Reading Orders
Throne of Glass Reading Order: 3 Ways to Read the Series
Reading order at a glance: The safest Throne of Glass reading order for a first read is publication order: 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. Chronological order moves the prequel collection to the front; a tandem read alternates books six and seven.
Ask ten readers how to read this series and the answers split three ways. One camp follows the order the books came out. Another starts with the prequel collection because its stories happen first. A third reaches book five and starts alternating chapters with book six. All three camps are reading the same eight books, so the argument is never about what to read. It is about when.
That makes the choice smaller than it looks. This guide puts the three orders side by side, book by book, and explains what each one gives away, where the prequel novellas can sit, and roughly how many hours each book asks of you. For where this series fits among the author’s other worlds, see the full cross-series order; everything below stays inside Erilea.
What are the three Throne of Glass reading orders?
The three orders are publication order, chronological order and the tandem read. Publication order follows release dates and is the order the author lists as her preference. Chronological order starts with the prequel collection. The tandem read keeps publication order but alternates Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn chapter by chapter.
The complication comes from two quirks in how the series was released. First, the prequel stories reached readers in pieces: four novellas came out as ebooks between January and July 2012, before the first novel, and all five were gathered in The Assassin’s Blade in March 2014, according to the series history on Wikipedia. Second, the sixth and seventh books cover the same stretch of time from two different groups of characters.
- Publication order: the release sequence from August 2012 to October 2018. The author’s FAQ gives exactly this list when asked for a preferred order, and Bloomsbury’s reading guide says the publisher likes publication order to avoid spoilers.
- Chronological order: The Assassin’s Blade first, then the novels in sequence. Strictly, books six and seven overlap, so a fully chronological reader ends up doing a tandem read anyway.
- Tandem read: publication order through Queen of Shadows, then Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn read together, then Kingdom of Ash. Bloomsbury describes this simply as reading both books at once.
Every version contains the same eight books, which Bloomsbury’s series page describes as published over six years. Nothing is optional and nothing is missing from any of the three lists.
Where does The Assassin’s Blade fit?
The Assassin’s Blade fits third in publication order, after Crown of Midnight, and first in chronological order. Those are the two placements with official or timeline backing. Readers also put it fourth, after Heir of Fire, or last; both work, but each trades something away.
The collection holds five stories, which Bloomsbury lists as The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Healer, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld and The Assassin and the Empire. All of them follow the heroine as a working assassin under the master of the Assassins’ Guild, before the first novel opens. Readers who own the collection do not need the older single ebooks.
- First: the story runs in a straight line, and the opening of the first novel lands with full context. The cost is that a deliberate mystery about the heroine’s past disappears early.
- Third (publication order): the official placement. It pauses the main plot just after a major turn, which some readers find frustrating.
- Fourth, after Heir of Fire: a popular fan choice, sometimes called the romantic order. Readers know the heroine well by then, and the collection sits right before Queen of Shadows, which brings back figures from those novellas.
- Last: possible, but the collection then explains things the novels have already resolved, so it reads more like an appendix.
The disagreement is real and current. In a January 2026 thread on the r/SarahJMaas subreddit, one reader who chose the third slot said the collection became hard going because they already knew how it would end, and that it broke their momentum so badly they wished they had started with it (read the thread). Others in the same discussion argued for keeping the mystery and reading it later. The safe answer: decide before opening book one, because switching mid-series costs more than either choice.
How does the tandem read with Tower of Dawn work?
A tandem read means alternating chapters of Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn so both storylines move forward together. The two books happen at the same time, which Wikipedia’s summary of Tower of Dawn confirms, so switching keeps events in sync instead of jumping back in time after a cliffhanger.
The idea sounds tidy. In practice it is a long project, because the pair adds up to 1,408 pages in the 2023 Bloomsbury editions (720 for Empire of Storms and 688 for Tower of Dawn). Bloomsbury does not publish a chapter schedule; its guide only suggests looking up which chapter order other readers recommend. Fan schedules vary from a switch every few chapters to just two or three large blocks.
- Keep both books open side by side: print or paperback editions make the switching easier than two ebooks.
- Stop exactly where the schedule says: reading ahead in one book can reveal events the other book has not reached yet.
- Choose block size by patience: frequent switches keep the timeline exact; a few large blocks keep each book’s pacing intact.
- Never finish Tower of Dawn first: its closing pages assume Empire of Storms is done (details in the spoiler section below).
Not everyone enjoys it. In a September 2025 r/throneofglassseries thread about a tandem schedule, one reader said they regretted the tandem because the two books are paced so differently that they kept rushing the slower one to get back to the faster one (see the discussion). Another in the same thread built a checklist so they could read it with a partner and know which chapters were safe to talk about. Both experiences are normal; the tandem is a preference, not a requirement.
What does each order spoil? (spoilers, kept light)
Publication order spoils the least, since it delivers reveals in the sequence the author planned. Chronological order removes some mystery from the first three novels. A badly arranged tandem, or reading Tower of Dawn before Empire of Storms, can give away the end of Empire of Storms. The details below stay at the level of structure, not plot.
- Publication order, low risk: the only cost is that the first two novels drop hints about the heroine’s past, so the last novella in the collection holds fewer surprises when it arrives third.
- Chronological order, medium risk: the first novel treats the heroine’s history as a slow-drip mystery. Reading the collection first answers several of those questions before they are asked.
- Tower of Dawn before Empire of Storms, high risk: Bloomsbury’s guide states plainly that reading Tower of Dawn first would spoil parts of Empire of Storms.
