Throne of Glass Series Order: Complete Reading Guide

Few things divide a fantasy book club faster than the right way to start the Throne of Glass series. Sarah J. Maas’s saga runs from the 2012 release of Throne of Glass to the series finale — seven novels plus a prequel novella collection — and fans still argue over where that prequel belongs.

Main books in series: 7 ·
Novella bind-up: 1 (The Assassin’s Blade) ·
Publication period: 2012–2018 ·
Author: Sarah J. Maas ·
Genre classification: Young Adult high fantasy ·
Common reading methods: 3 (publication, chronological, romantic)

Seven facts, one pattern: the series was finished before most readers found it — every count below is final.

In what order do you read the Throne of Glass series?

There are three named orders — publication, chronological, and romantic — plus a tandem read that combines two later books. They aren’t competing for a single right answer; they favor different reading goals.

Publication order (author-recommended)

1. Throne of Glass
2. Crown of Midnight
3. Heir of Fire
4. The Assassin’s Blade (prequel novellas)
5. Queen of Shadows
6. Empire of Storms
7. Tower of Dawn
8. Kingdom of Ash

This is the sequence Sarah J. Maas lists on her official site (Sarah J. Maas (author’s official site)), and it is the safest path for new readers: every reveal lands in the order the author structured it. The quirk is position four — The Assassin’s Blade is a set of prequel novellas, so the story steps backward in time before moving forward again.

Strict release-order guides sometimes slide the novella collection earlier, because it arrived between Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire (Bookly (reading-app guide)). Both placements work; they only change how much backstory you carry before starting Heir of Fire.

Chronological order (including The Assassin’s Blade first)

1. The Assassin’s Blade
2. Throne of Glass
3. Crown of Midnight
4. Heir of Fire
5. Queen of Shadows
6. Empire of Storms
7. Tower of Dawn
8. Kingdom of Ash

This is the order the events happen in, not the order the books were published. Starting with The Assassin’s Blade puts Celaena’s backstory on page one; the cost is that Throne of Glass then reads as a continuation instead of a mystery.

The pattern: publication order treats the prequel as a flashback; chronological order treats it as a prologue.

Romantic order (fan-created alternative)

1. Throne of Glass
2. Crown of Midnight
3. Heir of Fire
4. The Assassin’s Blade
5. Queen of Shadows
6. Tower of Dawn
7. Empire of Storms
8. Kingdom of Ash

This fan-built order swaps the final stretch: Tower of Dawn moves ahead of Empire of Storms, which changes which storylines stay in focus as the series races toward Kingdom of Ash. It is a pacing choice, not a official list — the author’s own sequence keeps Empire of Storms before Tower of Dawn.

The trade-off the romantic order delays Empire of Storms entirely, so the two overlapping plots no longer resolve in release order.

The takeaway: publication order is the default, chronological is the context play, and romantic order is the pacing experiment.

Bottom line: The reading is a preference, not a rule. New readers: the author’s publication order keeps every reveal in the order it was written. Chronology-first readers: starting with The Assassin’s Blade trades mystery for immediate context.

Will the Throne of Glass series continue?

Short answer: the main story is finished.

Series completion status

• The main series concluded with Kingdom of Ash, the seventh novel, published in 2018 (Wikipedia (community-maintained encyclopedia))
• The series is complete at eight volumes; no direct sequel has been announced.
• The prequel novellas were collected into The Assassin’s Blade in 2014.

Readers coming in now won’t face the sequel-wait problem: the arc that started in 2012 is closed, and the author has moved on to other fantasy series, including A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City.

Possible future spin-offs or novellas

• No new Throne of Glass novels or novellas have been announced.
• The author’s recent output has centered on her other series, not on new Throne material.

That doesn’t rule out a return someday, but there is no announced project to wait for — the official series list still ends at Kingdom of Ash.

What this means: the series is safe to start, because the ending already exists.

Is Throne of Glass YA adult?

The label matters for content expectations far more than for quality.

Target audience classification

• Marketed as Young Adult (YA) fantasy (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
• The protagonist is a young assassin whose choices drive the entire series.
• Crown of thorns and Roses, the same author’s other fantasy series, sits in the same YA space.

In practice, YA here signals tone and explicitness, not difficulty: the series contains violence, romance, and mature themes, but it stays less explicit than Maas’s adult series such as Crescent City.

Maturity level compared to other Maas series

• Less explicit than Crescent City, Maas’s adult-oriented series.
• Often compared with A Court of Thorns and Roses on maturity — both YA, both are intense.

The practical effect: a reader who finished A Court of Thorns and Roses will find familiar terrain; a reader expecting explicit scenes of Crescent City should adjust expectations.

The trade-off

The read from Crescent City should reset expectations: Throne of Glass carries the same stakes but stays inside YA boundaries.

The implication: “YA” is a marketing category, not a warning label — it tells you about explicitness.

How many books are in the Throne of Glass series?

The official answer is seven novels plus one bind-up; the shelf answer is eight volumes.

Core novels count

• Throne of Glass (2012)
• Crown of Midnight (2013)
• Heir of Fire (2014)
• Queen of Shadows (2015)
• Empire of Storms (2016)
• Tower of Dawn (2017)
• Kingdom of Ash (2018)

Amazon’s bibliographic listing for the series shows the strict publication sequence from Throne of Glass through Kingdom of Ash (Amazon (retail listing))

How do I read the Throne of Glass series tandem?

The tandem read is the fan-built method for readers who want Empire of Storms Tower of Dawn to land as one story.

Tandem read explanation

• Combines Empire of Storms (book five) and Tower of Dawn (book six into one continuous read.
• Matches two storylines that take place during overlapping periods in series chronology.
• Fan-created, so the author’s official list does not include it.

The idea is simple: instead of finishing Empire of Storms and then starting Tower of Dawn, you alternate between them, following both halves of the story in parallel (Bookly (reading-app guide)). Readers use it to keep the two casts present in memory at the same time.

Chapter-by- sequence

1. Finish Queen of Shadows first — tandem guides assume you’ve completed book four before starting the pair (Recap After Words (reader blog))
2. Gather both books: Empire of Storms Tower of Dawn. The read requires both at the same time, and physical copies the back-and-forth (Recap After Words (reader blog))
3. Read following a reader-made
   

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