For a first reading of Throne of Glass, start with Throne of Glass, continue with Crown of Midnight, and read The Assassin’s Blade before Heir of Fire. Then follow Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash. This is the sequence on Sarah J. Maas’s official reading guide and her stated preferred order. You can follow it without arranging two novels into a tandem read.
There are two real decisions behind most competing lists: whether to move the prequel collection to the beginning, and whether to alternate between Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. Neither decision requires rearranging the other novels. Keeping those choices separate makes this a much simpler series to begin than a diagram full of arrows can suggest.
The guide below avoids later identities, relationship outcomes and explanations of endings. It distinguishes an official recommendation from a reader’s alternative, so you can choose an approach without being told which surprise makes that approach worthwhile.
The complete first-reading route
The author’s reading guide gives this sequence:
- 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.
Here, the numbers identify reading positions, including the prequel collection. They are not a claim that The Assassin’s Blade is the third main novel. The author’s individual book pages identify Crown of Midnight as the second novel and Heir of Fire as the third. Counting eight reading volumes and counting seven main novels plus a collection therefore describe the same shelf.
Save this list before looking at later back covers. Once you know which title comes next, you do not need the next book’s entire synopsis to confirm your place. Later official descriptions can reveal information that earlier books have not yet disclosed. A reliable source can still contain spoilers when it is written to sell a continuation.
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Why publication order is also the author’s preferred route
There is no need to choose between publication order and author preference here: they agree at the volume level. Maas’s official FAQ expressly lists her preferred order, with the collection after the second novel. That is more useful evidence than an unattributed social post claiming that the author wants a different route.
Publication in this guide means the original sequence of the collected books. It does not mean sorting whichever editions a retailer currently displays from oldest date to newest. A new paperback, translated reissue or illustrated edition can have a much later publication date while containing the same earlier story. The sequence above survives changes of cover and format.
There is a second distinction inside the word publication. The Assassin’s Blade collects shorter works; a history of the individual novellas’ original releases is a different bibliography from an eight-volume reading list. You do not need to reconstruct that history or buy each novella separately to use the collected-book route.
Choose this route if your priority is a clear introduction with one book open at a time. It supplies a definite place for the backward-looking collection and leaves the final three volumes in the order officially recommended. Its chief practical advantage is fewer decisions between books, rather than a promise of the same emotional response for every reader.
What The Assassin’s Blade actually contains
The author’s collection page identifies The Assassin’s Blade as five prequel novellas. Treat it as one collection on your reading plan, then read its contents in the edition’s printed order. It is not five additional novels that must be fitted into five different gaps.
Its importance to this decision is its direction of travel: it goes into Celaena’s earlier history. The first main novel introduces an assassin seeking freedom through a dangerous competition, as the official Throne of Glass description establishes. The collection offers an earlier doorway into that protagonist rather than a continuation after Crown of Midnight in fictional time.
This gives the same material two possible functions. Read first, it becomes your initial context. Read after the second novel, it becomes a return to the past of someone you have already followed. The difference is not whether you receive the material; it is whether recognition works backward or forward. Neither placement entitles anyone to promise that you will cry more, understand every reference, or attach to a particular character.
If a library record labels it zero or prequel, take that as a chronology label. It does not overrule the author’s recommended third reading position. Conversely, its placement third on this list does not transform the earlier events into events that happen between the second and third main novels.
Starting with the prequel: a valid chronological alternative
For an earlier-events-first route, move The Assassin’s Blade to the front. Then read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight before continuing with Heir of Fire and the remaining novels in the same order. This is a change to the opening, not permission to rearrange the middle of the saga.
Bloomsbury’s reading-order guidance explicitly permits beginning with the prequel, while recommending publication order. That makes prequel-first an acknowledged alternative, rather than an error you must repair by restarting. The publisher’s permission does not mean the two introductions will feel identical.
Consider your tolerance for returning to an earlier period. If stepping away from a developing main sequence usually frustrates you, meeting the earlier material first may suit your habits. If you prefer to discover a protagonist through the main novel’s opening and learn more history later, use the recommended position. These are reading preferences, not competing claims about who follows instructions properly.
An example: two hypothetical readers each have the same eight volumes. One likes meeting a character through present choices and later reconsidering them with more history. The other wants earlier experiences in mind from the outset. They can choose different openings while keeping every required title in their plan. Their disagreement need not become a debate about which person has earned the story.
What about reading the collection after Heir of Fire?
You may encounter lists placing The Assassin’s Blade after Heir of Fire, just before Queen of Shadows. That is not the current preferred order on the author’s FAQ. It is important to preserve this distinction even if somebody enthusiastically recommends their own experience.
The question for a new reader is whether a different placement solves a problem they actually have. If you have not begun, the official after-Crown route already gives you a clear answer. Choosing a later placement solely because it is called the most emotional introduces a subjective promise that no checklist can verify for you. You do not need a stranger’s strongest reaction as your target.
If you already finished Heir of Fire without the collection, read the missing collection next before moving further. This is a practical recovery plan, not a declaration that the author now prefers that sequence. You do not need to reread three novels merely to make your completed list match a recommended list exactly.
Avoid searching for the particular later scene supposedly improved by each arrangement. Its explanation can disclose the connection you wanted to experience naturally. A placement recommendation can be useful without a demonstration of its eventual payoff. Ask where to put the book, rather than why a specific name will matter later.
Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn: what overlaps
The other major choice arrives after Queen of Shadows. Bloomsbury confirms that Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn cover overlapping time and recommends reading them in publication order. At this point, following fictional time is therefore not as simple as moving one entire volume ahead of another.
The official Tower of Dawn page identifies it as the sixth main novel, with a different geographic focus involving Antica. That numbered position matters more for a first reader than a casual description of it as a side story. A change of location or focal characters does not remove a book from the main sequence.
Think of the choice as one between completing two separately organized narratives and creating an alternating experience. A whole-book sequence gives each novel its own sustained stretch of attention. Alternation can keep both strands active in memory, but it also asks you to manage transitions that the bound volumes ordinarily keep separate.
Do not read all of Tower of Dawn before Empire of Storms as a shortcut to avoiding the tandem decision. Bloomsbury specifically warns that doing so reveals parts of Empire of Storms. Overlapping events do not make the two books reversible. Knowing that warning is enough; you do not need the identity of the disclosed information.
Tandem reading is optional, not an additional requirement
A tandem read alternates assigned portions of Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn before proceeding to Kingdom of Ash. It changes how you move through two books, not the number of books you need. The publisher acknowledges reader-created chapter routes; it does not make a tandem schedule the official default.
Choose it if you enjoy keeping two strands in motion and are comfortable stopping at a planned marker rather than whenever the next chapter tempts you. Consider reading one volume at a time if you listen during travel, borrow books with different return dates, or find repeated switching tiresome. Convenience is a legitimate part of choosing an order.
There is no universal safe rule such as one chapter from each book or an equal number of pages. Different routes choose different handovers, and pages vary by edition. A useful chapter schedule identifies the stopping points in both books clearly, so you can mark each handover before starting. If you choose tandem, use one complete spoiler-conscious schedule and check that it covers both books through their actual ends, including any separately labeled final material.
Before committing, have both books available and put a marker at the first planned handover in each. Keep the schedule separate from plot summaries. If the logistics feel intrusive before you begin, ordinary publication order is already a complete reading plan. There is no missing badge of comprehension for readers who finish one novel before opening the other.
How to recover from a tandem read you dislike
Suppose you have begun alternating and discover that switching interrupts your concentration. First record your exact stopping point in each novel. Then choose a plan that finishes Empire of Storms before you complete Tower of Dawn, keeping track of the parts you have already read. Avoid opening unread late sections of either book simply because a different online list has a different stopping point.
You may briefly repeat a chapter to restore continuity. That is preferable to skipping an uncertain gap. Your aim is to understand the two narratives, not to satisfy a spreadsheet. If you need help matching bookmarks, ask someone to identify the next unread section without explaining future events.
On the other hand, do not turn discomfort with Tower of Dawn’s different focus into a recommendation to omit it. Its place on the author’s full route remains unchanged. If you need a break, take one between reading sessions or volumes; a pause and a skipped installment are different choices.
Keep Kingdom of Ash after both overlapping novels
The author’s Kingdom of Ash page identifies the book as the finale. Reach it after both Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn, whether you read those separately or alternated them. A tandem route must arrive at the same completed pair before the final volume begins.
Do not use the finale’s description as a recap of what you are meant to know. A sales synopsis can reveal starting circumstances created by the previous books. The safe planning information is simply its position. You can save the title and postpone the blurb until you reach it.
“Complete fantasy series” also does not answer every romance question. If you need a particular relationship outcome, an exact intimacy level or limits on difficult material, check those separately with spoiler boundaries you choose. Completion means you can follow the published saga to its finale; it is not a guarantee about every character or every reader’s preferred ending.
Matching editions without changing the sequence
The English titles here serve as original-title identifiers. They are not proposed translations. When searching in another language, confirm Sarah J. Maas, the original title when supplied, and the publisher’s volume information. A translated shop interface does not prove that the book itself is in your language.
Check the contents of a boxed set rather than assuming the order of the cover images is a reading instruction. Some arrangements put the prequel first because it is earlier in time. You can still use the author’s preferred placement. A special cover or a newly issued format is not an extra story between two titles on the list.
For ebooks and audio, use chapter labels rather than page numbers to identify your place. If an edition is divided into parts, confirm which original work each part contains before advancing to the next original title. Do not infer an abridgment or a complete volume from length alone. This guide establishes story order, not current stock, subscription access or a six-language edition catalog.
Your next step depends on where you already are
If you are starting today, open Throne of Glass and save the collection for after Crown of Midnight. If you already began with The Assassin’s Blade, continue to the first main novel. If you reached Heir of Fire without the collection, fill that gap before going further. After Queen of Shadows, choose ordinary publication order unless the work of managing a tandem read sounds enjoyable in itself.
For broader sequence questions, our romance series-order guide explains continuing stories and prequels. If you are deciding what kind of fantasy reading you want, romantasy and fantasy romance helps separate world-focused and relationship-focused expectations. The book catalog offers other reading choices once you know the balance you enjoy.
Your useful plan can fit on one note: eight titles, one chosen prequel position, and one decision about the overlapping pair. Keep that note free of character outcomes. It should get you to the next book with curiosity intact, without making you study the destination before taking the first step.