- Tandem read, low to high risk depending on the schedule: safe as long as the last chapters of Empire of Storms come before the last chapter of Tower of Dawn. Readers in the tandem thread above warn that the closing pages of Tower of Dawn give away how Empire of Storms ends.
- Prequel collection last, low risk: nothing in the main plot is spoiled, but the emotional context for Queen of Shadows arrives after the fact.
One more practical risk sits outside the books. Series wikis, character pages and comment sections usually assume a reader has finished all eight books, and Kingdom of Ash has been out since October 2018. Searching a character name mid-series is the fastest way to lose a twist.
How long does each book take to read?
As an estimate, the whole series takes about 90 hours of reading at an average adult pace. Kingdom of Ash alone needs roughly 18 hours, and the tandem pair together needs about 25. The figures below come from publisher page counts and a published reading-speed study, so treat them as a planning guide, not a promise.
The method is simple. Page counts are taken from the 2023 US editions on Bloomsbury’s book pages, which total 5,008 pages across the eight books. Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language puts average silent reading of fiction at 260 words per minute, and the popular novels in his book study averaged about 280 words per page (107,000 words over 385 pages). Multiplying pages by 280 and dividing by 260 gives minutes. As a cross-check, the word counts listed on Wikipedia’s series page add up to about 1.35 million words, which works out to roughly 87 hours at the same speed.
- Shortest stretch: the first two novels and the collection sit between 432 and 464 pages each on Bloomsbury’s pages, about 8 hours apiece.
- Middle of the series: Heir of Fire (592 pages) and Queen of Shadows (672 pages) run about 11 to 12 hours.
- The long finish: Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash total 2,400 pages in the Bloomsbury 2023 editions, nearly as many as the first five books combined (2,608), so plan the last three as the bigger commitment.
Brysbaert’s study also found a wide normal range, roughly 200 to 320 words per minute for fiction, so by the same method a fast reader might finish the series in about 73 hours and a slower one in about 117. Page counts also differ between editions, so an older paperback may show a different number for the same book.
The three orders side by side
The table lists every book with its page count from Bloomsbury’s 2023 US edition, the estimated reading time from the method above, and its position in each of the three orders. Read down a column to follow one order.
| Book | Pages (Bloomsbury 2023) | Est. hours | Publication order | Chronological order | Tandem read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Assassin’s Blade (five prequel novellas) | 464 | 8.3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Throne of Glass | 432 | 7.8 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Crown of Midnight | 448 | 8.0 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Heir of Fire | 592 | 10.6 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Queen of Shadows | 672 | 12.1 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Empire of Storms | 720 | 12.9 | 6 | 6 (overlaps book 7) | 6, alternating |
| Tower of Dawn | 688 | 12.3 | 7 | 6 (overlaps book 6) | 6, alternating |
| Kingdom of Ash | 992 | 17.8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Two patterns stand out. Positions four, five and eight never change, so the whole debate lives in two places: the prequel slot and the books six and seven pair. And the three books after Queen of Shadows hold nearly half the series’ pages, which is where most reading plans stall.
Which order suits which reader?
Choose by what you want from a first read, not by what a forum insists is correct. Each line below matches a common reader type to the order that serves it, using the trade-offs above.
- You want the author’s intended reveals: publication order, prequel collection third.
- You like stories in a straight line: chronological order, collection first.
- You enjoy a mystery about the lead character: publication order, or the collection after Heir of Fire.
- You hate cliffhangers: a tandem read, with a schedule that finishes Empire of Storms before the final chapter of Tower of Dawn.
- You read slowly or in short sessions: straight publication order, since a tandem across 1,408 pages (Bloomsbury 2023 editions) is hard to track over several weeks.
- You are rereading: chronological order or a tandem, since spoilers no longer matter and the timeline view adds detail.
More series guides, each focused on a single order question, are collected in the reading order guides section.
Series questions
Can Tower of Dawn be skipped?
No. It follows a different group of characters to the Southern Continent during the same period as Empire of Storms, and Wikipedia’s summary shows that storyline feeding into the war in Kingdom of Ash. Skipping it leaves gaps in the final book.
Do you need the separate novellas if you own The Assassin’s Blade?
No. Bloomsbury lists all five prequel stories inside the collection, including The Assassin and the Healer, the one story that was not released as a separate ebook in 2012, according to Wikipedia.
Is it fine to leave The Assassin’s Blade until the very end?
It works, but it is the weakest slot. Queen of Shadows brings back the guild master who runs the collection, so readers who want that context usually finish the novellas before book five.
In what order are the novellas inside The Assassin’s Blade?
Bloomsbury lists them as The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Healer, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld, then The Assassin and the Empire. Read them in that printed order, which follows the sequence of events.
How many books are in the series?
Eight: seven novels plus The Assassin’s Blade. Bloomsbury’s series page describes eight books published over six years, and the run closed with Kingdom of Ash in October 2018.
The safe answer
For a first read, publication order is the low-risk choice: it matches the author’s stated preference and Bloomsbury’s guide, and it spoils nothing the story wants to keep hidden. Chronological order suits readers who prefer a straight timeline, and the tandem read suits readers who would rather not wait out a cliffhanger. In every version, finish Empire of Storms before the last chapter of Tower of Dawn.
The rest is planning. Expect about 90 hours across the eight books by the estimate above, with the heaviest stretch at the end, and decide where the prequel collection goes before starting. That single decision settles most of the Throne of Glass reading order debate.
Titles, order and adaptation news were confirmed with publisher and studio announcements before publishing. Machine drafting was used for structure only.
Sources: publisher reading order guide, publisher series page, prequel collection book page (page counts from each 2023 US book page), author official site (questions page), encyclopedia series entry, reading rate meta-analysis (Brysbaert, 2019)