Throne of Glass
by Sarah J. MaasPlot: 18-year old Celaena Sardothien was an assassin with a feared reputation, until she was sentenced to hard labor in the death camp of Endovier. After she has suffered a year of torture in Endovier, Crown Prince Dorian visits her in the prison to make an offer: fight in a competition his father is having to select the next King's Champion, and if she wins the competition, serve his father for four years in exchange for her freedom.
Notable Characters:
- Celaena Sardothien aka Lillian Gordaina. Kick-butt heroine who also loves books and beautiful gowns.
- Prince Dorian. Bookish crown prince with a good heart. Nothing like his evil father.
- Captain Chaol Westfall. Strong but gruff Captain of the Guard. Charged with guarding Celaena.
- Princess Nehemia Ytger. Princess of the subject nation of Eyllwe. Ostensibly visiting Adarlan to learn the language and ways of the country that conquered her own. Rumored to be working with the rebels.
This was a book that had a lot of potential, but unfortunately fell just short of the mark. The plot, the world, and the characters were all interesting, but not sufficiently developed to really work. In addition, I had some credibility issues.
Celaena is a strong female protagonist, and her character caught my attention from the first page. Ultimately, though, it left my expectations unfulfilled. She just didn't seem credible as a hardened assassin who spent a year in a death camp. Most of the time she just seemed like a regular teenager who happened to be good at fighting. I would have expected her to be smarter, better at subterfuge, and more disciplined after the intense training that she supposedly was put through as a child being trained to be an assassin. She is put out at being asked to hide her real identity; she wants the recognition of being the famous Adarlan's Assassin. Yet I would have expected an assassin to want to remain anonymous. And while it might be understandable for someone just out of prison to indulge in sleeping late, indulging in fine meals, losing her temper and wishing she could go to the ball, I just expected to see more discipline and focus in her character.
All of the characters had promise, but ultimately seemed to be too much cobbled together from tropes to be real people. The book is written with a more omniscient point of view than one usually sees in young adult fiction. Although there's nothing wrong with that, I felt that it contributed to a feeling of detachment from the characters. Knowing exactly what the Prince and the Captain and
Likewise, the worldbuilding almost, but doesn't quite, hit the mark. There are some intriguing features to the world, such as a castle made of glass, and an ancient religion based on outlawed magic. However, none of it was very well developed or explained. Why would someone build a castle of glass, for example? What did the King do banish magic? (The why of that is sort of explained in the end.) The idea of magic banished by an evil king was much better developed and much more credible in Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier.
There's a lot of telling going on when there should be showing. The king is supposed to be evil, for example, and yet we really don't see much to make that credible, other than Celaena's experiences in prison, and one massacre that happens off-screen. We mostly have Celaena's internal description of him as evil to go on. Other elements are similarly described rather than shown.
The setup for the competition to select a King's Champion was interesting, but halfway through the book the plot suddenly takes a turn and becomes more about the evil in the castle, a plot thread that was hinted at in a few places earlier, but for the most part seems to come out of the blue. The two plots threads are tied in together, though, and the plot is one of the stronger elements of this book.
In general, Throne of Glass just seemed to have too much of a modern point of view to be credible as a court story. Reading romance novels before bed, playing pool with the
Who would like this book:
I think that this book is being marketed as YA, however, I think that it would actually have more appeal for preteen girls than for teens. Many teen readers I know are even more critical of the literary merits of a book than I am, and would probably be bothered by some of the issues above. However, I think that preteen readers, coming at it from a fresher, less jaded perspective, would better enjoy the good aspects of this book - the interesting plot, the strong female protagonist, and even the wish-fulfillment/Cinderella-esque elements - without noticing the problems.
Other Reviews
For a very different perspective on this book, check out the review by my fellow Cybils panelist Tanita Davis. I have a huge respect for Tanita, so it's worth paying attention to her take on this book.
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FTC required disclosure: Review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Awards judging. The bookstore links above are affiliate links, and I earn a very small percentage of any sales made through the links. Neither of these things influenced my review.
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