The Book Garden: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass is the first in a series of young adult fantasy books by author Sarah J. Maas. It is followed by Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire. There is also a collection of five novellas telling Celaena's story before the events of Throne of Glass.

THE BLURB:

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

MY THOUGHTS:

Celaena Sardothein was raised harshly and trained thoroughly by the leader of assassins. She used her talents to defy the king who took the land of her people through violence and ruthlessness. She is the best assassin there is by the time she is sixteen years old, when someone betrays her and she ends up working in deplorable conditions in the enemy's labor camp.

Now that same enemy, the king she considers the root of all the lands' problems, is hosting a competition to select his Champion. The competition is more of a game for the nobles and highly placed officials in the realm, watching and betting as they each endorse one criminal in the contest against others.

The Crown Prince Dorian chooses Celaena as his nominee for the competition. She is taken from the labor of the salt mines to live in the castle during the contest, and if she wins, she acts as the wicked king's Champion for four years in order to earn her freedom.

Overall this was a pretty enjoyable read. There were instances where the plot was rather thin (the king would really trust a criminal who despises him to work for him? He would really let an assassin free after the contract ends? Seriously, no one realized they were housing the realm's most dangerous killer in a room with a conveniently "forgotten" secret passage out of the castle? Would she honestly tell NO ONE what she discovered about the murders and their perpetrator, while she and everyone else is the castle remain at risk? Her guards would just let her traipse out of the room she is kept in because she tells them their Captain said she could go to the ball?) However, the story remains fun enough that you are willing to overlook these occasional, questionable incidences.

One other issue of note pertains to Celaena's character. She spends an awful lot of time thinking about all the crazy badass things she would do to the people around her, and how easily she could take them down, and yet we never really see any evidence that she could or would. The book only delivers two instances where Celaena actually uses her fighting skills, and those don't come until well into the book, after the halfway point. And although Celaena fondly considers all these violent things she's tempted to do, what she actually does a lot of is preening over pretty dresses and melting for puppies. And I have no problem with that - I truly liked Celaena, but most of the time she did seem glaringly inconsistent with what the narration tried to claim she was really like.

The writing was definitely better than I was expecting. The author has a wonderful way with words at times.

There are sparks of potential romance here, and the scenes between Celaena and Dorian and Celaena and Chaol were my favorites. Amusing banter, believable emotion. The overarching story of the competition and dark magic was interesting, but it was Celaena's evolving relationships with other people that really caught my interest.

This book was not perfect, but it was mostly fun and engaging.

MY RATING:

3.5 booksies