Throne of Glass by Sarah J. MaasSeries: Throne of Glass #1
Published by: Bloomsbury USA Childrens on August 7, 2012
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 416
Source: Won
Buy on Amazon • Book Details
Rating: ★★★★★
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.
Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
Okay I need to take a deep breath. Inside a paper bag. Because this book is like.. yeah. This was my single most highly anticipated novel of 2012. I’d been looking forward to it since.. well, maybe not that long compared to some people, but at least before the cover art was released! But the strange thing is, I wasn’t worried about the hype. I never worried that the book wouldn’t live up to it because I just knew it couldn’t be anything short of amazing. Although, that didn’t stop my hands from trembling when I turned to the first page! 😀
Okay I’ll start with Celaena because she is so deliciously and incredibly awesome! I want to be that woman! Imagine you’re working as a slave, when all of a sudden some guards pull you out, throw a bag over your head, and start guiding you down various maze-like corridors and staircases. You’d probably be getting dizzy, feeling nauseous, wondering where the heck you’re going, mentally going over all your actions to figure out what warranted this… not Celaena. She’s too busy memorizing the building’s layout, blindly familiarizing herself with her surroundings, and planning a million different escape/murder attempts…
Celaena is a great character because she has such a broad personality. On the one hand she’s a super kick-ass, deadly assassin. On the other hand, she’s a hardened slave who has faced serious hardship and brutality. On yet another hand she’s a sweet bubbly girl who lets a romantic thought slip through, but she never becomes one of the mindless shallow women of the court. I love how she’s not just a kick-ass, but cold-hearted assassin. Celaena has depth. She has intense emotions, a past that haunts her, loves and passions… and she can kill you with her bare hands. Gentlemen, you should be swooning over her — doesn’t she sound like the perfect woman??
In Throne of Glass we get to read from several different points of view, including: Celaena’s, Captain Westfall’s, Prince Dorian’s, and Kaltain’s. It was fabulous seeing through the eyes of all these characters — I actually didn’t expect that before starting the book! By ‘hearing’ from all of them, we get to really understand all their personalities and motives. We have the colourful, slightly arrogant, but charming Prince Dorian; the silent and more withdrawn—but still mysteriously sexy—Captain Westfall; and we have Kaltain — the manipulative, scheming, “pretending to be your friend but actually hating your guts and plotting to humiliate/crush/expose you” woman of court.
This book was often compared to A Game of Thrones, but I wouldn’t say that’s really true, and I mean that in a positive way. I’m probably in the minority by saying this, but I don’t like A Game of Thrones all that much. I love the overall story but find the books to be too slow, drawn out, way too descriptive, and have too many characters that I frankly don’t give a shit about. NONE of this was the case in Throne of Glass! Throne of Glass was constantly on the move, with characters that you either adore or love to hate, had incredible world-building that will suck you in and make you want to live in that land, and every moment of reading was pure bliss.
I got completely wrapped up in this book’s fascinating world-building, court intrigue, scheming, mystery, action, and romance. Throne of Glass has it all, and it combines all these elements brilliantly. I was never bored, I was never dreading reading from a certain character’s point of view, and I got completely invested. I was invested in the characters, the plot, and every single event. When I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about the book. I thought about it on my daily walks, in the shower, and before I went to bed. I mulled over the plot in my brain again and again. I made predictions, I thought about the characters, and I replayed my favourite parts of the story. I think I purposely drew out my reading because I wanted to savour and enjoy the experience. I was dreading the last few pages because I didn’t want the book to end!
I’m so thrilled that Throne of Glass exceeded every single one of my expectations! I LOVE looking forward to a book and I love it when you finally read it and it goes above and beyond. There is no better feeling in the entire world!
The Verdict
Hell I love your Review!!!!!! It’s always exciting to see when someone else loved a book as much as I did and.. for the same reason! Cealena was AMAZING! I loved that she was both bad ass and still girly :)) And yes I’d love to be her too! loved reading your review, it made me seriously happy 🙂
I’m so glad you loved her too!! I recently heard that this series will be SIX books! I’m so excited!
SIX books?! That’s awesome news:))
“She’s too busy memorizing the building’s layout, blindly familiarizing herself with her surroundings, and planning a million different escape/murder attempts… just in case.” <— You know, that same quality is what so drew me to Katniss when I first read The Hunger Games way back when. It was so awesome to watch a female badass who knew what to do in a situation, no more damsels in distress, no siree!
But the cover. :[ I initially blew Throne of Glass off because of the cover. It looks like a poor attempt. It looks like a sellout. A cop-out. A pretty girl against a vague background–oh, but she's supposed to be a killer, so add the dagger. Oh, please. That lady doesn't like look she has the first clue how to handle that little thing, much less end lives with her bare hands! It didn't seem too likely that the heroine within would be any better.
However, since glimpsing the the UK cover, I've come to the conclusion that the cover was just a miscalculation on one end or the other (either mine or the individuals responsible for it), or simply a misrepresentation of the words within. Because, by golly, this book sure does sound appetizing.
Throne of Glass' UK-to-US cover should've taken a word of advice from Stormdancer's UK-to-US cover, honestly. That's how to do it. (By the way, I loved your rendition of it. Kinda cosplay-ish. xD)
*gives in* I'm convinced. Throne of Glass, meet my TBR list…
I do know what you mean about the cover. When I first heard about Throne of Glass, the cover hadn’t been released yet and I fell in love with the plot. Then the cover was released and my first reaction was… this isn’t what I was expecting AT ALL. After reading the book, I guess I can understand the US cover a little more, but I’m still not sold on it. I guess their ‘inspiration’ came from the fact that Celaena does often wear pretty dresses and is “made up” when she’s at the palace (part of her cover, since no one is supposed to know who she is), but on the other hand she is a deadly assassin. But I think the photo literally does look like a pretty dolled up girl who has a fake dagger strapped to her arm.
I actually do think the background is okay though. It’s a depiction of the glass palace that’s in the book, which is super interesting!
But this is why I’m buying a UK copy of Throne of Glass! The UK cover still isn’t what I imagined, but it’s better than the US one, I think.
But the story is absolutely incredible so I really hope you give it a chance! 🙂
I’m really glad you liked this one! I wasn’t such a fan of it unfortunately. You win some, you lose some!
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like it Scarlett! But you’re right — win some and lose some. 🙂 I hope you enjoy your next read more!
Great review! Now I really can’t wait to read it!
Yay I’m so glad!!! I really, really hope you read it! It’s breathtaking!
“every moment of reading was pure bliss.” I totally agree with you on this. I remember reading this book verrry slowly. I also didn’t want the story to end.
And I made the boyfriend read it, believe it or not. I was able to convince him. And he said it was good. So yay!
I love this book so much. I adore Celaena and Dorian. (Team Doarian!) They are so cute and perfect for each other.
OMG I think it’s awesome that your boyfriend read it! Go him! LOL! I don’t think my boyfriend would read it. *pouts*
I tried to read this book slowly too… and as I felt myself getting closer to the end, I was like PLEASE, NO, NO, NO!!!j:ej:”!”@
I’m so glad this series is going to be liek SIX books!!! More Throne of Glass love for us ♥
Gahh, book five can’t come soon enough! Did you see the summary for it yet? I’m so excited!! 🙂