Throne of Glass

Audio: 4.5 Stars
I've been on an audiobook binge this year and I'm happy to say, this one (along with it's sequel, Crown of Midnight) is one of the best on the market. Everyone involved makes this an entertaining experience, especially Elizabeth Evans, who does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life and giving them each their own distinct "voice".

Story: 3.75 Stars
I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, but there are a few books that have been able to change my mind, and Throne of Glass is one of them.

What I Liked: The writing, world-building and overall story. Celaena wasn't at all what I was expecting. Instead of being this hardened assassin whose closed off emotionally, she's smart, witty, and---kind. Her love of all things shiny and girly made her more endearing (to me, anyway) and I enjoyed watching how she interacted with the other characters. Particularly Dorian and Chaol. (I'm glad I had the audio for the correct name pronunciations otherwise I would have messed them up royally.)

The pacing of the story felt a bit slow at first, and I wasn't crazy about the idea of a potential love triangle. Once I reached the end though, it was clear that Throne of Glass is the stage setter for the books that follow. Like a calm before the storm and I was REALLY glad I had the next book on deck.

Throne of Glass has all the right ingredients for a fabulous fantasy series. There's murder, betrayal, a scary king, otherworldly interference, court intrigue, and of course, romance. It's epic!

Things I loved: The world! I could see every scene so clearly, and we get to travel from the awful prison/labor camp where we first meet Celaena to a kingdom with a sparkling castle built of glass. The history, the hints we get of magic still residing in places even though the king has done his best to stamp it out, and the lush castle setting juxtaposed against political intrigue and a competition between assassins is fabulous.

I also loved the competition between the assassins, though I wanted more detail on Celaena's skills. Maybe more examples so I could fear her kick-butt-ness instead of having to take everyone else's word for it. She came through in the end, though, and the last competition for the championship is a brutal, heart-wrenching scene worthy of ending this epic novel.

In addition, I was fascinated by the secondary characters. To be honest, I liked them better than I liked Celaena most of the time. I hope we get to see even more of them in subsequent novels because I think we've just scratched the surface on what they're capable of doing.

What Left Me Wanting More: As much as I was interested in the competition and the court intrigue, I wanted more from Celaena herself. Someone whose parents were murdered at a young age and who was raised to be an amazing assassin, who has the blood of countless people on her hands and was then tortured in a terrible prison for a year ... that girl should be traumatized. Nightmares or bouts of depression or fear or self-reflection. I had a hard time emotionally connecting with her because I'm not sure she's in touch with her own emotions. I also figured out the answer to the mystery (which is OMG WHAT??? crazy suspenseful) super early, and I would've liked to wonder a bit longer.

All in all, this is a great start to a new fantasy series. Fans of excellent world building and heroines with mad fighting skills will gobble it up!

Adarlan’s Assassin: a strong-willed, defiant, and indefatigable young woman who maintains a tender heart in the face of incredible hardship. Hey, I can dig that. And in spite of comparisons to The Hunger Games, I think readers will find this new heroine and her world have a pull all their own. Celaena Sardothien, a former notorious assassin, has a past that is riddled with mystery and pain, and her future looks to be filled with much of the same as she enters a competition to become her worst enemy’s Champion and earn her freedom. But once the competition begins, the relationships that develop and the attacks that start plaguing the would-be Champions begin to complicate matters. Add to that a prince and a princess who have more than the status-quo up their sleeves, and you’ve got the recipe for a book that has more depth and intrigue than expected.

I enjoyed Celaena’s personality, in spite of her insistence on being as tough as possible and putting on a front when she doesn’t even need to. Her experiences and her skills are appealing to me since I am always pulled into the stories of those who defy their natural instincts and train their minds and bodies at a level that surpasses most of humankind just to survive. I like spy movies and other kinds of training detail in any story, because it mimics my experience as an athlete, and it's inspiring. Celaena’s determination and subsequent success and rewards because of it made the story about her journey to freedom more real. There were a few inconsistencies (how does Dorian, the Crown Prince, manage to sneak up on her over and over again without her noticing?), but overall these aspects of the story add a rawness that isn’t always present in other stories with a female heroine.

Celaena's relationship with Chaol Westfall, the Captain of the Guard, and with Nehemia Ytger, the Princess of Ellywe, developed so naturally and beautifully it made me love them each as much as Celaena eventually does—especially her friendship with Nehemia. It is rare to see a well-depicted female friendship between two strong characters, but Maas achieved it in their relationship with the fragility that is always present in new friendships. The friendship that develops between Celaena and Captain Westfall felt more natural because of the guard Celaena keeps up with him throughout. His softness and loyalty grew and grew as much on on me as it did on her as the story progressed. Her relationship with Dorian, the Prince of Adarlan, progressed too quickly, and was, at times, predictable. I found myself annoyed at the thoughts and feelings he would have for Celaena and the same way with her fondness of him—because it was kind of typical. He definitely adds some excitement to her life, however, and is a critical character for the plot’s development; I just wished their relationship would have been more guarded and slow to develop--that kind of relationship would have been more in line with Celeana's assasin-esque qualites.

The storyline is well-developed, with its rich history of Erilea and complex legends and mythology that create a multi-layered and rich world as the backdrop to Celaena’s story. When Celaena makes a critical discovery about halfway through the book, it built upon the plot even more and added the exact amount of extra mystery to keep me reading. I was even actually truly scared, something that rarely happens anymore when I read about villains and monsters in books. This is a page-turner that fans of fantasy will not want to miss.