It's been three days since Sarah J Maas's A Court of Splintered Harmony landed at midnight on 27 October, and the ACOTAR fandom has gone from counting down the hours to dissecting every last chapter. After a five-year wait for the sixth instalment in the series that began with A Court of Thorns and Roses, fans are finishing the book left, right and centre – and they've got plenty to say.
Beyond the plot itself, there's been some frustration over the new book's height, which doesn't match its five predecessors on readers' shelves. More significantly, A Court of Splintered Harmony contains Crescent City spoilers, meaning anyone yet to tackle that series might want to consult my guide to the correct reading order of all 16 Maasverse books first. For those with no plans to read Crescent City, I've explained the relevant backstory below.
As for my own reading experience, I was barely a fifth of the way through before I was hooked on the extra insight into Azriel's perspective – including a long-awaited moment with Elain. The inclusion of three previously exclusive bonus chapters is another welcome addition.
From questions about the plot and its connections to Maas's other books to fan reactions and the latest talking points, I'm covering all the news as it unfolds in the live blog below. Welcome back to Velaris!
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'A Court of Splintered Harmony: The Valkyrie Cycle, Movement I' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
Launched yesterday, 27 October, A Court of Splintered Harmony marks the start of The Valkyrie Cycle, which Maas has revealed is a subsection of the wider ACOTAR story. The second instalment is due to launch in January.
Buy now £12.5, Amazon.co.uk
ACOTAR series plot summary
The tyrannical king of Hybern has been defeated, and the great war is over, but a fragile peace hangs in the balance as an ancient death-god Koschei stirs on the Continent (the landmass east of Prythian), threatening to conquer human territories and enslave the Fae courts.
The characters
- Feyre and Rhysand: The main focus of ACOTAR books one to three, Feyre (Archeron) and Rhys are now raising their baby Nyx in Velaris after Nesta saved both mother and babe during a perilous childbirth. Together they are ruling the Night Court and, since ACOWAR, are subject to a magical, unbreakable bargain of their own making: if one of them dies, they both die.
- Nesta and Cassian: Central to book five, ACOSF, Nesta and Cassian have now accepted their mating bond and permanently reside in the House of Wind. Since completing the blood rite, Nesta has become de facto leader for the revived Valkyries (together with Emerie and Gwyn) and runs a training programme for any priestesses of the Night Court who wish to join. After retrieving three out of four ‘dread trove’ items – ancient, all-powerful magical artefacts – Nesta has hidden these reality-bending objects away in the Night Court. She hunted down the artefacts to stop Koschei in his tracks (more on this below), even briefly lending the mask (one of the artefacts) to Crescent City’s Bryce Quinlan during a multiverse crossover. Because Nesta possesses unique, Cauldron-gifted abilities (from ACOMAF), she remains the only person who can summon and wield these items without being destroyed by their dark power.
- Elain and Lucien: Feyre’s second sister Elain is bound to Lucien (from the autumn court) by a magical mating bond that she has quietly rejected. Elain lives in Velaris, learning to master her cauldron-given prophecy-telling abilities.
- Azriel: Alongside Cassian, Azriel – as Rhys’ brother in every sense other than blood – continues his work as the Night Court’s spymaster who controls shadows to gather global intelligence. We left him in ACOSF caught between a centuries-long unrequited love for Mor and a forbidden attraction to Elain.
- Mor: We left Mor –Rhys’ cousin and a general who can instinctively sense lies – as she was staying away on remote diplomatic missions to navigate her secret personal life and avoid Azriel's centuries-long unrequited love. But the tide is perhaps about to turn because Autumn Court heirs Eris and Lucien secretly know a hidden truth about her past, hinting that Eris actually protected her secrets the night her family left her for dead.
- Tamlin: Feyre’s former lover and high lord of the Spring Court, now a broken and tragic figure. Left isolated in his ruined estate after past betrayals cost him his court, he spends his days stuck in a wild beast form, deeply depressed.
