There are a lot of problems with the books. The characters are paper thin, the "mystery" is as easy to solve as a mystery in a child's book. Celaena frankly, isn't that good of an assassin if people can keep sneaking into her room at night, etc. Those are just the more egregious problems that kept nagging at me. But, despite the problems, I enjoyed this book. It's nothing great, in fact, I would say at best, it's mediocre. It's enjoyable, though. I had fun reading it, and at the end of the day, that's good enough.
A good, fast-paced read, but not quite as good as Maas's later work; certainly feels the Y in YA. Can be read as a standalone but is probably better if you continue on to read the whole series (I assume).
To summarize it briefly: Celaena, a proficient assassin, has been in the salt mines for a year when she is taken out by Prince Dorian and his guard captain Chaol to be the prince's candidate in a competition to find the next King's Champion. But someone, or something, is picking off candidates even outside of the competitions designed to winnow out the unworthy. Celaena's heart is also pulled into two directions, between the overtly romantic Dorian and the steadfast Chaol.
The major drawback to the book is that it's so clearly written to be part of a series. For instance, from very early on, I started to suspect that Maas …
A good, fast-paced read, but not quite as good as Maas's later work; certainly feels the Y in YA. Can be read as a standalone but is probably better if you continue on to read the whole series (I assume).
To summarize it briefly: Celaena, a proficient assassin, has been in the salt mines for a year when she is taken out by Prince Dorian and his guard captain Chaol to be the prince's candidate in a competition to find the next King's Champion. But someone, or something, is picking off candidates even outside of the competitions designed to winnow out the unworthy. Celaena's heart is also pulled into two directions, between the overtly romantic Dorian and the steadfast Chaol.
The major drawback to the book is that it's so clearly written to be part of a series. For instance, from very early on, I started to suspect that Maas was pulling a Megan Whalen Turner and Celaena was more than she seemed. I think Maas was fairly clever about this, and if I hadn't read The Thief multiple times I might not have caught all of the clues. (And then later on there was a kind of stone maze and supernatural elements that also recall The Thief.) I had to check the description of later books in the series to confirm it, as it isn't resolved in this one, which was moderately frustrating. But on the opposite side, the love triangle appeared to be gearing up to be an even bigger part of a larger storyline - while Dorian is clearly the "winner" of the triangle through the book (I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say this) given his active romance with Celaena, Chaol's feelings for her were pretty much unresolved. But in checking Wikipedia to find out the other thing, I saw that this triangle is completely abandoned in favor of a totally different love interest who doesn't appear in the book! That was frustrating to find out, as I was getting pretty invested in the romantic tension (and I do not usually like love triangles much). I don't really understand why Maas did this and it retroactively make the book go down a lot in my estimation.
There is a strong female friendship, which I loved! Princess Nehemia is a kind of hostage at the court and she has her own secrets, but she is a genuine friend and equal of Celaena and I'm very interested in her as an individual and in her future plotline. The Strong Female Friendship thing often feels pasted in in a lot of books, but not here - it's organic and I love it.
The mystery plotline is ... I don't think it's something to pick up the book for. The person doing the killing is pretty obvious, although there is a twist at the end that was worth reading!
Throne of Glass was a fun read. It was not particularly thought provoking, the characters were not particularly compelling, and the plot was not particularly inventive. It was still fun though. I enjoyed every page. There was not a point where it bogged down in nonsense as there so often is in a book that is trying to set up a large series. It kept up its pace, and kept my attention and for that I have to commend it. I liked the characters by the end of it. The two primary male characters were sort of two dimensional until about 3/4 of the way through the book, but they came into their own by the end. I would recommend it as what my wife calls "popcorn reading." Fun, but not nourishing.
Set in another world, a cruel king holds a competition in which the best thieves, soldiers, and assassins battle and show off their skills. The winner is rewarded with being the king's assassin. The book follows Celaena Sardothien, who is the most feared assassin in the world and is currently enslaved in Endovier. If she wins, she will serve the king for four years and then be granted her freedom. If she loses the contest, she will be a slave again.
This book has it all. It has interesting and awesome characters (Princess Nehemia!), an intriguing world, lots of action, descriptive writing, and a little magic. Although it was a little slow at times, Throne of Glass was a really fun book to read, I would recommend it to anyone that wants an exciting fantasy.
It has been so long since I have read a book where the female protagonist is as amazing as Celaena. I am not saying there aren't many books with strong female characters but they usually become simpering nitwits when it comes to their love interest. That was not the case in this book. And to top it all off this is a high fantasy book!! The female characters are often not as fleshed out as the male characters in the high fantasy genre but kudos to author Sarah J Maas for pulling it off. I cannot wait to read Crown of Midnight. <3
