it. I somehow did it, and if I did it you guys can do it. And I hope that Aelin and Manon and Rowan and Chaol and all of them inspired you to never give up, even when it feels hopeless, never give up. It gets better. Even when things seem really dark and really hard... *starts crying* you asked this question! Whoever wrote that I hate you. Even when things seem really dark and really hard, that doesn’t last forever, and you can get through it. And you’ve got strength that you don’t even realise. You can find that strength, and you’ll make it. And I love you guys. At the end of the day, I want you guys to walk away from these books feeling like you can take on the world. And you can do anything. And if that’s what I’ve accomplished with these books, then I can die happy, I guess. If anybody ever puts down what you love, screw them. I love you guys, to whatever end.

5 notes · View notes

justawriter17-blog · 5 years

Text

8 months following KoA and somewhere in between ACOFAS

Chapter 1~

The wind whipped by her ears fast as that of the Staghorns as Aelin Ashryver Galathynius raced down the halls of her newly refurbished castle. She could hear the screech of her mate Rowan angrily echoing down the ginormous halls as she loosed another hearty laugh and dodged a few passing servants. A white spot appeared in the corner of her eye as her partner in crime, Fenrys, raced by in his giant wolf form and she could see a twinkle of mischief in his eyes as he held the brick of pink dye in his mouth. She was about to shout as Aedion and Lorcan came from the shadows and were able to snag Fenrys but she was a little too fast for them and raced onward as Fenrys' howl of anger and Aedion's barked curse at her floated to her ears. "Dammit Lorcan let go of him we need to catch her or Rowan is gonna kill us!" If Aelin wasn't running as fast as she could she would've doubled over in laughter at the thought. She raced down hallways and past servants and guards alike before her fae instincts screamed at her too late as Elide popped out of nowhere and Aelin slammed headfirst into a wall to avoid running into the Lady of Perranth. "Gods Aelin you're going to kill yourself one day and leave us with a kingdom to run!" Elide ranted while frantically checking to see if her queen was ok. "I'm fine I'm fine I need to go before-" Aelin stopped as a flash of light and an angry pink haired fae warrior was snarling with 500 years' worth of wrath in her face. "Heeyyy Rowan I was JUST looking for you to ask you about-" "Why in the seven burning rings of hell is my hair PINK?" Rowan asked viciously. Aelin scoffed, "And why pray tell are you asking me about that?" She asked innocently. Aedion and Lorcan appeared from down the hallway hauling Fenrys between them who made himself a dead weight so as not to be brought to justice. "Aelin our plan is totally safe I didn't tell them it was your idea." Aelin slapped her face ~Gods Fenrys is a horrible whisperer~ she thought to herself and tried to think of a lie to get out of this one. "Before you were about to say whatever your smart-ass mouth could come up with why did you have to drown my golden locks also?" Aedion whined, upset while fingering his poorly done pink ends. "Actually that was all me." Lorcan sniped out before Elide slapped his head and dragged him off somewhere. "Well what a happy ending I'm just going to go occupy myself elsewhere." Aelin chimed then ran away to angry fae grumbles while giggling to herself. Times are peaceful now almost a little to boring, and she knew she should kick herself for thinking that but as Aelin remembered that promise her and Rowan had made to themselves on the boat in the middle of the ocean to savor the peace, she didn't think it would be this boring. Pranks on Rowan were the things her and her sadistic court lived for but it really didn't stop the churn of adventure living in her chest. Ahh the crown room Aelin thought before striding into the locked chamber which housed her crowns as well as the crowns of some fallen enemies such as Maeve's which she now stopped before. "No stop!" She could hear Fenrys' pleas in her ear as Maeve stepped towards her iron coffin to inflict whatever hell she decided was to be done today on Aelin's body. Stop she told herself. And as Aelin shook away those painful memories she reached out to touch that beautiful cruel crown. As her fingers grazed the pure gold around the ruby diadem warning bells pealed in her blood just as they had when she touched the wyrdstone and just as she was about to pull back a light flashed and everything went dark.