- Amren: Amren, who’s an ancient, cross-dimensional entity trapped in the physical form of a sharp-witted woman, gave up her god-like powers to save the world in ACOWAR, but remains part of Rhys’ inner circle as second-in-command.
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The ongoing threats
- Koschei the deathless: An ancient, immortal death-god of pure darkness who re-emerged during the Hybern war after thousands of years of containment. He is currently magically bound to a remote lake on the Continent, but manipulates others from afar by sending dark shadow-whispers and offering desperate bargains to bitter mortal queens and corrupt fae lords. By promising them youth and power in exchange for their loyalty, he is secretly using them to hunt down the dread trove artefacts so he can escape his lake prison and execute his global conquest.
- Queen Vassa: A mortal queen cursed by Koschei during the events of ACOMAF after her rival human queens betrayed and sold her to him for defying their alliance. She was bound to his remote lake for months as a complete prisoner – forced to live as a firebird by day and a human by night – until Feyre, Nesta and Elain’s late father made a secret, desperate deal with the death-god to temporarily free her for the war. Now that their father is dead, Koschei is demanding Vassa's return to his lake, leaving a massive, dangerous debt hanging directly over the Archeron sisters.
- The autumn court and the mortal queens: The remaining human queens, bitter over losing their promised shot at Cauldron-given immortality in ACOMAF, are actively conspiring with Beron, the cruel high lord of the Autumn Court, and Koschei. Together, this alliance is gathering armies on the Continent, planning to launch an invasion to reclaim human lands, overthrow the other high lords and expand Beron's territory, in turn shattering Prythian’s peace.
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Crescent City crossover
Who is Bryce in ACOTAR?
(Note – spoilers ahead)
Bryce is a character from Maas’s Crescent City series who accidentally stumbles into the ACOTAR world through a portal in A House of Flame and Shadow.
Once landing in Velaris she crosses paths with Nesta and Azriel, and discovers that the ancient villains threatening her own world (the Asteri) are actually the Daglan – the very same beings that once enslaved Prythian before being driven out 15,000 years ago.
With the threat to her home world of Midgard imminent, Bryce clocks on to the fact that she can combine the power of her magical ‘starsword’ with that of Azriel’s ‘truth teller’ dagger, together with a dread trove artifact – the horn – that has been tattooed into her skin, to reopen the portal she arrived from and return home.
Needing more power to win her war, Bryce portals back to Prythian, where Nesta secretly lends her the mask, leaving Bryce's parents behind as collateral. After defeating the Asteri, Bryce returns to hand back the mask and Azriel’s stolen dagger. To repay her debt, she gifts Nesta the starsword, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that bringing the twin blades together would reunite the fae people.
Pre-order ACOTAR 7, ‘A Court of Forgotten Melody’
'A Court of Forgotten Melody' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury – pre-order
Set to arrive on 12 January 2027, ACOFM will be the penultimate entry in the best-selling ACOTAR series
Buy now £15, Amazon.co.uk
Where to buy the first five A Court of Thorns and Roses books
'A Court of Thorns and Roses' box set, books 1-5, paperback by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
If you’re starting from square one, an ACOTAR box set – albeit more expensive than buying the books invidiually – is the ultimate bookshelf upgrade.
Buy in hardback at Waterstones
Buy now £44.99, Very.co.uk
'A Court of Thorns and Roses' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
Book one of the epic series follows protagonist Feyre Archeron as she embarks on a life-altering journey from the human to fae realms.
Buy now £4.98, Amazon.co.uk
'A Court of Mist and Fury' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
Book two of Maas’ ACOTAR series sees Feyre return to the spring court after her time under the mountain, only to discover that her heart remains in the clutches of a different high lord.
Buy now £5.5, Amazon.co.uk
'A Court of Wings and Ruin' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
The battle against Hybern rages as part one of Maas’ Prythian arc draws to a close.
