Sarah J Maas in conversation about the crossover between two of her epic fantasy worlds

"This has been years in the making, thinking about how the worlds connect and how you can move between them,” says Sarah J Maas as she talks to me over Zoom from rainy Los Angeles about House of Sky and Breath, the second instalment in the Crescent City trilogy, following House of Earth and Blood.

Maas is a titan in the fantasy genre. Her oeuvre boasts three distinct fantasy worlds—the Throne of Glass series (eight books), the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (five books) and Crescent City—with 1.2 million print copies sold across all series and editions through Nielsen BookScan’s UK TCM. The successful hardback sales of House of Sky and Breath alone helped boost Bloomsbury’s profits in 2022.  

Despite her success, Maas is incredibly down to earth, speaking to me bedecked in a joyful “Bambi” jumper and proudly showcasing her slightly prehistoric-looking radio. It is not a tech-pumped feat of engineering, it simply plays music, and it is the simplicity Maas yearns for: “I keep my little desk radio because I just like listening to the local radio. Just putting on the classic channel, there’s something about it.”

It has become slightly harder to find opportunities to escape to the solitariness of her study and bask in the unadulterated delight of classical music since having children. “My children are the music I write to,” she laughs. With two young children and a 13-year-old “built like a brick” dog Annie, things are never dull. “When I got the call from my editor that House of Sky and Breath had hit number number one in the New York Times bestseller list, I was elbow deep in baby poop!”

Now anticipating its paperback release in May 2023, House of Sky and Breath sent long-time Maas readers reeling when the ending revealed a crossover between the Crescent City trilogy and Maas’ other series A Court of Thorns and Roses, confirming reader speculation that the Maas multiverse did indeed exist.

I want it to be satisfying and compelling for both fans of the A Court of Thorns and Rose series and fans of the Crescent City series

The trilogy has marked new beginnings for Maas, not only opening worlds of possibilities for future writings but also marking a brief departure from high fantasy. House of Earth and Blood was the first contemporary novel she had written, the primary difference being setting. The first two instalments in the Crescent City trilogy are set in Lunathion, a modern city on the planet Midgard, which would be familiar to any Londoner except it is populated with angels, fae and animal shifters.

Following on

House of Sky and Breath opens a few months after the events of House of Earth and Blood. Bryce, the half-human, half-fae protagonist, is adjusting to life after defending the city from demon hordes. She is also grieving the death of her best friend Danika, murdered in the first book, and navigating her increasingly romantic relationship with Hunt, a lightning-wielding angel. Attempts to regain a sense of normalcy, however, are undercut when Danika’s secrets begin to surface, and Bryce and Hunt become embroiled in a plot to overthrow the rulers of Midgaard, known as the Asteri. In a bid to escape the Asteri’s wrath, Bryce uses her powers to teleport and inadvertently lands in the world of A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Losing someone who has been a rock for you, who has seen you at your worst and still stuck by you and encouraged you to be your best? Losing that person can leave a crater in your life and your soul

Although many readers were thrilled at the crossover, Maas stresses that you don’t have to have read her other series to appreciate the ending. “I want it to be satisfying and compelling for both fans of the A Court of Thorns and Rose series and fans of the Crescent City series. [I want] to make sure the story can stand on its own.”

The crossover has been years in the making, occurring to Maas when writing A Court of Silver Flames and Kingdom of Ash, the latest instalments in the A Court of Thorns and Roses and Thrones of Glass series, respectively. “I had planted seeds in all my series about the possibility of it being a multiverse. The worlds exist, but they’re planets and light-years away.”

It is a constant thrill to fans and one that, after a cursory look on Reddit turned into a deep dive on Maas-lore, has churned up hundreds of theories, ranging from the inexplicably brilliant to the not so brilliant. “I often think about these series for years before I end up writing them,” Maas explains: “[It means I have] the opportunity to think, ‘How in this moment can I plant this little detail?’” Her readers are undoubtedly looking for every single one.

I would pull up the manuscript on my computer and just write for a couple of hours and the world slowly unfolded

Initially, the Crescent City trilogy began as a side project for Maas after inspiration struck mid-flight while listening to “Shenzou”, a theme by Steven Price from the “Gravity” film score. The music prompted an image of one of the most climactic moments of book one, reducing Maas to tears: “I wound up putting my sweatshirt over my head and crouching down in my seat and crying.” From here, House of Earth and Blood percolated for years as a “fun side project”, being written when Maas had the “creative energy to burn—which was well before children”, she laughs. “I would pull up the manuscript on my computer and just write for a couple of hours and the world slowly unfolded. Initially, I didn’t have plans to publish, it was just something for me.”

Side by side

Although the Crescent City books are woven with intrigue, spiced with romance, politics and power, they are built on Bryce and Danika’s fierce friendship and how Bryce is forced to cope in its absence. “We spend a lot of time talking about losing our romantic partners and how that can break us, but losing someone who has been a rock for you, who has seen you at your worst and still stuck by you and encouraged you to be your best? Losing that person can leave a crater in your life and your soul.”

Bryce is “very close to my heart in a lot of ways”, Maas says, which speaks to the importance of female characters in her writing. Bryce’s determination, awe-inspiring power and fiery sass are hallmarks of Maas’ female protagonists which take, as their blueprint, Garth Nix’s Sabriel, first published in 1995. “The book changed so much for me; I realised not only, ‘Oh God there’s a thing called fantasy books’, but that [a book] could be about young women like me.” Nix’s novel follows young necromancer Sabriel, who must journey to save her father and, ultimately, the kingdom from the rising dead. It was a “gateway drug” for Maas, who was motivated to “create stories like that, about young women getting to do all these epic, bad-ass things, but also have a real emotional journey”.