~~Chapter 2~~

Azriel smirked at his court as Amren was mere seconds away from splattering Cassian against a wall for whatever pig like statement he had just made which had Mor turning red and Rhysand howling while Feyre looked on annoyed. He was about to chime in with a quip of his own when one of his shadows tickled his ear and he stood up abruptly snarling. Everyone at the table silenced as Rhys asked, "Az what is it?" "I don't know stay here." "Wait I wanna co-" Cassian's statement cut off as Azriel walked into the shadows and appeared outside of the crown room Rhys had once brought Feyre too. He winnowed into the glow worm lit room with Truth-Teller drawn and was easing out his sword from behind his back when he heard the groan of discomfort from the corner hidden in the most darkness. He sent shadows over only for them to be blown back by a wave of blue fire as a golden haired blue-eyed High Fae female stood up on shaky legs with a confused gleam in her eye. "Who are you why are you in my throne room?" She demanded with a snarl in her voice. "I should be asking you that." Azriel snarled with just as much venom. "You shouldn't be questioning me at all since I am the Queen." Aelin remarked while tossing her hair over her shoulder in cool indifference while taking the chance to observe the fae male and her surroundings. "Wait why do you have wings." Azriel noticed the blood had drained from her face as she noticed his bat like wings poking from behind his back as he said, "I'm an Illyrian and we skin intruders alive whether they're supposed queens or not." "Supposed my ass I fought and nearly died for my crown as the rightful heir of Terrasen thank you very much." "What's Terrasen?" Azriel asked with caution. As another shocked look passed across her features he could indeed sense the dominance that flowed through her veins and was about to ask another question before the door was blown open by Cass and Rhys. "Azriel what the he-" Cassian was saying before he noticed the the beautiful and dangerous looking female. "Who are you and how did you get in here?" Rhysand asked and Azriel noticed the way her eyes roved over both of them and she deemed Rhys more of a threat than any of them in the room. Smart girl he thought as she turned around and asked, "Why do we go over these things I'm pretty sure you don't know as much as I don't know." She retorted and smirked as Cass choked on a dark laugh. "Well I'm the High Lord of this court and you've interrupted my dinner so I will kindly ask for you to walk with us down the hall." Rhys said and the girl looked him up and down and said, "I'm a Queen I'm not told or asked to do anything." It was Rhys' turn to look baffled as he said, "Queen?" And she nodded her head. Azriel could see the look on Rhys' face as he probed the girl's mind and told him and Cassian in their heads" She's telling the truth. She is a queen of a territory called Terrasen and has never heard of Prythian or the Night Court." Azriel kept his face a mask of composure while Cassian blurted, "You're really a Queen? That doesn't make sense this is Prythian there's nothing I've ever heard of called Terrasen." Azriel inwardly groaned as the girl's face drained of all color as she quietly asked, "What do you mean you've never heard of Terrasen?"

Chapter 3~

Aelin kept her hands hanging loosely to her sides as she walked down the hallway behind the loud Illyrian-Cassian and checked the corner of her eye to make sure the other one- Azriel- was where he should be without making subtle movements. She noticed the light reflected off of the red walls and looked out one of the many windows to see a beautiful city with a gorgeous rainbow jutting out of the crystalline waters. She's never seen any city that could compare to the beauty of this place. "You should see Velaris at night this is nothing compared to after dark." Aelin glanced over to where Rhysand was watching his city with adoration on his face and glanced towards her and smiled non threateningly. "I've never seen any city like this . The only one that comes close was a city that was held by a demon queen and I encircled it with my flames after she whipped my friend." Aelin could see Cassian's head whip towards her as he asked, " You encircled a city with your fire? How big was the city?" "Trying to see how strong I am are you?" Aelin asked smirking. "Well if you must know I did and several other faeries were trying to put out my fire and that city was much larger than this one." Aelin watched as him and Azriel casually let their hands fall within reach of their weapons and edged closer to Rhysand. "Calm yourselves guard dogs I'm simply telling part of my story." Aelin laughed a little bit and was about to continue onward when she realized she didn't know where she was going and with a chuckle Rhysand resumed his escort with his hands in his pockets. They turned a corner and Aelin was greeted with a sitting room filled with light and she scanned the area just to be stared down by six other fae. "My court you see. That one eyed red haired male is Lucien, the female and her sister next to him are Elain and Nesta. That short evil thing over there is Amren with the silver eyes, the weird blonde girl over there is my cousin Mor and the most beautiful person in this room in my totally unbiased opinion of course, is my mate and High Lady Feyre." As Rhysand introduced all of the fae in the room they gestured or nodded with still wary looks in their eyes. "Rhys who is she?" The High Lady-Feyre- questioned him. "Why she's the Queen of Terrasen of course." Aelin laughed as an annoyed look flashed over her face. "And where exactly is Terrasen." Feyre asked her now staring directly at her. "Honestly I don't know. I was in my crown room one moment then here the next." Aelin answered while also staring right back at the female. The whole air was uncomfortable for the next few minutes with alot of staring until Rhys said, " Ok I've told you guys the full story can we stop this nonsense." "What do you mean you told them the story there was no talking." Aelin said and looked at everyone who indeed looked as if they had been having a group discussion. "My cousin can read minds and talk through them. How about you and me go get ourselves rip-roaring drunk this has been a weird day." Aelin looked to where the blonde-Mor- was standing and said, " Finally something that makes sense." Mor walked over grabbed her hand and they winnowed out to Rita's. "Well I'm wanted at the Summer Court. Have fun sorting this one out Rhysand." And with that Amren winnowed herself away. "So what the hell do we do now." Lucien questioned Rhys who said, "We try to get our dear friend Aelin back home."