Buy now £6, Amazon.co.uk
'A Court of Frost and Starlight' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
A novella of sorts, ACOFAS takes places at Christmastime – or the winter solstice, as the characters call it – and is a welcome departure from the page-turning war of book three.
Buy now £5.5, Amazon.co.uk
'A Court of Silver Flames' by Sarah J Maas, published by Bloomsbury
The latest-but-one instalment from Maas (now that Splintered Harmony is here), ACOSF takes things in a different direction with Nesta as our narrator as she navigates life as a fae amid ongoing conflict with Feyre and the night court.
Buy now £6, Amazon.co.uk
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Key Points
- What is Ataraxia in ACOTAR?
When is 'A Court of Forgotten Melody' out?
14:37 , Lucy SmithSarah J. Maas's A Court of Forgotten Melody is scheduled to be released on 12 January 2027. During her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast back in March, Maas revealed that she originally wrote the next instalment (including A Court of Splintered Harmony) as one continuous narrative. However, the manuscript grew to well over 1,000 pages, becoming so physically gargantuan that she explained it couldn't actually be manufactured as a single volume because standard bookbinding glue wouldn't be strong enough to hold the massive spine together.
To preserve the story without cutting anything, the overarching plot arc (dubbed "The Valkyrie Cycle") was divided into four distinct chronological movements but will be released across three separate books. A Court of Forgotten Melody will house two movements and ACOTAR book 8 – which is currently unnamed and still being written – will be the last novel in the series.
Pre-order A Court of Forgotten Melody now
Who is Eris in ACOTAR?
13:37 , Lucy SmithIntroduced in A Court of Mist and Fury, Eris Vanserra is the cunning high lord-in-waiting of the Autumn Court and the eldest brother of Lucien (Tamlin’s emissary from ACOTAR). He is presented as a cruel, calculating villain and is infamous for abandoning Mor in the woods after she was brutalised by her family, and for hunting down Lucien when he fled the Autumn Court.
However, by A Court of Silver Flames, his intricate political manoeuvring reveals him as a double agent who deliberately wears a mask of villainy to survive his father's deadly court, when – in fact – he’s secretly working with the night court to overthrow Beron (the abusive High Lord of the Autumn Court) and protect those he cares about from the inside.
What is Ataraxia in ACOTAR?
12:37 , Lucy SmithIn A Court of Silver Flames, Ataraxia is the name given to the magical steel sword accidentally created by Nesta Archeron. In A Court of Silver Flames while practicing blacksmithing to learn the physical effort behind weaponry, Nesta unintentionally leaks her cauldron-given power into the anvil. In turn, she ends up ‘Making’ the blade (capitalised to signify its magical classification in the Maasverse) – an ancient process of using magic to breathe life and power into inanimate objects – creating a lethal weapon that holds a fragment of her soul.
The sword is significant because it acts as a physical representation of Nesta’s psychological recovery from her depressed and othered state at the end of A Court of Wings and Ruin). Its name means inner peace and it mirrors her self-mastery because holding it instantly stops her intrusive trauma thoughts, its steady silver glow proves her explosive rage is now under control, and its compliance shows she has conquered her self-destructive impulses.
ACOTAR book 6 – all your questions, answered
11:37 , Lucy SmithGood morning! I’m Lucy, a senior writer for The Independent, and I’m clocking in today as your resident A Court of Thorns and Roses expert.
I’ve read the first five books, I’m almost a third through the new instalment – A Court of Splintered Harmony – and, more importantly, I’ve read all the Throne of Glass novels and the entire Crescent City series. In short, I’m a good person to tackle all of the questions fans are asking as they make their way through book six.
From queries about the Bryce Quinlan crossover to common fan frustrations, consider this your crib sheet to all the Maasverse lore – updated live as the day goes on.
I hope you’re geared up for a whole lot of watery bowls and vulgar gestures...