What to remember before A Court of Splintered Harmony (everything from the first five books and nothing from the new one)

If you're planning to start A Court of Splintered Harmony on October 27, chances are you read the last book in the series a while ago, because A Court of Silver Flames came out in 2021, and five years have gone by since then, with several other series in between for a lot of us. Five years is a long time. This guide is for exactly that: to get you to the new book with what you need fresh from the previous five, and without a single word about the sixth (which, by the way, we haven't read: it comes out the same day you'll have it in your hands).

A warning before we go on, because it's the house rule: there are SPOILERS here for the five previous books, from A Court of Thorns and Roses to A Court of Silver Flames, including the winter novella. If you haven't finished them yet, this guide isn't for you yet (and I envy you).

Feyre Archeron started out as a human huntress who killed a wolf in the woods and ended up taken across the wall, to Tamlin's Spring Court. Under the Mountain she was killed and brought back to life by the seven High Lords, which is why she carries some of the power of every court. Today she is High Lady of the Night Court, Rhysand's mate, and by the end of A Court of Silver Flames she's a mother: her son, Nyx, was born in a delivery that nearly cost her her life.

Rhysand is the High Lord of the Night Court, and his Inner Circle is the found family at the heart of the series: Morrigan (Mor), Cassian, Azriel and Amren. Velaris, the city Rhysand kept hidden from the rest of Prythian for centuries, is home to all of them.

The Archeron sisters are the key to what's coming, because all three of them changed. Nesta and Elain were thrown into the Cauldron at the end of A Court of Mist and Fury and came out as High Fae, each with something the Cauldron left in her. Nesta is the protagonist of the fifth book: she trains with Cassian, forms the new Valkyries with Gwyn and Emerie, and ends up as his mate. Elain sees things that haven't happened yet, and hers is the story that left the most questions open.

Elain, Lucien and Azriel are the triangle the series left unresolved. Lucien found out in the second book that Elain is his mate, and she has wanted nothing to do with that bond. Elain was engaged to Graysen, a human who rejected her when she stopped being one. And Azriel looks at her in a way readers have been arguing about for years, with Gwyn in the mix in the last book and in the bonus chapter that came out afterward. Which side are you on going into the new book?

Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, was left alone and in ruins after the war (and with plenty of readers who still haven't forgiven him), although in the end he helped save Rhysand. Lucien went to live with Jurian and with Vassa, the human queen under Koschei's curse, in a house in the human lands of Prythian (they call themselves the Band of Exiles).

There are two open threats, and we don't know which of them matters in the new book. Koschei is still bound to his lake on the continent, but that hasn't made him harmless: he's the one keeping Vassa trapped. And Eris, heir to the Autumn Court, has a pending deal with the Night Court to take power from his father, Beron, who is one of the most disliked characters in the whole series (and rightly so). Does anyone still trust Eris at this point?

And from the fifth book, it's worth remembering the Dread Trove (the Mask, the Harp and the Crown), Queen Briallyn and what Nesta had to give up to save Feyre and her son, because those objects and that price could come back.

We're not going to guess anything. Not whose book the new one is, nor what happens in it, even though the theories are everywhere: this guide sticks to what you've already read. Once you finish it, that book becomes context for the next one, which is due on January 12, and we'll keep this guide updated until then, without giving anything away.

For anyone who'd rather not depend on a guide written by someone else, Kai LoreSafe, the tool I built, does this same thing with whatever book you're reading and at the exact point where you are, so read this with the bias of the person who made it. You tell it which books you've already read, and what those books tell becomes safe context; what's in the new book only comes in as you move forward.

And a question for those already in line: which character are you most anxious to get back to in the new book, and what do you most need to remember about them?

See you next time. Mauro Z.