It was a scene as epic as one from her own books.
Sarah J. Maas stood on the top of a mountain in Costa Rica, gazing out into the rainforest. Music swelled around her. And she saw the future.
She dissolved into tears, to the puzzlement of those nearby, unaware that the final scene and the last line of Maas' best-selling fantasy saga had suddenly burst into her mind.
"Even if the people around me were like, 'Why are you randomly crying in the rainforest?' I was very moved by it," Maas laughs.
Maas says it wasn't the specific scenery that inspired the ending, but the overall feeling of being out in the world as the sweeping "John Carter" soundtrack — "horrible movie, really beautiful soundtrack," Maas says — filled her ears.
Beyond that, she won't divulge much about the ending of her series, which — spanning at least six books — is still a ways off. The fourth installment, "Queen of Shadows," releases Tuesday.
The novel finds famed assassin Celaena Sardothien, having mastered her magic and heritage, returning to Adarlan on a mission of revenge and rescue. Things have gone to hell since she left, with the empire growing more corrupt and deadly by the day. Dorian, Celaena's friend and the land's prince, has been enslaved by his father, who's made Dorian's body the vessel of a demon prince. Celaena's onetime lover Chaol has gone from captain of the guard to rebel leader. And the man who honed her into a killing machine — before betraying her — possesses what she needs to bring down the king, reclaim her conquered homeland and become its queen.
As intense as that all sounds, it barely scratches the surface of the book's 656 pages.
What began in "Throne of Glass" as a familiar fantasy tale — mysterious hero enters deadly contest, discovers castle intrigue — has expanded into a high fantasy epic, told from the perspectives of an ever-growing cast of characters, good and bad. Comparisons to "Game of Thrones" are not unwarranted, though it's what that series might look like if it were produced by, say, FX rather than HBO: more banter, much less sex/nudity, slightly less violence.
Celaena knows how to kill, and at least part of her enjoys it very much. Deaths, rarely clean or neat, are described on the page. And the specific horrors inflicted by people in power are clear.
"I want the violence to be there and have emotional weight to it," Maas says. "If they killed someone, I want there to be a consequence to it, which means delving into that dark stuff a bit."
Though she didn't set out to incorporate it, some of that darkness was inspired by Maas' family history.
"My great-grandfather was in a concentration camp, and my great-grandmother and her family were all murdered by the Nazis," Maas says. "So that emotional piece of my history just lent itself to the hardship and horror of the death camps and labor camps in the book."
The experiences brought forth light, too. Maas' grandmother has not only a "really epic, really inspiring Holocaust survival story" but also an incredible love for life, Maas says. "As someone who has encountered a lot of darkness and evil and chosen to live her life to the fullest," she inspired Maas personally and informed Celaena's character.
So did "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
"Buffy changed my life," Maas says. "Buffy felt like me. I was what society considers to be a girly girl, who likes nail polish and what are traditionally considered to be feminine things, but I also had a 'tomboy' side … and I felt like I had to pick between those parts of me. Buffy ... had all these different parts to her, and didn't have to pick and choose."
That planted a seed, and when Celaena appeared in Maas' imagination, she came with a love of wine, beautiful gowns and candy in addition to fighting — a "full person," Maas says.
Part of being a full person is growing and changing, which Celaena has plenty of opportunity to do in the series' thousands of pages.
(A trilogy was never an option. "From pretty much the first moment Celaena strolled into my head, I knew this would be a long series," Maas says. There was "no way" three books could "take her from where she was at the beginning of the series to where I wanted her to be at the end.")
While Celaena has the usual laundry list of action-hero skills, she also falters — in whom she hurts, and in whom she trusts, or doesn't.
One such misstep casts a shadow in the events of "Queen of Shadows," as a woman dismissed by Celaena as a vapid romantic rival in "Throne of Glass" has unwillingly become central to the dark machinations of the King of Adarlan, who recognized her power and took it for himself.
"One of the things I'm sick of in our society is women pitting themselves against other women, and seeing other women as threats to be taken down and talked about in really nasty ways," Maas says. "Celaena is guilty of doing those things when she was younger, and part of her growth is being able to look at another woman as an ally."
Celaena has that chance with the reintroduction of an enemy, of sorts, from her days as an assassin in the city's underworld. This character also brings with her the possibility of the kind of friendship that's been sorely lacking in Celaena's life since her best friend, the principled Princess Nehemia was murdered in the second book — the incident that, more than any of Celaena's romantic entanglements, has propelled her quest for justice.
Romantic relationships do play a role, but — as with all aspects of the series — they're complicated and ever-shifting and don't conform to geometric shapes or "meant to be" notions.
"I wanted all of Celaena's romantic relationships to feel real — not stuck to any kind of formula," Maas says. "She's not marrying the first guy she ever kisses, or sleeps with. … I wanted her to be able to evolve and change what she wants, from a partner, from herself and from her life, and her relationships spring out of that. I want them to feel real and sometimes not be easy. Because that's what our lives are like. Sometimes it gets messy and hard. And sometimes things fall apart."
In Maas' books, it's more than "sometimes." She's a firm believer in letting her characters drive the story, and they're constantly surprising — or foiling — her.
"I'll have plans that have been in the works for years and years, and then Celaena will decide, 'Nope, don't want to do that,' and I'll just go with it," Maas says. "At this point, I know these characters so well that I know they won't steer me wrong."
That's not an overstatement — Maas began writing the series 13 years ago, when she was 16, and has spent more time with her characters than many people spend with friends and family. During high school and college, she wrote after (or instead of) homework, on the weekends, through vacation. Now a full-time author releasing one to two books a year, she devotes 12 to 18 hours a day to writing and revising.
She's a "method writer" — playing music that gets her into her characters' heads so completely that she can sit down at the computer and channel them.
In less knowledgeable hands, snappy dialog and dramatic moments might come off as an attempt to disguise a bland or baffling plot. But in "Throne of Glass," even the surprising twists feel like natural outcomes, as Maas can throw her characters into any scene or situation and "know the entire iceberg that's hidden beneath the surface that's making them act a certain way or say certain things."
Her knowledge spreads beyond her characters, too. In some fantasy novels, The Fate of the Empire can feel like a MacGuffin that allows the main characters to run around doing cool stuff in a place that, along with its inhabitants, exists only nebulously.
That's occasionally true here, but for the most part, Maas' world is fully realized, including its lands, villains and the wider populace Celaena is trying to save from a power-obsessed ruler with no regard for life.
As her books get heavier — "both emotionally and physically," Maas says — her audience is changing, too. "I think a lot of my readership is getting older — so they're growing up with these books, which is really cool," she says.
Even as the body count grows, there's one bridge Maas won't cross. Celaena's dog, Fleetfoot, will survive to the end. "I could not emotionally recover if the dog died," she says.
It's her sole guarantee when it comes to characters' fates. "She might be the only one left standing," Maas jokes.
But she promises that last scene she envisioned is not Fleetfoot, new ruler of the world, letting out a joyful bark from the top of a mountain.
rpiper@sltrib.com
Twitter: @racheltachel
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Yaas Queen
Sarah J. Maas will read from and sign "Queen of Shadows."
Where • The King's English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City
When • Thursday, 6:30 p.m.
Admission • This is a ticketed event; one ticket will be issued with each purchase of "Queen of Shadows" from The King's English.
Info • www.kingsenglish.com or sarahjmaas.com
Also • Maas will sign only three books per person, including "Queen of Shadows."