Chapter 4~

Lysandra walked down the hallways softly humming to herself. The dinner bell had just been rung mere minutes ago and she was still a while off before she reached the massive dining hall. She thought about what would be served tonight as she glanced down at the polished marble floors and back up to the walls that were covered with various paintings depicting the war or Aelin. She sure does love looking at herself Lysandra thought. A sound pricked at her trained ears and she shifted into a fae form and jogged a little down the hallway to see the fae males of her court spread out in the dining hall snarling and upset. "Ok boys what's going on dinner not on time?" She joked before her husband Aedion appeared and she noticed his pink ends. "Aedion if you'd wanted to dye your hair I would suggest purple it suits you more." She joked before he snapped out, "Aelin's missing." "What do you mean she's missing." Lysandra said while scanning the faces of Lorcan Fenrys and Elide. She had yet to spy Rowan but she guessed he was out soaring and seeing what he could see above the castle. "Its been hours since we've seen her last and the scent trail Fenrys picked up led to the crown room and ended in there." "What do you mean ended in there? What is there some secret chamber like Dorian's castle?" Lysandra snapped and Aedion smiled a bit as he said, " I wish but we looked everywhere even Lorcan pitched in." "Pssshhh who are we to trust him he probably said he looked but was eating some soup instead." "Hey I looked don't insult my loyalty to my queen." After Lorcan said this everyone paused and looked at him disbelievingly. "Lorcan it's not nice to lie sweetie." Elide chimed in innocently and Lysandra had to clamp her lips to keep from laughing, as Lorcan snarled a little. "I've notified the guards and just came back from asking the wolf tribe in Oakwald but they haven't seen her either." Fenrys said as he leaned against the table and ran his fingers through his golden hair. "I wonder what in hell she's cooking up now." Fenrys said just as a window was blown open and Rowan flew through and shifted neatly before standing in front of their assembled group. "Why does she always feel the need to disappear?" He asked just a little to calmly. That was indeed stress that Lysandra could see darkening the planes of his face. "I bet she's just cooking up some scheme that's going to make us all keel over and die finally." Aedion joked and clapped Rowan on the back. "Besides she's a big girl she can handle herself." Fenrys also chimed in with a forced lightness. At that Lorcan nodded and walked out with Elide just steps behind him saying something too quietly for Lysandra to hear. "I'll go and look through the town." Lysandra offered to no one in particular and Fenrys said "Oh I'll join you we need to get Aedion's purple dye." Aedion's snarl floated towards their ears as they scampered out laughing to themselves.

#acotar #tog #sarahjmass #fanfic #crossover #rhysand #feyre #aelin #rowan #nightcourt #terrasen

4 notes · View notes

terrasensinstitute · 6 years

Text

Manon’s Sacrifice

I have NOT read KOA as of posting this, so no spoilers! but this is angsty so warning :)

She looks out along the grassy plain, her golden eyes squinted. In front of her stands a witch in her prime, with a face she has engrained in her memory for all of eternity.

Obedience.

Discipline.

Brutality.

That’s what the witch had been taught for the past one hundred years. And by that same witch who stands in front of her now, blood from her nails and teeth, and surrounded by an endless army of Valg and Ironteeth.

This past year, Manon has done the opposite of what she’d been taught. She guessed that it was only natural - maybe that Crochan blood in her did have some effect on who she had become. The small army of Crochans she had found had fled, and now she was almost alone on this battlefield.

She was glad they had fled. Her whole life she had been slaying them, and now she would do no more slaughtering of the Crochans. No more slaying of her kin, after this final battle.

Those golden eyes locked onto those of the Blackbeak Matron in front of her, blood flowing down from her wounds and onto her armor. In her right hand she held Wind-Cleaver, the sword sharp and covered in black and blue blood. In her left, her iron nails shined in the noon sun.

“You’ve become weak,” the Matron spat, the two of them so still and otherwise silent that you could hear a pin drop. Manon was tense as she continued, and she took in every word. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. Crochan blood. Pathetic.”

