Throne of GlassAuthor: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass (#1)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
How Received: BookExpo America 2012
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 king's 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.Got to page: 39
Whoever saw my live-tweets as I was reading this knows I didn't like it. I went in being critical and knowing that I wouldn't like it, after seeing a few of my friends didn't like it and why they didn't.
But I had been looking forward to it. And I knew I had to read it.
But... I only got to the end of chapter five before I had to give up. I had been dogearing pages that I found an issue with and every page was dog-eared.
First off, I just couldn't stand the writing style. I understand a lot of people have been impressed by Maas' writing, but it didn't stand out to me whatsoever; there were sudden information dumps where there didn't need to be and a lot of very obvious set-ups as to Celaena's later magic. All of the hints, like everything about her backstory, was dropped spontaneously and without much weaving-in with the rest of the story.
Then there was Celaena's character herself. I wanted to see the bad-ass assassin I had heard so much about. Instead, I was confronted with a girl who spent more time worrying about her personal appearance than the people around her. Rather than contemplating what she'll do and where she'll go with her earned freedom, she contemplates buying clothes (page 22). Instead of worrying about how she's going to get back in shape for the competition, she laments that her boobs have shrunk (page 21). We're told she killed 23 armed guards single-handedly, but when faced with the chance to escape with only five guards, apparently it's too dangerous of an opportunity (page 25). She sleeps so deeply that Chaol can sneak up on her (page 21). She's so aware of her surroundings that she's mapped out the entire building she's in with one or two walks around it, but she gets so distracted by her own thoughts that she's not even aware that she's walking under Chaol's direction (page 19).
That's not including the conceit that she is the best of the best, can do anything and, most importantly, can do no wrong. All of these things are mentioned on numerous occasions.
She wasn't the main character I signed up for.
And what about the side characters? Chaol didn't put nearly enough guards on her; two for while she slept and only five for escorting her (AND the prince) through the woods. The Prince decides to pick a woman who apparently has tried to kill the royal family before to compete in front of his father and gives her plenty of opportunity to try to kill her.
Where are the smart characters? Because they're certainly not here.
I know that this was marketed as a YA-version of Game of Thrones, but it's nothing like that. There's no complicated plots or multiple characters or high fantasy that isn't "hey, let's mention magic!" It's a story about a girl who would be beheaded within five minutes of meeting a Lannister.
It wasn't anything that it was set up to be, and it wasn't anything I liked.
Final Comments: No.
Throne of Glass or Thief's Covenant?: Hmm. This or a well-written, fast-paced story about a ridiculously awesome and bad-ass thief? Y'all know what I'll pick.
Did you like Throne of Glass? Do you think I'm being too harsh on it?
Here, have some BONUS TWEETS. Click to enlarge.
See, if you want a kick ass assassin with political intrigue and undertones of fantasy, read Grave Mercy. That's all I keep saying to people disappointed in Throne of Glass.
ReplyDeleteGRAVE MERCY looks absolutely fabulous. If only I wasn't on a book-buying ban...
DeleteI didn't finish Grave Mercy... just found it really dull. This doesn't sound any better, though - but fun review!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you were disappointed. I personally really enjoyed it and had trouble putting it down. Yours is actually the first bad review I've seen, though I don't read other reviews too often.
ReplyDeleteHave you read Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder? I find that it has many similarities to Throne of Glass, but with smarter characters and a real plot, not to mention a heroine who has to actually prove herself to be awesome, instead of just being assumed so from the very start:)
ReplyDeleteSomebody said it was similar to POISON STUDY, which is one of the reasons I had wanted to read it in the first place. I LOVED POISON STUDY -- this definitely didn't live up to Snyder's work.
DeleteSorry to hear that you weren't able to finish this one. I got caught up in the story and enjoyed it. Appreciated your honest review, and hope your next read is more to your liking!
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely not being too harsh. I did manage to continue and magically I found that Celeana ended up becoming a bit more sympathetic but she was so frustratingly "perfect" in the beginning and people were so dumb. I had a lot of feelings about this book (and although I haven't read more than a few chapters of the first one, I know it is NOTHING like GOT).
ReplyDeleteOh no... This book doesn't sound appealing any more. I'm not sure whether I'll read it or not- the synopsis sounded good, but evidently there are some pretty big issues. Thanks for the honesty.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sad to see that you didn't like this one but the more I read about it the more I don't think I'll like it. So many of my favorite bloggers have really disliked it and I was so excited to read it. I think I'll put this one off for a while. It just does not sound like the book for me. I'll check out Thief's Covenant instead. Thanks for the very honest review!
ReplyDeleteThis one has so much hype! All those early glowing reviews did make me want to read it, but then once more people read it and the negative reviews came out, I changed my mind. I think it'd be a frustrating experience for me as well.
ReplyDeleteI am with you 100% on this one! I'm so glad you marked pages because her dwelling on appearances really bugged me. I ended up DNF'ing this too. She was no Arya (or even Sansa!) Stark from Game of Thrones.
ReplyDelete"I know that this was marketed as a YA-version of Game of Thrones, but it's nothing like that. There's no complicated plots or multiple characters or high fantasy that isn't "hey, let's mention magic!" It's a story about a girl who would be beheaded within five minutes of meeting a Lannister."
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU. YES YES YES. I didn't HATE this book, I kind of liked it, but I wanted so much MORE. When a book promises everything ToG does, and underdelivers like it did, it makes me SAD :(
I've heard it described as 'Hunger Games with magic.' Just... nope.
ReplyDeleteI was really quite disappointed with this, and agree with all of your review. Sad it took one whole book to come to the same conclusions.
That is so true! I could not have put it into better words. I didn't udnerstand why people had given it such high ratings and described how Celeana was a strong character when she was really just a self-absorbed, shallow bi*ch!
ReplyDeleteAgree. Surprisingly I finished this. Although that was mostly due to the secondary characters. It has the appeal of a fairly written piece of fanfiction- not a good one and its the kind that ends up being a guilty pleasure but you're ashamed to admit you read it. And I absolutely hate that the internal logic falls through. (like you mentioned- she refuses to escape with just five guards, at one point she eats candy anonymously left in her room when there's a serial killer targeting champions and other small nitty gritty things).
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bugs me the most was I really wanted to like this book. The premise had so much potential but the execution just... Another sad thing was Maas can actually write pretty decent action scenes which is generally hard to do and I think it's because she knows how to pace them well. But instead of spawning page after page of riveting action (for which the opportunity is there) she focuses on the love triangle. I know it's become a cliche of YA but some love triangles are actually done well, but here, the lead character doesn't have the emotional maturity to evoke some sense of ethos.