Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I just finished this book yesterday, and boy am I glad I finally did! I had really high hopes for this book, as I have seen it and the author celebrated on Youtube for a long time. But I was sorely disappointed.
This book is the first in a series of 6 books. The first 3 books are already out and the last 3 are coming out one a year from 2015 onwards. I really hope this isn't a "Mortal Instruments" situation where the trilogy was finished, but then they decided to milk some more money from the story and published 3 more books...I will probably never know since I don't plan to continue this series.
This book is presented as a fantasy book with a kick-ass heroine, and suited for fans of "Game of Thrones" and "The Hunger Games". I loved "The Hunger Games", and I have a thing for strong female characters, so I was really excited for this book. But I started reading it, and it just didn't hit the spot for me.
Beware of spoiler-y bits below! Not too much, but still...
The plot itself was okay. The king hosts a competition to find a "champion" to work for him, basically as an assassin. The competitors are criminals from all over the realm, each one sponsored by one of the king's councilmen and promised their freedom after years of service to the king. The competition is held at the castle and is kept secret from everyone but the people directly involved. Soon something starts killing competitors, and our protagonist Celaena, must not only try to win the competition but also find out who is doing the killing, before she is next.
The whole competition thing didn't really rock my boat. There was a lot of training for the different tests and it stretched over months, making the whole thing seem to go very slowly. I guess the time frame was needed for the love story and the subplot of the mysterious killings to evolve, but still it was just too slow moving for me. Then there are a lot of hints about Celaena's past, and while hinting is alright at the beginning of a book, it really annoys me to finish the book without knowing the details. I assume the revelation is being saved for later books in the series, but I just find it annoying to have something hinted at for pages on end with no explanations.
The love story/stories also bothered me. Of course there was the obligatory love triangle, but this one complicated by the fact that apparently Celaena couldn't decide who she liked better. And when she did decided it didn't really seem like it was a conscious decision, more like a coincidence. And I get that she was young (only 18) and maybe didn't really know her own feelings or whatever, but it just came across as really oblivious. Another thing that bothered me about her is that she is presented as the world's greatest assassin and we hear how she makes the hinges on her door squeak, so she will always know when someone is entering her room. But still people manage to repeatedly enter her room and get very close to her without her noticing.
Non of the side characters really felt fleshed out enough for me, and I really wasn't invested in their fates. Except perhaps for Nehemia, a princess from a conquered land, come to the castle to learn the ways of court and spy a little at the same time. She befriends Celaena and I found myself more interested in Nehemia's backstory than in Celaena's current story.
In the end I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, as I did enjoy some parts of it, and it could have been better with a bit faster pacing. I probably won't continue with the series though, as there are so many other books I would rather read.
This book is the first in a series of 6 books. The first 3 books are already out and the last 3 are coming out one a year from 2015 onwards. I really hope this isn't a "Mortal Instruments" situation where the trilogy was finished, but then they decided to milk some more money from the story and published 3 more books...I will probably never know since I don't plan to continue this series.
This book is presented as a fantasy book with a kick-ass heroine, and suited for fans of "Game of Thrones" and "The Hunger Games". I loved "The Hunger Games", and I have a thing for strong female characters, so I was really excited for this book. But I started reading it, and it just didn't hit the spot for me.
Beware of spoiler-y bits below! Not too much, but still...
The plot itself was okay. The king hosts a competition to find a "champion" to work for him, basically as an assassin. The competitors are criminals from all over the realm, each one sponsored by one of the king's councilmen and promised their freedom after years of service to the king. The competition is held at the castle and is kept secret from everyone but the people directly involved. Soon something starts killing competitors, and our protagonist Celaena, must not only try to win the competition but also find out who is doing the killing, before she is next.
The whole competition thing didn't really rock my boat. There was a lot of training for the different tests and it stretched over months, making the whole thing seem to go very slowly. I guess the time frame was needed for the love story and the subplot of the mysterious killings to evolve, but still it was just too slow moving for me. Then there are a lot of hints about Celaena's past, and while hinting is alright at the beginning of a book, it really annoys me to finish the book without knowing the details. I assume the revelation is being saved for later books in the series, but I just find it annoying to have something hinted at for pages on end with no explanations.
The love story/stories also bothered me. Of course there was the obligatory love triangle, but this one complicated by the fact that apparently Celaena couldn't decide who she liked better. And when she did decided it didn't really seem like it was a conscious decision, more like a coincidence. And I get that she was young (only 18) and maybe didn't really know her own feelings or whatever, but it just came across as really oblivious. Another thing that bothered me about her is that she is presented as the world's greatest assassin and we hear how she makes the hinges on her door squeak, so she will always know when someone is entering her room. But still people manage to repeatedly enter her room and get very close to her without her noticing.
Non of the side characters really felt fleshed out enough for me, and I really wasn't invested in their fates. Except perhaps for Nehemia, a princess from a conquered land, come to the castle to learn the ways of court and spy a little at the same time. She befriends Celaena and I found myself more interested in Nehemia's backstory than in Celaena's current story.
In the end I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, as I did enjoy some parts of it, and it could have been better with a bit faster pacing. I probably won't continue with the series though, as there are so many other books I would rather read.
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