Manon laughed - a wicked, yet tired laugh. She was so, so tired. But she had to distract her long enough. Distract the army behind her grandmother long enough. “Why didn’t you?” Manon started circling around the Matron, looking for a spot to finally launch her attack.

“You should be grateful you’re alive, you little bitch!” Apparently the Matron’s patience had been worn thin with the months she had spent wanting to kill Manon. And before Mother Blackbeak could launch her final attack against Manon, she ran straight into that army of Valg and Ironteeth witches.

Manon usually didn’t flee, but for this final sacrifice she would.

And as she fled, Manon felt pain. Something she had never begun to feel until she had killed her half-sister Rhiannon that day in the Ferian Gap. That strip of red cloak was still braided into her moon-white hair that now looked as black as the night sky she would never see again.

It wasn’t physical pain, though she felt that. It was emotional - something that struck deep in her heart and as clear as the moment she realised what she needed to do. She thought of all of the people who were important in her life, and she hoped this sacrifice would not be in vain.

Asterin, her fiery second, who had endured so much pain at the claws of her grandmother. Who had ultimately ended up meeting the darkness as they infiltrated Morath, and an end that Manon would never forget herself for.

All of her Thirteen, who she wished were safe. Manon had ordered them all - or the ones that had not met their end - to stay away, because she could not bear others dying at her hands. They deserved to live as long as they could, and the witch hoped they would

The Crochan witches she had slain her whole life, and would ultimately leave behind without a true Queen. No, there was no time to have a child, and especially not in this battlefield of a continent that would be bathed red by the time they were done with it.

The court of Terrasen, who battled their own further up North. Of the fae warriors, who though she didn’t particularly care for, admitted they were formidable warriors. Of the shape-shifter, who may forever hold the shape of their Queen. A Queen who may still be in shackles, or dead. Or by some twist of fate, she would be alive, and the world would be rid of Erawan. The court of warriors she was currently helping by giving up her life.

Elide, the young Blackbeak who had hoped, even when there was no reason for her to. When she was left forgotten by that court, but still searched far and wide for. And hoped for a better world for them all. She continued to look for that Queen, and Manon admired the considerable amount of courage she had.

Of Dorian, the King who had been both a friend and a release for her. No, they would never be attracted to each other romantically, but it was nice to have that friend. Someone who had even a small semblance of what she felt, and knew that distractions were needed.

She even thought of the Blueblood Petrah, who had stood up for her after Rifthold, and been by her side when it was called for. Manon was hopeful that she was not in the army that parted like the sea for her.

She thought of Abraxos. The flower-sniffing worm who understood her. Spoke to her. Was there for the last year of her long life and she would forever be grateful. He lived, and Manon knew that he would be okay even if she was not there. He would be strong, and Manon would see him in whatever afterlife that was to come for her.

Lastly, the Crochan Queen remembered Rhiannon. Her half-sister of the father that was long dead by the hands of her grandmother, and had continued the search for her. The half-sister she had slaughtered. Maybe she would meet her in that afterlife, too.

When the darkness came, no one knew what would happen after that besides the Gods. And maybe they did not even know. But what she knew for sure, was that it would be a sweet, sweet thing to finally kill the Blackbeak Matron.

Her immortal life didn’t seem to be immortal as she gathered up all that she could muster, Mother Blackbeak still chasing her. This was her one chance, and she could not waste it.

The magic brewing inside of her started to consume her even more, and she knew it was time. With Wind-Cleaver in both of her hands, she turned to face her Grandmother, a wicked grin on her face.

White Demon.

Manon Witch-Slayer.

Manon Kin-Slayer.

The Last Crochan King.

Former Wing Leader and Blackbeak Heir.

Manon Blackbeak.

So many names and titles. Manon would forever be proud of them, in some space in her heart. The part of her that would forever be a Blackbeak.

In a burst of heat and darkness, and with a boom that shook the world, Manon Blackbeak did not exist. The Blackbeak matron did not exist. Neither had the Valg and Ironteeth witches who had surrounded her.

All that was left was a ground of black and blue blood. No sign of the once yellow-green grass that had died from a result of this battle. No sign of the red cloth that had been in Manon’s hair. No sign of her body, either.

The blast had destroyed everyone in the surrounding area, and Manon Blackbeak’s sacrifice was not in vain.

From the sea, a returning ship to Terrasen from an unknown continent heard the blast. Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius and her companions wondered what had happened. But they would find out soon enough.

#manon blackbeak #throne of glass #kingdom of ash #heir of fire #queen of shadows #empire of storms #tower of dawn #angst #death #koa #tog #hof #qos #eo #tod

0 notes