Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Historical

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children

Year: 2012

Ranking: 4,5/ 5

  Synopsis

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

The Author

Sarah J. Maas is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series (Queen of Shadows, the fourth book, will release globally on September 1st, 2015) and the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (out starting May 5th, 2015). She currently resides with her husband and loyal canine companion in Pennsylvania. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hamilton College in 2008 with a degree in Creative Writing, and a minor in Religious Studies. Sarah is represented by Tamar Rydzinski of the Laura Dail Literary Agency.

Personal Experience with This Book

I was waiting to read this book since last year when I started watching videos of BookTube. This was one of those books that everyone had loved and when I saw the synopsis I could not help but putting it on my TBR pile. However, just until this month I could read it. At first I wanted to read it “right now” but I had so many books I wanted to read “right now” that I was postponing it and postponing it basically because the whole series is not finished and to wait a year for a book to come out is not something that I like. However, I decided to read it this month and ENJOYED IT SO MUCH.

The plot of this first book is quite simple: We have Celaena Sardothien, an assassin who at the beginning of the book is taken by one of the guards of the crown prince of the kingdom to see him. The prince proposes to Celaena to be his champion in exchange for her freedom after working for the king for four years and she accepts the offer. Throughout the book we see how Celaena struggle to be the winner of that tournament run by the King, while we see her interact with the other characters and solving a mystery that is haunting the castle and is endangering her life and the other participants of the tournament.

I believe that although the plot of this book has not a very deep meaning, it's just a tournament, it leaves many unfinished things and many unsolved mysteries. Because even, if we discover the mystery around the tournament, we get so many questions about the Celaena’s past and the reason why she seems so important to this story. I think the author makes it clear that being a super well trained and very courageous assassin is not the reason Celaena is special, but we do not know what exactly that reason.

In the story we also have a love triangle that is beginning to form. It is not fully formed yet but we get the feeling that in the second book this triangle will give us much to think about. Personally I think Dorian is a MARVELOUS GUY and I wish he was the main character.

Let's talk more in detail about the main characters:

Celaena is a wonderful character. And I do not say that because she is a strong woman and a well-constructed character but because the fact that despite having a very high level of maturity for certain things, in another few thing she is still a teenager confused and feeling insecure and scared. I think that gave the character a brilliant touch. Because often, by her reactions, I used to forget the fact that this girl has killed many people and has had to live many other things his age cannot reach even imagine.

Dorian is a charming prince and has a very cheerful and easygoing personality. At least that is what it seems at first glance. Women surround him and he takes this to his advantage and basically uses them for fun. Although this might paint him as a womanizer who likes to play with women, I LOVE Dorian. Especially because when falls in love with Celaena you can see an infinite tenderness. Plus he has many responsibilities and has its own ideas about how to manage his kingdom. Unfortunately he does not have much power over his father and is difficult for him to take charge of things. I really want to see how this character will grow in the future.

Chaol is a serious and very correct person. He does not show much his feelings but he is definitely in love with Celaena. Plus he loves the prince as his brother. This makes his position a little bit difficult in the love triangle. Chaol spends more time training and fixing the king’s problems than putting his own life in order. He has a somewhat sad past and we don’t know many details about it. I also want to see how this man will develop in the story. He might get a little bit layback with the story progressing, although with Celaena he calms down a bit but in the eyes of others he cannot do this. He is very loyal to the prince, not so much to the King, by the way.

Nehemia is the princess of a conquered kingdom by Adarlan and is visiting the castle while the tournament is being conducted. She and Celaena become very good friends during this time. Nehemia is not your typical princess who attends balls and wants to marry a prince. She has very strong ideals and wants to be a good leader for her people. It is a character that I loved, like almost all others, because even though her situation is complicated she does not back down and does what she can to protect her people.

Now, I cannot give a higher rating to book because although generally I enjoyed it very much I also found things I did not like. Sometimes, I felt irritated that Celaena kept thinking about escaping but never took the decision to do so. Of course I understand that the idea was to stay but I think that these thoughts might be shortened a bit.

Another thing that really is not that I did not like but that made the book lose points with me was that it was a little bit predictable. I knew who it was that was causing all the bad things since that person was first introduced in the story and still he hasn’t done anything yet. This is due to the way in which the author presents the character, I think it gave me bad vibes since he appeared on scene and when I saw that person was the one doing all the bad things ... all I said was "I knew it".

Eventually things get very interesting because we discover some secrets from some characters: the King, the Prince, Nehemia and Celaena. Things we did not know of them before. That gives a huge desire to read the next book leaves you with a lot of expectations about where the author will take the story to.

About the way the story was put by the author I can say that I love that the book had not only Celaena’s point of view but also small parts of the perspectives of the other characters. I think it gave a special touch to the story and personally I love this kind of stories because it gives you a wider view and not only what the main character is thinking.

I recommend this book to everyone who likes the stories of fantasy and romance. A very good first book in a series. Series which incidentally, I’ll keep reading and I hope not to have to regret having started it this early and having to wait until September when the next book is coming out.