This is a review of “Throne of Glass“, the first book in Sarah J. Maas’s series of the same name.
In the horrible mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best there is, but she got caught. Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament. Winning means serving as the King’s Champion for the next four years. Losing means death. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny.
It is easy to understand why this book series is so very popular.
The world that the author has created is very interesting. It is developed enough, and the lore is good. It is obvious that Maas is very fond of fae (all her books so far have something to do with them), but at least she keeps it subtle enough for this series. It is also interesting that she chose India as inspiration for Nehemia’s land.
The King is an incredibly interesting character despite being there for only a few pages altogether. The fact that he and Perrington were collaborating was a pleasant surprise, and it was incentive enough to read further. Prince Dorian being unable to truly stand up to his father was realistic, and his character arc far more subtle. Another good character was Chaol Westfall. He was logical, he acted like the adult he was, and he didn’t let his feelings rule him. Princess Nehemia, as a strong, useful character, also needed more screentime.
As an assassin it is good to see Celaena keep imagining ways to kill the people she meets. Having only known that sort of lifestyle, it is something that should be ingrained in her by now. And it is wonderful that Celaena isn’t in perfect health after a year in a horrible prison. It takes her months to get back to herself, and even longer before her period returns very painfully. Adding small details like those s why this is a well written story.
I hate to say it, though, but there are actually a lot of bad things about this book. Things that kind of built up until the cup ran over and I, as a reader, tipped over into annoyance.
Celaena is a rather shallow character. She is snarky and sassy in the wrong moments without any regard for her position or life. She is bratty when her needling people doesn’t bear fruit, like a spoiled five-year-old. She demands people trust her and give her information, but doesn’t do so in return. She focuses so much on outer appearances, other people’s and her own. At one point she declares she won’t be shamed by her own dirty appearance, in the next minute she hates it because it covers her beauty. One of the men she has to fight during the competition is pock-marked, and she complains that she got the ugly one.
Like a proper Mary-Sue character Celaena is good at everything she does. She reads, she plays the pianoforte, she can act the lady well enough to not draw attention to herself, she can use every single type of weapon and she is the most famous assassin in the lands. When did she have the time to learn and do all this when she is barely 18 years old?
She is also the only woman in the entire competition. The big fight between Cain and Celaena was ridiculous. Not only was there a serious deus ex machina moment when Queen Elena came from the afterlife to help Celaena, but once the poison was magically out of her blood, Celaena beat Cain in three seconds flat. The entire thing with Queen Elena was given an explanation later, but by then the story was ruined.
The only thing Celaena isn’t good at is hand-eye coordination when shooting pool – which is just beyond ridiculous of a world class assassin. Even Prince Dorian – when he stepped up behind her to teach her how to do it – admitted to it being “the oldest and most shameless trick in the book.”
Everyone is so young compared to what they are supposed to have managed. A Captain of the Guard who is barely in his twenties, but has an excellent reputation. It is not quite as stupid as the fact that Chaol has never killed someone, nor seen anyone die. And another thing: why on earth did Chaol and Dorian come to Celaena to apologise to her and show her how horrified they were by the butchering of the 500 rebels when they were Nehemia’s people? If Celaena and Nehemia had been together when Chaol and Dorian appeared, sure, but this just doesn’t make sense.
The book could have easily dropped all the sections and chapters from Dorian’s and Chaol’s point of view. They were useless in the story except to show their feelings for Celaena. There are far too many potential romantic partners for Celaena, it almost felt like a bad otome game.
The romance could have been removed altogether. It felt forced and awkward and just dragged the story out far too much. It was painful to read and I started skipping those bits because I knew they were unimportant. No new information would come during them. The quality of the writing also dropped into tell rather thans how during these scenes and chapters, which just makes it worse.
Instead of the romance, the book needed more focus on the mystery and the action and the magic. One never really feels the horror or the terror or the danger because all of that takes a backseat. When the big revelations came they felt unimportant and minor because the focus of the story wasn’t on them. The monster murdering the competitors was far too easy to dispatch compared to the buildup.
The excellence of the first half of the book was ruined by the second half, and especially the last 100 pages.
All in all this is a quick read, and if one ignores all the silly romance attempts it is even a solid story. I already have book two ordered, but now I’m mostly reading it for the King, Duke Perrington, and Chaol.
It’s not a bad story, not really, and I don’t regret reading it. So read it if you think you can handle the YA-ness.
Librarian's Ledger 