Sarah J. Maas’s Biggest Influences

“I'd loved fairy tales since I was a kid. Then I discovered there were fairy tales for grown-ups” Maas told Time. “That opened something in my mind, heart, and soul. I realized I not only loved stories like that, I wanted to write stories like that.” One of the authors who made that happen was Garth Nix. The Australian fantasy author is best known for his Old Kingdom series, which begins with the 1995 title Sabriel. While in her final year as a student of a boarding school in Ancelstierre, Sabriel's father, the Abhorsen, goes missing. To find him, she must enter the Old Kingdom, where two duelling forms of magic exist in secret.

Maas said that Sabriel and its direct sequel Lirael (there are six books in the series) were "actually major influences on Throne of Glass (the creepy books, forgotten libraries, the supernatural elements)." 

Aside from Nix, Robin McKinley is Maas’s most cited literary influence. She has talked up her connection to McKinley’s work for many years, and celebrated the author as a pioneering figure in both fantasy and romance. McKinley's work is largely made up of fantasy and fairy-tale inspired stories with a feminist twist. Many are retellings of classics with a focus on empowering the heroine. 

Beauty and Rose Daughter are both versions of Beauty and the Beast, and Spindle's End is the story of Sleeping Beauty. Her 1984 novel The Hero and the Crown, which Maas cited as one of her favorites, is about a young woman who trains to become known as "the Dragon Killer." 

Maas has made no secret about her love for The Lord of the Rings. She's been a fan since adolescence, particularly of the Peter Jackson movies, and toured the trilogy's filming locations in New Zealand. She even had a cardboard cutout of Legolas in her bedroom! Many Maas fans have noted the inspirations and nods to Tolkien's work in her books. In Throne of Glass, the phrase "To whatever end" is used, which is a reference to a scene in The Two Towers. She told the New Zealand website Tearaway that LOTR “opened the floodgates of fantasy” and that the “epic questing” seen in Middle Earth was a big inspiration for the Throne of Glass series.

Before romantasy was the default genre of BookTok and a publishing phenomenon, Anne Bishop was helping to pioneer it with her dark, sensual Black Jewels series. For years the realm of Terreille has been falling into corruption, as the powerful Queens who rule it have rotten with unchallenged power. But there is hope on the horizon. 

A prophecy has declared that a new Queen has been born, one who will be far more powerful than any other who has lived, and she will bring freedom to Terreille through any means necessary. This Queen will be a witch who could take on the High Lord of Hell himself. Whoever controls her controls the world, and now, three sworn enemies must battle for supremacy.

"I was twelve when I read this book, and it was my introduction to the world of high fantasy. It’s a classic story of good vs. evil, and a beautiful coming of age tale," Maas told The Young Folks in 2012. The first book in the Banned and the Banished quintet, Wit'ch Fire follows Elena, a young woman who discovers she is the inheritor of a dark and almighty magic. But before she can understand what is happening to her, she is kidnapped by the winged monsters of the Dark Lord. With the forces of evil on her tail and the fate of the world on her shoulders, Elena joins forces with a seer and an one-armed warrior to battle the growing darkness in the name of restoring her homeland.