Below is the complete list of Sarah J. Maas’ TOG books in reading order, presented in publication order for the series. This is the recommended reading sequence for the series. TOG, short for Throne of Glass, is a fantasy saga series by Sarah J. Maas.
TOG Books
- 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)
TOG Short Stories Books
- The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (2012)
- The Assassin and the Healer (2012)
- The Assassin and the Desert (2012)
- The Assassin and the Underworld (2012)
- The Assassin and the Empire (2012)
TOG Collections Books
- The Assassin’s Blade (2015)
About TOG
“TOG” is simply the common shorthand for Throne of Glass, but the abbreviation can make the series seem more straightforward than it really is. Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass sequence is not just a run of fantasy novels following one heroine from book to book. It is a series that expands dramatically in scope, tone, and structure, starting with a tight, court-centered premise and growing into a full secondary-world epic with multiple fronts, layered loyalties, and continent-wide stakes. That growth is what makes reading order so important. These books are designed to build on one another, not just in plot, but in emotional and political meaning.
At the center of the series is Celaena Sardothien, whose introduction gives the early books their sharpness and immediacy. She enters the story with a strong identity already in place: feared, self-possessed, highly skilled, and carrying more history than the opening pages immediately reveal. Maas uses that mystery well. Over time, the series widens around Celaena, and what first looks like a story of survival inside one kingdom becomes something much larger, involving legacy, magic, resistance, and the burden of what one person can represent to an entire world. The pleasure of the series lies partly in watching that widening happen gradually rather than having the whole scale announced at once.
One reason TOG has remained such a durable part of Maas’s bibliography is that it shows her learning how to work on an epic canvas. The earlier novels have a cleaner, narrower architecture: competition, court danger, hidden motives, and personal survival. As the series continues, Maas opens the story outward. More regions, more political interests, more major characters, and more intersecting arcs come into view. The books become less like a contained palace fantasy and more like an evolving war saga. Read in order, that transition feels deliberate and satisfying. Read out of order, it is easy to lose the force of how carefully the scale has been earned.
The question that most often complicates the reading order is The Assassin’s Blade. Because it gathers prequel novellas set before the main series, some readers assume it should always come first. In practice, the answer depends on whether one prefers strict chronology or narrative payoff, but publication-order reading remains the clearest way to preserve the unfolding effect Maas built into the series. Celaena’s past matters more once the main story has already established why she matters. The novellas deepen that understanding rather than replacing the role of the main opener. That is why the order matters here in a way that is more than technical.
Tonally, Throne of Glass also develops across the series. The earliest books carry a stronger young adult fantasy identity, while later installments become heavier, more emotionally complex, and more deeply invested in war, sacrifice, trauma, and destiny. That tonal shift is part of the reading experience, not a flaw in the series design. Maas’s later trademarks are already visible from the beginning—intense emotional stakes, dramatic bonds, hidden histories, and mythic escalation—but they become fuller and more assured as the story advances.
Within Sarah J. Maas’s wider career, TOG matters because it is where many of her defining habits first take sustained shape. It is the series that established her as a writer of long arcs, major reveals, and emotionally charged fantasy on a grand scale. Even readers who come to her through A Court of Thorns and Roses often find that Throne of Glass shows a different but equally important side of her work: less centered on one mode of romantic intensity, and more openly committed to the long construction of an epic.
Taken as a whole, TOG is best read as a true progression series. Its power comes from accumulation: secrets become history, history becomes burden, and burden becomes destiny. That is why the reading order matters so much. Each book does not just continue the story; it changes the frame through which the earlier books are understood.