Book Review- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Title: Throne of Glass

 Author: Sarah J Maas

Series:  Throne of Glass #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Bloomsbury

Length: 404 pages

Source: netgalley

Summary: Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.
In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: 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—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Review: After a year in the salt mines, Celaena is finally out. Once the country’s most notorious assassin, she is now offered her freedom and the position of Champion...if she can beat 23 other warriors, thieves and killers, all vying for a job. The competition takes the form of tests on getting around, shooting, poisons etc, with duels for those who remain at the end.  However, being a competition to be the national face of death, things aren’t going to be fair. Some contestants start showing up dead, so Celaena takes it upon herself to find the killer, and win the competition.

I read a lot of rave reviews about this, and I was really excited to read this. Magic, killings and assassins make a great combination on paper, and the three on their own I tend to enjoy...all three should be great, right?

Throne of Glass is one of those books I couldn’t get into. My first annoyance was Celaena. She’s cocky in the way that irritates me, and she is VERY immature and impulsive. Example: She’s playing snooker/pool/billiards with Prince Dorian. Her first shot doesn’t go in. She snaps the cue (I think) and has a fit. Or similar. This is a shame because she’s also a bit smart and talented at what she does.

The majority of the cast isn’t standout good or standout bad. Dorian was a bit boring and samey, which was a little upsetting for someone with that name, Chad is your obligatory initial arsehole, but I didn’t mind him quite as much by the end of the book.

My favourite character was Nehemia, princess of another land, because she was interesting, had depth, and was more care-worthy than the others. I also liked some of the assassins, but I can’t think of anything else to say about the.

I looked forwards to the trials, but they were a little bit disappointing. The shooting one was typical (Chad: Don’t give yourself away as great. Celaena: *gets bullseye*) and the poisons thing was a joke (Best assassin ever only stays safe because poisony guy to the left subtly indicates to her what to do). They were well described though,

The magic was done really nicely. The mystery was built up and the fantasy element was a little bit  random after the relative realisticnesss of it all, but a welcome relief. The writing quality was good, with a world built in my head very well.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a generally underwhelming book, especially after so much hype.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website |